Slapping the ground with nxai
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday October 16, 2023 06:00
The flowering of the trees that surely attract butterflies and insects generally announces the open season for the boys’ native games, which depend on the availability of certain select species of trees.
A hawk-eyed rural boy would be able to quickly spot usable offshoots from mainly Moretlwa and Mogwana trees in particular, from their early flowering stages. These are plants that produce sturdy sticks for the boys’ game known as nxai or rwabi, which is very popular with herd boys whilst shepherding the stock in the scrublands. In the native games, nxai’s objective is to throw and slap the ground with a prepared stick such that it bounces up and forward and as far as possible. The best-thrown stick from a predetermined area has to go further than its competition. For a good thrower, nxai will rise like a taxiing Boeing 747 before taking full flight into the air and finally landing like a well-thrown javelin, pushing its way further and further. The hissing noise of a thrown nxai really depicts the creativity of a human mind. It is diametrically intentional. It really leaves one wonder-struck as to what could have gone through the mind of man when such a game was invented. It is simple to imagine but difficult to play. It takes a lot of effective practice for one to excel in the game played out in the open and preferably on a sandy area with fewer vegetation.
The sprouting period is exactly when God’s creation will be on full swing with the plants’ multi colours of green, red, yellow and many other colours shine the most. Sometimes, the poor trees will be heavily laden with all sorts of edible fruits. Some trees easily break, as they cannot carry the heavy weight of their own produce. This is what partly completes the traditional life in the bushes for the herd boys.
The vixen’s cry of a hungry fox audible most often around springtime, when foxes are out luring mates was sometimes torture to the herd boys especially sheperding small stock, simply for the animals’ vulnerability. Returning home with a sheep or goat missing from the stock would attract all sorts of abuse by the elders who would inhumanely chide, shout and sometimes beat thoroughly for a worst case of an animal under one’s care eaten by merciless scavengers.
The cheep, warble and twitter of animated birds as they easily harvest low lying fruits become a permanent feature as they communicate with their peers in their birdly language. Sometimes the chirriping of excited birds becomes therapeutic to the school-going boys whose chance to enjoy life in the thickets is only available once schools have closed. It renders the bush a better place from parental instructions that often times can be too demanding and pressing.
Knowing that other boys were having a good time in the thickets, no rural boy would accede to remain idle at the cattle post whilst other boys were having fun out there. If we were not competing through producing cows from mud and other woodwork producing spoons, the flower of mealies (lefetlho) and others, then we were playing nxai. It was almost like a ritual for boys to engage their peers in the wild game most popular in the countryside. Non-schoolers tormented us with their stylish and perfect skill of throwing the wisdom sticks.
Just imagine this: Sour plums or olacoceae or Moretologa wa podi in the vernacular and its sister ximenia americana or Moretologa wa kgomo (Ximenia caffra)- a very palatable and juicy wild fruit. Wild fruits such as Serowa, an herbaceous perennial plant with small tuberous and edible root stock. Mogwana, giant raisin bush with edible berries does not only produce edible snacks but it is also reputable for producing strong and long branches that can easily be curved into a powerful nxai or rwabi sticks.
Equally, Moretlwa or brandy bush grevia flava bush or berries is also used in brewing of Khadi, a likeable traditional concoction that is home brewed.
It also has strong, straight and long branches that offer the user a chance to cut a strong nxai or rwabi that is mostly herd boys’ game away from the elders’ eyes. In the thickets, these were the boys’ prized possessions, which after gathering will be used to bet in the game of nxai. The overall winner will take everything that was used in the betting as in the bush language was akin to a cattle post or moraka in the vernacular.
Mmegi/The Monior lens man Moreri Sejakgomo reminisces playing nxai with his peers in Serowe near Motetshwane Primary School open space. He concedes that whilst Mogwana and Moretlwa trees were the best in terms of producing nxai, they preferred Motlalemetsi tree because it was strong and produced straight sticks.
“You have to sharpen and polish the stick at the far end so that its projectile abilities are enhanced,” reminisced the lensman. “The way you hit the stick on the ground, one has to do it harder as the more the energy applied, the further the stick will go,” he shared. This was around 1993/94 when villagers in Serowe kept small stock in the backyard and for the boys; they had no choice but to be the taskmasters.
“When the animals were steadily grazing,” remembers Sejakgomo, “ the boys from the wards of Botalaote, Mmualefe and Mokwena were engaged in fierce competition of nxai which made shepherding the animals even more interesting”.
Amongst their peers, the overall winner was duly respected and would even be recognised at their school - Motetshwane Primary School. “We were really united by the native game of nxai across the wards and we were like brothers at the end of the day,” he noted. Most of the time, the boys played in an area infested with soft grass, which was easier to manage, as their sticks never encountered any problems. Moses Mosigi, a native of Maunatlala village reminisces about the youthful years at both the cattle post and the village where young boys clashed in the bushes playing nxai.
He may not have been the best player amongst his peers, but nxai was the pride of the boys of his area and a must play.
“It required one to have a special skill to excel in playing nxai. Not everyone was endowed with the skill of playing this traditional game. It was a game for herd boys,” Mosigi remembers the encounters at both Maunatlala and Mokgachawadinama in his earlier life. Non-schooling boys were obviously champions as they had plenty of time to polish their skills whilst pasturing the stock. He says non-schooling boys used nxai as a form of entertainment and their games were played according to age brackets and it was very competitive. At any given time, there was someone watching on the animals so that playing nxai does not land the boys into trouble as animals might either stray onto people’s fields or just disappear into the thickets without trace.
The boys gathered amongst others Mmupudu (feather-palm or wild date-palm) and Morojwa (snot-apple) and used the same as part of rewarding the winners.
To Mosigi and his peers, it was very fun to engage others in the boys’ competition. He hails nxai as a special game that brought the boys together for a good reason and away from the troubles of engaging in things that can easily destroy their lives from an early age like alcohol and drugs abuse. Kenneth Middleton, the president of the Botswana Traditional Sport and Games Confederation (BTSGC) explained this week that amongst others, their notion is to promote and preserve traditional games. Middleton explained that one of their associations in Nkange village plays nxai game competitively, annually.
“That’s where (Nkange) I learnt about the game. However, I once saw this game being played in the bushes around Grand Palm by a group of people who played the game casually. I realised that it needs some nice sandy area to play it comfortably,” observed Middleton.
He indicated that nxai falls amongst the many native games they have partnered with the Nkange-based association, which is one of them. The plan is to eventually have a national tournament or festival to determine whether it can be competitive or otherwise.
Middleton’s parting shot was that they want to make the BTSGC a tool or vehicle for sport for all.
Kabo Magama is the secretary of the African Traditional Games Competition of Botswana, the organisers of the village’s annual competitions.
Amongst the games that they promote is nxai, a now popular traditional sport in Nkange village. Just when villagers are resting after the village’s top 8 soccer tournament, December 31 is reserved for nxai competitions that attract the young and the old from within Nkange and surrounding villages. It’s the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted the competitions, but for this year, the competitions are likely to bounce back. “The objective of holding these competitions is to keep the traditional games alive so that they don’t get extinct before the current generation enjoys such games. We also want to entertain people,” highlighted Magama in an interview with Mmegi. He said they have a plan of bringing back the competitions after they were halted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are seriously in search of sponsorship for the prize money,” he added, indicating that response from the villagers about nxai competitions has been overwhelming across all age groups.