More than a Game

 

Mamelodi basketball court before Day 1 with Vuks (middle), Coach (left) and me (right)

 

(Article originally written for the Peace Corps South Africa newsletter)

 

Last September, Basketball without Borders (http://www.nba.com/bwb/) came to Johannesburg. I learned about this a few weeks after the fact when I moved from my village of Ha-Lambani to my third year extension at the University of Venda in my shopping town, Thohoyandou. I was Google’ing the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar, Kyrie Irving, and his service work in Johannesburg came up. I remember finding it a bit ironic that the team I had started to practice with at the university never mentioned Baksetball without Borders and didn’t seem to have any of the neat shirts that I saw on the BwB website.

 

But what else is new?

 

The villages and towns we serve in are visibly different than the big cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and even the smaller cities nearby such as Polokwane and Nelspruit. We hear about amazing things happening, meet well travelled people when passing through these areas and feel like we are moving between two worlds (http://poshcorps.com/) whenever we travel for more than 5 hours from our sites.  Yet, in the land of the fruit, Venda, far from Egoli (one of many nicknames for Johannesburg), I have struck gold.

 

After a hard day’s work of meeting with mentors, addressing first year university student issues, observing mentor meetings and doing random community work, I got to blow off steam in one of the most beautiful way possible – basketball. Somewhere between 12-20 students, guys and girls, wait for the sun to go down, around 5pm, to play basketball on the University of Venda’s 9ft and 9.5ft basketball hoops. They are led by a student coach, Konex, and are as unique as the University of Venda itself.

 

As most of us have grown to realize, black South African sport is dominated by soccer but this is changing, even in Venda. The Minister of Sport is attempting stringent quotas on all sports, with a clear focus on historically white sports like cricket and rugby. As for basketball, no quota is needed. Though this area does not have Basketball without Borders, it does have a strong Zimbabwean influence. Basketball is a part of Zimbabwean culture, especially within the urban population. The University of Venda team alone is at least half Zimbabwean.

 

This does not happen anywhere else in South Africa. In cities, South Africans are learning basketball from ex-pats or South Africans who have travelled. Here in Venda, students are sharing the knowledge of the game with their neighbours and learning as they go.

 

Once a year, they get to put their knowledge to the test.

 

Being so remote, we at the University of Venda don’t get exposure to much of the outside world and we certainly don’t get to play against anyone besides ourselves. Yet through initiatives of our player coach and team lobbying, the Univen basketball team convinces the university to sponsor us to play in Mamelodi once a year to play with some of South Africa’s finest.

 

The Mamelodi tournament happened this past Easter weekend. After a few months of adding to the drills that the Zimbabwean players grew up doing, I proved my worth and was asked to join. 8 hours after our planned departure date, a boys and girls team packed into a mini bus and headed south. Over three days, we played teams described as, “they play on TV.” The road was rough. Each team lost their first two games by more points than I have years. Our second and third games weren’t much better. For myself, it was becoming increasingly frustrating. I knew that we played much better at Univen but were caught off guard by the atmosphere. Yet, the team never spent more than 5 minutes being upset. Eventually, Mateta or TP, guy players, would stand up and lead some song that I had no clue but everyone else would join in and joke with.

 

Game 3 for the girls will be a memory that will last with me until I am bald and with Alzheimer.

 

They were playing one of the top teams in the country. The Cameo (as the Univen team is known outside of Venda) girls points leader, Pertina, who was injured for the first two games, decided to toughen up and play. Her presence turned the girls into a possessed team. The game started off with a flurry of shots, balls stolen and shouting. All the Cameo guys joined in. They sang songs, did dances and pushups for every big basket. A fairly mild Mamelodi crowd did not know what this Limpopo bomb was that just hit them.

 

The fuse had been lit within Cameo.

 

After the girls’ victory, the boys took their 0-3 record to the court as if they were undefeated. From the start, it was clear all the jitters of being on a big stage were gone. The Cameo boys took it straight to the opposition. By half time, they were up by 10. Following some big 3 pointers, the game ended with a huge alley-oop to the team’s youngest player and a slam dunk that even brought the professionals in the crowd to their feet.

 

The Cameo girls in the stand, just like the Cameo boys, were with the team each step. They jokingly did pushups, chanted “hapana, ahuna” during free throws and clapped emphatically. All those in attendance joined in the joy. The intensity of the competition was enhanced by the intensity of the crowd and it was clear there was a love for the great sport of basketball.

 

After the 20+ point win, it hit me that Univen doesn’t need the NBA or Basketball without Borders. Sure, having the best from around the world would definitely develop the sport in South Africa. But 3 days of the NBA? No big loss, Joburg can have it. Cameo may have not been the most prepared for the tournament, but the spirit and team commitment is something I would never trade for nor is it something that is easily achieved.

Cameo on our way back to Venda