I grew up in that city that’s in the South west of Zimbabwe, should I also give you its gradients 😊? I know I have lost you right, was trying to show off phela I passed geography. So I was saying, I grew up in the city of Kings and Queens, kwantuthu ziyathunqa, the second largest city in Zimbabwe. I hope you sense the pride😉. Like all children, we played games mostly after school.
Who played and where: All children from around the block would gather at the dust road and figure out what game to play.
Games played: We would play nhodo, stop, amadlwane, whishu, tsoro, pada, but the game I loved the most was matshayana, I wish I could translate the name of the game for you but you will be flabbergasted at how nonsensical the translation will sound. But if I’m to try, then I will tell you it loosely translates to hitting one another.
Game of choice: Matshayana is a game that involves two people on opposite sides, standing on drawn lines a number of feet apart and with one person in the middle. The two people on the line, throw the ball from one to another and try to hit the one at the centre in the process. The one at the centre makes sure to dodge the ball, they could be having a stick to count with at the centre of the ground as they dodge the ball, or they could be having stones to pile one after the other, if all stones are pilled they get points or if they count to an agreed number they get points. The person at the centre might need to also catch the ball and throw it as far as they can so that they buy themselves time to count or pile stones.
The state of the ball used: If you were thinking we used a good conditioned store bought ball then you got it wrong. We preferred our own custom made, hand crafted balls which we made from lots of plastic bags, mainly empty salt, or sugar or rice plastic bags; we were sharp minds, we had already mastered the art of recycling at that age. (did that sound fancy at all? Because that was the intention😂).
Why this game? I went into depth to describe this particular game because it was my favourite (obviously you already know that). And also because I played it so well, I see your doubtful faces but I’m being truthful. I had this skill of circling like a tornado from left to right and vice versa when dodging the ball. They should have nicknamed me tornado but no, this is Zimbabwe, they called me Chiwuya (please read that in Shona, thank you and it loosely translates to you can now come or please come now). Yes we were in Matabeleland but we all watched Zbc tv at that time and there was this song sung by people from the apostolic sect and it’s lyrics went like “Chiwuya, chiwuyayi, pazambara Baba, pazambara chiwuyayi” (come father, come to this gathering) and they did the tornado move from side to side with their big garments being swayed from side to side. That is how I got that nickname.
The friends: I usually played this game with my friends, age mates and neighbours namely, Fortunate, Unesisa, Unothando and Comfort: that’s as far as my memory goes as far as names are concerned but it was a whole squad, just can’t get myself to remember everyone else.
Results: Every time I went to play, being an only child at that time, I enjoyed myself. It felt good to play with other kids and I always had the time of my life. The only problem is God never stopped time for us, he let it run like every other day and girl, I always lost track of time and that always resulted in a beating. Mother never liked a girl child getting into her home after 6pm, it was an offense punishable by being beaten or being banned from going out to play. The punishments never stopped a girl from losing track of time, she lost track of time all the times. Maybe it was because mom’s beatings weren’t that bad, I remember jumping on her bed, hiding behind pillows during a beating by her, it was kind of hilarious.
Well, it seems like yesterday when we played, when we were children and carefree or should I say careless. Those were some precious days, good memories were made and I’m happy I managed to relive those days by narrating this piece specifically on this day when I am opening the 28th chapter of my life and I am just a minute to 30. Because of a childhood memory, today, I afforded a genuine smile.
Which was your favourite childhood game, let’s hear about it in the comments section.
Crystabel Chikayi 