LESSONS FROM CHILDHOOD GAMES
One’s childhood should equip one with all the necessary life skills (Something I doubt many of us have and especially the current children). Many of today’s problems would be non existent if we had taken the time, energy and effort to have a fulfilling as well as a playful childhood. What better way to bring it out than through games.
As a child you can never do without games, it doesn’t matter if you realized it or not but valuable lessons are learnt during this period. Just to take you back in the days when you grew up and played games, this is for those who did.
Charity begins at home and that is why cha baba and cha mama (as most know especially those who grew up in the small towns) taught us family values, roles, importance of family unit as well as home management.
We all respect and honor the fast and quick witted among us, I can almost guarantee you these same individuals are the ones who never lost in Chobo –ua. (A game played with an object which was forbidden to pass in between your legs, if it did one was beaten). The champions had to think fast to avoid the object. Those of us who were not quite as quick, compensated by fore-planning and today’s policy makers were the Bano, hop scotch champions of our childhood days.
No man is an island and we must rely on each other to be a success. That is why our team leaders where the rounders and kati players. The game involved dividing yourself in teams, one had to both run and dodge the ball at the same time, and you had to win somehow not to let down your team. Another version of kati required concentration to fill a bottle with sand or arrange tins in a vertical position while dodging a makeshift ball aimed at you. Ask me again why women are good at multitasking? This prepared us well for life in today’s rat race.
Remember bladder? Where a girl jumped over a bladder held by two others and the height kept increasing from the legs up to the shoulders. Isn’t this the ultimate coping mechanism? Especially with the constant change and pressure among the young community
Every once in a while in life, you need to take time off from the pressures of life and come back victorious. This same strategy made the song Brikicho-Bantura or as other versions Krikicho –Bantura were (depending which county you grew up) a famous one among our generation. In this game you had to hide when the song was sung and while in the hideout you replied, just to confirm if the searching party was away to finally emerge before they found you.
One of the most important values in life is honesty, you must realize that dishonesty has terrible consequences and that is what the game cheatings taught us. As a child incase you lied or mentioned any untrue fact that was a cue for your game mates to punish you accordingly depending on the terms you had agreed on.
Before most of these games, there had to be an agreement between the parties involved (come to think of it we started signing contracts long time ago).The agreement was symbolized by crossing the little fingers or kukata as most called the act, these meant you are in the game therefore rules had to be followed. The good book informs us too that when people agree, God blesses them and there you have it more reason to agree.
Singing games, the likes of Tinger tailor! Soldier sailor (to date I have never understood the meaning).Chako which was mostly played in the evenings before leaving for home, bendings and kiss command and promise. Even though we never understood what we sang most of the time it was fun, we made friends and these games brought us together. To sum it all up childhood would not be childhood without fun and what better way to teach life’s lessons. If you look back now in your childhood you will definitely find your purpose, enjoyment and fulfillment all disguised in the fun and intrigue of childhood games. You might find sweet memories too.
