"Sansa Kroma" The Legend Behind the Game

This song is based on “Akan” folklore from the tribes of Ghana.  Some say that the song made its way to Haitian villages during the slave trade period.  It recounts the story of an imaginary eagle, or “Sansa Kroma”.
 
One day Sansa Kroma was soaring high in the sky when she noticed a flock of orphaned eagle chicks.  She hovered above them, then snatched them up and carried them back to her nest where she raised them as if they were her own. 

 The moral of the song is, in African villages when a child is orphaned someone in the village, if not the whole village will provide for the child.

 During the apartheid period in South Africa, people used to flee their homes; some were forced to leave their children behind. These exiled sang Sansa Kroma because they held to the belief that their children would be cared for.

see "Sansa Kroma" the song

Sansa Kroma

Sansa Kroma
Nena yo keke kokomba
Sansa Kroma
Nena yo keke kokomba

English

Eagle!
Once a flock of chicks’ mother died;
Another came along, 
Snatched the little orphan chicks,
And provided for them…

Haitian kids play this pick-up and-pass game with a shoe. They would gather in a circle, either seating or squatting. One player would take off her shoe and would tie a ribbon to it.

They game would start when the kids began singing “Sansa Kroma…” The players will pass the shoe along to the next person around the circle.

 When the song stops, whoever gets caught with the ribbon-adorned with a colorful ribbon shoe must leave the game. The players will continue to play until everyone is eliminated. The last person standing wins.

Also see "Sansa Kroma"The Legend Behind the Game