By Carter Cromwell
Baseball in Africa. Hearing that, many people would respond with a blank stare and something like, “Huh? Really?”
But, yes. Really. There is baseball on the world’s second-largest and second-most populous continent. And it’s growing, albeit slowly for a variety of reasons, among them a lack of necessary resources and a sometimes fragmented approach.
There are relative hot spots, such as South Africa, whose national team has reached the second round of qualifying for the World Baseball Classic (WBC). There is also Uganda, whose team advanced to the Little League World Series in 2011, 2012, and 2015, and where the Los Angeles Dodgers have a developmental academy that they’re tight-lipped about.
Two South Africans, infielder Gift Ngoepe and pitcher Tayler Scott have played in MLB, Ngoepe being the first African-born player to reach the big leagues. Scott is still active. He was with the Houston Astros until being designated for assignment in mid-May 2025 and now is in the Arizona Diamondbacks system. Several Africans have signed with MLB teams since 2022, including pitcher Ben Serunkuma and catcher/outfielder Umar Male from Uganda (Dodgers), pitcher Joseph Deng from South Sudan (Dodgers), and pitcher David Matoma and infielder Armstrong Muhoozi (Pirates) from Uganda.
Photo: Gift Ngoepe was the first African-born player to reach the big leagues.
Also, there are currently five Ugandans playing with independent teams in Japan, and a handful of Africans have played college ball in the United States, though obtaining student visas can be difficult. It is estimated that 20 or so African countries have baseball programs. There are baseball/softball academies in Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.
Still, Africa remains squarely in the sleeping-giant category when it comes to baseball. Africa was the last of the six major continents to develop baseball and was the last one to produce a major league player, which happened in 2017 when Ngoepe made his debut.
The game supposedly came to the continent in 1889 when American gold miners came to South Africa, and an official league was created in 1904. Baseball likely spread to other countries through American missionaries and other expatriates, but it never caught on in a big way, with South Africa being somewhat of an exception.
The Africa Baseball and Softball Association was formed in June 1990, though South Africa was, surprisingly, not one of its first members – perhaps because it was still under the apartheid system. The first African Baseball Cup was held in 1992, and baseball was first played in the All-Africa Games in 1999. South Africa has produced several minor leaguers in addition to Ngoepe, starting with Nick Dempsey in 1997, while Nigeria’s Gbenga Olayemi made it to the minors in 2003.
The unrealized potential lies largely in the fact that, in contrast to much of the world, a high percentage of Africa’s 1.5 billion population is comprised of young people. According to one report, the number of Africans aged 17 or younger in 2021 was 650 million. The same report said that, in 2023, approximately 40 percent of Africa’s population was under the age of 15. A United Nations report says that young Africans are expected to comprise 42 percent of the world’s youth population by 2030.
So there are a lot of potential baseball (and softball) players in Africa – plenty of raw material, so to speak. But reaching them, getting them into programs, and growing the game is challenging.
Although 23 African countries are members of the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC), that is less than half of the 54 officially recognized countries on the continent. Those that have programs are often hindered by lack of funding, governmental awareness of the game, transportation, necessary equipment, and proper facilities. Many youths are from very low-income families and must work to help support their families. More coaches need to be trained, and more leagues need to be developed. In some cases, there needs to be more and better coordination of efforts between the various organizations, both on a country-wide and continent-wide basis. It is often that individuals and small organizations are working to develop the game, rather than countries doing it at a broader level. Even something like malaria, which is widespread in Africa, can be a hindrance.
To get a more ground-level view, Baseball Jobs Overseas talked with a number of people working in various capacities with the game in Africa – as officials, scouts, players, volunteers, representatives of non-profits. Following are thoughts from each.
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THOM WALLACE leads the non-profit If We Build It. Baseball was his first sport when he was growing up in Baltimore, but he eventually turned to basketball, playing at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. He moved to Kenya in 2013 when his wife, a public relations professional, got a job based there. He played professional basketball there for three years and now works in marketing communications.
“One day I ran into a group of Japanese guys – many from the Japanese embassy – taking ground balls,” he said. “I was curious as to what was happening, and they asked me to build a team to play them. We ended up having monthly pickup games, and someone eventually suggested that I should try to help grow the game in Kenya.
Photo: Thom Wallace (l) with Kevin Schreiber, co-founder of If We Build It, and Titus Mutwiri, president of the Baseball Federation of Kenya. Photo courtesy of Thom Wallace
“We’d heard that there was a pretty strong grass-roots movement here, so we set up a training session to gauge the interest and a bunch of kids came out of the woodwork. We thought the best way for the kids to start was just get on the field and play games – just have a good time – so we started playing Kenyan college teams. At first, a lot of the people helping didn’t know what a 3-2 count was, the infield fly rule, or how far the mound was from home plate. But they pitched in.”
