Education Through Baseball in Ghana and Its Effects: The Keio Baseball Club's First Africa Expedition

2024/11/18

Photo: Teaching Baseballership® on the field (Photo by Shunya Tomonari)

In August 2024, while the Olympics were being held in Paris, 10 current members and alumni of the university baseball club conducted educational and research activities through baseball together with a total of 140 elementary and junior high school students and coaches in Ghana.

Going back three years, I had the opportunity to hear an interesting story from Shinya Tomonari (Class of 1988), a baseball club alumnus who has spent about 30 years promoting baseball in Africa with JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). I suddenly remembered a theme song that George Tokoro had created for a team when Ghana baseball was featured on a TV program. The detailed history of that time is recorded in the book "Africa and the White Ball" written by Mr. Tomonari.

In 2019, Mr. Tomonari established the Japan-Africa Baseball & Softball Foundation (J-ABS). Based on Baseballership® (a coined word combining baseball and sportsmanship) as a Japanese-style baseball education where one can learn discipline, respect, and justice, he is promoting the "Africa 55 Koshien Project" to spread these activities across 55 African countries.

Among the activities so far, I was impressed by stories from local teachers about how children who acquired Baseballership began to keep time strictly, greet others properly, and even perform better in their school studies. These are known as "non-cognitive skills," which are related to the research topics we conduct in our lab.

By having baseball club members participate in this activity, we aimed not only to provide a new learning opportunity based on the principle of "learning while teaching, teaching while learning," but also to verify through psychological surveys what kind of impact education through baseball brings. Regarding the collaboration with JICA, it took nearly two years due to the remaining effects of COVID-19 and the time needed to prepare the acceptance system within Keio. However, on July 25, 2023, we were able to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for the dispatch of Overseas Cooperation Volunteers between JICA and the Baseball Lab at the Keio Research Institute at SFC.

The members of the first Ghana dispatch included 10 individuals selected as JICA Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers: current students Naoto Ogawa (Graduate School of System Design and Management, 1st year Master's), Takuto Kudo (Teacher Training Course student), Taiga Hagiwara (Faculty of Commerce, 4th year), Kento Okada (Faculty of Economics, 4th year), Ryuga Ishikawa (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, 3rd year), Shozo Kamada (Faculty of Letters, 3rd year), Hideaki Takahashi (Faculty of Law, 3rd year), Riho Minegishi (Faculty of Law, 3rd year), Mako Naito (Faculty of Economics, 2nd year), and alumnus Kenichi Ishibashi (Class of 1993). I and Shunya Tomonari (Faculty of Policy Management, 3rd year)—who is also Mr. Tomonari's son—accompanied them for the lab's research. Immediately after the 19-hour flight from Japan, we were interviewed by Ghana's national television station at the airport in the capital, Accra. We also paid visits to people at the JICA office, the Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, the Minister of Youth and Sports, and officials from the National Sports Authority. Press conferences were held one after another, and I felt the great expectations of the local people. In particular, in the office of Ambassador Hisanobu Mochizuki, who is also a Keio University alumni, the calligraphy "Jigo Sakuko" (We make the future) was displayed. I felt encouraged knowing that the spirit of Keio is alive even in this distant land.

On-site, we collaborated with coaches belonging to the Ghana Baseball and Softball Federation. In the first half, we held workshops to think about the best way to teach Baseballership®. Since they had to speak in English, the students initially seemed reserved. However, encouraged by Mr. Tomonari's strong leadership and the passion of the Ghanaian coaches, they ultimately gave wonderful presentations in their own style. In particular, it was wonderful to see them rediscover and try to convey the meaning of discipline, respect, and justice within the actions they usually take for granted, such as "Why must we bow and greet before a game?", "Why must we play catch while thinking of the other person?", and "Why does each person take turns at bat?"

Afterward, we split into four regional groups—Dodowa, Cape Coast, Tema, and Koforidua—to provide practical guidance to local children. There were environments that cannot be experienced in Japan, such as being packed into shared vans called "Tro-tros" and traveling for nearly an hour on unpaved, bumpy roads, staying in hotels where the showers naturally only had cold water, and playing on fields scattered with stones and weeds. However, the students greatly enjoyed these real-world settings. From experiences that can only be gained by actually playing baseball on-site—such as meeting children touching a ball for the first time or seeing children grow remarkably due to their natural physical abilities—they seemed to gain an understanding of diversity in the true sense of the word.

Finally, the 1st Ghana Koshien Tournament was held in the capital, Accra. There is a "Koshien" field here that was rebuilt through crowdfunding. Over a dozen Ghanaian players and coaches selected from various regions gathered for a tee-ball tournament. Throughout the games, Baseballership® was visible everywhere, with players respecting opponents, trusting teammates, and encouraging everyone. The students were deeply moved, especially by the sight of a player who narrowly lost breaking down in tears.

While it is difficult to notice when playing baseball in Japan, it is very significant to recognize that our daily activities actually have deep educational meaning, and that practicing them naturally fosters non-cognitive skills and has a positive impact on character building. I would like to further deepen my research to verify this in the future. Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Mika Kunieda, an expert in African studies, as well as to JICA, J-ABS, and all the stakeholders who supported this activity.