Flag Football in Kenya: The NFL expands into Africa. Image: Chris Martinez/NFL
American football for the whole world: After Europe, with the games in Germany, it’s now Africa’s turn. There, however, the National Football League is – for now – about something else.
It was a special journey for Ikem Ekwonu. A journey that felt like coming home to him, at least a little bit, even if the destination wasn’t home at all. The last time he was in Africa was when he was eight, he says. So where his parents and grandparents come from and where he too, who was born in the United States and has lived there all his life, feels a strong connection that has nothing to do with countries and national borders, but with a sense of community that actually covers the entire continent for him.
That’s why it wasn’t so important to him that the trip he took part in this spring didn’t go to Nigeria, his family’s home, but to Kenya. Because the reason for this trip was all the more important to him.