If We Build It was conceived in 2019, and the organization officially started two years later. Wallace says the combination of its clinics, games, and tournaments it hosts or supports reach between 1,000 and 1,500 young people each year. The organization’s Adult Series includes approximately 120 players in the Nairobi area, and there are around 150 players in the youth leagues. It has initiated a 12-U league in Nairobi this year with eight teams and including approximately 150 kids. “This is a trial run that allows us to work through the details and logistics of operating Little League games,” Wallace said. “We’re playing on soccer fields with temporary backstops.”
Photo: Thom Wallace speaking to participants following a clinic supported by If We Build It. Photo courtesy of Thom Wallace
Wallace added that “the Japanese/Africa Baseball/Softball Association has been doing training and has tournaments for high school-level players,” Wallace said. “Baseball here is still in its infancy, but the number of players is starting to pick up. The rough estimate is that there are 3,000 to 4,000 players in Kenya now.
“A lot of people talk about what Kenya does not have, but there are a lot of things it does have – a huge thing is the ability for the community to come together. People raise money for things like funerals, births, etc. Community is like the life insurance for the country, so we’ve become a community-driven organization. Some of the university staff have been involved, and we have volunteers coming in. “
If We Build It helped drive the creation of a field in Nairobi that has dugouts, a regulation backstop, and grass in the outfield. The group is raising money for a second field to be built to World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) standards. Another good field exists in Meru, but the six-hour trip from Nairobi makes it difficult for people to get there.
Photos above: The “Field of Dreams” in Nairobi, the building of which was driven by If We Build It. Photo courtesy of Thom Wallace
“We really need more dedicated fields,” Wallace said. “It’s ludicrous to expect kids to develop into pro prospects when they’re learning on really rough fields with taped balls and so forth. They need a level playing field, so to speak, and that’s where we’re focused. There is a lack of resources and funding, and it’s hard to get support from governments when [the game] doesn’t seem real. That’s a big reason we need to build more fields. We have to show proof of concept, demand, and viability. Also, those fields need to be accessible to all, so that as many kids as possible will have the opportunity to play.”
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ALBERT K. FRIMPONG is president of WBSC Africa and is based in Ghana. His father was the Ghanian ambassador to Zaire – now the Democratic Republic of the Congo – and he first encountered baseball when he’d play with other youngsters at the American embassy in Kinshasha. When the family returned to Ghana, the American embassy had a field, and all his friends were playing, “so I eventually had to play with them. I wasn’t a good player, but I got to understand the game. In 1988, I decided to make baseball a Ghanaian sport and started going to the government sports office to see who could support me.”
He became the captain of Ghana’s national team in 1992 and served in that capacity for 10 years. He co-founded the Africa Baseball and Softball Association – the predecessor of WBSC Africa – in the early 1990s – and assumed his current role in 2022.
“Africa had not been active for years, so there was no proper support coming from the International Baseball Federation and now the WBSC,” Frimpong said. “We were able to start accessing some funds when I assumed office with a good development plan based on my experience and expertise. I have been involved for almost five decades in terms of exposure to baseball, managing and playing.
“We have funding issues,” he continued. “Governments here only understand football [soccer], which is the main sport. They and companies that might be sponsors don’t understand baseball. Travel alone is really expensive. We used what money we got from WBSC to organize some clinics and programs.
“We also need enough space for construction of regulation fields,” he added. “That’s a major problem in most African countries. I could get the space for a field here because I was formerly a student at the school where it’s located, but it’s the only proper field in Ghana, and we still haven’t been able to put grass on it.”
Frimpong says having necessary resources and facilities would enable organizers to establish leagues in countries and then have African championships – “If we could stage an event like that, it would increase interest in the game. We have the basic talent but not the funding to push it up.”
Frimpong says he tries to focus on growing baseball throughout Africa, not merely in specific countries.
“Not everyone wants to share. It’s human nature that everyone wants the best for their countries,” he said, “but you’ll be strong if the whole continent is strong. We grow together, not alone.”
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TOM GILLESPIE is a founder and former executive director of Play Global and has lived in Europe since 2001 when he went to the U.K. as part of a study-abroad program. He began working with Major League Baseball in 2002 and was with MLB for 10 years, spending four years overseeing British baseball and then transitioning into a roving instructor position at MLB’s European Academy. Since 2012, he has been with MLB’s Pittsburgh Pirates in various roles, currently as manager of international scouting. He lives in Germany, but spends time in Africa because of Play Global.
