{
  "id": 4425541,
  "title": "The games that defined Ghanaian childhood in the 90s before smartphones",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/30/the-games-that-defined-ghanaian-childhood-in-the-90s-before",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-30T12:03:34.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Adom Online",
    "slug": "adom-online",
    "url": "https://www.adomonline.com/the-games-that-defined-ghanaian-childhood-in-the-90s-before-smartphones/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the 1990s and early 2000s, Ghanaian children entertained themselves with a variety of outdoor games before the advent of mobile phone and computer games. These games required minimal materials and could be played in school playgrounds and compounds. One such game was Ampe, a jumping and clapping game popular among girls. Players lined up to challenge the leader, who would jump and clap while thrusting one leg forward. If both the leader and the challenger landed on the same leg, the leader scored a point, and if they landed on different legs, the challenger took over as leader. Another game, Pilolo, was a hide-and-seek variation where players hid sticks or small objects and raced to find them once the leader shouted \"Piloloo!\" Oware, a quieter mental game, involved players using a wooden board with pits filled with seeds or stones to capture more than their opponent. Chaskele featured discs, sticks, and a target, where players threw discs to land them inside the target. Antoakyire involved a leader walking around a circle of seated players, dropping a knotted cloth or stone, and those seated had to grab it before the leader could sit in their place. Alikoto, a simple spinning toy made from pen covers and battery caps, was spun and flipped onto its head. Lastly, Kpitinge involved dismantling pens to create modified pens and throwing them to stick upright in sand, testing players' hand-eye coordination and patience. These games have largely faded from Ghanaian childhoods, but for those who grew up in the 90s and early 2000s, they evoke memories of joyful, outdoor play.",
  "summary": "Long before mobile phone and computer games took over children’s free time, Ghanaian compounds and school playgrounds buzzed with a different kind of entertainment. In the 1990s and early 2000s, all children needed was a stick, a bottle cap or a few friends to have the time of their lives. Sadly, many of those games […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}