SUDANESE NBA PLAYER AND UGANDAN NFL PLAYER THE FOCUS OF ESPN DOCUMENTARY
Luol Deng is a seventh year player for the NBA’s Chicago Bulls. Born into the Dinka tribe in Sudan, he and his family fled Sudan in the late 1980’s to escape the civil war. Now the star player for Team Great Britain as London gears up for the 2012 Olympics, Deng has recently re-established ties with his native Sudan.
Mathias Kiwanuka, defensive end for the NFL’s New York Giants whom he helped earn a Super Bowl ring in 2008, is the grandson of Uganda’s first prime minister who was brutally tortured and then assassinated more than 10 years before Mathias was born. In June 2010 Mathias and his older brother, Benedict, were involved in a near fatal motorcycle accident. In October Mathias suffered a neck injury in a game with the Giants which ended his season, and perhaps his career.
In a half-hour programme, Beyond Borders, produced specifically for viewers in Africa, ESPN takes a look at two African-born athletes who are playing in professional American sports leagues. Beyond Borders focuses on inspirational human interest stories that transcend both borders and continents. Both men speak passionately about the recent independence elections in Sudan.
“I’m happy and I’m proud that I got the chance to vote”, says Deng of the recent independence elections in Sudan. “I really hope that everyone knows that I’ve been waiting to vote. I wasn’t going to let that chance go. A lot of people sometimes lose hope and think you’ve got to start a new life and wherever you’re at that’s where you’re from now. We Sudanese always believed we’re going to get our homeland back and everyone is going to return. It’s just always been the mindset. Right now the number one thing is peace and referendum.”
Kiwanuka remembers his grandfather, Benedicto Kiwanuka: “He was chief justice and first prime Minister of Uganda. As a child I just had a limited understanding of what he did. As I got older I got to hear actual stories about events that went on and the things that he sacrificed in terms of spending months and years away from his family even though it was killing him and going out to fight for education and to fight for justice and the ability for everyone in the country to have a say.”
Beyond Borders will air on ESPN on Sunday 13 February at 8pm.
Watch ESPN on DStv channel 230.