BARBADOS WAS ONCE A COUNTRY where neighbours looked out for each other, which meant that children understood respect and gave it to their elders. The wayward ones were corrected with a stern “cut-tail”.
It was a country where children revelled in their play time after getting home from school, so they could “go outside” and play. The children played a variety of games like Chinese skip, jacks and marbles, hopscotch, rounders, and many others. Barbados was once a place where all the children of the village knew the children in their neighbourhood, whether by Christian name or nickname, because they played together.
Before TV, and the new technology that is so easily accessible even to the youngest child these days, all Barbadian children played. Sadly, the benefit these traditional games have had on the development of its people, is often overlooked and mostly unappreciated.
Unfortunately, many children may know what a marble looks like, but have no appreciation, discipline or patience of the true mastery of pitching. Take for example, the marble game of Bilgin, where there would be five or six holes in the ground with marbles in them.
The pitchers would stand at a certain distance away from the holes usually marked by a stick or a line drawn with chalk or just marked in the dirt. The object of the game is to pitch your marble and knock away the other pitcher’s marbles to win the marbles in the six holes. This was a challenge and required great patience, persistence and sharp hand-eye coordination, which helped to develop individual attributes.
Resourcefulness was key to having fun playing games. The games of the past forced children to become designers and engineers. For instance, modern-day kites can be bought in an easily assembled kit. However, the average Bajan parent could not afford these expensive kites and children were forced to be creative. The fish kite and the round kite were the most popular, made with paper or plastic. The fish kite was made with two sticks crossed and firmly tied in the middle with nylon string. Next the ends were connected using the same nylon string then a special knot was made connecting the top to the left and right corners. The knot also connected the kite to the reel of cord, which was made of a bottle or an empty spray can. The round kite was made of four and a half sticks which were arranged and nailed in the centre. The ends were connected with nylon anda special knot connected the kite to the same type of reel as the fish kite, and fitted with either newspaper or plastic bag.
Bajan houses don’t have chimneys so it was useless to wait on Santa Claus to deliver toys to Bajan homes. Barbadian children became engineers of toy making. For example, the “bicycle rim game”. Children would take an old bicycle rim and guide it along with a piece of stick or wire. Barbadian children also knew how to make their own customised scooters, which was made with portions of ply wood with a nine-inch shaft underneath.
Ball bearings were fitted to the end of the shaft for the wheels. Another wooden shaft with a cross piece was used as the steering assembly. A piece of car tyre was attached to the rear of the scooter to act as a breaking system. An important thing also to note is that the children not only designed and made these toys but they did all this with very limited tools which shows the creativity and innovation of Barbadian children.
Rock fishing was a very popular sport done here in Barbados. Simply, it was fishing anywhere in the sea or from rocks. The fishing line was nylon string on a reel like a condensed milk can and you would tie a piece of lead used as the sinker. You would get the lead from an old bathroom drain, lead pipes or from the village plumber.
The bait was oftensea roaches or sprats. There is a special feeling experienced when fishing patiently and then feeling a fish caught on the line. A real sense of accomplishment that cannot be duplicated through gaining points in a videogame. Rock fishing had very good returns because after a day of fun fishing there was food to feed the rest of the family for days. These are the games that are becoming extinct because of the effect of the modern-day gaming industry.
Traditional Barbadian games have had a significant influence on the impressionable minds of the generations before, and if they are lost, we, the people of Barbados, will lose a crucial ingredient into what makes us Barbadian.
Although losing these games would not be like making lemonade without limes, it would be more like making macaroni pie without cheese. In other words, we will lose an essential part of our culture. However, children will still be children, which means they will still play games. We have already started to see, an exodus of the traditional Barbadian games played in the past and the hostile takeover by the modern-day gaming industry. This phenomenon will initiate a permanent reprogramming in our children.
Keeping traditions will give the younger generation a sense of identity and purpose, and it would give them the dignity not to succumb to foreign industries who seek to destroy culture.