The normal playing curve

When I was growing up (assuming I have finished), most games began with a suggestion like 'tucheze kati', followed by screams of 'fao' seco' 'thirdo' and so on. As it usually happened, two of us would shout 'seco' at the very same instant and after some intense bickering, we would resort to the time honoured solution to such disputes: 'Iiiii exe exe exe kala kabonding socks' or the remix 'iiie exe exe exe exe darling slipping kala kabonding socks'. If everyone's palms came out facing down and yours came up, you were 'fao' and vice versa, on and on until we got to 'lanyo'. If some kid tried to come into the game much later or we just didn't like him, we would shoo him away with the 'no more no less' policy and he would have no choice but to sit and watch.

After about 15 minutes of happy playing, someone would start 'vumaing' the ball or tightening the skipping rope or unfairly claiming that 'umevunja nyungu' only to make you 'ban' (or is it 'bant'?) quickly. Then the lamentations of 'hii game ni ya harare' would start, followed by lofty proclamations of 'harare hailalangi'. The 'harare' would invariably get personal and one kid would invite the other to solve it with a fight. 'Kujaa... kujaa... unadhani mi nakuogopa?'. If the opponent backed off, we would all taunt them with 'kamehori eh eh! kamehori eh eh!' until we made them cry or agree to fight. Unfortunately, somebody would get hurt and the fear of 'mama so and so' would befall us. To guarantee our absolution from any wrongdoing, we would quickly fix the blame with 'Haishaaa makanjo! Ameeepiiiga! Mtoto wa wenyewe! Haisha! Haishaaa makanjo!'. Or we would simply get bored with the hassle of it all. You could simply shout 'Kila mtu kwao kwao, kila mtu kwao kwao' and gleefully watch the kids from other estates or courts slinking away, knowing full well that you wer firmly planted on home soil.