Canouan Native, NBA Star to Become U. S. Citizen

After living in the United States for nearly 16 years, basketball star and Canouan island native Adonal Foyle is preparing to become an American citizen. The center for Oakland, California’s Golden State Warriors left his homeland in St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 1991 at the age of 16. He went on to attend Colgate University, where he was a basketball standout, majoring in history (he graduated magna cum laude.) Foyle was drafted by the NBA’s Golden State in 1997, and has played for the team ever since.

Foyle will be sworn in as a U. S. citizen on March 13 at San Francisco’s Nob Hill Masonic center. Earlier this month, he cleared the final hurdle in his application for citizenship – passing an oral exam on American history. Foyle said he will also maintain his citizenship in his native country.

Since becoming an NBA player, Foyle has taken advantage of his status to help give people a voice. He started a pair of organizations — Democracy Matters, a student organization that puts focus on campaign finance reform, and the Kerosene Lamp Foundation, a charity that helps raise the awareness of AIDS and good health through basketball back in his home island.