African Children's Counting Out Rhymes: "Tumbum Tumbum", "Piki Piki Mabalane" & "Olke Bolie"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post provides excerpts from online discussion threads and articles about one Nigerian and two South African children's counting out or choosing it rhymes.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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TUMBUM TUMBUM
These comments were written on the YouTube discussion thread for Nigerian Afropop (Afrobeats) singer Yemi Alade's hit song "Tumbum" in response to questions about the meaning of the word "tumbum". I've assigned numbers to these comments for referencing purposes only.

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr6DKUylvCk

1. "It's something kids sing to make random picks when asked to make a choice or during a game."...
-Eva Odum (2016)

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2. "yes, it is something like this "tumbum tumbum base lembe sisi alaba kpom. alaba laba kai kai sisi bum bum" ( or tom tom, no idea what we said there, lol). you say that while going from one thing to the other. whichever your finger land on when the saying ends, that's the one you pick.
-abbyaou1 (2016)

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3. ..."Tumbum Tumbum is game we played as kids growing up. When we had to choose usually tumbum tumbum is the way out. Usually the outcome decision is final."
-Anthony Kakie (2016)

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4. ..."Tumbum tubum, is an Igbo word meaning 'this or that'....
- Joseph Eke (2016)
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5. ..."Tumbum, Tumbum".... its game of random choice Igbo kids play at the village square when they are in a dilemma and they have to make a choice between two similar options."
-THE VICTOR (2016)

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Reply
6. superAweber
"Ah, so it's the same as "eenie meenie minie moe, catch a goblin by his toe, if he squeals let him go, eenie meenie minie moe"."

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Reply
7. Nonhlanhla Mkwanazi
"Absolutely"

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8. THE VICTOR
"superAweber yes..100% correct."

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PIKA PIKA MABALENE
The only direct online reference that I've found thus far to the South African [Zulu ?] counting out rhyme "Pika Pika Mabalane" is this comment from the discussion thread for Yemi Alade's Afropop (Afrobeats) song "Tumbum" [link given above]
.
"lol, we have a similar nonesensical game in south africa. It goes: "Piki piki mabelane, sala sala gentel mane, abili bock abili bili bock, ince ince ince...". Carries on after that but I can't really remember the whole thing :D"
-Nonhlanhla Mkwanazi (2016)

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A YOUTUBE SONG THAT INCLUDES THE PHRASE "PIKI PIKI MABALANE"

PIKI PIKI MABELANE



Realjoeman Maxy, Published on May 10, 2013
-snip-
This YouTube example features a man singing the lead and children singing the responses. The example begins with a photo collage and switches to a sound file. Here's a comment from this example's discussion thread:
Xolela Theme (2015)
"it brings back my childhood memories..wow i love this song"

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Here's a link to a very brief (.22) South African Hip Hop YouTube clip entitled "Piki Piki Mabelane"
by Babywyn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg0GxwFBJxg.

The summary for this 2015 video indicates that "Babywyn is an artist that hails from the Republic of South Africa,The beautiful queens in the video are called Mat Models which emanate from the beautiful Botswana."
-snip-
The link for the full video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1OYpqvlUd4.

The title for the full video is shortened to "Mabalane". Given the meaning of the phrase "piki piki mabalane" my guess is that the subject of this Hip Hop track is about which beautiful women the rapper will choose. song about which beautiful women he should choose

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OLKE BOLKE

Excerpt from https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=af&u=http://www.mieliestronk.com/uuu_uittelrympies.html&prev=search

Uittelrympies

Olke bolke, êrie tjêrie tjorts! [Afrikaans to English translation, retrieved on November 10, 2017]
"In a lot of languages and different communities one will find it: the rhymes that children rhythmically call children during their group games. Then the recipient will show in his or her group with each successive strongly stressed word or syllable in the rhymes with the index finger or otherwise to another child in his or her group.

One after the other child is "counted" on the row and this usually happens in the round. The child who turns out when the very last word or brabbelword is said in the rhyme is then "out" or "rotten" or
whatever.

But with an outline rhyme, a business between just two people can also be added instead of a coin throw.

[...]

One of the best-known title rhymes in children in African-speaking communities is "Olke bolke", although it is almost impossible to read Afrikaans:

Olke bolie riebiekie stolke (or: Olke bolke Riebeeck stolke)
Olke bolke knor (of: Olke bolke knol)
Ir very cheeky chick
Yeah, yeah!

Where does this brawl rhyme come from? Could it be that Bolke contributed the bear and his sister, Olke characters in a Dutch children's book series, designed by AD Hildebrand in 1935, to the origin of this outreach rhyme? It may be, but how could one ever determine? In any case, one would tend to think that the "Olke Bolke" rhyme should be much older than that."...

