Short History of Basket-Ball in Eritrea

Khald Hassen

Basket-ball was not practised in Eritrea prior to its introduction by the Italians and Greeks in the end of 1940. The sport was frequented during the British colonialism by the English and Americans residing in Eritrea. In an article in the sport magazine, '' Elelta'' in 2001, Mr FikaduGebresilsie, a teacher and long-time enthusiast of Basket-ball, wrote that after its introduction in to the Eritrean community, basket-ball was then picked by the Eritrean youth and gained foothold in various schools where it was played by students and teachers.

As mentioned above, especially after 1950s, basketball became a beloved game among Eritrean youth and it was frequently played in schools and then Teacher Training Institute (TTI). Particularly the establishment of varied basket-ball teams by aliens residing in various positions in Eritrea mainly Americans in Radio Marinaio and Kanew stations, created a platform for native Eritreans to play the sport. Eritrean youth living and studying in those times in Asmara, founded basket-ball teams like Emkuluand others. Nevertheless, because of the prevailing air of racial injustice and prejudice reigning in this period of Eritrean colonialism, the White teams particularly the Italian teams refused to play with other similar indigenous teams, preferring to remain segregated, thus the created native teams held tournaments among themselves.  

As most of the members of the Eritrean teams were teachers, many of their students were among their main supporters and others were influenced to play the sport.  Consequently, the game became beloved and common resulting in the formation of many basket-ball teams like Eritrea, Tedali, Kidane-mihret, Adulis and Africa.

These Eritrean teams had good following with many supporters, which promoted the white teams to change their mind about segregation and started to play indigenous teams. This activities reached its crescendo, culminating in the creation of other known teams, like Olympiad (Of the Greek School in Asmara) and Kanew(an American team from Kanew station).

                                                                                                                                                                                                            transilated by Dr. Selam Kidane

Despite these developments, as many of the referees were white, their discharges were with many racial prejudices and discriminations against Eritrean players. In time though Eritrean athletes were able to be their own masters after overcoming these challenges and discriminations with fortitude.

From 1960s till independence of Eritrea, basket-ball enjoyed good following after football and cycling. In these period, many strongteams with good capabilities were formed and went on to succeed in various tournaments held in Ethiopia.

In those first years after independence, basket-ball enjoyed an ardent fervour among Eritrean youth, particularly in Bochio-villa, a place which has been associated since long time with Basket-ball. In this atmosphere, the National Eritrean Basket-ball team was created, and it was able to compete with the Sudanese teams, showing good performance that helped estimate the abilities of the Eritrean players.This spirit created an environment of development and competition that climaxed in the formation of the National Federation of Basket-ball. On July, 1998, Eritrea officially became a member of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).

Hereupon, in short time basket-ball was introduced to other zones of the country. As a result, many sporting activities, tournaments of different age groups and men's and women's events are held regularly. In these past years of independence, the committees organizing Eritrean basket-ball and the national Federation since its formation have taken the timely initiative in developing human resources , cultivation of future younger players , training of referees and introduction of Mini-Basket-ball and other programmes, implementing outlined activities.

In those times, although there were not many participations by individual teams or the National Eritrean team in the international basket-ball arena, the National Eritrean team, in the early independence years, participated in Sudan, in 2016 and also in 2019 in Kenya in the regional tournament of East Africa.