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#27 |
"Hit Ball" Goes to Africa |
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# A Japanese in the "Chocolate Country"
with aspirations for the Olympics |
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Ghana, West Africa. When we think of Ghana, we think of a chocolate bar in a red package. Also, it is well known that the "gold coast", which had historically served as the hub of slave trade. Despite experiencing military coup d'etat until the 1980s, Ghana today has is in a relatively stable political state in comparison to other African nations, and in@its capital, Accra, many advertisement boards of mobile phones are prevalent, and as such, one can sense that it is also growing economically. |
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Did anyone know that there was a Japanese person who lived in Ghana, who aspired for the Olympic Games? Mr. Shinya Tomonari, a
JICA
(an independent administrative agency, Japan InternationalE
Cooperation Agency) employee coached the Ghana National Baseball Team during his assignment in Ghana from 1996 to 1999. In 1999, Ghana participated in its first Olympic qualifiers ever, but just missed the African Champions title losing to the most powerful baseball team in Africa, the Nigerian National Team. Then
Mr. Tomonari, who was due back in Japan immediately after the Olympic
qualifiers ended, was asked by the commissioner of the African Baseball
Association to establish a baseball organization called "the Friend of African Baseball" upon
returning to Japan, and so he did. He established a
"Specified Nonprofit Corporation of Association for Friends of African Baseball (AFAB)".
Currently, the organization conducts amateur baseball games with
the "African All Stars", (a baseball team of Africans living in Japan), and undertakes fund-raising and conducts lectures to support baseball in Ghana. It also provides many opportunities for international exchange by inviting African baseball players and children to Japan and engaging in activities to spread baseball all around the world, focusing mainly on the African regions. |
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To the right: Mr. Shinya Tomonari, AFAB Chairman.
In the middle: Mr. Joe Kojo Parker, "Baseball Ghana Foundation (BGF)"
To the left: Mr. Albert K. Frimpong, a fellow BGF member, who worked with Mr. Tomonari en route to the Olympics.
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# "Hit Ball" hits the shores of Africa |
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To play baseball, you need a bat to hit the ball and gloves to catch the hard ball. You need a lot of equipment to play baseball.
And one of the reasons why baseball has not taken root in Africa is that such equipment are hard to come by.
Initially, the activities of the AFAB was focusing on providing such equipment, but this meant that only people already interested in baseball would get such equipment. So the Hit Ball project was established in 2005 to foster the development of baseball among a wider audience. They then went to Ghana to explain about this project.
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View of Accra, capital of Ghana. Numerous Japanese used cars run through the streets. |
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Six Japanese and eight Ghanaian baseball coaches went to orphanages and elementary schools (3 in total) in Accra. We went around the schools donating rubber baseballs (200 total) donated by a Japanese manufacturer, together with air pumps.
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The deflated donated balls were brought from Japan. This white colored ball became crimson, covered in African soil. (Photograph provided by AFAB) |
| Here I will talk about the Rangoon School, one of the schools we visited. |
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Arriving to Rangoon School |
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Children with twinkling eyes peer out
from the classroom window. |
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| First, the staff was introduced and the rules of the game were explained in the classroom. When asked "Do you know baseball?" The children spiritedly replied "yes!" Quite surprising as I presumed there must be some children who did not know the sportc |
| Then the teacher said, "We will practice outdoors now," they all gathered in the playground. Children changed into colorful gym clothes from their yellow and brown school uniform. |
| Finally, practice begins. While the game seemed to be going smoothly at one end of the field, there were other groups struggling to move along. Even if children got a hit, they didn't know when to start running, or lost a point because children jumped towards the ball with too much excitement causing the rubber ball to bounce far away. Many had difficulty with the baseball moves, "hit, catch, and throw". |
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Oversized shoes a child had taken off in his feverish involvement with the practice game sit besides the base. |
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| Home base made from sand piled on the paper. |
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| Playing triangle base in a mini-skirt? But it actually looked pretty cool!! |
photo:left
"And the batter is sacrificed but a runner scores in return"
photo:right
"The body should turn this way, and once the ball comes here, hit it!" |
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If you have not learned what was discussed in the classroomc. "I will explain the rules again!" so saying, the children and coach were re-gathered. |
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After practice, pure water in plastic bags was handed out, a common drink in Ghana. They are sold at the kiosks on the school grounds, carried on bicycles in cooler-boxes, and on top of trays carried by people on their heads. |
| Whilst drinking their drink, the children asked us "Tell me more about Japan!" "I know you get snow!" |
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+ Communicating inter-culturally through baseball |
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AFAB received funds assistance from the
Human Exchange and Cultural Cooperation Programs of the Japan
Foundation for this trip to Ghana. Japanese people, who
enjoyed playing Hit Ball when they were kids, who then go to
Africa and teach people how to play the game and to carry on
cultural exchange leads to international cooperation through
Japanese culture.
The profession and residential areas of the members of AFAB vary. Each member shares his thoughts about baseball and Japan through Hit Ball. When explaining the rules, the members of AFAB subtlety include expressions which will help them imagine what it is like in Japan, like "Japan is a very small country, and we didn't have a big playing field, so we played this game". And one of the members of AFAB, a university student, always remembered to line them up properly before the match, because he liked the chivalrous and respectful ways of the game of baseball, "begin with a bow, and end with a bow".
