Traditional games of South Africa

A jukskei game in progress.

South Africa has some traditional games.

History

Some traditional South African games are played annually at the National Indigenous Games Festival in September.

Traditional games

Bok-bok

In this game, players stand upright against a wall while opponents try to jump on their back to make them collapse.

Three toti

In three toti, the goal is to throw a ball at three tin cans that are piled up in a pyramid shape, and then to run back-and-forth between two predetermined points in order to score as many points as possible before the tin cans are re-assembled by the opponents.

Drie stokkies

Drie stokkies resembles the triple jump event: it involves participants trying to jump three times between three sticks, with the person who can jump the furthest beyond the last stick winning.

Jukskei

This section is an excerpt from Jukskei § Basic rules.[edit]

Dimensions of a Jukskei field - distances given to closest pin; 9m between pins

The object of the game is to knock over a peg that is planted in a sandpit over a distance of between 10 and 16 m (depending on age and gender). It is played in teams with usually four members each. Each member has two skeis (and thus two turns). The playing field consists of two pits juxtaposed in opposite directions, so that play can take place in both directions. Each time a team member knocks over the peg, he gets three points. If the peg wasn't knocked out, the team lying closest to the position of the peg scores as many points as they have skeis closer to the peg than their opponent's closest skei. The first team to get exactly 23 points first wins the game. If the team gets more than 23 points, they start from 0.

Kho-kho

This section is an excerpt from Kho kho.[edit]

It is believed that kho-kho arrived in South Africa with the importation of indentured Indian servants by the British.

Dodgeball variants

See also: List of dodgeball variations

Dibeke

Dibeke is a game similar to football and dodgeball; in this game, the attacking team attempts to kick a ball down the length of the field in order to score points, while the defending team is allowed to pick up the ball with their hands and throw it at members of the attacking team to eliminate them.

Dithini

See also: Seven stones (game)

In dithini, players attempt to stack up various tin cans into a predetermined shape, while opponents can eliminate stacking players by hitting them with a ball.

Goat in the cage

Two players stand on either side of the playing area, and attempt to eliminate players by throwing the ball at them. The last remaining player wins.

Board games

Morabaraba

This section is an excerpt from Morabaraba.[edit]

Morabaraba is a traditional two-player strategy board game played in South Africa and Botswana with a slightly different variation played in Lesotho. This game is known by many names in many languages, including mlabalaba, mmela (in Setswana), muravava, and umlabalaba. The game is similar to twelve men's morris, a variation on the Roman board game nine men's morris.