There had been baseball in Uganda before Gillespie arrived, but it was a localized effort. Richard Stanley, a former chemical engineer and once part-owner of a minor league team, was working in 2002 as a volunteer on an international development project in Uganda when he was asked to help start a baseball league for children. Later, Stanley built a Little League complex and a secondary school in Mpigi. Stanley reportedly is no longer there, though, and has turned over much of the complex to the Dodgers.
“When I was with MLB, I was mostly involved with South Africa, but it really opened my eyes when I did a two-week coaching clinic in Uganda,” Gillespie said. “You could see the possibilities there, but there are a lot of places where if you don’t intentionally do something, it won’t happen, so we decided to do something.”
That “something” was Play Global. Gillespie started it in 2012 with an MLB colleague, Pat Doyle, and a friend from college, Julianne McCarthy, who by then was living in Germany and had a background in non-profits. Since then, the organization has worked in a range of countries, including Israel, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, India, and South Africa – “We just did a clinic in Zambia to see what’s happening there” – but currently focuses mostly on Uganda and South Africa.
“We mostly try to train coaches,” Gillespie said, “and we run youth camps. Last year, we had an umpire-training clinic, too. There is a refugee camp for South Sudanese in the north of Uganda, and we did a clinic there on how to run safe practices.
“There aren’t a lot of organized sports across Uganda, so when a sport creates opportunity, it draws kids and baseball can draw from a larger pool of athletes. Just having someone at the field who cares and will show up regularly – that’s how these programs and a sport develop. In general, there’s not a lot of that across the continent, and I think that’s a way that baseball can make inroads here.”
Gillespie knows the possibilities for growth exist. After all, he’s the scout who signed Matoma for the Pirates.
“He made me look really smart,” Gillespie said with a chuckle. “I tell kids this is the guy you want to emulate. You could see his upside.”
Gillespie has signed three other players from Africa. Those include infielder Victor Ngoepe – the younger brother of Gift – and pitcher Vince Deyzel from South Africa and Ugandan outfielder Armstrong Muhoozi. Muhoozi is in his first season in the Dominican Summer League, and Victor Ngoepe is coaching and playing in South Africa.
How to further fill the pipeline? It’s complicated.
“We’ve got to do more locally, and it’s going to be different in every place,” Gillespie said. “We have to be bespoke. Donations can be a hit-or-miss thing, so how can we grow the game without having too much reliance on donations?”
One pathway could be to get more youngsters playing at U.S. colleges or junior colleges, but it’s difficult to get visas, and the money for transportation, tuition, fees, and other living expenses would have to come from sources other than the families, many of whom are very low income.
“The average annual salary in Uganda is $800,” Gillespie said. “With the Pirates, we’ve signed a handful of kids and given them college money, but that’s not a path with a huge amount of growth.”
Once players get to the U.S., there will be a longer transition period because the game is at a much different level, and it takes a while for players to catch up. Gillespie mentioned Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Max Kepler, who grew up in Germany and spent three seasons at the rookie league level alone. As Kepler once said, he had never faced a pitcher who threw faster than 80 mph in Germany, while in the States “I saw a guy throwing 98 with no control, which is scary.”
Gillespie added, “We need a melding of the various efforts – that’s fair to say. We tried that in my last years with MLB, but it didn’t keep going. WBSC is making some efforts at unifying, but not a lot. They’re focused on Baseball 5, which I get – it can be highly effective as a training program – but you need more. Baseball is really spread out over Africa, which makes it very expensive to do tournaments, especially from the transportation standpoint. We should start with city championships before going to regional or national ones.
“It’s going to be a slow burn, no matter how we do it.”
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GIFT NGOEPE, a South African, played for Pittsburgh and Toronto in 2017 and 2018, respectively. He later had stints in the Australian Baseball League and the U.S. independent leagues, managed in the Arizona Complex League, and is currently bench coach for the Visalia Rawhide of the Class A California League in the United States. MARIO SIGNORELLO formerly was an executive with MLB’s Miami Marlins and is CEO of the Caribbean Baseball Organization. The two are driving the Africa Baseball Project (ABP).
The ABP is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing organized youth and professional baseball leagues to Africa. First championed by Ngoepe, the project has a vision of a continent-wide baseball infrastructure that could nurture young talent and create opportunities for athletes. The ABP aims to establish grassroots programs, continental tournaments, and professional opportunities for players.
Photo: Gift Ngoepe when he was with the Toronto Blue Jays
Initially, the project would set up youth baseball leagues in countries such as South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana, where interest is growing. Having the continental tournaments would give teams from Africa chances to compete regionally and eventually play in international tournaments. Finally, the project’s organizers hope to eventually develop a professional league in Africa that would provide careers in the game.
