a week ago i drove pass a group of youngsters playing dithini on the street ko kasi and i was impressed and happy to witness it as it has become an unfamiliar thing to see children playing on the street as we did when we grew up.
And it seemed as though they called each an every kid on that street to join them as the group was large.
all thanks to ipods,intenet,phones,malls,etc. children are no longer interested in playing indegenious games.
i am not about to lash out at how children have turned into coach potatoes.
my main focus for the article is to look back at all those games we played as children,needless to say that we did not spend a penny to play.
here is the list in no particular order
1.Lengusha - the game was played mainly by girls and we would use an old panthihose then cut it and tie it in nots to make one single round long piece. then the games begin,there plently of them and were mostly accomodated by a song.
the ones i remember - mashia,mashia a nthekelela dipotsotso
- khalambazo,oviso,shay i zigizag, push push push
- mabulellana
2.kgati-these one we usually played during winter to kepp warm(i think )but we has games for certain season. we used a skipping rope and one perosn will hold one end and the other will hold another end and start skipping and again there was song accomponiment(sp).
- nolije topi ilije,o li benge phansi,bese o ya dryaya,bese o ya puma.
-stocky,stocky ngwana malome. o nkisa kae?thabeng tsa mme,mme wa loya o loya ka eng,ka tsiritsiri,sehlare sa baloi ...
-mina a,a dikoloi,peugot,conquest etc (the was no ford ka or tata back then)
3.dithini-the will be two groups and the ones will "touch" the ones who are stacking up the tins until they all well done and they should not fall. (by touching we mean throwing a ball at other team and it touches you,you were out and should wait for a "game"-that is when your team has managed to stack all tins without being touched ans have safely return to thier "home". the team that was toching we used to say ba a fila.
many other games were played in the similar manner as dithini like letlapa that involved counting to 100 or 200 on a brick.the other one was dithini tsa go jampa-which involved putting flattened tins with legs in a box until they are all in.
4.Hands clapping games:these we made certain moves using hands with a partner and there also songs with the games.
- by so i love you baby, to baby to the sar (dont what were trying to say here)
-under the bible bushes, under the sea bo bo bo ...
-hela mathapelo,wa tseba gore bašimanyana ba robala ba tjenne meno?
5.mokoko/spypy/1-2-3 block- in a nutshell i will say hide and seek the kasi version.
6.soek-soek- remains a favourat of mine where one person will hide a belt for a group and then when he done he will call out "soek soek"he will indicate wether o mo icing or wa fisa (you are on a hot or cold spot) and if gets hooter it means you are close to where the belt and whoever finds the belt first would hit you with it until all members are in the home so he can go hide it again
7. circle games-these one are usually played by at creches where everyone will form part of a circle and and start game.
-tsa mo reka omo,eng omo
- matshediso
-hlogo magetla sehuba le letheka mangwele le menwana
8.and then there morabaraba,diketo,dithai too many to mention but those were the times people.
PS;if i failed to expalin someof the games in a clear manner do not blame me. if some of the words and song lyrics are wrong do blame me either we were young and never cared about making sense.
and ooh i grew up in Tshwane and maybe you might not be able to relate to some of the games here but feel free to share the games you played in your suburb,kasi,farm etc
i am not refeering to this kind of morabaraba,we used to draw one ourselves. why buy if u have a pen and paper handy.
and how i forget maskitlana?here we used stones as characters to a story and made thier house on the ground ot if you used pen and paper you would have the houses drawn and use a pen to knock at where a scene is happening. i still rember how our school desk had pen holes because of maskitlala. and there other who were pros in storytelling and we would gather around that perosn just to here her story.most storylines were far better than generations i tell you.
i am out.