Some little girls take pieces of stick or cassava roots to represent dolls, or, as they call them, bana = babies, and tying them on their backs with an old rag they play with them as such. An English doll is too uncanny, too much like a human, for them to play with; they do not understand it, and put it away, or their elders take it away and sell it as a powerful fetish. Parents fond of their children make small paddles, baskets, and hoes in imitation of their own, and the youngsters play with them when they accompany their mothers to the farms, or their fathers in the canoes. Toy hoes and baskets are given to girls only, toy fish-traps to boys; but toy paddles to both boys and girls.
The boys of the village plait basket-work shields about 3 feet long and 8 inches wide, and with stout water-grass and young plantain stalks as spears and clubs, and imitation wooden knives in their belts, they take sides in a great sham fight, and amid much laughter and good humour a mimic battle is waged until one side is driven from the field—the village street. Such “fights” are interesting to watch, for the movements of the more than half-naked bodies are swift, precise, and graceful, and undoubtedly help to keep them in good form; and the accuracy with which they hurl their imitation spears is a fine display of dexterity.
Photo by: Rev. C. J. Dodds
Native Carpenter and his Workshop
This young man is only one of several expert carpenters trained on our Monsembe stations.
Besides mimic war, the youngsters have their make-believe games of marketing, cooking, feasting, and housekeeping. The more expert among the lads make toy steamers in imitation of those running on the river; and it is interesting to see two lads approaching from opposite directions pulling their “steamers” behind them. As they pass each other they whistle three times as a salute to one another, then comes a long whistle as a sign to stop, and the “steamers” are supposed to stop at a beach, and the two boys, who are acting as captains and wearing any old hat they can find for the occasion, approach each other, raise their hats, bow, shake hands, and then jabber for a few moments in bits of French and any of their own syllables that sound to them like French; then come the ceremonies of parting, and the whistling of a pretended farewell from the “steamers,” and the shu! shu! shu! of the working engines. The lad pulling the steamer is engine, whistle, pilot, steersman, and captain all combined, and seems to enjoy it. The best model has the largest crowd of followers after it. These boys are splendid actors, and the whole scene just enacted is a fine, humorous imitation of the actions of State steamers and captains meeting on our beach. A hat is as necessary almost as the “steamer,” for it has to be taken off when the bow is made, and if a boy does not possess a hat, or cannot borrow one, he will make a good imitation of a helmet or a straw hat out of papyrus pith and plantain leaves.
The following is a list of the games[[17]] played among the Boloki boys and girls:
[17]. For Lower Congo games I would refer the reader to Folk Lore, Vol. XX, 1909, p. 457, where the writer has given a full description of them.
1. Ndangu, hand-matching game. (Lower Congo ta mbele is slightly different.) The players form two lines (mabenge) facing each other. The first player A faces the first of the opposition line B; A throws up both hands and brings them down with a clap (esaku), and then darts out one hand. B does the same—claps his answers (tambola), and if B’s hand meets A’s hand, A is wounded (ajwe mpota), and if A receives three wounds (mpota iatu) he dies (awe). That is to say that if B is quick enough, or lucky enough, to throw out a hand to meet A’s thrust, then instead of being wounded he wounds A, and three wounds count a death—A goes to the bottom of his own line. If, however, the hands do not meet, then B is wounded and A passes on to the next, and the next, until he wounds all in B’s line or is himself killed; if he is killed, then the next boy to A tries until he is either “killed” or has been down B’s line. Those who are “dead” stand at the bottom of their line. After all the “men” in A’s line have played, B’s line starts, and should he lose any “men” they are redeemed in the following way: A’s line lost, say, five, and B’s line lost, say, four, A counts four of his five as redeemed, and B counts his four as redeemed, thus over the first bout B has lost none, and A has lost one “man.” The game proceeds until all on one side are killed. The sharpest players stand at the top of the line, and are much admired for their prowess.
Photo by: Rev. C. J. Dodds
Model of a State Steamer
The lads holding the model made it out of bamboo, papyrus pith, and the potato-like substance of the plantain root. The lads delight to pull these toy steamers through the villages and imitate the white captains, with their make-believe salutes, etc.