Giant of Africa Festival 2023

Giant of Africa have been making headlines for the past month here in Rwanda, so many wondered what could be interesting about the giant of Africa. Yet they are so many things to say about GOA.

Masai Ujiri

As we have seen is Giant of Africa is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving life of youth through sports. Masai Ujiri founded it 20 years ago.

With our country’s vision to increase the love of sports in Rwandan citizen it is safe to say that Giant came at the right time to motivate and empower talented youth.

The initiatives of Giant of Africa is to enrich the lives of African youth through basketball both on and off the court. They have over 3000 youth that they influenced with more than 200 jobs created.

GOA and NBA take time to lead camps of basketball alongside local coaches.

As the Vice-Chairman and President of the Toronto Raptors announced, among the 3000 youth impacted there was exceptional talent that were set to perform during the inaugural Giants of Africa Youth Basketball Festival.

Masai Ujiri with HE Paul Kagame at the official opening ceremony at BK sports Arena.

It took place from August 13 to 19th in Kigali, Rwanda. The Festival brought together more than 250 youth from 16 countries in celebration of Giants of Africa’s 20th anniversary. Among the countries that participated, there was RWANDA, GHANA, CAMEROUN, SOUDAN, SOMALIA, DRC, TANZANIA, and so on.

“The Giants of Africa Festival represents a momentous milestone for our organization – we will celebrate 20 years of empowering youth and we will honor the incredible communities that have welcomed us. Through this Festival, we aim to inspire and encourage youth, while acknowledging their immense potential and the collective effort to create positive change,” said Masai Ujiri.

The festival was a huge success from the starts to the end , one of the outstanding things done during the festival was the participation of the youth in UMUGANDA, a Rwandan community work, the youth learnt more about climate change and sustainability.

The opening ceremony started on Sunday 13th august at BK Arena with parade of athletes and Tanzania best artist Diamond Platnumz.

Tyla from South Africa.

The closing ceremony turned out to be an unforgettable evening, especially for music lovers where they got to meet a lineup of their favorite artists like, Tyla from South Africa.

To Davido who gave a thrilling performance while presenting his latest album.

Joining him on stage was Tiwa Savage, a Nigerian singer-songwriter best known as the queen of Afro beats.

Finally yet importantly, our very own Bruce Melodie joined the stage as well. He is the biggest star in the music industry in Rwanda.

The show kicked off with faces full of joy and fun, as the attendees explained.

With more strength and motivation the youth have agreed to keep learning from the best and using the opportunities provided by Giants of Africa to take the love of basketball and sports to another level.

Nadia UMUMARARUNGU