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I learned about the phrase "olke bolke" from this response to the yahoo.com question about "Traditional South African games and activities for kids?"
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060712051212AAaPfwY

response posted by #3 [screen name] ( 2007)
"Do you remember "wolf, wolf, hoe laat is dit?!" ?
Its like playing jagertjie with a group of children, one in the group plays the wolf, then the others sing and ask : wolf wolf, what is the time? then the wolf can say 8o'clock....then the children can repeat the question over and over until the wolf say: "Etens tyd!" and chases every one and the child to be caught for "lunch" is the next one to play the wolf. very exciting cause you never now when the wolf decides to go hunting!

[...]

It could also be nice to use something like "Olke bolke....." to place the kids into teams if the game you play has teams. How about a sport like jukskei..that very South-African"...

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Another example of "olke bolke" is found at the end of this online article about South African children's games:

From https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=af&u=https://www.lekkeslaap.co.za/lekkeslaap-blog/die-top-15-kinderspeletjies-kan-jy-elkeen-onthou&prev=search

[translated from Afrikaans to English

"The top 15 kids games! Can you remember everybody?
by Annemie Lombard on 17 February 2015"

[...]

"Olke bolie riebiekie stolke, olke bolke knor. Ir very cheeky cheeky cheery, cheeky cheers ..."

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Please add to this compilation of African counting out or choosing it rhymes or share your memories of these examples.

Don't forget to add demographic information such as when you chanted these rhymes or heard them chanted (for instance, 1980s, 1990s), where you heard these rhymes (which country), and which language the rhyme is in. Thanks!

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Examples Of "Eeny Meeny Miney Mo" In The United States, Part I

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision- September 24, 2025

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series on United States examples of the counting out/choosing it rhyme "Eeny Meenie Miney Mo" (1940s-to date).

Part I features selected comments from a Wordreference.com Language Forums discussion thread: "eeny meeny miney mo - how acceptable?" The original poster asked if it was acceptable to use the words "eeny meeny miney mo" without the n word. 

These comments are from United States bloggers.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/02/examples-of-eeny-meeny-miney-mo-in_17.html for Part II of this series. Part II features selected comments that I found online as well as the example that I remember from my childhood. 

DISCLAIMER: This post isn't meant to be a comprehensive listing of online examples of this rhyme.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-

The n word" is the phrase that is commonly used by a number of people in the United States as a referent for the derogatory referent "nig-er".

I use the phrase "the n word" in this pancocojams blog instead of spelling out that word when I am referring to that word. I also use amended spelling "nig-er"* for the n word when it is used in rhymes, songs, or other people's comments. The asterisk indicates that this is an amended spelling of that referent.

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GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT "EENY MEENY MINEY MO"
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eeny,_meeny,_miny,_moe
" "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", which can be spelled a number of ways, is a children's counting rhyme, used to select a person to be "it" for games (such as tag) and similar purposes such as counting out a child who has to be excluded from a group of children as part of a playground game. It is one of a large group of similar 'counting-out rhymes' where the child pointed-to by the chanter on the last syllable is 'counted out'. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820,[1] and is common in many languages with similar-sounding nonsense syllables.

Since many similar counting rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to ascertain this rhyme's exact origin."...

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EXAMPLES AND COMMENTS ABOUT THE USE OF "EENY MEENY MINEY MO" IN THE UNITED STATES
These comments are numbered for referencing purposes only and are given as they were written in that forum with the exception of the n word, which is given with the amended spelling ni-ger*. [The asterisk indicates that this is a substitution for the complete spelling.] .

Comments from http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=286551

The original poster asked if people in the United States could say "eeny meeny miny mo" without the n word. [This is the way the original poster referred to that referent.]

Comment #1

Defy_Convention, 8th November 2006
"I was completely unaware of any racist undertones until I read this thread. Here's how I learned it:

Eeny meeny miney mo
Catch a tiger by the toe
If he hollers make him pay
Fifty dollars every day
My mother told me to pick the very best one and you-are-not-it!

Speaking as a teen in the Rocky Mountain region of the U.S., this expression* is totally acceptable (if a bit childish)
-snip-
*this expression = "eeny meenie miney mo” without the n word

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Comment #2 
lsp, NY, 8th November 2006
Quote Originally Posted by elroy
“Wow, up until now I had no idea that the song had any racist connotations whatsoever!”
I'm in shock, I never knew until this moment that there were any other versions than the one I learned (below), much less a racist version.
Eeny meeny miney mo
Catch a tiger by the toe
If he hollers let him go
My mother said that you are O - U - T!"

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Comment #3: 
pob14, Central Illinois, 5th August 2011 

"Many of us said "piggy," although I was aware of the racist version also. (Chicago/1960s). Members of my family would often use a version of the racist word that was modified to rhyme with "piggy," and so I always assumed that that's where the "piggy" version came from."...

