About OERiGA

The Open Education Resource of Indigenous Games in Africa (OERiGA) is a project with collaborators from 12 African countries (South Africa, Lesotho, eSwatini, Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria, Egypt). While much focus on Africa highlights its arts, crafts, folklore, clothes, cuisines, music, and languages, there has been less attention paid to indigenous children games. There is a deluge of children's games in Africa yet are undocumented and their educational potential remain unexploited. There are 1.3 billion people in Africa and 400 million children from 3,000 tribes (i.e. distinct linguistic & cultural entities) and each of these children play games. Playing games is every child’s daily practice regardless of their socio-economic status or geographic location, rural or urban, literate or illiterate. The parents of these children played games when they were children themselves yet these games are not documented. Regardless of the tribe, the children's games tacitly teach cultural heritage, values, numeracy, creativity, critical thinking, design thinking and much more. Games are educational as they overtly address three domains of learning: cognitive (mental skills), affective (attitude or self), and psychomotor (manual or physical skills).



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Nhodo

In Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe we used to play an indigenous game called Nhodo. I did not realise this was teaching us counting and mathematical literacy. So, in a group we could play e.g., 5 players. The game involves each player choosing 5 small round stones to contribute. All the stones are put in a circle. The first player will use a lead stone to throw in the air while taking out all the stones from the circle. The player will then throw the lead stone into the air and take one stone from the stones and push all the stones into the circle. If some stones remain outside that is an infringement and the next player takes over…. Taurai Mutanda
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The Sansa Kroma Game

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1-2-3 Block

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