The extended national lockdown provides sport lovers from all cultures the perfect opportunity to learn about a new sport.
The Vryheid Herald has taken a look at a few indigenous sports, some of which are also included in the line-up at the annual Mayoral Cup Games, an event hosted by local municipalities.
Iintonga
This is a stick fighting game where two sticks are used, a longer one for attacking and a shorter one for defending. This sport attracts children from as young as five years old. The objective is to strike your opponent and force their surrender.
Diketo
This is a game which tests one’s hand-eye co-ordination. It is played with 10 small stones or marbles placed in a round shallow hole (around five centimetres deep) and in one hand you hold a bigger stone called a ‘ghoen’. Similar to jacks, a player throws the ghoen and tries to pick up the small stones or marbles with the other hand. The turn is over if the ghoen is dropped. Diketo is played by both girls and boys of any age, but only two players can compete at a time.
Morabaraba
This board game is played with 12 tokens, also known as cows, for each player. To distinguish between opposing players, the tokens must be a different shape or colour. Three squares are drawn on a board or into the ground, so that the middle area is ‘contained’ within the outside lines. A third and smallest square must be inside the middle square. The squares are then further subdivided into 24 equally distanced junctions with straight lines. The objective of the game is to create ‘mills’ (a row of three cows), after which an opposing cow is ‘shot’ and removed from play.
Jukskei
This target game is played by two teams, comprised of four players and a leader each. Players throw skeets made of rubber or wood, ranging between 300 millimetres and 460mm in length and weighing no more than 1,8 kilograms for seniors and 1,1kg for juniors. The aim of the game is to score points, by throwing the skeet at targets placed in the field.
Kgati
This is a skipping rope game where several girls can skip simultaneously or one at a time. The skipping rope should not be more than five metres in length. Two players swing the rope, while the other players take turns to skip in sequence.
Kho Kho
Two teams of nine players each compete in this running game. The two teams take turns to be runners or chasers in the game. When the game starts, a player from the running team is nominated as the runner and one from the chasing team is selected to chase, in a spin on the traditional game of tag.
Drie Stokkies
This running and jumping game involves two teams of five players each. Set up the game with three sticks on the ground, approximately a metre apart. Competing players line up to run and jump over the sticks, aiming to step only once between them.
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