Masai Ujiri, WNBA Star Chiney Ogwumike and NBA Star Pascal Siakam Headline the Thrilling 2022 Giants of Africa Conference
Last Updated on
January 3, 2024
Ayo Biyibi
Staff Writer
As part of the United Nations two-day Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI) event, a who’s who of distinguished delegates from Africa and of African descent gathered in New York to discuss, highlight and reaffirm their commitment to assisting in economic growth across #Africa.
On the second day of the event, Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri hosted a panel that featured Raptors star Pascal Siakam as well as Vice-President of the WNBA Players Association and #WNBA star Chiney Ogwumike.
The panel, entitled "Giants of Africa", discussed the continued growth of grassroots and professional sports development, especially in basketball on the African continent.
The Giants of Africa foundation was co-founded by Ujiri in 2003 and has gone on to help Africa’s best hoopers achieve their dream of playing in the NBA. Today, the highly respected organisation focuses on the empowerment of women and youth, job creation and many initiatives across Africa.
“Sports is here to stay and we are the definition of unstoppable,” said Ujiri. “We should no longer see sports as a recreation alone. Sports is a business. It creates [an] incredible opportunity for all of us.”
Discussing the importance of representation and youth development for young girls across Africa, especially in Nigeria, Chiney Ogwumike stated:
“As a woman athlete, it's very difficult for young girls… It’s hard to be what you cannot see and to be able to see women achieving, it’s very important to be that representation of real-time action.”
In 2017 Chiney Ogwumike and her siblings, including future WNBA Hall of Famer Nneka Ogwumike, launched their non-profit organisation, The Ogwumike Sisters Foundation to help raise money for educational and sports projects for schoolgirls in Nigeria.
“My family and I went to Queens College, Lagos. That’s a school that my mother [and] my aunts attended,” said the LA Sparks star, discussing the origins of the foundations.
“A lot of people ask, ‘Why did you do your first basketball activation back home with The Ogwumike Sisters Foundation?’ In 2019, I saw a startling statistic [that stated] ‘No country in sub-Saharan Africa had achieved gender equity in education for primary and secondary schools.’ So, I knew the first thing I needed to do was to go [back] home to a school and to really show up and be that example, that visibility for the young women to know that we see them, we are them and they can achieve.”
28-year-old #NBA All-Star Pascal Siakam, who picked up basketball relatively late in comparison to many around the world, also spoke on the importance of representation in the sport and how the Basketball Without Borders camps helped him.
“The Basketball Without Boarders camps was the genesis of my basketball dream. As a young kid, you don’t dare to dream about the NBA because It doesn't feel real. It's not something you can touch. Going to the Basketball Without Boarders [camps] was the first time I allowed myself to dream about being in the NBA. I saw real NBA players that looked like me and it just made me feel like it was something achievable and from there my basketball dreams started.”
Adding, “I was just a scrawny kid from #Cameroon, but I felt like after seeing Basketball Without Boarders and being there, I felt like this is possible, I can achieve it and I started believing from there.”
Watch the Entire 2022 Giants of Africa Conference: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1l/k1l6zjnf7f
[Image/Photography Credit: Kees2life]
