Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series on the traditional Ghanaian children's game called "Ampe".
Part II provides a general description of the Ghanaian children's game "Ampe" and showcases seven videos of that game.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/06/information-about-traditional-ghanaian.html for Part I of this series. Part I presents information about the Ghanaian children's game "Ampe".
The content of this post is presented for cultural and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos, and all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to Tim Hull for his short film series of folk games including the film about Ampe and thanks to all the publishers of these YouTube videos.
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GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF AMPE
Ampe is a traditional Ghanaian children's competitive recreational children's (mostly girls) game that has been described as being similar to the hand game "rock, paper, scissors". Ampe is played by two people or two teams usually without chanting or singing. Two players at a time perform the basic movements of jump, (individual)* hand clap, followed by a jump with either the right or left foot extended. Read the rules of the game in Part I of this series.
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*individual hand clap (a person claps her or his own hand)
There are at least fifteen YouTube videos from 2009 - 2018 of Ghanaian children playing Ampe, including those videos that are featured in this post. Unfortunately, the comment feature has been disabled for most Ampe videos or those videos have few if any comments as of the time of the publication of this pancocojams post.
The globaltimoto.com short film whose link is given as "video #1" isn't featured on YouTube.
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SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Video #1: Short & Tight
Kwamoso, Eastern, Ghana
Captured: 2007-01-04 ~ 2007-02-20
Published: 2007-02-24
Duration: 14:55
by globaltimoto.com (Tim Hull)
https://www.globaltimoto.com/africa/ghana/games/ampe/videos/short-and-tight/
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Description:
"This video shows Ampe, a girls' jumping, dancing, clapping game from Ghana, that helps bring communities together and develop player skills of anticipation.
In this video we hear from young and old generations of Kwamoso to help celebrate 50 years of independence in Ghana."
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Here's a quote from that same website that explains the meaning of this film's title:
https://www.globaltimoto.com/africa/ghana/games/ampe/
"The style of clothes is very important to the game of Ampe. Most important of all is that each girl should wear a short and tight skirt facilitating the necessary movement of the legs. This style of dress carries with it a chant from spectators "Okpeng" (Short) to which the participating girls would cheer "Odadwee" (Tight). It's obviously not only the game of Ampe that drew young men to these events, but also the girls' daring fashion."
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Video #2: Ghanaian children playing Ampei in village of Hamdia, near Tamale, Ghana
CrockKneeBoy, Published on Mar 8, 2009
Ghanaian children playing Ampei in village of Hamdia, near Tamale, Ghana
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Video #3: Ampe (a ghanaian children's game)
Soul Sounds, Published on Sep 6, 2008
Some footage of a very popular game played by little girls in ghana.
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The narrator indicates that Ampe is similar to the “Rock, paper, scissors” hand game.
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Video #4: Ghana trip ♥ : What is Ampe?
MimiOnliine, Published on Sep 6, 2012
Children showing me how Ampe is played. And this video shows that boys can also play Ampe :)
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Video #5: Childrien playing Ampe. Akwamufie presbyterian school. Ghana.
Karl Holm, Published on Apr 13, 2018
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Video #6:Ghanian ladies Games
ABAN TV GH
Published on Jun 28, 2017
Playing Ghanaian woman Games
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I added the following two comments to this video's discussion thread:
Azizi Powell, June 24, 2019
"Hello, Ghanaian sisters. I'm an African American woman who happened upon this video while looking for videos of the children's game Ampe.
Are these traditional Ghanaian children's (mostly girls) games and are they still being played by children nowadays? What are the names of each of these games and explain what is being sung or chanted.
Thanks in advance.
Bless up!"
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Azizi Powell, June 24, 2019
"I'm asking about the other games beside Ampe which I recognized in this video, although I'm still not sure how to play it :o("
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Here's a reply to these questions from the video's publisher:
ABAN TV GH, June 25, 2019
"hello sister Azizi yes Ampe still play mostly at small towns and villages Amepe have some words which is not really a song , in this video you saw Ampe and Aso, ( Asɔ ) so Asɔ is the girls game come with songs . . ...."
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REPLY
Azizi Powell, June 25, 2019
"@ABAN TV GH, thank you for your quick response.
I featured this video on this post in my pancocojams cultural blog: https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/06/seven-videos-of-ghanaian-childrens-game.html Seven Videos Of The Ghanaian Children's Game "Ampe"
Do I understand you correctly that all the singing clapping games with songs in Ghana are called Aso, ( Asɔ )? I'd love to know the names of each individual game with the time it was featured in this video.
I'm very interested in documenting the words to examples of African children's games. Would you or someone else please write the words in Akan and English to at least one of those games (such as the first one in this video)?
I know that I'm asking a lot, but there's so little information about Ghanaian children's games that is know in the USA and the internet is one way to share that information with the world.
Thanks!"
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Video #7: Ampe Adenta Project
Ottiya, Published on May 22, 2018
This is a video of girls playing ampe in a group in the school yard in Ghana recorded by Yaba Haffar. Yaba wrote an article entitled "Playing and Learning through Rhythm and Song in Ghana", which connects to ampe. You can read her article in the Play Issue of the Ottiya Magazine: http://www.ottiya.com/shop
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The play issue of that magazine cost $25.00.
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This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Here's an excerpt from an article about Ampe being marketed as an adult competitive game potentially for international competitions like the Olympics:
ReplyDeleteFrom https://www.modernghana.com/sports/867436/lets-make-ghanas-ampe-an-international-sport-nana-boaten.html
12.07.2018; Let's Make Ghana's Ampe An International Sport
..."Nana Boateng Gyimah, Kontihene of Senchi Asokore, has said, they are on the verge of making Ampe, a renowned traditional game, an international sporting discipline.
He said this in an interview with the GNA Sports, ahead of an upcoming international Ampe competition between Ghana and Nigeria.
The competition is fixed for Saturday, August 25 at the Accra Cultural Centre...
Nana Boateng Gyimah, who also doubles as the head of Be-Great Promotions, the company championing the Ampe cause said, his outfit was interested in promoting local Ghanaian games, which used to be played for leisure purposes, to becoming a much more gratifying sporting event.
He said the organisation on its own had trained neighbouring countries like Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Liberia and Burkina Faso in Ghanaian games like 'Pilolo, Chaskele and Ampe.'
He said their focus as a group was on Ampe, which they have rebranded to meet international competition standards.
'Ampe has been rebranded and made a more interesting competition. It is now more of a sporting event than leisure. We want to put our traditional games on the international level starting with Ampe,' he said.
According to him, the new Ampe competition differs a bit from the normal Ampe, because of the new rules and regulations introduced to make it more competitive and exciting.
Three judges award marks for per match with each judge having a maximum score point of 10, a referee and a records keeper are responsible for officiating in every game.
'The points system is just like boxing where the judges score points for the participants. The ground for the competition is just like a boxing ring,' Nana Boateng noted.
The new Ampe competition is competed in an Ampe Arena with five rounds of each game's length.
The first round two minutes duration and a 20 seconds rest with the rest of the rounds having one-minute duration.
Teams are to present five players with two substitutes each for each game.
He called on individuals, and corporate organisations to come on board as they prepare to be the first body from Ghana to introduce an international game that will be competed at the Olympics."...