The Power Of A Dream:
The Harlem Magicians’
Tour of Zimbabwe

Find A Tree Pathways:
Determine Your Dream: Find a Tree and Get Started

The government asked Daniel to teach and promote basketball, particularly to the black population. Prior to independence, Zimbabwe was called Rhodesia and was a society based on racial separation. Under Rhodesian law, only Whites and Colored’s (people of mixed race) were allowed to play basketball.

Former Harlem Globetrotter and basketball Hall-of-Famer Marques Haynes offered to send Daniel basketball shoes to the teams he coaching in Zimbabwe, with that offer, Daniel dreamed of Haynes bringing his new team─The Harlem Magicians─to Zimbabwe─would come to Zimbabwe for a national tour. Haynes agreed to come if Daniel could raise the money and organize the tour. Starting with no resources, other than a dream, Daniel asked a staff member at the U.S. Information Service if he could use a telephone, a phone book, and a typewriter to organize the tour. With no desk available, he sat on the floor and began raising money and organizing the Harlem Magicians’ tour of Zimbabwe.

The opening night game was the largest multi-racial social event at that point in Zimbabwe’s history following 15 years of civil war.

The Harlem Magicians arrive in Zimbabwe. Daniel greets team representative Dr. Fred Kennedy.

(Harare, Zimbabwe – June 14, 1985)

Players from Zimbabwe

Daniel speaks with his brother, who played forthe opposing USA All-Stars team.

U.S. diplomat Mal Whitfield (left) and Magician’s representativeand referee Dr. Fred Kennedy (right)

Celebrating Dr. Fred Kenndy’s (middle) birthday withplayer/coach Jim Newman (right)

Magician player grabs cart and throws free ice creams to a delighted audience. Daniel compensated the astonished ice cream vendor for being the subject of this prank.

Video links:

The Power of a Dream:
The Harlem Magicians’ Tour of Zimbabwe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xs0QKFM_Xs&t=1s

Home Game

The Harlem Magicians Bond with Zimbabwe

BY DON ARMSTRONG

In June 1985, Marques Haynes took his Harlem Magicians to Africa for a tour of Kenya and Zimbabwe. A future Hall of Fame inductee and former star of the Harlem Globetrotters, Haynes was one of the true stars of the sport and still a ball-handling wiz at 59. In Africa, the Magicians played before large crowds in modern arenas and steamy gymnasiums and on outdoor asphalt courts. They delighted fans with all the classic Globetrotter routines, as well as fast-paced, high-flying basketball of a caliber most Africans had never seen.

The highlight of the tour, though, may have been the team’s visit to a tiny Zimbabwean village and to two of the country’s great treasures: Victoria Falls, the largest waterfall in the world, and the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, a series of stone structures so magnificent, despite centuries of decay, that some have insisted they not have been built by Africans unschooled in complex theories of architecture. In the village, the Magicians found more modest structures─thatched huts, mostly─but also encountered a warm spirit and sense of kinship that seemed to disregard to how far they had traveled to be there. It was a home game for all.
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