“It’s a project I’ve thought about for a very long time in order to give back to the community of Africa,” Ngoepe said. “I had the idea while I was still playing. I was part of the developmental coaching staff a couple of years for the MLB African Academy, and I saw that there were a lot of kids and coaches that truly love the game.”
Signorello said he initially had reservations about the project but quickly changed his mind.
“Gift called me during the COVID year of 2020 and said he wanted to set up a league in Africa,” Signorello said, “and I thought it would be a huge undertaking. I answered more like a business person than an enthusiast of the game. But after thinking about it over the weekend, I decided that it could be done.
“I knew it would take star power to help, so I got in touch with [former major leaguers] Charles Johnson and Andre Dawson, and we formed the project. The ‘aha!’ moment for me came when I was in Tanzania and we invited the press and some kids to come out to a facility built by the Japanese embassy on a middle school ground. The director of sports for the country wanted to meet me, and 42 kids – far more than I’d expected – showed up. Even David Robinson – Jackie’s son, who lives in Tanzania – showed up and wanted to help.”
Signorello indicated interest in working with others, as well – “Our goal is to help the local organizations. We’re not trying to rule the roost . . . just trying to work with ones that are the most amenable.”
Photo: Mario Signorello (orange shirt) and Jeff Lampert (blue cap) following a coach-pitch game on Father’s Day 2024 with a group of kids who had never played baseball before. Photo courtesy of Mario Signorello.
Ngoepe called the ABP a “grass-roots project that will develop over the next 5-10 years. Resources are the biggest issue. We need the resources to develop coaches and players, get equipment, and build facilities.”
Regarding the concept of a continental tournament, Ngoepe envisions that eight to 10 countries would participate at first. Both Signorello and Ngoepe hope to get it started in 2026.
“We have people on the ground working to put teams together, but we’re still waiting on funding, which is the most difficult part of the project,” Ngoepe said. “We’re quite a long way from getting to the goal, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”
Signorello added, “We have the vision; we just need the funding, though we’re sending money now to build a backstop at the first-ever baseball field in Zambia. Right now, we have the cars, but not the keys. My last line to MLB when I was pitching them was that when I did coach pitch, I had to duck from hits by a kid who had never swung a bat before. There are more David Matomas out there; they’re just not playing baseball.
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JAZ SHERGILL is a Canadian and former BBJO member who has pitched in Australia, Canada, Europe, South Africa, and the U.S. independent leagues. He last played in Germany in 2021 before a back injury ended his career.
While in South Africa, he began teaching baseball to kids through a non-profit organization. After he returned to Canada, he felt the need to do more and got involved with a baseball organization in Uganda, which, in turn, inspired him to found Every Child Deserves a Chance (ECDC) in 2018. The organization has since worked to support the growth of baseball in Uganda.
Photo: Jaz Shergill speaks to a group of Ugandans participating in a clinic. Photo courtesy of Jaz Shergill
“We just started going community to community and getting people interested. Most of the legwork has been done by the coaches there,” Shergill said, “but I’ve been there several times and see that the talent level has really grown. A big reason is a guy named Bernard Okello, who played semi-pro ball in Japan. He’s our head of development in Uganda.”
Shergill said there is upwards of 500 players being trained in three different localities. “We train them seven days a week. Four former players are paid coaches, and we also have volunteer help and some older players who get involved in helping the younger ones.”
Photo: A group of Ugandan players following a clinic. To the left in blue cap is Jaz Shergill. Photo courtesy of Jaz Shergill
What is needed? “More international networking connections,” he said. “Get more Americans involved. And we need infrastructure and more development programs in place.” He touched on the issue of getting equipment – “Accumulating equipment is easy – getting it there is the hard part because of shipping and customs costs. A few years ago we sent two tons of equipment and, on arrival, were hit with an extra $7,000 in import duties we hadn’t expected. The government thought the stuff might simply be resold in the country.
Jaz Shergill, a former pitcher, working with Ugandan youngsters on proper throwing motion. Photo courtesy of Jaz Shergill
“Right now, it’s mostly individuals that are working to grow the game. You can’t blame the governments so much because there are a lot of other things like nutrition and security that are higher priorities. Funding, of course, is important. A lot of youngsters have to give up development time in order to work and help support their families. Maybe if more MLB teams followed what the Dodgers have done with their academy, it could expedite growth.”
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BRIAN SCOTT is a high school and collegiate umpire living in Newton, N.C. In 2018, Bernard Okello of Jaz Shergill’s ECDC organization reached out to Scott on an online forum about umpiring.
