Mokwakwa: The boy's rough game

Ryder Gabathuse | Monday October 9, 2023 06:00

Sometimes mokwakwa provided entertainment to the villagers although it often rubbed some the wrong way, especially those chased out of the territory. It was through this somewhat outlandish game that boys were able to defend their territory by ensuring that after the meeting, no strangers hanged around longer in their area than it was necessary.

It was a quick way of removing all possible threats including boys from other areas taking the territory’s girls. Usually during street soccer games there were gifted boys who would shine and received more cheers from the territory’s girls and thereby raising fears of the area boys losing their partners.

Mokwakwa was meant not to give the visitors any change to request for names of the girls after the game. Some of the boys during the soccer encounters would charm the territory girls with their playing skills and open opportunities to win their hearts.

The attacking boys normally wielded light sticks just to scare their opposite numbers and at the same time shouting, mokwakwa! Even before the attackers complete mo-kwa-kwa, the visiting boys will show them a clean pair of heals and escape to safety in super speed. There were no post match formalities after all.

It was not a game for the faint-hearted as it involved ducking and diving to safety from the chasers. Those, whose legs could not carry them, would sometime bear the brunt.

In Palapye for instance, there were three feared wards; Boseja, Type 7 and Madiba. To some extent, Fitase was another place to watch with rough boys, mostly with wide influence from the rock music that was common from the many homesteads in the area.

Boseja, the original home of amongst others Thomas Nkhoma, his late senior brother Edward Nkhoma, Morris Keorapetse, Ditiro Jubilee, Kitso Motshidisi amongst others was disadvantageous in many ways. One main disadvantage was the need to cross the Lotsane River with boys in fully flight, when we returned to our various wards after a boys encounter.

It was so easy for the rough boys to make life hard especially in the rainy season when the river had water. Boseja was one of the wards that were established in the latter years before some of the areas were washed away by the 1996 flash floods that hit Palapye destroying properties and lives taken as a result.

The place would later be declared inhabitable as it was found to be risky as it is located on the course of the Lotsane River.

On a bad day, the assaults ended up in tears as some sustained unintended injuries during the friendly raid. But, the act would simply be meant to keep the boys on their toes as a form of traditional entertainment or sport if you like.

Senior boys from respective wards or groups played the last line of defence as they were only roped into the mix once they felt their juniors had failed them. Boys who stayed home avoiding mokwakwa and other boys’ games were considered cowards or simply sissies or pharameseseng in the vernacular. In a way, the boys preferred to keep their hands on deck and raided others as a unit.

Selebi-Phikwe Primary School deputy principal, Mmuso Otsile, grew up in Palapye and has vivid memories of the mokwakwa games. To him, it was a question of boys exercising their power.

“If you effectively run away from the invading boys, it simply means that power belongs to those who will effectively defend their territory. Most importantly, the boys defended their territory against a possibility of the invaders taking their girls away from them or just charming them,” he reminisced.

He quickly remembered that the most feared wards in Palapye were Type 7, Boseja and Madiba, (then known as Ntswelemoriti).

Our boys’ games were almost similar to the popular Xhosa and Zulu stick fighting which was almost a sport preferred by the herd boys. The late South African president Nelson Mandela, a Xhosa who grew up in the Eastern Cape, was taught intonga (stick-fight) by herd boys. He wrote in his book, Long Walk To Freedom: “I learnt to stick-fight – essential knowledge to any rural African boy – and became adept at various techniques, parrying blows, feinting in one direction and striking in another, breaking away from an opponent with quick footwork. From these days I date my love of the veld, of open spaces, the simple beauties of nature, the clean line of the horizon.”

Even our boys who were popular with mokwakwa sometimes felt this was a sport that should be passed from one generation to the other. But, the advent of digitisation has seemingly changed priorities as boys today prefer to play FIFA soccer games and would shun playing in the sandy pitches and chasing others in that traditional fashion. Today’s boys have no time for mud toys depicting our traditional way of life, as we would mould cattle drawing a sledge or sleigh when not playing street soccer.

In our traditional space, some considered mokwakwa as a traditional way of settling disputes as it offered an opportunity for the boys to show their prowess in either resisting a push or attack from their opposite numbers or simply initiating an assault on other boys. Boys guarded against applying high-energy levels that could amount to violence. Even after the chase, the boys would still need each other.

The host soccer team obviously enjoyed the exclusive rights of attacking their visitors. The visitors would know they had to quickly wrap up and disappear from the pitch, with the ball kept safely under the armpit. Palapye at the time was endowed with heavy sand that also provided some form of comfort as we could dive into the sand and take cover from the raiders especially when they could easily outpace us.

The chasers will shout at the top of their voices mo-kwa-kwa! The elders never interfered in the boys’ games instead they just marvelled at the beauty of the continuity of their legacy. Slowly, the traditional games are overtaken by the pre-installed FIFA games and other internet-based games.

A mob of boys would sometimes, without provocation, attack boys from a different hood, fully chasing them and forcing them to escape to their hood away from their attackers. Notwane Football Club and national team goal poacher, Brown Gasemotho, Herbert Letsebe, Herbert Mereyotlhe (now late), Shaw Ngwako, Mmuso Otsile, Onneetse Ramogapi, Gideon Nkala, Michael Leburu, Dikgang Mogokgwane, Moses Samson, Jacob Makwapa (late), Terrence Jacobs, Lekoko Kenosi, Boniface Kenosi, Christopher Maiyane, Kganetso Otsweleng, Jacob Pitso, Nkabo Ngwako, Daniel Khumo, Fish Lenyibi, Elvis Kgoboge, Gabriel Kanjabanga, Dipatiko Mokalake (late), Modirwa Casalis (late), Lesego Kgomela, Malaki and Isau Timothy, Thito Freeman, the twin brothers, Maitumelo Junior Letamoreng and Kealeboga Flex Letlamoreng, Gaolatlhe Kenosi and a host of other boys were part of the junior and senior boys that terrorised other boys across Palapye.

There were no particular applicable rules to mokwakwa game, safe to say that the assault was never allowed to occasion wounding or heavy assault. Actually, the game was meant to keep the boys on high alert knowing that they could be attacked anytime. It also meant that boys would never hang for far too long in a different territory before they will be forced to get running.

In most cases, mokwakwa was commonly unleashed on opponents after street soccer encounters as in a village without recreational facilities, street soccer played in the village’s open spaces provided affordable entertainment to a wide range of boys from varying ages.

Ramogapi, who is the Palapye legislator, was amongst the Palapye boys that endured the mokwakwa game with his peers.

“I remember it (mokwakwa) as a boys game intended to toughen our boys into men. When boys from a different area invaded your area for a good reason and you felt threatened, it was a quick way of clearing the area of any potential danger or threat. Once mokwakwa alarm was sounded, it would be the responsibility of individual members to take responsibility,” said Ramogapi. He says at the time, weapons like a knife and other dangerous weapons were not part of the game.

The MP hails mokwakwa as a good way of boys interacting with their peers and he is elated that no one was ever killed during the boys meet.

“Look, mokwakwa helped the boys to quickly return to their houses, say after a soccer encounter and would have no business to hang around a different territory,” he added.