My quest to explore the depths of playground culture most recently took me to Sénégal, where I had the opportunity to document the local basketball scene twice in May 2014 & 2015. There’s a deep love for sports out there, and the game has a genuine history in the westernmost city of the old world. Sénégal has many battlefields, mostly outdoors on concrete. In Dakar, where the competition is tough - tough enough to generate NBA caliber athletes such as Makhtar N’Diaye, the first Senegalese player who reached the NBA and played with the Fab Five Michigan. Or Gorgui Dieng from Kébémer, the latest player to reach the big league who was at that time renovating his childhood court and raising funds to improve the quality of the hospital in his hometown. Throughout my journey, I also met dedicated and passionate people like Amadou Fall, the founder of the SEED project, NBA Champion Boris Diaw with his Babac’ards organization, and individuals who are sincerely trying to make a difference by reactivating the game and educating the youth in their communities. When you purchase the magazine, you also get a screenprint of one photo from Sénégal by French artist Olivier Marescaux. 36 Photographs by Kevin Couliau36 Pages