“He asked me a lot of questions about baseball, officiating, everything,” Scott said. “He acted as a coach, an umpire, and anything else that needed to be done. He would send me videos of kids playing, and it really drew me in. We developed a good relationship, and I started giving some support for transportation and food.”
Eventually, Scott was persuaded to go to Uganda – his first trip outside the United States.
Photo: Brian Scott doing classroom work at an umpiring clinic in Uganda. Photo courtesy of Brian Scott
“David Matoma happened to be from the village that I helped support, so they told me I should come over there when he signed with the Pirates,” Scott said. “They asked me to put on an umpiring clinic, and I really enjoyed it. It was in a school with no electricity or running water. The field was a makeshift one, with the village’s water source in the outfield and people pumping water during the game. It was very humbling.”
Scott went back another time with Play Global, going to refugee camps in the northern part of Uganda.
“I’ll work anyone who wants to know more about playing or officiating,” he said. “It’s great to see people wanting to get involved. There is a small group based in Kampala that is working on getting some Little League-sanctioned umpires. I have on my list to build more of a program because there is huge interest there. We’re now trying to grow the game in more remote places. There is a team in one of the refugee camps now, which was unheard of three years ago. There are a lot of growth opportunities.
Photo: Brian Scott working at an umpiring clinic in Uganda. Photo courtesy of Brian Scott
“The raw talent is there, and I think this will be a hotbed of scouting in 10 years or so. There are guys 13-14 years old who throw in the mid-80s mph, and they can develop.”
Scott knows that first-hand. Matoma was a 6-1, 154-pounder when he signed with the Pirates but now weighs more than 180 pounds and has reached 102 mph with his fastball. He and Scott are close, and Matoma comes to visit in the off-season.
“David’s like family,” Scott said with a chuckle. “I have to keep the refrigerator full when he comes to visit.”
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MATT SOREN spent a season pitching in the Philadelphia Phillies organization after being taken in the 2013 draft out of the University of Delaware, then played independent ball for two years and later played in South Africa in addition to participating for Team Israel and Baseball United in Dubai. He also coaches and works with multiple non-profit organizations, including Every Child Deserves a Chance, If We Build It, and Play Sport for Life. He’s also the U.S. Liaison for WBSC Africa and is working on a host family project with the goal of getting youngsters to the U.S. for a month in the summers.
Photo: BBJO members, Matt Soren (L) and baseball nomad Tim Brown with Cape Town’s Lions Head Mountain in the background. Photo courtesy of Matt Soren
In addition, Soren is leading the launch of a non-profit called Diamond in the Rough, which will focus on growing youth baseball in Africa by supporting local programs, building infrastructure, and connecting underserved talent with global opportunities.
“I consider myself a facilitator – connecting people with the right people,” he said. “I’m a dot connector. Maybe it’s getting equipment or funding, linking players with coaches, working with embassies to get visas, etc. I’m always trying to expand and meet new people to raise awareness – just wanting to grow the game and give kids opportunities to play.”
He believes the concept behind Baseball 5 will help. It’s a simpler version of baseball, kind of like a street game – five on five, and players hit the ball with their hands.
Photo: Matt Soren (far right) with teammates from the Cape Town’s Maitland Giants. Photo courtesy of Matt Soren
“Baseball 5 is kind of like baseball in a gym class,” Soren said. “There are no bats, but it helps get kids more on board with the game.”
The challenges are significant, he acknowledges.
“Baseball here is in its infancy, except in South Africa,” he said. “It’s tough to get started when you don’t have equipment or fields. Except for a small glove company in Cape Town, there aren’t any equipment manufacturers in Africa, so getting equipment there is expensive, given shipping costs and customs charges.”
“We need a long-term vision; it’s not just about ‘now’. We need MLB to help if we’re really going to grow, but they don’t want to do all the work from the bottom up. That’s for us to do. Right now, we’re trying to get a lot out of a little. It’s a matter of developing the infrastructure. We have to look at it as what baseball in Africa is going to look like in 20 years, not in five.”
One idea Soren has is to hold clinics in Kenya later this year, with players from Baseball United interested in participating, and he also wants to help develop an academy in Cape Town. It is important, he believes, to get various organizations to work together.
Photo: Matt Soren plays for the Maitland Giants in Cape Town, and he is pictured here with players from the club’s junior team. Photo courtesy of Matt Soren
“My goal is to work as a whole, not on our own,” he said. “Ideally, we’d like to send the best 15-to-17-year olds to an academy in Nairobi or Cape Town, but that will be tough if countries and individuals just try to hoard their guys and get them signed. We want to set things up so anyone who gets signed can keep all his money so they can help their families – unlike some places in Latin America where the buscones (“trainers”) can sometimes be corrupt. Luckily, most of the countries are in the early stages of developing baseball, so we may be able to avoid a lot of that.”
