Sport occupies a hallowed place in the history of pan-Africanism. The Confederation of African Football (caf), which runs African football and, in particular, the African Cup of Nations (Afcon), was founded as far back as 1957. That was six years before the birth of the Organisation of African Unity, the precursor to the African Union. Over the years the caf lent its support to anti-colonial liberation struggles across the continent, including against apartheid in South Africa.

Its record of nurturing African football has been less triumphant, however. Africa’s best talent plays in European football leagues, yet no African side had ever made it to the semi-finals of the World Cup until Morocco in 2022. Though the Afcon increasingly attracts money and global viewers, there is still no high-profile pan-African league to speak of. To flourish professionally, the continent’s best footballers must leave it.

A new era for African sport may, however, be taking shape—and it can be found in a new 15,000-seat basketball stadium in Senegal. Last month the Dakar Arena, which was completed in 2018 at a cost of more than $100m, hosted the Sahara Conference, one of the three divisions of the Basketball Africa League (bal), the continent’s premier basketball competition. Based in Dakar, the bal is the brainchild of the International Basketball Federation, the sport’s global governing body, and nba Africa, the North American basketball league’s regional subsidiary, which was valued at $1bn when a private-equity firm bought a stake in 2021. With 12 national-league champions competing for a panAfrican title—the finals were played in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, on June 1st—the basic model emulates Europe’s football Champions League. It is also the most ambitious attempt so far to build a continent-wide professional sports league.

The nba has long aspired to enter new markets as the business of sport has become more competitive. Thanks in large part to its success in popularising the game in China, basketball is probably the world’s second-favourite sport, after football. The nba has organised exhibition matches in China since 2004, and a series of “global games” since 2013. The bal, however, is its first attempt at running a league outside North America.

The new championship has thus attracted considerable interest. It counts Barack Obama among its investors and Nike among its sponsors. Other sports are taking note. America’s National Football League (nfl) began hosting its first official events in Africa in 2022. Like the nba, which has set up youth-training facilities, including its first basketball academy in Africa in Senegal in 2017, the nfl now organises camps to scout for talent on the continent. Meanwhile the caf’s latest attempt at a pan-African football league is set to adopt the bal’s three-way regional format later this year.

Governments are paying attention, too. The African sports market could be worth more than $20bn a year in revenue by 2035, reckons Oliver Wyman, a consultancy, up from about $12bn today. Basketball has the potential to be a lucrative slice of it. It was with such financial rewards in mind that Rwanda unveiled its own swanky arena in 2019. Nigeria, Kenya, Benin and Uganda are following suit. “Our league is starting to open eyes to all this untapped economic potential,” argues Amadou Gallo Fall, the bal’s president.

Africa, which has the world’s youngest population, is an obvious place for basketball to bloom. Unlike American football, it can be played almost anywhere. And unlike cricket or rugby, it is not associated with former colonisers. Indeed, the nba itself has an increasingly African flavour. More than 50 of its current players were either born in Africa or have at least one parent from the continent, including Joel Embiid from Cameroon, who last year won the nba’s Most Valuable Player award. In Senegal, “it is now football first, basketball second,” enthuses a fan outside the Dakar Arena. “So many young people dream of playing in the nba.”

The goal is for all young Africans “to be able to play here professionally without having to leave”, says Mr Fall. To encourage the development of local talent, the bal enforces strict limits on the number of foreigners each team can field. The strategy seems to be working. Simon Rofe of the University of Leeds notes that already a number of African players have left European clubs and returned to the continent in order to join the bal.

However, the league faces a number of hurdles. Although attendance at games went up by 71% last year, many games are played to half-empty arenas. Mounting losses are depleting the capital that was raised from investors in 2021, according to a report by Bloomberg, a news agency. And investment is still needed in much of the basic infrastructure, including courts and coaches. Mactar N. Ndiaye of the seed Project, a Senegalese sports and education charity, reckons the league will be the “locomotive” to power the sport’s growth. But first it must build the tracks.