By Nangamso Mabindla
3 September 2007

THAT "good old days" feeling hit Mdantsane this weekend when the township hosted teams from across the country for the Indigenous Games challenge.

First held in 2005 as a Department of Sports initiative, the games aim to promote the country's rich indigenous heritage for everybody to share. It also aims to get people to play games like Iintonga (stick fighting), morabaraba, jukskei, dibeke, ncuva, khokho, ugqaphu and kgati.

Mdantsane's Sisa Dukashe Stadium was full of colour as talented players from all over the country showed off their skill in front of admiring locals. Speaking about the games and their importance, North West province team manager Teenage Lesie said that he was happy that indigenous games were high up on the agenda of the Department of Sports.

"We love them because they are very inclusive. In our days, most youngsters want to play soccer, rugby and cricket [but] only a few people can play those games because they need you to have talent and money to participate. But with indigenous games anybody can participate."

And his team seems to be just as enthusiastic, having won the games more than once. "We are defending champions and we have won the games for the past three years. But it's not only about winning, it's about having fun and our participants have lots of fun playing these games," he said.

As with any other sport, participants needed to prepare well in advance if they aimed to win.

"We have a budget that is put aside for us to prepare for the games, that is how serious we are about the games in North West," Lesie said. "We first pick teams at local level, then at district level and the best from [there] represent the province at the national games."

Khokho and stick fighting proved to be two of the most popular events at the games.