Politics can be an issue as well. He said that a grant from the U.S. Embassy for If We Build It was pulled, and he mentioned a “projectable” 17-year-old Kenyan prospect that was offered an academy opportunity in the U.S. but was rejected for a visa.
“There are a lot of moving parts you have to deal with,” he said.
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KATO EDRINE is an 18-year-old pitcher from Uganda playing for the Hoygo Bravers in Japan’s Kansai Independent League. He began playing in elementary school when he was eight years old.
“At first, I had no idea what baseball was,” he said.
But he learned enough by the time he was 11 that he was invited to the Dodgers academy along with Matoma and a couple of other players. He spent one year there before leaving and starting high school.
“I played baseball some, but really wanted to focus on academics,” he said. “I was just playing to have fun. There were no good fields.”
But a Japanese scout noticed him, and he got a chance to play independent ball there – “I got serious about baseball when I got the opportunity in Japan.
“Scouts are going to Uganda more now,” he added. “Softbank [of the NPB] sends its scouts, for example. Also, the [Yomiuri] Giants. There weren’t as many scouts going there before I came, but it’s made a difference that I and a few others like Dennis Kasumba [a very compelling story himself] and Allan Kabenge are playing here.”
Edrine says he’s touched 92 mph on his fast ball and that he went to Softbank’s spring camp.
“Baseball is growing in Uganda. Some players are getting chances to go abroad and play. I’m trying my best so that scouts can get interested . . . If I play well, maybe more players can get opportunities.”
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ANDY BERGLUND serves as an international scout for MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers, has been on the coaching staff of the South Africa national team, and worked as lead consultant for the former MLB European and African Academy. He previously was head coach for the Czech Republic national baseball programs and is sports director and consultant for a baseball/softball club in Sweden.
His first experience in Africa came in South Africa with MLB in 2013, initially in Durban and later in Johannesburg and Cape Town. He worked in a developmental role with both players and coaches. There was actually an MLB African Academy that was launched in Cape Town in 2011, but it no longer exists.
“I saw this raw environment with a ton of potential but nothing that resembled structure,” Berglund said. “There were a few good fields and some passionate people, but equipment was scarce. I did that for several years. We recruited kids from a lot of countries – tried to get the 40 best African talents – and wanted the coaches to eventually work at the academy.”
He is also involved with Play Global, which is primarily in Uganda at the moment.
Photo: Andy Berglund (3rd from right) with a group of Ugandan players during his time with the Major League Baseball Academies. Photo courtesy of Andy Berglund
“It’s one of the purest places I’ve seen for baseball – kids playing for knowledge and with pure passion,” Berglund said. “They want to hear any information that will help them improve. They’re so grateful for the knowledge they were getting and so quick to make adjustments. They’ll learn stuff off YouTube and ask you for flash drives that have drills on them – those are like gold for them. It’s a gift to see guys come from that sort of environment and absolutely embrace the toughest sport in the world. They’ll sometimes play with no shoes, and the team may have only two bats for workouts.”
Nonetheless, Berglund sees the potential, though South Africa may be regressing a bit.
“South Africa has some fields and some youth development, but it’s a yearly grind to take the next steps in leadership and infrastructure. It’s tough to find ways to get things done there. But Uganda is proving that you can get it done.
“The fact that the Dodgers have an academy there shows how much Uganda has come in the last five years or so. From a baseball standpoint, Africa has been described as like the Dominican Republic 25-30 years ago. I think that’s why more organizations are getting interested. You see a guy like Matoma, who was very frail but was still throwing in the mid-80s [mph] to low 90s. Now, at 19 years old, he’s on a professional program and clocks over 100 mph.”
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JOSEPH WANI is an 18-year-old attending college in Kenya and pitching in the Nairobi Community Series developed by Wallace’s If We Build It organization. He is originally from South Sudan where his father is director of planning and purchasing for a company and his mother works for a United Nations agency.
Wani first learned of baseball at age 13 when a Japanese man named Shinya Tomonari from the Japan International Cooperation Agency came to his high school and gave a presentation about the game.
“I didn’t know anything about baseball then, but I liked that he talked about the game being part of the culture,” Wani said. “It wasn’t simply a sport. So I thought I’d give it a try, and I ended up loving it more and more.”