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Comment #4 
Egmont, Massachusetts, 5th August 2011
"Growing up in the northeast U.S. in the late 1940s and early 1950s, I heard, learned, and used it with "tiger" and "monkey." Didn't know it had a racist version until a decade or two later. (That is still well before I came upon this thread, of course)"...

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Comment #5 
chibikitty9000, USA; 2nd April 2012
"We always just used "Catch a tiger by it's toe", growing up in Wisconsin. "Eeny meeny miny moe, catch a tiger by the toe, if he hollers let him go, eeny meeny miny moe".

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From http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=286551&page=2&s=071f34cb314e1b9aa907db2d2aa13186
Comment #6: 
a little edgy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2nd April 2012
"As the many comments from AE speakers indicate, the "tiger" and "piggy" versions are common in the US even today. Even if some people might be offended by the entire rhyme because of the former use of "n-ger"* I can't imagine that anyone would find "eeny meeny miney mo" by itself offensive. People say it all the time."
-snip-
"AE"= American English

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Comment #7: 
pwmeek, SE Michigan, 2nd April 2012,  American Age::71

..."I was certainly aware of the offensive ni-ger* version, as many of my playmates (1948-1958 Mid-West US) used it when out of earshot of adults. I never heard it at home, and only rarely heard the tiger/monkey/etc. versions. I seem to recall chastisement and a long discussion when I tried it (once) at home."

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Comment #8: 
Sparky Malarky, Indiana, 2nd October 2012
..."Growing up in the 1950s, we said "Crack a ni-ger on his toe," and even though we knew better than to use that word in other circumstances, we thought nothing of it. In the 1970's my son came home with "Touch a tiger on his toe."

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Comment #9: 
JustKate, Indianapolis, Indiana, 3rd October 2012
"I grew up in Southern California saying the "tiger" version. I think my mother, who was born in the South, was the one who told me about the n-word version after I got a little older, NOT because she approved of it, because she most definitely did not - I'm not sure what she would have done had she ever heard me use that word, but I would not have enjoyed it - but because she thought it was important for me to know about the rampant racism she grew up around. (They had separate water fountains and everything when she was a kid.) "The n word" was never an innocent word in the South, or if it ever was, it had been several generations since this was so even when my mother was growing up. I'm quite sure that people in other parts of the country and the world could have used it quite innocently, though.

And anyway, I don't think anybody could possibly object to "eeny meeny miny mo."* You hear it alllllll the time."

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Comment #10
mflcs, Illinois, 3rd October 2012
"I learned the N-version in 1950, during the first days of the first grade in a small town near Indianapolis. When I recited it outdoors with playmates at home, my mother and my father suddenly both appeared at my right and left elbows and ordered me to STOP! and to NEVER! use that word again. My mother suggested, incomprehensibly, that I say "monkey" instead. "But Mother," I insisted, "that's not the way the poem goes." I don't remember when I eventually learned what the N-word signified, but I do know that every part of that rhyme now, for me, is anathema."

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Comment #11: 
mplsray, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 4th October 2012 , A ge:61

"I am 58 and grew up in a rural area of Central Illinois. I know that both the ni-ger* and "tiger" versions of "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" were available when I was a boy because I insisted on using the "tiger" version while my peers used the "ni-ger"* version."

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Comment #12:
Rch, Illinois, 23rd January 2014 

"Grew up in US-Pennsylvania in the 1940s-50s. I heard the n version from classmates, but was not allowed to use it. We said tiger."...
-snip-
This blogger shared two examples that his grandmother who was born in 1884 taught him. One of those examples was
"Eeny, meeny, miney, mo,
Crack a feeny finey foe.
Ippa nuja poppa tuja,
ick, bick, ban, dao."
-snip-
The other example is quite different from the "eeny, meeny, miney, mo" rhymes.

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Comment #13:
RM1(SS), Connecticut/Midwest,  24th January 2014, Age:60

"When I was a kid we used the ni-ger* version - this was small-town southern Michigan in the early '60s, and at that point I don't believe I'd ever actually seen a black person except on telly. It's been years since I last used it, but I see no reason not to do so when the situation calls for it, though I would say "tiger" or "penguin" now.(As in the song Sparky quoted, we said "Eeny meeny miney mo" again after "let him go.")"...

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[This comment is writing from Canada and but the commenter grew up in the United States]
Comment #14: 
bennymix, Ontario, Canada. 24th January 2014,
I grew up in US..
"It's quite amazing that a whole generation or two, above seem unaware of the racist version, which I certainly heard in So Cal in the 1950s. The word 'tiger' [or the more transparent 'tigger'] is the attempt to clean up the rhyme, and, I thought, came in about that time. I sure a number of transitional folks knew that 'tiger' etc. were stand-ins.

As to whether the opening lines are acceptable before the racist lines (or with substitutions), I think marginally so."

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