Monkey Post"; The Nigerian Street Football

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Nigeria is one of the countries in the world that are passionate about football. Both young and old people from this part of the world love football and can go through physical stress to show their undying love for it.

When growing up as a kid, we used to play street football which we call "monkey post". I know many of us have no idea of what monkey post is all about,, so let me introduce you to it.

Monkey post is a street football that is played by a few players. It's a type of football that is usually played in an open place. It could be on the street or an abandoned plot of land. The goal post is usually made with tires, blocks or wood and it's measured with a player's foot.

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In almost every area, there's always this undeveloped or abandoned plot of land where people easily convert to a football pitch until the owner is ready to farm on it or build a house on it. The pitch is sometimes named after popular stadiums like Old Trafford, Sam Siro, etc

Monkey post allows just a few players on the pitch (let's 10 players) that's 5 players from each side, unlike a normal football pitch that can contain 22 players. This type of football doesn't have a referee, linesman or a goalkeeper. Although, the lastman does the work of a goalkeeper but he's not allowed to use his hands to prevent goals but only his legs

Here are slangs used in Monkey Post

1. Allow

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This is a slang usually made by a player to alert his fellow players that he wants to go on a counter attack and that nobody should impede his movement. As soon as a player shouts "alloooooooow", he goes on counter attack with the aim of dribbling his opponent and score while one of his players is expected to take his position until he finishes the job and returns back. 😁

1. Lastman

The last man is just like a goalkeeper in a normal football just that he's not allowed to use his hands but his leg to prevent goals. When the ball touches the hand of a lastman, it's a penalty and that's why every lastman avoid having a hand contact with the ball.

3. Ojoro

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Ojoro simply means "we've been cheated". In monkey post, there are no referees or linesmen, therefore, there are usually disagreements in decision making. The norm of monkey post is that decisions are usually made by spectators, so if the spectators make a bias judgement the word "ojoro" means they made by a team means "we've been cheated" If majority of the spectators decide that it's penalty or a foul, then it's a foul and vice versa

4. Set

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Since monkey post is a type of football that allows not more than 10 people on the pitch, other players that want to play will form a group of five people and will be waiting for a team to trash the other so that they will play. This is what we call set and its usually former by those who came early to the pitch.

Here are some interesting things about Monkey Post

1. Decisions are made by spectators

2. The match ends when everyone is tired or when it's getting dark

3. The owner of the ball is more like a king. If he gets angry he can decide to end the game by taking his ball home 😁

4. The most skillful player always get automatic selection

5. The game is usually fun when it's raining

6. Most times people play with their barefoot so you need to be very careful so that you will not sustain injury

7. The match is not more than 10-15 minutes. No first or second half

8. If the match ends in draw, penalty will follow suit

9. Penalty is played by one goal post to the other without without anybody trying to prevent it. It's just a far range penalty without a goalkeeper preventing it

10. No doctor to attend to you when you sustain injury. You just have to be careful

There you have it. I just shared something that brought back memories