At first, Wani had once-a-week training sessions. When he was 15, he got an opportunity to play with a team invited by the Japan-Africa Baseball & Softball Foundation to play in a six-team tournament in Tanzania modeled after the venerable Koshien high school tournament in Japan.
“I was lucky enough to be one of our 13 players, and it was an awesome experience,” Wani said. “We went unbeaten and won the championship.”
Photo: Joseph Wani pitching in a game in Nairobi, Kenya. [Photo from If We Build It website]
He came to Kenya (watch this video) two years ago. Initially, his parents had offered him the chance to attend college in Istanbul, but he was focused on baseball and discovered that there was essentially no baseball in Turkey. He then reached out to a friend who was already attending school in Kenya. He learned of If We Build It while researching about baseball in Kenya. Once he saw that there was baseball in Nairobi, he made the decision to attend college there and study information technology.
Wani’s college does not have a team, but he is in his second season with the Nairobi Community Series and also plays for a recreational team that has a mixture of Japanese and African players. His team won the Community Series title last year and is currently in the playoffs. He’s 6-3 with some good zip on his fastball, enough for Matt Soren to describe him as “projectable”. At the moment, though, his development path is uncertain.
He has yet to pitch off a mound, except for a brief trial once on a portable mound, and says he’s “never been trained by a coach in a person-to-person manner,” Wani said. “Maybe two or three players will work together and have videos taken. We send those to people like Matt, who then give us feedback. We also look at YouTube to learn as much as we can.”
The owner of a baseball facility in Green Bay, Wisconsin, has seen Wani pitch in Nairobi, and would like to have him train at his facility. However, Wani has been rejected multiple times for a U.S. visa. “They don’t believe my story – that I just want to go to the U.S. for a while and train,” Wani said. “They say I don’t have strong ties to my home country. But I haven’t given up.”
Another possibility could be the Japanese independent leagues, but he hasn’t explored that yet.
“I’ll finish college in two more years, but I still want to focus on baseball,” he said. “My dream is to play in the big leagues.”
***
There is also ARSEL GIOWOU, a 22-year-old from Cameroon who opened the Harmony Baseball Academy in 2019.
Giowou first learned of baseball through Cameroon’s National Institute of Youth and Sports when he was 8. At the age of 11, he was invited to Fukui, Japan, to participate in a two-week camp organized by the World Children’s Baseball Fair, which had been established in 1992 by Japanese baseball star Sadaharu Oh and Hall-of-Famer Hank Aaron with the aim of growing baseball around the world.
“It was amazing there,” Giowou said. “It was a tremendous opportunity. There were so many things I’d never seen before. It was in Japan, and it was my first time to have my own equipment, see a professional baseball stadium, train on a baseball field, see pro players and coaches, and be trained by them. That’s when I really fell in love with the game.”
Photo: Arsel Giowou at the MLB Development Academy in Changzhou, China. Photo courtesy of Arsel Giowou
Just five years afterward, at just 16 years old, Giowou opened his academy. It first had 10 players in the program and now has 60, ranging in age from 10 to 22. He was also able to begin a league of sorts, with players aged 15 to 22 years.
“I started the academy because there were very few resources in Cameroon for baseball,” he said, “and I wanted to get more people interested in the game and have a pathway to improve.”
There is no charge to attend the academy. It gets by on donations and fundraisers, and Giowou improvises whenever necessary. The players play on soccer fields. Equipment is not easy to get because of the cost and the shipping expenses. On one occasion, needing a hitting tee for practice, he used an overturned bucket with a bottle filled with sand on top.
Giowou, who is also attending college, believes baseball will continue to advance in Cameroon but that it will take time to fully develop, given the lack of resources and the prominence of other sports – particularly soccer, but also basketball. There have been Cameroonian football/soccer greats such as Roger Milla, Samuel Eto’o (who led Cameroon to the gold medal at the 2000 Olympics), and Thomas N’Kono, as well as NBA stars Joel Embiid and Pascal Siakam.
“If we could get a Cameroonian into professional baseball, that would make a big difference because it would give the sport more visibility here,” Giowou said. Regardless of the difficulties, he is unfazed.
“I plan to pursue this dream for the rest of my life,” he said. “My dream is to be able to make baseball my profession. If many people manage to make their passion into their profession, why not us, too?”
***
KATSUHISA TANAKA began teaching baseball in Uganda in 2011 through the Japanese International Cooperation Agency and eventually helped coach the national team that finished second in the 2019 Africa Cup Baseball Championship. He spent seven years in Uganda before returning to Japan, where he now manages an independent league team and also coaches in the Japan Winter League. He has also started a baseball academy this year near the capital city of Kampala.
