Playing For National Pride, Fueling South Sudan’s Athletes
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- March 24, 2023
South Sudan is the youngest country in Africa and one of the least developed in the world. The country was born in 2011 after decades of civil war to separate from the majority Arab North. They are just about to get their footing in governance and economic stability. You wouldn’t expect such a nation to be an international sports powerhouse anytime soon. Still, South Sudan is doing precisely that, and at a very steady pace.
Their national basketball team recently made history when they qualified for the World Cup in their first-ever attempt. They beat Senegal 83-75 in Alexandria, Egypt, to secure their slot. Yesterday, their football team posted a hard-fought, last-gasp away win (1-2) to Congo Brazzaville in an African Cup Of Nations qualifier, giving their qualification chances a big shot in the arm. The national teams are having all these triumphs against all odds.
International-level sports needs sufficient resources. Team preparations, kitting, logistics, allowances, infrastructure, and solid structures require substantial financial injection. With a yet-to-fully-steady economy, these things take time to come by for SS. So hard that they need a CAF-approved, FIFA-standard stadium to host their football matches at home. They play their home matches away in Dar Es Salam, Tanzania.
So what exactly is the motivation that pushes its athletes to perform at optimum levels? National pride. The players play for their people, their flag, for their country. Every time they step on the court or the pitch, they take it as an opportunity to paint a positive picture of their motherland. It’s a responsibility they revere. The struggles to be a nation, the blood, sweat, and tears shed to be called a South Sudan citizen, pumps them up some levels. It seems to them that it’s more than just sports, more than just a game. It’s a duty they owe to their kin. It’s hard not to succeed when driven by such a mission, pure passion, and firm resolve.
So great is their national pride that the men’s national basketball team captain Kuany Kuany opted to fly to Egypt from his Finland base to play for his country against the wishes of his club, Karhu Basket. He ended up parting ways with the club for that breach, but then he led his mates to a historic feat worth it all. To him, national honor is everything. This mentality must be in most South Sudan players as they compete with a desire and discipline uncommon in some established teams.
Pride alone, though, can’t achieve or win in isolation. There are to be other factors supporting it, i.e., leadership and vision. In this area, too, they are ticking the right boxes. The men’s basketball team is under Luol Deng, a two-time NBA All-Star player. Having such top-level acts in places of leadership and decision-making means there is a purposeful and planned road map on how to get to glory. A glance at their football and basketball teams’ digital spaces shows you just how well organized they are as a nation regarding their national sports teams.
Another factor anchoring their meteoric rise is the abundance of talent at their disposal. With no notable domestic league, their conquering sides consist of players from the diaspora who passed through suitable development structures in faraway lands like the USA and closer home like here in Kenya.
The heightened sense of national pride will make this tenacious last-born of Africa leapfrog older on the sporting stage. You can’t fail to be inspired by their story and want them to cause more upsets.
