Indigenous Games Promotion and Training

Your grandparents probably enjoyed playing intonga, kho-kho or jukskei when they were young. Sport and Recreation Services want to ensure that these indigenous games are not lost, so that the current and future generations of children can enjoy playing them too.

Sport and Recreation trains volunteers as indigenous games leaders and hosts tournaments where these games are played and promoted.

More about indigenous games:

• Dibeke/Skununu
• Kho-kho
• Ntimo/Kgati/Ugqaphu
• Diketo/Magave/Upuca
• Jukskei
• Ncuvu/Morula and Morabaraba
• Intonga

• Dibeke is a running ball game played by two teams of 6 boys and 6 girls each.
• The attacking team tries to kick the ball away from the defenders, while the defenders try to get the ball away from them using their hands.
• The attackers score when they have moved the ball down the entire length of the field.
• However, if one of the defenders tags an attacker with the ball, that player is out.
• When all the attackers are out, the defenders get a chance to try and score.

• Kho-kho has its origin in the Indian community. It's played by two teams of 12.
• 8 players from the chasing team kneel, facing each other.
• The 9th player is the chaser.
• 3 players from the other team are sent on as defenders.
• The chaser runs around the sitters chasing the defender, trying to touch them so that they would be out.
• The chaser can tag a sitter, shouting "kho", making that player the new chaser.
• When the first 3 are caught, the next 3 are sent on.

• Kgati is a rope-skipping game of 3.
• 2 people swing the skipping rope and the third jumps in different ways, usually while singing or chanting.

• In Diketo each player tries to throw 1 stone in the air and before catching it with the same hand, try to grab as many stones as possible from the ground.
• The player with the most stones, wins the game.

• Jukskei is a traditionally Afrikaner game that originated with early Afrikaner travellers that made use of ox wagons.
• In the game the players try to knock over an upright stick with jukskei - the wooden pin used in an ox's yoke.

• Morabaraba is a boardgame, which is similar to chess or checkers.

• Intonga is stick fighting.
• The player that can hit the other with the stick the most in this play-fighting, wins.

Read more about Sport and Recreation online.

For a full explanation of these games and how exactly to play them, read the playing rules document.