Kickball: a unique fusion of football and baseball for girls in Liberia

Africanews (in English)

Kickball: a unique fusion of football and baseball for girls in Liberia  Kickball, a blend of football and baseball. It’s played with feet instead of bats like in baseball, and there are no men involved.  READ MORE : http://www.africanews.com/2025/07/18/kickball-a-unique-fusion-of-football-and-baseball-for-girls-in-liberia  Subscribe on our Dailymotion channel and receive all the latest news from the continent.    Africanews is available in English and French.  Website : www.africanews.com  Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/africanews.channel/  Twitter : https://twitter.com/africanews

Transcript

00:01Just before the kick-off, the girls of Aries energize the crowd with their team song.

00:07The Samuel Canyon Doors Stadium in Moravia buzzes with excitement.

00:11This is kickball, a blend of football and baseball.

00:15This game is our own traditional sport.

00:19We've been playing this game from childhood, so we have grown passion for this game.

00:26This game brings us together, young people, young girls.

00:31It makes us to leave some other bad activities.

00:37Maybe we come around, play keyboard, get to know new friends.

00:40So this is why I like it.

00:42The game is played with feet instead of bats like in baseball, and there are no men involved.

00:49The sport was established in the 1960s by Cherry Jackson,

00:53a Pisco volunteer teaching at an all-girls school in Moravia, Liberia's capital.

00:59As the game begins, the ball soars towards the plate, but is kicked away just in time.

01:06Like to say, when I'm young here, like to say, for all our people,

01:09they started playing in a community, in a yard, different areas, they started playing kickball.

01:14Kickball is the second most popular sport in the country,

01:18and Liberia's National Kickball League, established in 1994 exclusively for women,

01:24was created to unite people following a devastating civil war.

01:27Some of the objectives of establishing the Federation at the time

01:31was to bring the ladies together and use them during the reconciliation process of Liberia.

01:37You know, we had just left the civil war, and everybody had a scatter.

01:41We needed to bring them together before the peace messages could be given out.

01:46So kickball was one of those sports used to bring our Liberians together

01:50so that they could have the time to hear some of the peace messages.

01:54Despite the fact that all professional kickball players are female,

01:59the coaches, the referees, and league officials are predominantly male.

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