African Indigenous Games: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

This paper argues that indigenous games are those games and related activities that are performed by the indigenous populations of a particular geographical area. In the case of Africa, these are games and activities that were and are still performed by the largely black populations of the continent. It further argues that these games were either marginalised or the owners and performers of such games were positively discouraged from participating in them. It is the assertion of this paper that the games where marginalised by the former colonial leaders of the colonial states and some religious denominations who saw them as symbols of a backward civilisation because they never saw the values that were embedded in these same games. The paper goes on to state that the rekindling and in some instances revival of these games, at both the national and international level, would go a long way in Africa’s efforts at being visible on the global platform since these same games’ revival will go a long way in recreating Africa’s image that has been battered and bruised by centuries of lies and distortions.