Barcelona basketball team condemn racist abuse of Nigerian player

The Barcelona basketball team has condemned the racist abuse suffered by Nigerian player James Nnaji during their Spanish championship final victory over bitter rivals Real Madrid.

The incident on Tuesday comes as Spanish sport wrestles with the global outcry sparked by racism aimed at Real Madrid’s Brazilian football star Vinicius Jr. The 22-year-old Brazilian forward called out racist abuse in the Spanish football league in May, which he had been subjected to since moving to Spain five years ago.

On Wednesday, it was the turn of Spanish basketball.

“Barcelona strongly condemns the racist insults suffered by first-team basketball player James Nnaji before game three of the final,” the team said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The club expects a firm response from the ACB [Spanish basketball league] against any racial or verbal insults.”

Images of the arrival of the Barcelona team bus at the WiZink centre in Madrid, where Tuesday’s match took place, showed several Madrid fans hurling insults at the Barcelona players.

According to local media, Nnaji was the target of racist insults.

“I want to talk about what happened here with James Nnaji. I think it’s regrettable. I hear a lot about Vinicius, and now it’s us who have to talk about what’s going on,” Barcelona basketball coach Sarunas Jasikevicius said later.

“It has to stop now. It doesn’t fit, I guess, with the values of Real Madrid and its supporters, and we have to be very angry about that,” he said.

Nigeria’s online media outlet Pulse Sports said the 18-year-old Nnaji played for just eight minutes and 35 seconds in the final but had a “pivotal role” in his team’s win.

Barcelona beat Real Madrid in 93-82 on Tuesday after winning the first two games of the final for the club’s 20th Spanish league title. 

Al Jazeera

Nigeria's Leon Balogun says fight against racism is a collective responsibility

Nigeria international Leon Balogun believes tackling racism is a collective responsibility and that more 'extreme punishments' are needed.

The 31-year-old Brighton defender also supports players walking off the pitch, but admitted it is only part of what needs to be done.

Balogun wants those not being targeted on the pitch to fully support their team-mates who feel that leaving the pitch is their only option, so that not too much pressure is put on the individuals.

"It's like they are afraid because the manager might say 'if you don't want to play, even though you might be an important player to us, we can replace you' and so that's something you will think about at least twice," Balogun told BBC Africa.

"That is what a team is supposed to be. We are a family. We are walking off [together], this would empower so many players who are racially abused because that way they then wouldn't feel alone."

Balogun says in order to get the message across, fans who do not take part in the abuse must also get involved in the battle against racism.

"You really take away what they love so much so that they understand we need to rethink here for a minute," he explained.

"So it will also affect people who are not involved in the racial abuse of the players.

"People who just happen to be in the stadium and they will be like 'wait a minute', those ones, let's call them idiots are taking away what we love, what we are passionate about."

Harsher punishments needed

A recent rise in incidents of racism across Europe has been met with financial penalties and partial stadium closures.

He is also adamant that the kind of sanctions being handed down are simply not having the necessary affect.

"At the point it's at right now I think you have to be extreme, even banning a team or like deducting points," he added.

"You need to shock people the same way racism shocks players.

"You probably have to go to a place they never expect, where you can actually hurt [punish] those involved in racist behaviour."

The Germany-born player has experienced racism first hand and points to one incident in 2018 when playing for Mainz and he was subjected to monkey chants from Hannover fans.

Balogun says authorities also have to make an example of the clubs when their supporters become involved in the racial abuse.

"When they are punished, clubs that are affected by the actions of their fans will have to do something about it," he added.

"They will have to find a solution. 'We are fighting for the championship here or we are fighting for relegation'. We need every point. So they can't allow or afford to lose points over something which is as stupid as racism."

By Mimi Fawaz 

BBC

Video - Farming: Adewale Akinnuoye-Abaje directorial debut with emotive film

Nigerian-British actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Abaje has launched his directorial debut – Farming – in Lagos, Nigeria, just days after it was released in the UK. "It is an important part of British history as well as Nigerian culture... I'm hoping that it (the #film) would create a dialogue and a collective therapy for those that are still suffering," the actor said during the launch on 19 October. The movie will premiere in the US on 25 October.

Related story: Black skinhead film directed by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje hopes to "heal" pain

Black skinhead film directed by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje hopes to "heal" pain

Now an award-winning actor, he has brought his story to cinemas in his country of origin - Nigeria. He hopes his directorial debut will be part of a “healing” process for people who sought foster care to give their children a better life.

Farming, the film’s title, takes its name from a term used to describe the practice of Nigerian immigrants fostering their children to white families in Britain so they could work, study and save money. It refers to the idea that the children were “farmed” out.

The aim of the practise, mainly prevalent from the 1960s to 1980s, was for the immigrants to eventually return to Nigeria.

“Perhaps this can provide a healing in some sense but ultimately a re-evaluation of our child-rearing processes,” Akinnuoye-Agbaje told Reuters at the film’s Nigerian premiere on Saturday in the country’s commercial capital, Lagos, after first being screened in London last month.

“I’m hoping that it will create a dialogue and a collective therapy for those that are still suffering, and a healing because many of the Nigerian farmers don’t actually go back for the children that were fostered,” he said.


As a six-week-old baby in 1967, Akinnuoye-Agbaje was left in the care of a white family in Tilbury, a southeast England town around 20 miles east of central London. And, as a youth, he joined a gang of skinheads - a far-right subculture often associated with racist violence in Britain.

Membership in a gang that previously tormented him ended when his biological father, who had relocated to Nigeria where he worked as a barrister, paid for him to attend a private school in the affluent English county of Surrey.

That step was taken after he was contacted by Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s foster mother.

“It is an important part of British history as well as Nigerian culture, so to be able to bring a story that I have harboured for so long home to the Nigerian audience is... a wonderful sense of accomplishment,” said Akinnuoye-Agbaje.

The film - which cost 3 million pounds ($3.89 million) to make and stars British actor Kate Beckinsale as the foster mother - was greeted with cheers and applause in a packed cinema hall in the upmarket Lagos district of Lekki.

Thousands of Nigerians leave the west African country each year in search of a better life abroad - often in Europe and the United States. Some of those who attended the screening said it was interesting to see a depiction of life overseas that differed from their expectations.

“When it comes to racism... we normally focus on America but it was nice to see what actually happened in the UK (United Kingdom),” said broadcaster Simi Drey.

Similarly, a cinematographer who goes by the name T-Cent said he was surprised by the portrayal of people typically seen as having benefited from life in a nation richer than Nigeria, where most people live on less than $2 a day.

“We look at these people and we say they are very, very privileged, but then everyone has their
 internal struggles,” he said.

By Nneka Chile

Reuters