South Sudan's Juba to play at East Africa Inter-cities Tournament

SHEFFIELD (Julio Chitunda's African Message) - The East, Central and Southern Africa Inter-cities Tournament (ECSAIT) for Men and Women is back later this month in the Ugandan capital of Kampala with a new contender.
 
The annual event can not stop attracting new members since its launch in 1998.
 
This time, Africa's newest city Juba - the capital of South Sudan that split from Sudan in July last year - is expected to join the celebration of the 14th anniversary of the ECSAIT.
 
The four-day inter-city tournament tips off on 24 April (until 28 April) and will bring together cities from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
 
Aside from Juba joining the ECSAIT, the spotlight will also be on Nairobi city, the defending champions in both genders.
 
The tournament emerged ideologically to promote and develop the game among youths of East Africa, and nowadays it is one of the most attractive competitions in that part of Africa with cities selecting their best players to take part in the event.

The ECSAIT expects to spread it throughout the continent, says the tournament's Joy Olinga: “This is something we are thinking about and planning for.”
 
When the ECSAIT first started in 1998, the inaugural cities of Kampala, Mombassa and Dar es Salaam had never imagined that 14 years later a large number of cities would join.
 
Kenya capital Nairobi is the most successful city in the games, and Ugandan Joseph Manano says his home city of Kampala who is hosting the event for the third time, “has high chances of balancing the level and contest” their neighbouring Kenyans.
 
This tournament could well be compared to the Africa Clubs Champions Cup, but it does not.
 
“There is no parallel between inter-cities and club championship because clubs are teams in the cities and ECSAIT is a combination of different clubs forming a team,” Olinga pointed out.
 
“ECSAIT should be bigger than [African] Club Championship and smaller than Nations Cup [AfroBasket].
 
“This tournament can also grow and bring the best cities of all the zones [there are seven Africa qualifying zones].”
 
ECSAIT emerged as an off-season competition in order to keep players busy.
 
Nevertheless, and coincidently or not, very few countries from East Africa - apart from Rwanda - have played at the AfroBasket for Men in the last 19 years.
 
Is ECSAIT a replacement for the AfroBasket, I asked Joseph Manana. “No, it just helps keep busy,” he said.
 
There are more similarities than differences between the ECSAIT teams. They are included in Zone V of the Africa qualifying zones. Most countries have English and Swahili among their main languages and are keen to help their national teams make it back to the AfroBasket.
 
Rwanda has become a regular, playing in the three last editions of the African Nations Cup.
 
Kenya last appeared at an AfroBasket in 1993, while for Tanzania, the last time was back in 1974.
 
Both Uganda and Burundi have never qualified and Somalia last played in the leading continental championship in 1983.
 
However, this has not stopped Uganda from being confident enough to bid to host the AfroBasket in three or four years, according to Joseph Manana.
 
Unlike men, Rwandese women played at the last two AfroBasket editions. In Mali, they managed a ninth-place finish with three wins out of seven.
 
Kenya, though, has failed to qualify since 2007.
 
Not Anglophone Games
 
With all similarities among the ECSAIT cities, I wondered whether this was an Anglophone Cities Games.
 
“Changing the name of inter-cities to Anglophone might kill the purpose of having towns forming teams, it might end up being nations playing instead of cities," said Olinga.

So I think the name inter cities is very important to maintain the meaning and purpose of the towns playing each other.
 
“(The level of) Basketball played in Zone V is of very high standards only that sponsorship in Zone V is a big challenge.
 
“Maybe FIBA Africa should come up with ways of subsidising the costs for the teams which have qualified to represent their zones.”
 
These are the expected teams to play in Kampala later this month: Kenya (Nairobi and Mombasa); Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, Mbeya and Mwanza); Rwanda  (Kigali); Somalia (Somaliland, Mogashidu and Hegeshia); South Sudan (Warrap State, Juba State and Bentui State) and Uganda (Moyo, Jinja, Gulu, Mukono and Kampala).
 
Surely, by joining the ECSAIT with Juba city, South Sudane seems to be seeking to put the country's name on the basketball map. It's an unsurprising decision if we consider the potential of some South Sudanese playing abroad, such as British naturalised Luol Deng, and US collegiate players Teen Akol, Bak Bak and Mayol Riathin.

Let the games commence.

Julio Chitunda

FIBA

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