In recent years, critical scholarship in Sport for Development (SFD) has underscored the dominance of externally designed programs and their tendency to reproduce neo-colonial hierarchies of power and knowledge. This article asks: what is the possible impact when an SFD initiative is led not by an external NGO but by a visionary local leader who mobilizes cultural knowledge and community trust? To explore this question, it examines the Obibini Girls Surf Club (OGSC) in Busua, Ghana. Founded by Justice Kwofie, a community resident, the OGSC employs surfing, previously unfamiliar and even taboo activity, as a tool for gender empowerment and community development.
Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork using a Participatory Social Interaction Research (PSIR) approach, in-depth interviews, and engagement with community members, the study analyzes the strategies Justice employs to generate gender and cultural change, address cultural concerns, and gradually reframe surfing as a “local” practice. Findings show how Justice’s leadership opens new spaces of freedom for girls by combining cultural understanding, family engagement, and innovative practices. These include marketing surfing as both local and international, cultivating global relationships that reassure parents and expand opportunities, and establishing a hybrid model in which profit from a surf business sustains the non-profit surf club. At the same time, the case highlights the risks of sustainability when initiatives rely heavily on a single charismatic actor and a resource-intensive sport.
This study advances scholarship on African surfing and SFD by highlighting local leadership and cultural understanding as foundations for sustainable development.
Key words:
Local knowledge, Leadership, Sport for Development, Gender Empowerment, Surfing
