Children's Games (Maloko ma wana): Kweti

By Eposi Tokeson

Kweti is a game that is played during the rainy season by the fireside.  This game emphasizes the importance of naming one's relatives and it emphasizes the importance of memory and quick thinking; The winner has to be very smart in verbal expression, physical dexterity and also to have a sharp memory.

Process:
Usually, children play this game using wood ash (liwu) and a rock (liyE) or charcoal (findi).  While sitting by the kitchen board (ewongo) or chair (konda), someone would say, (joke kweti) lets play kweti.  Then members of the family would play by selecting the first person who would get a small pebble and hide it behind his or her back and show both hands to another play and say “ (Mame ne) what is this, the responder would choose and say I take this hand and I throw away this hand and then name a relative.  (mamene kweti, mame ne joli, na wowene, nafakene mola Esombi).  If the player does not name a relative very fast, the other player would hit the spice basket that hangs above the fire play (mokove) and say (et]]ng] ).  And the player would have to forfeit their turn to the other player who hit the spice basket and said et]]ng].  If the player called the name of a relative in time, he/she would dip their fore finger in wood ash and put a point on the their leg to indicate a point.  Then the game continues until the people agree to count the dots on their legs.  The person with the largest amount of wood ash dots on their legs wins.

Comments

[George Esunge Fominyen]

I suppose we've got to re-adapt Kweti for our kids today or it'll be lost. It's not easy to find wood ash in the parts of the world we live in.

But great idea to pass on such aspects of tradition.

There's one my Mom taught me that has to do with stones or beads shared in holes dug in the earth. I suppose the Betis have something similar called Song'o.

I would re-visit that game and share with the folks via the web.