Childhood Games

Childhood games make growing up fun. Children are spoiled for choice with a variety of games to choose from. The list includes games such as hopscotch, ampe (mostly played by girls but which I also learned to play), hide-n-seek, chas-kele (or is it jaskele?), ludo and oware.

Ludo was where my special skill laid but I was particularly obsessed with football. We created and played anything in the form of football from socks ball through coconut to “case five”. We even played stones. We bloody did!

The irony of the whole thing was that I never did well on the field of play, at least when it comes to moving with the ball; I could neither dribble nor play “tactics”, I still cannot. I could only run at opposing team members and “force them to play nonsense” (as we used to call it), or ensure the ball doesn’t get into our net. If by some luck I manage to move with the ball past an opponent, there was a thunderous applause and jubilation even from the opposite team. The essence of my presence on the field was thus twofold: force the opponents to play nonsense, or prevent them from scoring my side when they have the ball. I didn’t have much to do when my side has the ball; all I had to do was observe keenly and enjoy the talented boys dazzle our opponents.

In spite of my lack of special football skills, I quite made selection whenever I was around. My peers admired and wanted me on their side for my courage and sacrifice with body which compensated for my lack of skill. Somersaulting in front of the ball and ensuring kicks never got past the goalkeeper was not a thing the skillful players did and that was the only edge I had over anyone on the field of play; that was what got me selected. I also enjoyed being dribbled and humiliated in the process. I kissed the ground and got injured many times but that never took anything away from my eagerness to be at the football park.