Talks about Squid games is everywhere just in case you haven’t noticed yet and it raises one question. So, what is all this Squid games talk? So far as you are on the internet then you have come across Squid games memes and skits. Squid games is a popular Korean drama series on Netflix which have somewhat gone viral over the months due to cinematographic class. It compares to none and it’s a classic on its own. For the sake of those who haven’t watched yet, I won’t give any description about the series aside for the fact that it was built around early Korean childhood games.
There we have a Korean childhood game getting hooked up to make a multimillion-dollar series whiles our very own Ghanaian childhood games gets neglected. We are all aware about how it is getting washed out and we are not willing to do anything about it but we are quick to learn that of a far away continent. As we are learning about squid games, what are we doing about the likes of ‘ampe’ and ‘pilolo’?
Decades ago, these local games were a serious thing and children and adults both enjoyed every bit of it but in our today world, it might surprise you to even see kids playing these games because it seems so rare. What caused this? Most of us will actually think we don’t get to see these games been played in the urban centers but it is a thing in the rural areas but honestly speaking, that is far from the truth. Even though you may see kids play these local games once in a while but it is not something you will barely see compared to back in the days. These games have been around for over a century and it is sad how it is getting faded away so soon just as we entered the 21st century.
Asian nations got their own intact but our Ghanaian societies known to be very good at preserving cultures is gradually losing this very culture tat made our lives worth living and blessed us with tons of memories to carry on throughout our lifetimes. Ampe, pilolo, nkuro, antokyire, and many other games are all faded out because we couldn’t preserve it despite its beauty and lessons learnt from it. Recently, Ghanaian rapper Pure Akan who doubles up as a son of tradition released an album dubbed ‘Nyame MMa’ and he dedicated some songs to question why we are neglecting our rich culture such as these childhood games and it was so heartbreaking. Our ancestors must be shaking in disgust whiles watching us.
They passed it on to us only for us to neglect it. That is no different from rejecting a precious gift passed on to us. We enjoyed it and just left it to fade without passing it on to the new generation. Please if we really love ourselves then we should cherish everything we got and value it because these games are as priceless as our lives itself.
