{"id":14979,"date":"2022-04-12T08:11:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T08:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball"},"modified":"2022-04-12T08:35:04","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T08:35:04","slug":"kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball","title":{"rendered":"Kwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Rwandan basketball suffered a huge setback during the Genocide against the Tutsi, as it claimed lives of many players and administrators.<\/p>\n

The tragedy also made it hard for some local clubs to make a comeback.<\/p>\n

Teams like Tigers, ESM, Indahangarwa, Ocapi, Terror, and Minijust that existed before the Genocide did not come back after the Genocide.<\/p>\n

Emmanuel Ntarugera known as Gisembe, Aimable Rutagengwa, Emmanuel Rubingisa, Auguste Kabeho who played for Espoir; Tharcisse Nzamwita and Siboyintore of Minijust as well as Esdras Nshimayezu and Emma Gasengayire of UNR are among the many people who lost their lives.<\/p>\n

Minitrape, Okapi and Nyarugenge are among the basketball clubs that lost players.<\/p>\n

The Genocide also led to the death of officials like Gustave Rugamba who was a treasurer for Espoir, Damien Nyirinkwaya, a coach at the same club and Raymond Kabaija, a founding member.<\/p>\n

After the Genocide, as life started to get back to normal, new basketball teams were established and new players got interested in the game.<\/p>\n

Today, twenty-eight years on, the game looks to have bounced back, and a number of achievements have been achieved, on and off the court, by the country and the clubs.<\/p>\n

The most important element is that basketball, and sports in general, have been used as tools for unity and reconciliation, for instance through tournaments that are hosted for such specific purposes.<\/p>\n

Besides this, today, Rwanda is looked at as one of the countries that are very capable of hosting major tournaments on the African continent, a great milestone as far as basketball is concerned.<\/p>\n

The country that was in ruins 28 years ago now boasts of having hosted the very inaugural edition of the Basketball Africa League (BAL), a prestigious continental competition sponsored by the National Basketball Association (NBA).<\/p>\n

Since the BAL’s launch in 2020, Rwandan clubs have, on a consecutive basis, been among the 12 African clubs that have made it to the highly esteemed competition, in addition to the fact that they have performed well in the continental tournaments.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Patriots Basketball Club was a semifinalist in the competition, and currently, Rwanda Energy Group (REG) qualified for the playoffs of the same competition.<\/p>\n

Last year, the country also hosted Afrobasket, a tournament that attracts the op national teams across the continent.<\/p>\n

The strides are set to continue as this year, Rwanda will host the playoffs of the BAL in May, as well as FIBA World Cup qualifiers, Group A and B from July 1-3.<\/p>\n

Although all that has been achieved, the struggle continues in a number of aspects, for example: building the national team so that it can be able to rub shoulders with the big boys on the continent like Nigeria, Tunisia, Senegal, among others.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Times Sport, Desire Mugwiza, the President of Rwanda Basketball Federation (Ferwaba) said that after the genocide, it was a \u2018slow but sure\u2019 journey.<\/p>\n

Today, the National Basketball League has14 teams in the men’s category and 8 in the women’s fray.<\/p>\n

This year, Ferwaba introduced the inaugural second division league, and it will comprise 17 clubs, as the country seeks to promote the game even more.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasketball (and other sports) played a crucial role to reshape the Rwandan society \u2013 especially the youth \u2013 after 1994,\u201d Mugwiza said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also was \u2013 and still is \u2013 an essential vehicle to build the country\u2019s image beyond borders.\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The local basketball governing body was one of the earliest federations to organise Genocide Memorial Tournaments (GMT), and that, Mugwiza says, helped to bring people together and build social cohesion that was lost because of the Genocide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used the tournament as a platform to pass messages of \u2018Never Again\u2019, unity, reconciliation and the importance of remembering,\u201d said Mugwiza. \u201cSport is a powerful tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. Rwandan basketball suffered a huge setback during the Genocide against the Tutsi, as it claimed lives of many players and administrators. The tragedy also made it hard for some local clubs to make a comeback. Teams like Tigers, ESM, Indahangarwa, Ocapi, Terror, and Minijust that existed before the Genocide did not come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":14978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18],"tags":[760,763,3342,758],"class_list":["post-14979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-kwibuka-28","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nKwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rwandan basketball suffered a huge setback during the Genocide against the Tutsi, as it claimed lives of many players an ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rwandan basketball suffered a huge setback during the Genocide against the Tutsi, as it claimed lives of many players an ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-12T08:11:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-12T08:35:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_18.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"847\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"491\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-12T08:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-12T08:35:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball\"},\"wordCount\":643,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_18.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Kwibuka 28\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball\",\"name\":\"Kwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball - Rwanda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_18.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-12T08:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-12T08:35:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Rwandan basketball suffered a huge setback during the Genocide against the Tutsi, as it claimed lives of many players an ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_18.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_18.jpg\",\"width\":847,\"height\":491,\"caption\":\"Kwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Kwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\",\"name\":\"Rwanda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball - Rwanda","description":"Rwandan basketball suffered a huge setback during the Genocide against the Tutsi, as it claimed lives of many players an ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball","og_description":"Rwandan basketball suffered a huge setback during the Genocide against the Tutsi, as it claimed lives of many players an ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball","og_site_name":"Rwanda","article_published_time":"2022-04-12T08:11:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-12T08:35:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":847,"height":491,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_18.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Kwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball","datePublished":"2022-04-12T08:11:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-12T08:35:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball"},"wordCount":643,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_18.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Rwanda","Kwibuka 28","Rwanda"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball","name":"Kwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball - Rwanda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_18.jpg","datePublished":"2022-04-12T08:11:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-12T08:35:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Rwandan basketball suffered a huge setback during the Genocide against the Tutsi, as it claimed lives of many players an ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_18.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_18.jpg","width":847,"height":491,"caption":"Kwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kwibuka-28-the-huge-blow-that-was-dealt-to-rwandan-basketball#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kwibuka 28: The huge blow that was dealt to Rwandan basketball"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/","name":"Rwanda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}