Vieing for Ball
A round wooden ball, sometimes a coconut or
grapefruit must undergo the ritual of presenting to god before being taken into
game.
In the courtyard of the village communal house, two
groups of youth wearing loincloths compete enthusiastically to vie for the ball
to throw it at either a hole in the east or in the west amidst the boisterous
sound of drums and cry of the audience. The winner is the side with higher
number of times of throwing the ball at the other side’s hole.
In some places the hole is dug in the middle of the
courtyard of the communal house. Some other localities require that the ball be
thrown at a bottomless basket hung in a tree. Still some others set the rule
that whichever side that can throw the ball at its own hole becomes the winner.
