Games played in Africa:
Certainly many Africa kids spend a lot more time working as part of their family and looking after siblings (especially girls) than there counterparts in the North, but there is some play as well. Here is a partial list -- the specific differs a little from place to place.
Homemade toys from wood, straw, animal skins and bone, stones, found objects, etc.
Boys primarily: Rolling hoops, rims, tires ("inkil" in Eritrea); drumming, soccer, basketball, volleyball, kickball, athletics, wrestling (Gambia), boxing (Ghana), bicycling; playing with trucks hand made from wood (palm), wire, tin cans and other found objects; play-dancing masks (Gambia); checkers (with variations), scrabble, parchisi; "aquilone" flying kites (Eritrea); "balabburo" coin toss (Eritrea); "arimando" marble race (Eritrea); "cucinetti" go carts (Eritrea); "kib-kib" hackey-sack (Eritrea); "ashakhakhat alem" "lawn darts" (Eritrea);
Girls primarily: bicycling, kickball, jump rope, hopscotch (teley-teley in Eritrea); playing with dolls, often hand-made from wood, cloth, straw and found objects; clamping/kicking game that seems to be akin to rock/paper/scissor (West Africa); "jacks" with stones (no bouncing ball); "fiti fiti" squat jumping (Eritrea);
Boys and girls: Hide-and-seek ("Pero" in Yoruba, "Chirchir Abede" in Tigrinya); marbles (not always with marbles; nuts, seeds, stones and dried fruit); dance, singing and music (the instruments vary by region, but various homemade designs of drums, balaphones and stringed instruments (guitars and harps) - some made with tin cans - are common);
Everyone: board game with 10 or 12 compartments, played with seeds or stone -- popularized by Disney as mankala, it is an old game, with real names, played across the continent. Traditional names for it are: gbo walo (Bassa), ma kpo (Mano), tay gbo knongi (Gbandi), mana (Kpelle), wrah (Kru), owari (Twi), ayo (Yoruba), aju (Ewe), wori (Malinke), wosley (Ivory Coast), owela (Oshiwambo), mweso (Luganda), soni (Usambara), bao (Chichawe), Tsoro (Shona), Isafuba (Ndebele)
