Throwback Time: Five Childhood Games Every Nigerian Child Played

You are probably a deprived Nigerian if you didn’t play any of these games as a kid.

Childhood is that time of innocence when neither tribe nor creed ever mattered to anyone as the priority was to eat, play, live and be happy. As kids, there were those special childhood games that made playtime complete; they cut across borders, such that every Nigerian child at one point or another played them.

Because it is Thursday and we love to bring you fond memories, we have decided to put together, fond memories of childhood games that will leave you swooning.

Form a Big Circle: 

This one starts almost every game, it is like the football formation, you know the 1-3-3-4 formation in football? Ehen! this is the kiddies version staying in position before the game starts. Once hands are locked, you’ll hear: Form a big circle; like your mother’s cooking pot! A big big circle; like your mother’s cooking pot! or Wider wider; wider! Once the circle has been formed, the game starts. With this formation, kids alternate between games, from Who is in the Garden, to Fire on the Mountain, or Who Stole the Meat from the Cooking Pot… But really, who stole the meat from the cooking pot? I doubt anyone has been able to find out.

Car Race: 

This one was for ‘dem boiyz’, you know na, the squad or maybe those girls that will never stay on their lane; the tomboys. You see the gang in this picture? This probably was where they had their first driving lessons. On that straight line, they have tried to speed, overtake, dodge and sometimes, jam each other’s cars and mind you, while they are at it, they are obeying traffic rules and making sounds like hunking (Blasting on the horns).

‘Suwe’/Lose:

This is a form of one leg up game. Everyone has a pebble so starting from the closest box, you throw in your pebble then one leg up; you go hup-hup, avoiding the box with the pebble at each stage, until you have gone round the boxes. You lose when you step in the lines or the box with the pebble. Shey You see the diagram in those boxes? That is the reward for successfully completing each round, they are called houses and you dare not step into someone else’s house without their permission else you lose the round. Such hard work right?

Clapping Games: 

These ones are a calculated form of clapping in a rhythmic and calculated order, accompanied by singing. Depends on how good you are at it, you can go fast or slow. There were quite a number of it; there was the one that goes, ‘tinko tinko, tikoroko tinko, tinko, tinko..., my grandmother she broke a waist… Mr. mr. mr. mr. Macaroni, riding on the bicycle, if you want to marry me, mr. Macaroni… My mother told me, that she will buy me another doll…’  So many of them that I cannot exhaust, trust me they were always fun.

Playing in the Rain:

Oh Yes!!! Every child craved this, like OMG! it was super cool to play in the rain. If not pants down, at least half naked. This was the one that parents dreaded the most but kids loved it. Your Nigerian citizenship as a ’90s kid could be revoked if you dare mention that you never played in the rain or at least crave it. Nothing feels like it, trust me. The kids in this picture are certainly having the time of their lives as they even went further to roll some tires… Yea! that was how we rolled.

Enough said, it feels good  to be a ’90s kids yea? I mean, there wasn’t much facilities around back then but trust me, childhood was beautiful.

Quick question, who wants to go back?