Suwe: Traditional Game

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Before Playstation came on board, Suwe was actually the real deal. It was a communal game that brought children of the same age group together. If you were born in the 80's or early 90's and did not partake in Suwe, you probably did not have that inimitable childhood capacity to socialize.

In every part of the world, games, either traditional or electrical play a very important role in the lives of children. As soon as children are strong enough to move their hands and legs they begin to engage in minor games. As they grow older they develop the capacity to make informed decisions, build their own games which will later participants increase and the game begins to spread. Most of these historical games were the initiative of at least one person.

Now that the era of traditional games is going away, kids of today are now very familiar with Resident Evil, Grand Theft Auto, Call Of Duty etc and wouldn't like to do with traditional. In those days when we had no Playstation and the likes, Suwe was the real deal. 😁

Anybody above the age of 20 from South Western part of Nigeria must remember this popular game. Although, I really don't know the origin of this game. I don't know if its origin can be traced down to the African region but all know it that it looks more like a Nigerian game.

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The game starts with each participant holding their own pebbles which could either be metal or plastic. At least two people are required to play this game and the participants can go above that. The game becomes very tough and challenging when there are more than two participants.

Now, the pitch is drawn in a rectangular divided by lines. Once a player is able to travel with only one leg without falling, he or she throws the pebble in his or her hands into a random section and it goes on like that. If you throw your pebble in the first box, you will have to skip the box and go around.

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Your goal as a participant is to acquire some boxes. Those boxes you acquire becomes your house and it's market to warn other participants to steer clear off it. The moment you acquire a house, other participants are not allowed to step on it unless you (owner) allows them to do. Suwe is a game played by both sexes female game but it's predominantly more of a female game. The ladies were better than us but we always found a way to cheat them 😁

Imagine a situation when a player has acquired three house, the game becomes very difficult for the opponent because he will have to jump over those those houses with only one leg. This is the fun of the game.

As the owner of house, your house is your a safe haven where you can sit, dance, rest and do whatever you like. Your opponent cannot do this in your house because they would be disqualified. In fact, if one of their fingers crosses your house, they would be disqualified.

Most traditional games originated from activities that were part of daily life in across borders, and it is not unusual to see games that share certain similarities within different cultures, and so is Suwe. This game brings back memories of childhood.

If you're familiar with this game while growing up as a kid kindly let me know in the comments section