INDIGENOUS GAMES FESTIVAL 2023
The Indigenous Games Festival (IGF) campaign aims to promote social cohesion and nation building and celebrate the country’s rich history, heritage and culture.
Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) hosts the Indigenous Games Festival event annually to showcases nine Indigenous Games commonly played in South Africa. The IGF allow us to celebrate South African’s unique diversity through sport.
This year we are hosting the 17th Edition.
Through the games South Africans get a chance to compete in under profiled sporting codes that brings diverse cultures together.
Agility, strength, balance, reflexes, hand-eye coordination, accuracy, strategy, intuition, patience. These are skills Indigenous hunters and fishermen relied on to feed their communities. These skills are learned at an early age through Indigenous Games and maintained throughout adulthood through play.
BACKGROUND
The revival of indigenous Games in South Africa evolved as a response to the national call to embrace African Renaissance. This revival is intended to popularise those cultural activities that have a particular appeal to vast sectors of the South African society, particularly the traditional rural people. Due to the fact that sport and recreation activities are predominantly practised in urban areas and are largely Euro-centric, the revival of indigenous games is essential in order to get more South Africans, more active, for most of the time.
The revival of indigenous games in South Africa gained momentum at national level when the games were launched at the Basotho Cultural Village in the Free State Province, in February 2001. The launch saw the introduction of seven indigenous games, namely: 1. Ugqaphu / Kgati / Ntimo; 2. Diketo / Upuca / Magave; 3. Morabaraba / Mlabalaba; 4. Ncuva / Ntijwa / Tsoro / Tshimaya/Moruba; 5. Dibeke / Diwiki / Snuka / Skununu / Umabhorisha; 6. Jukskei; and 7. Kho-Kho. The eighth game, 8. Iintonga / Melamu / Iziduku; was introduced at a later stage. Recently, 9. Drie Stokkies was introduced.
INDIGENOUS GAMES CODES
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