G.lobal E.dge M.edia Sport

After the celebrations of National heritage day last week saturday. we here at GEM decided to highlight the national sports of South Africa and after hours of consulatation decided on the sport of Juskei.

Jukskei is a traditional Afrikaans sport involving 2 Batons or skei's (not much unlike a pin in 10 pin bowling) and a peg sticking out the ground on either side of a 11 or 16 meter sand pit. Two teams of 4 members take turns throwing their skei's in hope of hittting the peg. If a participant hits the pole they gets 3 points, if no skei hits the pole the team with the skei closest to the peg scores as many points as they have skei's closer than their opponents closest skei.

It's origins are set to have dated back to 1743 when transport drivers in the Cape threw the pins in their oxens yoke at nearby sticks planted in the ground. It gained popularity during the great Trek and was offically recognised as a sport in 1939. It had mass followings in the traansvaal and free state areas of South Africa.

The sport was recently included on the South African Indeginous games Project for conservation of the sport's heritage and today is organised into a number of clubs and teams from school to international level. The South African Jukskei team is represented at annual event's in Kroonstad , South Africa and Greenville, Ohio, U.S.A; where they compete against teams from Namibia and America.These 3 countries form the International Jukskei Federation with the executive commitee presided by Tinus Barnard.

Let us know below.