Playful Creativity

Surely most of the people in Africa haven’t got much money to spare. So buying expensive toys or games is usually not an option. It’s though also not overly necessary. Many toys and games can in fact be created by oneself and we surely have seen some great creations in Africa.

In Lomé we saw two guys playing a game at the side of the road, which they (obviously) called ‘game with the woods’ (photo). If I remember right, one had to manage to fill a row with only the own sticks in order to win. These little sticks came in also handy at the orphanage, where one of the teachers hid each five of them in little dirt heaps and then asked the kids to find them in a little competition.

And then we were stunned to find an African version of the French game Pétanque. The rules seemed similar, just that the metal balls were replaced by balls made of tin foil or paper. So to speak, they created their balls themselves and what they created seemed perfectly sufficient for the game, as the kids clearly enjoyed themselves. This also applies to all the other self-made toys that Africa’s children tend to play with: simple creative solutions for daily fun…