You just might understand these if you grew up on the mainland

So, I grew up in Ilasamaja; a rough, densely-populated area sandwiched between Isolo and Mushin. Cele express was closeby and if you shouted loud enough, people at Ago Palace way might hear you. LOL.

With numerous storied buildings built in face-me-I-face-you style, and each family having an average of two children (I’m only being cheeky, we all know the average is four), the area was naturally filled with an innumerable army of kids, swarming and buzzing around the place, many of us looking like…

So here are some really crazy things we did for fun:

After Round One...

After round one, original Panadol extra, otun gbe de… Remember the song???

A-ha! I see that smile on your face now. You remember, right?

That game where y’all choose numbers and keep playing till there’s one person left. Then you all take turns to slap that one, while he tries to dodge every one’s slaps one after the other.

But of course some people were so good that the back of your hand could never escape their stinging palms.

After 5 minutes of confam slapping, you'll see the kid like...

'O wo!'

I'm sorry, but I came from deep in the slums where that was how we used to call it. Anyway, it loosely translates to “It has gone in!”

Ok. This was quite popular with boys since it involves football (very small plastic ones preferably).

How to play: You kick around the little rubber/plastic ball; aiming to get it between someone’s legs (Toros). Once that ball just crawls between someone’s legs laidis… oh boy... such person gets the beating of their lives.

Now imagine a kid like this getting involved in that game...

Someone please call an ambulance already...

'Egbon'

So, how do I actually translate this to English???

Errrrm...

Ok. Here’s the deal, you and some other kid enter a pact where you both agree to snatch food from each other by slapping it off each other’s hands.

I kid you not, my friends.

See ehn, I don't even know what used to hurt most; having your hand heavily slapped, or actually having your #10 Tasty-Time ice cream and #10 doughnuts on the ground, and subsequently being licked and devoured up by another kid...

Uncontrollable tears...

That was some really really crazy thing we used to do back then, and I was terribly surprised last week to find some kids still engaging in number 2.

Apparently, whether it's the 1990's or early 2000's, Naija still remains Naija.