“Early on, we were able to set up a baseball association through cooperation between the Japanese and Ugandan governments,” Tanaka said. “We started building a baseball and softball community that has continued to grow.
“The idea behind establishing the academy was to get more support and visibility for people interested in baseball and, thereby, create more opportunities,” he added. “I’ll go back there again late this year after the Japan Winter League finishes. There is definitely interest in the game in Uganda, and those that participate work very, very hard. Now that a few Ugandans have signed with MLB teams, more young players have the same dream.”
Photo: KATSUHISA TANAKA (right) began teaching baseball in Uganda in 2011 and eventually helped coach the national team that finished second in the 2019 Africa Cup Baseball Championship.
Tanaka has been bringing Ugandan prospects to the Japan independent leagues since 2012, the first being Paul Wafula, who played for the Hyogo Blue Sanders of the Kansai Independent League. According to Tanaka, Wafula is coaching at the academy in Gayaza.
He says there are five such players there now. In addition to Edrine, catcher Dennis Kasumba and pitchers Allen Kabenge, Musa Azed Isabirye, and Fred Chyaze are with the Asahikawa Be Stars.
As mentioned, Kasumba’s story is particularly compelling, given the obstacles he’s encountered. A catcher, he spent two seasons in the MLB Draft League and then came to Japan in 2024.
“I first knew Dennis in 2014 when he joined a team we started,” Tanaka said. “He was 10 at the time [21 now]. He didn’t have access to much equipment, but he was doing everything he could to train with different objects. It was difficult for him to survive in Uganda. He has a lot to learn, but he’s getting better. He works extremely hard.”
If more Africans can get to the independent leagues in Japan, it may lead to greater opportunities for them and others.
“Some of the NPB teams are scouting the independent leagues and are interested in keeping track of these guys,” Tanaka said. “I’ve been involved with Ugandan baseball for over 10 years now, and it has grown in ways I never expected.”
***
The preceding, of course, are not the only people trying to drive baseball’s growth in Africa. There are others, such as Kehinde Laniyan who has spent more than 30 years trying to advance baseball and softball in Nigeria. Laniyan, the secretary general of the Nigerian Baseball & Softball Association, organized the first West Africa Baseball and Softball Tournament in 2023, but the winners were unable to secure visas to participate in the Europe-Africa regional qualifying tournament in Poland.
Laniyan and a small coterie of others have introduced the sport to thousands of youngsters, but funding and facilities are still lacking; most games are still played on soccer fields.
“I think baseball has what I call magnetism, you know, especially with children,” Laniyan said. “Once they get involved, they don’t want to leave. That really fascinated me. I’ve seen that calling many, many times.”
For further reading, here are links to additional information:
- No. 30 prospect Matoma brings the heat, looks to make history
https://www.mlb.com/news/david-matoma-hopes-to-be-first-mlb-player-from-uganda
- This RHP is just the 3rd Ugandan-born int’l signing
https://www.mlb.com/news/david-matoma-signs-with-pirates-out-of-uganda
- Dodgers become first to sign player from South Sudan
https://www.mlb.com/news/dodgers-sign-first-player-from-south-sudan-joseph-deng
- Awaking a Sleeping Giant: The Rise of Baseball and Softball in Africa
https://beatmalaria.org/blog/awaking-a-sleeping-giant-the-rise-of-baseball-and-softball-in-africa/
- A history of South African baseball
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+history+of+South+African+baseball.-a0176981316
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The kid who’s growing baseball in Cameroon
https://www.mlb.com/news/how-did-baseball-start-in-cameroon
- Dodgers’ endeavors in one of baseball’s last frontiers
https://www.truebluela.com/2024/1/27/24051110/dodgers-uganda-international-signings
- For Ugandan catcher, ‘quitting is not an option’
https://www.mlb.com/news/ugandan-dennis-kasumba-going-to-mlb-draft-league
- One Ohtani click propels dream of impoverished Ugandan teen
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15596922
- Uganda Little League Baseball
https://ugandalittleleaguebaseball.org
- Inside the ‘secret’ baseball academy the Dodgers are running in Uganda
https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2023-05-04/dodgers-secret-mlb-baseball-academy-uganda
- MLB prospect Armstrong Muhoozi on aiming to stand out in Pittsburgh Pirates organisation and break through for Uganda
- First African to Play in the Major Leagues Is a ‘Pinnacle’ for Baseball
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/sports/baseball/gift-ngoepe-south-africa-pittsburgh-pirates.html
- In Uganda a man rescues an orphan and brings kids together — through baseball
https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2023-05-04/uganda-baseball-player-dennis-kasumba-viral-video-mlb
