Watch: A new South African game to keep load shedding blues away

We all know that load shedding is the absolute worst, even more so with children when you need that scheduled screen time to get dinner on the table, pack lunch boxes and just those other things to get done just as they cut the power.

Enter Flipping Queens, a new card game with a South African flair. After hours of Uno (a card game), this game has put some new excitement into game time and quickly established itself as the new favourite.

My 12-year-old quickly figured out how to play the game and together with her sister they started playing their first round. From what I could tell from the screeching, it was a great success. Just as you think you’re about to win, a few surprise cards set you right back to the start.

Imagine a fantastic location in the south of Africa where mythical animals and monarchs roam freely.
Queens like the KwaZulu Queen with the pet lemur and the Pap Queen with the Chakalaka Queen as best friends. The best friend cards were a hit, my girls loved this part of the game the most, and tried were possible always to keep them together.

There is a Bafana King, a Phuza King, and the King of all braais also in the deck.
Imagine being able to scare away a Tsotsi with your very own Sangoma or having a Tokoloshe you can set on an adversary.

The game promotes the growth of memory, strategy, bonds and times tables; a great way to practice Maths without them actually thinking that it is work, is an added bonus of the game.

Play a Tsotsi card to take an opponent’s queen, try your luck by playing a joker, and you can then roll the dice or use a Muti card to flip any opponent’s Queen.

Just make sure you’ve flipped the most valuable queens or queens with the highest value, and you’ll win.

Just be careful not to accidentally scare off everyone by playing the Tokoloshe card.

In short, the aim of the game is to collect valuable African Queens with Kings. Once you have collected 5 queens or have collected queens to the value of 50 points, you have won. 

Tzvia Hermann, a mother, businesswoman, advocate for a green lifestyle, and the creator of The Beautique Group, designed the game (The Laser Beautique, Beautique Brands and Beautique Academy, BeauRaze, BeauFam Games).

During lockdown, at the height of the horrifying gender-based violence our nation suffered, Tzvia invented Flipping Queens, a game that is proudly South African.

The game conveys a significant message about the value of women in our society and how men and women can work together to achieve success, even though it is lighthearted and enjoyable.

This is a wonderful game for the whole family and would make a great gift too.

A review directly from Mia Stark Van Niekerk said: “This game is fun and inventive, it used a lot of strategies and we got very competitive. I liked the detail on every card and the names of the Queens were cute. My sister kept saying the names over and over, her favourite Queen is Mama Africa, we all loved the best friend Queens the most”.

Fantastic for families and children, and ideal for educating outsiders about our lovely quirky South Africanisms

The game retails for R450 and can be found online here.

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