Ta Kurt Om El Mahag translates to the ball of the Pilgrim’s Mother. The game is often referenced solely as Om El Mahag or The Pilgrim’s Mother. The Berber tribes of the Jebel Nefusa explicitly play the game. People in this area herd goats and sheep and work in fig and olive plantations. During the rainfall, wheat, and barley are also cultivated in neighboring areas. A unique feature is their underground cave homes cut into the soft limestone mountainside. They range from simple caves to vast, complicated underground networks. Hundreds of soil and stone dams are used throughout the countryside to grow in semi-arid conditions.

Games were played on flat surfaces where one side was shaded. Everyone would choose two captains. Then

two equal-numbered teams were created by pairing up athletes and then splitting them between the two. Games were played with teams of three to twenty, but the most common number was a team of six. One team begins as the batting team and is called “marksman,” and the defensive team is called the “hunters.” The ball would be covered in leather but not as hard as an American baseball, and the bat was a fire-hardened olive branch three feet in length. Each batter gets two swings, and the captain gets three swings. Interestingly, no score is kept. The objective is to stay in the shady part on offense for as long as possible. This forces the defenders to stand and play in the hot sun.

One of the primary sources of information Ta Kurt Om El Mahag comes from an article written in 1939 by Corrado Gini. He was an Italian fascist theorist who supported the abhorrent study of eugenics and racialism. It would be easy to dismiss his observations of the sport based on his incorrect beliefs on race. However, unfortunately, they serve as some of the best first-hand accounts of this ancient game. Gini’s research tries to explain how blonde-haired Berber people lived in Libya for thousands of years. Through his studies, he came across a similar game to American baseball. It was called Ta Kurt Om El Mahag, which had an origin believed to be somewhere in Europe. There were several competing theories as to the similarities of Om El Mahag to baseball. One was that the game was “borrowed” by one people from another, but this was seen as an unsatisfactory conclusion based on the limited interactions between Americans and Berbers. Another theory was that they were both spontaneously invented in their own parts of the world. There is precedence for similar sports to pop up in different parts of the world without previous contact. However, Ginni thought this was not an adequate explanation. There were too many similarities between the two to have been created independently. He ascertained that there must have been an ancient common ancestor game from which Baseball and Om El Mahag derived. He theorized that the Anglo- Saxon-looking Berbers descended from migrating Europeans thousands of years ago during the last Ice Age who brought this common ancestor game to Africa. He noted that when the teams were being created, words that had no meaning (or lost meaning) were used. While the Berber people refused any religious significance, Gini believed that Om El Mahag used to be connected to ancient rituals meant to bring spring rainfall. The Berbers admitted that the game did have some superstitious connection to successful harvests.

A colleague of Ginni was a Danish man named Per Maigaard. He disagreed with the findings of Ginni and had his own beliefs about the origin of Ta Kurt Om El Mahag. He believed Om El Mahag descended from a Danish and Swedish game called Longball. His first piece of evidence was creating teams by pairing and splitting was identical between the two games. This is too likely of a coincidence if these games were not related. Another piece of evidence is the “retaliation” portion found in both games, which is a unique (and confusing) feature. The last and maybe most convincing piece of evidence was using the term rotten for players who are “out.” Longball calls its players fresh or rotten, while Om El Mahag says players who are out have grown moldy and are rotten. Again, this seems like too much of a coincidence to ignore.

While Maigaard admitted large migrations during the Ice Age, the last known migration to North Africa from Europe was the Vandals during the 5th century. The Vandals, led by King Genseric, invaded and established a Nordic kingdom in North Africa around 429 AD. The Vandals, who came from Scandinavia, where Longball was invented, suggest to Maigaard that it was an import from the Vandals. A modern version of Longball is played in Finland called Pesapallo. We must note that Ginni’s counterargument to Maigaard was that the Vandals did not make enough of a cultural impact to be the game’s source. However, the Vandal kingdom lasted about a hundred years in Africa before the Byzantine Empire conquered them. The Vandals not incorporated into the empire would have had to assimilate into the indigenous African population.

Ta Kurt Om El Mahag is a fun game with a fascinating history. The students will enjoy the initial simplicity of the game and lots of fun when the retaliation (dodgeball-like) component happens. The students will also debate where they think the game’s origin came from. Both explanations are intriguing, and the conclusion is open-ended. It reminds the students that history is dynamic and full of debate.

Materials: 

·      A large play area (a gym works best, but can be played outside)

·      Tee ball holder for the lower elementary students

·      A softball (small dodgeball works well)

·      Appropriately sized baseball bat or cricket bat

·      Rubber disc dots or cones if playing outside

Minimum Number of Students Needed: To play this game, I recommend no less than eight players (4 v 4). However, an entire class would make this game more enjoyable.

Age: All Ages