Liberia’s version of baseball stands out: it’s played without bats and without men

It was a flawless pitch. The ball zipped across home plate—only to be met with a powerful kick. Perryline Jimmie took off toward first base as her teammates burst into cheers on the sidelines.

At 23, Jimmie is a professional kickball player in Liberia, where the sport—a close cousin of baseball—holds a special place, especially among women. Played across the country on schoolyards, public squares, and dirt fields, kickball has grown since its introduction in the 1960s to become Liberia’s second-most popular sport, after soccer.

The game follows the basic rules of baseball, but with some key differences: there are no bats, and players use a soccer ball instead of the lighter rubber ball common elsewhere.

And in Liberia, kickball is strictly a women’s game—there are no male players.

“In Liberia, (kickball) is our tradition,” said Jimmie, who noted many girls start playing kickball from an early age. “This is why you see women playing kickball in Liberia.”

How kickball came to Liberia

In 1964, Peace Corps volunteer Cherry Jackson noticed something striking at the all-girls school where she taught in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia: unlike the boys, none of the girls were involved in sports, according to Emmanuel Whea, president of Liberia’s National Kickball League.

Jackson, an American, first introduced the girls to baseball. However, she quickly realized they were much better at kicking the ball than hitting it with a bat. This discovery sparked the start of a tradition that has since become a rite of passage for girls throughout Liberia, a nation of about 5.6 million people.

“If you’re a girl growing up in Liberia, you will play kickball,” Whea explained.

Although kickball is played in various countries—including the United States, where it’s a popular playground game—Liberia is unique in having a women-only professional kickball league.

A league for women and peace

The National Kickball League was created in 1994 to bring people together as Liberia was reeling from a civil war.

The league was set up “to bring the ladies together and use them (as part of) the reconciliation process of Liberia,” Whea said. “We had just left the civil war, and everybody had just scattered … So kickball was one of those sports used to bring Liberians together so they could have the time to hear the peace messages.”

Whea has big plans for the league, including expanding it to men and introducing the game to other African countries. However, his mission has been complicated by a lack of resources, especially in a region where women’s sports often are underfunded.

Saydah A. Yarbah, a 29-year-old mother of two, admits it is hard to make ends meet on her athlete’s salary despite playing kickball for 10 years. Her earnings are “not even near” what male athletes earn, she said.

An all-women sport headed by men

In Liberia, many sports, including soccer, are male-dominated. Despite kickball being a sport played by women, the league is led by men, from the coaches to the referees and league officials.

The league encourages women but they really don’t want to be coaches, Whea said. “Their husbands might have a problem with them working full-time (and) for some, their relationship will not allow it,” he said

Yarbah hopes to shift that narrative by becoming a coach after she retires, allowing her to pass on her love for the game, even to her two sons, she said.

“They’re not going to play kickball for now,” she said. “But maybe in the future, kickball will be introduced to men.”

For now, the sport remains firmly in the hands of women. While men occasionally show up at practice, Yarbah said, they’re no match for the seasoned players.

“They don’t know the techniques,” she said with a smile. “So we always win.”

Source: Associated Press