Improving conditions in South Sudan in recent years have seen the emergence of a vibrant basketball subculture. These kinds of stories tend to represent dual-edged swords when couched as providing opportunities for people to accept straitened circumstances — the success stories of the few tend to overshadow the realities of the many who do not get out. But if basketball can serve as a sort of slice of life for general uplift in the region, more to the better.
These trends antedate the recent referendum on South Sudan’s separation and naturally if things take a turn for the worse when implementation comes to pass basketball will likely fall by the wayside. But as long as we don’t begin to think that basketball (or football, or rugby, or fame as a pop musician, or what have you) really is a panacea for a nation’s ills it is always reassuring to see sport as a sign of blooming life.
