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When Chobo-mangoto became a big hit

County_RiftValley

Football has come far, since the days of 'sut-ball' (football) with ball ya jwala (a ball made of stuffed polythene bags) on the dusty cotton soils of Eastlands, back in the day when Cofta was the syrup of choice for coughs during cold seasons like this one.

Unlike today when boys receive balls bought by their dads from the ubiquitous hawkers, back in the day, ball ya jwala was meticulously woven by hardy hands. Each neighbourhood had experts, quite adept at stuffing and crafting the balls from plastic bags.  If your local 'ballsmith' was a fala, then you were bound to have an elliptical ball that did not bounce like 'adida' (Adidas) balls.

'Mzash' was one pro at stuffing many polythene bags. Then the resulting effort would be tied up with manila strings, forming tiny square patterns until the firm reward bounced when tested against the ground, on which many fell and got first aid care with the purple 'GV.' In place of manila, delicately cut strings from bicycle (black mamba) tyre tubes did just fine.

As philosopher Bertrand Russell writes in 'Portraits from Memory,' any childhood that had no contact with the earth, was not worth it.

In our time, the girls, then called chillez, made mud dolls and played kati and blada. With ball ya jwala, we played pepeta (one-legged dribbling) to see who could reach 100 counts without the ball falling off. The exciting but dangerous chobo-mangoto was quite a hit. If the 'adida' passed between your mguu bata legs, everyone descended on you and your mango head, then full of ring worm patches, was mercilessly knocked by many a rough knuckles! 'One touch' was a soccer game in which the 'adida' was only kicked once. Such was a childhood that had contact with the earth.

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