LeBron James and Will Smith the stars as Angola aims to cash in on E1 powerboat racing

It is difficult to imagine an electric powerboat racing series capturing the attention of an Angolan audience for whom football and basketball is king, but the presence of NBA royalty LeBron James certainly helped.

The 41-year-old was among the A-listers in Luanda as the E1 World Championship rolled into southern Africa for the first time at the weekend, having made its debut on the continent last year in Lagos, Nigeria.

"It's not a short trip, but he [LeBron] is here because he believes in what we're doing," E1 chief executive Jamie Copas told BBC Sport Africa in the Angolan capital.

"You can't underestimate the value of it. They [the celebrity owners] come with huge followings."

Similar to Formula E on land, it aims to blend sport with strong messaging around sustainability and green technology.

James said Angola had made his first trip to the country "super welcoming" after visiting the National Museum of Slavery.

"Obviously there is a lot of history here," the new signing for the Philadelphia 76ers told local media.

"A lot of history that not only is here in the country but also [crosses] over to America."

Angola's men are reigning African basketball champions, securing a record-extending 12th continental title on home soil last year, and unsurprisingly spectators of the E1 racing at the Clube Naval de Luanda clamoured for a glimpse of one of basketball's biggest icons.

Journalist Omar Prata, covering the race for the Jornal de Angola, admitted that E1 was not on his radar until Hollywood star Smith, whose Westbrook Racing team is sponsored by Visit Angola, announced in March that a deal had been agreed to race in Luanda for the next three years.

"I see the potential it could bring to project the city at a time when the government is trying to work on tourism," Prata said.

"And of course it means a lot to have LeBron James here. Angolans have seen him on television, they try to emulate him on the street courts, they have his posters."

The star power of E1's owners is helping to bring eyeballs to what is a traditionally niche sport where powerboat pilots skim and bounce around tight courses at speeds close to 100kmph.

Yet, on a calendar that features traditional celebrity haunts like Miami, Monaco and Lake Como, Luanda's name seems an outlier.

Among those taking in the action from the fanzone was local resident Edson Cabeta.

"It is the first time I have seen anything like this," he said.

"Today it is foreigners doing this; tomorrow, perhaps we could have an Angolan team."

The aspiration is that hosting an E1 race will help Angola boost visitor numbers, with minister for tourism Marcio de Jesus Lopes Daniel saying enhanced foreign awareness of the country is the "first step" in a long-term plan.

"Our ambition is not simply to make Angola famous," Daniel told the BBC.

"It is to make Angola more desirable to visit, invest in and do business in."

Angola has not been afraid to speculate to accumulate in the past, bringing Lionel Messi's Argentina side to Luanda for a football friendly last November to celebrate 50 years of the nation's independence.

Daniel said it would be "premature" to assess the economic impact of this weekend's race in Luanda.

"An event of this scale generates demand across several sectors and it creates opportunities," he added.

"We want to turn the international attention generated by E1 into future trips, stays, private investment and jobs. That is the real return we are looking for."

Beyond the spectacle and waterfront backdrops, E1 aims to transcend motorsport.

Sustainability has been one cornerstone, and marine conservation efforts around the race in Angola included mangrove restoration.

Putting sustainability front and centre inevitably invites scrutiny - particularly when races have taken place in Saudi Arabia, the United States, Nigeria and now Angola, all major oil-producing nations.

"We're welcomed in places that do have a lot of fossil-fuel infrastructure.

"Each one of those markets is conscious of it and wants to be doing more from a green point of view. If we can help, why wouldn't we?"

Copas told BBC Sport Africa that E1 would only consider air freight as a last resort for transporting its teams and that they aim to showcase their technology on each stop, persuading people that electric charging is a viable alternative to diesel even on water.

But as the global series expanded to 10 teams and seven races in 2025, its own emissions rose from 1,672 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in its first season to 4,049 tonnes in its second, according to E1's own annual sustainability report.

"We need to travel to meet new people, to tell our stories, which we would hope would be of greater benefit than the carbon footprint that we have," Copas explained.

"We work really hard to offset our carbon and to make sure every stage of our logistics journey is done in the most sustainable way.

"It would be crazy for us to say we're not going to travel and we're not going to race, because then we can't do the job that we're here to do."

There is an acknowledgement within E1 that the work is unfinished and that more active reductions are needed.

E1 was due to return to Lagos in October, but Nigeria's race was cancelled earlier this month, perhaps showing how the series is still working to establish itself.

It means its longer-term impact in Africa will take time to judge, but the effect of its celebrity owners was obvious around the paddock in Luanda.

After visiting his pilots, Will Smith stopped for selfies and handshakes with fans, telling the crowd it was "great to be here".

On the water, however, there was no fairytale result as Westbrook Racing's hopes of victory were ended by a mechanical fault, with Team Brady taking the inaugural Luanda title.

Smith could have used the help of Kianda, the mermaid-like Angolan water spirit traditionally regarded as a protector of fishermen.

It will take one of her miraculous interventions if electric powerboat racing is to usurp football or basketball in Angolan affections, but Copas hopes E1 can leave a different legacy.

"I think it's for us to help tell Angola stories, and for Angola to help tell ours.

"We will be back next year, we will be back the year after. It's not just about what we're doing in the few days we're here.

"We'd love to see the journey they're on develop even more, and us playing a part in that."