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Before the bowcdo they look strong? (The other team came back strong, and so this team ended up losing badly). |
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# Let's make baseball a "job" |
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+ Limitations of volunteering |
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In order for the culture and spirit that baseball has nurtured to be carried even in the absence of Japanese instructors, there is need to sustain a space and an opportunity to continue enjoying the sport. The Ghanaian coaches also traveled with us for a week to different locations in Accra helping us communicate the enjoyment of baseball, and they too learned the know-how of playing triangle base. This was however a voluntary involvement. But actually, the triangle base event just did not end as very fun event. After the tournament, the Ghanaian coaches were speaking with the Japanese staff. They told the AFAB staff about the expenses incurred in taking days off to teach Hit Ball, and the transportation costs needed to go to the friendly match between Japan and Ghana; their number one vexation was that they
could not make a living from baseball, even though they love the sport, have a passion for teaching children, and feel that its very meaningful. Perhaps, Albert and his baseball loving friends have reached the limits of teaching baseball on a voluntary basis. |
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In Ghana,
90% of the sports budget is dedicated to soccer. On a daily basis,
soccer is the only sport that children are exposed to. Adults
watch soccer on TV. Thus, with soccer, you could coach for a
living but for other sports, a framework for making a living
from sports does not exist. Additionally, there is an international
movement for the making education completely free and hence the
government cannot increase the budget for sports. Sports such
as hockey and volleyball, which had been played until a few years
ago, has been unable to secure the budget for equipment and playing
field, and only a few sports has survived with the aid of foreign
funds. |
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Soccer club team practices. A very blessed environment where they can ride up on the exclusive buses to practice. |
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| AFAB visited the department of education and sports and appealed for assistance for baseball and the high quality of baseball staff. |
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AFAB showed the instruction video of the triangle base at the baseball federation. The people of the baseball federation were very interested. |
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+ Single rubber ball, a catalyst for independence |
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Until 2004, JICA had been sending staff to coach baseball to Ghana through the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers program. However due to the lean Ghanaian baseball budget, it may have been difficult for the JICA coaches to carry out activities with a long-term vision. Also in recent years, special efforts have been employed on measures to address the rampant HIV/AIDS problem and on the education of the young for the prevention of AIDS, thus the sports cooperation activities conducted by JICA is of low priority.
If this continues, then sports will be solely dominated by soccer and the Ghanaian baseball culture will soon disappear. This is why the Ghana visit aimed to have children become familiar with triangle base. If children would come to the park and play triangle base, and
if they could play at as low or lower cost as soccer by using a single rubber
ball then triangle base too should be taken up in the stringently budgeted educational
arena. If many children become familiar with baseball and triangle base, and if it becomes absorbed into school education, then coaches should be able to make a living from teaching baseball. Only by providing a structure allowing coaches to make a living from the sport, rather than relying on aid from Japan and teaching baseball as a hobby, can people continue to teach children.
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Soccer uniforms sold on the streets |
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| Advertisement board for supporting the Black Stars (Ghana's National Football Team)! It seems that soccer-related promotions are doing well in Africa. |
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If baseball is to spread and become a popular sport, then it will bring benefits not only to the players, but to the shops at the baseball fields, there will be a need for janitors, and factories to manufacture bats and gloves using leather-craft skills may also be built. If rubber is imported from Nigeria, there could also be a ball factory. If Ghana makes use of the geographical advantage offered by West Africa, it could also export to the US and Europe. In
other worlds, if baseball takes root in the African continent,
if they could nurture the players, and spectators, and the
baseball industry in Africa and become "independent", then people have more alternative ways of living to choose from. This will hopefully lead the way to baseball returning to the Olympics and Africa may aspire to become the number one team in the world. One day the national team of Africa may play Japan. The dream of Mr. Tomonari and the AFAB grow much bigger. |
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Hand-knit gloves made in Ghana |
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# Homework
from Ghana
- A World with the liberty to choose dreams |
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In Ghana, we met many people who have been supporting the local baseball activities. Once such individual, Mr. Parker told us, "We definitely need a strategy to fight against AIDS. However I believe that the actual problem that present day Ghana, where communities are increasingly disappearing, faces lies in the lack of something worthwhile that the young people can feel passionate about". And the words of another, "We want to show the kids other sports as "alternatives" to soccer", were also impressionable. By
increasing the opportunities where children can exert their
potential, we can draw out the zest to live life actively,
and consequently, it may provide an opportunity to positively
resolve social problems such as AIDS. The tasks and expectations the Ghanaian community posed to the AFAB concerned more than just baseball; it extended far beyond baseball to the shaping of the society. |
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AIDS prevention signs. In Accra, they are as common as mobile phone ads. |
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When asking children in Ghana, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" most of the boys reply, "I want to be a soccer player" Although each and every child should have unique characteristics, and skills they are good at, everyone wants to be a football player. Perhaps the dreams of children become limited due to the matters concerning the adult society, such as government budgets and international assistance. As a consequence of adults not having many alternatives to chose from job wise, the children's dreams too become prey.
This is the same in Japan. Children's life nowadays is about going to cramming school and TV games. And increasingly, the sight of children playing triangle base and baseball, and communication spreading from that is disappearing. This I believe is because adults have forgotten the comfort and joy of spending time feeling vividly alive.
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A society where people can think "I can do this job and that job" and "this and that job is cool" is a society where children may dream different dreams, and this
is a world that not only Japan and Africa, but the whole world aspires to. And I can't help but think that the activities of the AFAB extends beyond the scope of sports and will help make the world a better place. |
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Take very good care of this ball and play with each other, until we visit you again in Ghana. |
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Children from the neighborhood came to see the Japan vs. Ghana friendly baseball game. Are they dreaming about standing there at home base, hitting a home run in the future?, |
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"Africa and the White Ball"
A memoir of Mr. Tomonari and his associates of the Ghanaian team who aspired for the Olympics. He wrote the whole diary recording his 3-year stay in Ghana (and his life as a coach) on his way back to Japan.
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| Report & Photographs Kazaru Kagawa, Think the Earth Project |
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Click to for a bigger image
