Meet Baba, the Baobab
the BAL’s New Mascot
June 2022
Written by Amir Ali
The Basketball Africa League, the NBA’s new professional league, just finished its second season. Within just 2 years, this landmark league has left a blueprint for how to create a league that is culturally-relevant and unites people for a cause bigger than themselves.
That cause? It has many layers, the face of that being none other than Baba, the baobab.
The beautiful baobab tree can be found across the entire African continent.
Baba’s Symbolism
The word “Baba” means “father” and is endearingly used by much of the continent. Imbued in the word is a sense of trust, guidance, stability and strength — unique values pushed by a professional sports league.
The choice of Baba being a baobab tree is meant to symbolize a unifying and long-withstanding element of African soil. In their nature, baobabs:
can live for up to 2,500 years
reach 60 feet in circumference and 90 feet in the sky
bring numerous benefits: shade, key nutrients like iron, can be boiled into spinach, used in cosmetics, roasted to make a coffee substitute or pressed to make oil for cooking…and its fruit pulp has six times more vitamin C than oranges (The Conversation)
All of this makes up Baba’s significance.
After generations of cultural and economic exploitation, African entrepreneurship has become centered around the reclamation of self-sustenance, economic empowerment and pan-African pride.
It is no secret that African natural resources — and Africans themselves — had been looted, sold and capitalized upon to the benefit of Western nations. That damage is not just a part of history — it reverberates through the day-to-day emotions and drives of millions of Africans today.
The BAL Championship trophy alongside the mascot also resembles the baobab tree.
Promoting Baba, the baobab, as the NBA’s new pro league mascot is illustrative of just how much those three values mean right now.
In the wide reach of its branches, the BAL is opening its arms to provide opportunity for aspiring pros from all nations, despite what path they may have taken. Former college athletes, NBA Academy kids, and even award-winning artist J. Cole make up BAL rosters.
Above all, the BAL has been a landmark initiative promoting the development of the sport and core values in a continent that that has produced some of the leagues best talent — including Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo, and Joel Embiid. Many more stories will be written.
With up to 2,000 years of life wrapped into each baobab tree, you’re left wondering, ‘how much history has it seen’?
Baba, for one, will have his own stories to tell for days.
Artist J. Cole played for the Rwanda Patriots in the inaugural BAL season.