TBE visits Tunisia for second leg of cultural exchange
by Justin Berry
The Basketball Embassy entered a new frontier in November—this time, in Africa in partnership with World Learning through the U.S. Department of State Sports Diplomacy division and the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia for the second half of a two-part cultural exchange program.
The front end in June featured a group of Tunisian coaches and business professionals on a trip to Washington, D.C. to take part in sport management programs and develop action plans to take back home. This second half included 10 Americans visiting the cities of Tunis, Sousse and Kairouan to lead basketball training sessions, experience local culture, serve on sports panels and take part in the action plans created by our Tunisian counterparts. In the process, basketball yet again provided unique experiences and new perspectives.
The American delegation with the Tunisian group outside at the Center for Children with Autism and Down Syndrome in Tunis. In this photo, both Americans and Tunisians are wearing chechias - this national hat is a Tunisian trademark, among the symbols of the country’s rich heritage.
During our nine days in the country, we led and took part in basketball sessions both indoors and outdoors in numerous cities, with everyone from Baby Basket players (3-5 years old) and special needs children, to basketball academy pupils and U18 national team players. In between these sessions, we visited different cultural sites, as well as local institutions that use sports as part of their programming. Of these, one of the standouts was a youth center that provides sports in a notoriously rough neighborhood in Tunis. In the American experience, “rough” can mean a variety of things—from gangs and drugs to poverty and hostility. In this neighborhood “rough” meant 150,000 people living in a two-kilometer radius, and that’s only the beginning.
In the post-revolution period (2011-on), more than 8,000 young men from that neighborhood alone had left Tunis to go fight for extremist groups in Syria, Libya and elsewhere in the region. This was a direct product of poverty and the disarray that followed the revolution. As a precaution, we entered the area with a police escort. With that said, at no time did we ever feel uncomfortable, and our hosts were superbly hospitable. One of our Tunisian contacts expressed to me that he had been subjected to radical influences during that time, but actually used basketball as motivation to pursue an alternative route. Stories like these highlighted the immense importance of youth centers and sports in such areas.
Justin Berry of The Basketball Embassy was privileged to meet with the president of the Tunisian Basketball Federation, Mr. Ali Benzarti.
On the basketball side of things, we were privileged to work with numerous clubs and academies, all facilitated through our fellow Tunisian participants. Most of these sessions were held on indoor, hardwood courts. We learned in certain places, only senior teams are allotted practice times in these gyms (they’re also shared with other senior indoor sports teams). Though our sessions were arranged in the primary gyms, coaches explained to us how many youth teams have to practice outside; this in and of itself isn’t the end of the world, but when outdoor courts are limited and/or not in great condition, youth development becomes even more of an uphill battle with limited training time and options.
Despite those challenges, I still left these sessions encouraged, mostly because of what we saw with the Tunisian coaches. Regardless of level, almost every coach we encountered was engaged and had a visible passion not only for basketball, but for the kids they teach. In each place we visited, it became clear that not many (if any) of them are even being paid for it. For perspective, a parent at home coaching a YMCA team or a basketball junkie leading a local league team might be the only places you can still find that type of thing. We certainly left these gyms with an admiration for their love of the game and their kids and couldn’t help but hope they receive more chances to develop in the future.
The group was afforded the opportunity to meet with the Tunisian Ministry of Youth and Sports.
As TBE made its first appearance in Africa, it provided our group of coaches, professors, and professionals to visit a place off the beaten path for most of our countrymen. It allowed us to not only share our talents and passions with others, but to learn some things in the process. At times it can be easy to forget that the “exchange” part of what we do is a two-way street.
Through sports diplomacy, we are given chances to challenge our perceptions of different cultures, while taking responsibility for the way others view us. It’s this type of openness and exchange that makes the world a little bit smaller, and hopefully, a little bit closer. Basketball continues to grow in Tunisia, and we look forward to returning to take part in it.
Our group after working with Mongil Basket Rades in Rades, Tunis.