African children make use of many forms of entertainment from the western world, but still, they play their traditional games that have endured the ages. Nowadays we can see most of the children are playing with the play station or online games.
There are so many traditional games in south Africa they get differs from other continental games and they are something mysterious when we get to know their name. Traditional African children’s game is not only having fun it also helps to build the fundamental skills through social interaction and even in basic math and static thinking.
Traditional games of Africa
There are so many African games for children to play. Some of them are explained below;
Diketo
This one of the traditional game played by African children and it a game played with two players at a time. Two circles are drawn around on the floor with the help of 10 stones in each of it. One bigger stone is held by each other.
Here you should through that bigger stone and at the same time move all 10 stones out of the circle and should catch that bigger stone before it touches the ground. It is too much fun. It is one of the common games that are played by the kids of Africa.
Mancala
Mancala is believed to be one of the very oldest games in the world. They are also called as kigogo in Kenya. For this first you need is the mancala board, with the holes arranged in either two or four rows. In these games, small stones or seeds are used in olden days but now the marbles are used to play it.
The name mancala is means ‘’to transfer’’ in Arabic, so that the aim is to move the stones from the one to another so that you can capture the opponent. It is more fun and little like mind game, you should use smoker strategies to win. This game is still played by both children and adults.
Stockings
This game is used to start with the ankle, working all way the full body. It is mostly played by the girls all over the continent and over the globe. Two of the players were stand at the either side of the rope, swinging it in a circular motion and the third player jumps in the middle of the rope, then gradually lifting the rope higher to higher to knee, thigh waist until the player cannot jump enough. It is one of fun games from the South Africa.
Ampe
It is a group game played by school children of Africa. In this game, the group chooses one player as a leader and others stand in semicircle as facing the leaders face. Then leader and the players clap the hands at same time. After that both of them jump and lastly both jump and thrust one foot forward. If the leader and any of the players used to put the same foot forward, it seems to be out and next that children will be the leader.
Hope you understood about the traditional games of Africa from the above-mentioned article.