Games of Our Fathers: Traditional Play in Pre-Colonial South Africa”

Long before cricket fields and organized sports, the children of South African villages played games that shaped warriors, taught wisdom, and connected them to their ancestors. This rich account preserves the traditional games of indigenous youth—Iceya, Imfumba, and Cumbelele—each carrying its own songs, lessons, and spirit.

From throwing knobbed sticks at ant-heaps while crying out battle songs, to racing bareback on calves, to intricate hand games played by firelight that lasted until the rooster crowed, these weren’t mere pastimes. They were training grounds where boys learned accuracy and courage, where patience was practiced through herd-watching duties, and where tricksters honed sleight-of-hand skills that earned comparisons to Hlakanyana, the legendary deceiver.

Through clay cattle sculpting, string puzzles, the hiding game of Imfumba, the stacked-hand pinching of Cumbelele, and the wind-calling nodiwu that spun overhead like singing spirits, children absorbed the skills and values their communities held sacred. This nostalgic remembrance captures a vanishing world where play prepared children for life, and every game connected them to “the spirits of the veld.”

A beautiful preservation of cultural memory and childhood joy, told with the warmth of an elder sharing treasured stories with the next generation.

https://mythopia.io/story/1306/the-games-of-the-children-of-the-wind