Soon after birth the child will be given a nickname, nearly always of one syllable. Intimates will continue to call him or her by this nickname for the rest of his life and may indeed have to think for a while to remember the proper name.
Childhood is a carefree, cossetted time.
By the age of four, children regularly meet to play beyond the family compound, with boys and girls generally segregating and roaming freely throughout the village. Boys play make-believe games, fly kites, plow imaginary fields, and hunt insects and harmless reptiles. Girls nurse make-shift. Gradually the children are drawn into work pattems. Around eight years of age, girls give increasing help with household chores and boys assume greater - responsibilities such as feeding domestic animals and guarding the family buffalo as it grazes or wallows.