In order to approach the problem of anxiety in play, let us consider the activity of building and destroying a tower. Many a mother thinks that her son is in a ‘destructive stage’ or even has a ‘destructive personality’ because after building a big, big tower, the boy cannot follow her advice to leave the tower for Daddy to see, but instead must kick it and make it collapse. The almost manic pleasure with which children watch the collapse in a second of the product of long play-labor has puzzles many, especially since the child does not appreciate it at all if his tower falls by accident or by a helpful uncle’s hand. He, the builder must destroy it himself. This game, I should think arises from the not so distant experience of sudden falls at the very time when standing upright on wobbly legs afforded a new and fascinating perspective on existence. The child who consequently learns to make a tower ‘stand up’ enjoys causing the same tower to waver and collapse; in addition to the active mastery over a previous passive event, it makes one feel stronger to know that there is somebody weaker-and towers, unlike little sister, can’t cry and call ‘mummy’

The market was old, timeless Africa; loud, crowed and free. Here a man sat making sandals from old discarded motor-car tyres; there another worked at an old sewing machine, making a nightgown-like affair while the buyer waited; a little further on, an old goldsmith worked at his dying art, but using now copper fillings instead of gold to fashion the lovely trinkets women wear the world over; elsewhere a woman sold country cloth fashioned with such fine art that only Africans think of it as a garment of utility. Trade was slow and loud everywhere. This was as much a social as a shopping centre. For an excuse to spend the day at the market, a woman would walk all way from her village to town with half dozen eggs. She would spread them on a little bit of ground for which she paid rent. Through the day she would squat on the ground and talk to others who came for the same reason. She would refuse to sell her wares till it was time to leave. They were the excuse for business. Whether in earnest or as an excuse, the traders were boisterously free, loud-mouthed and happy. The laughter of the market was a laughter found nowhere else in all the world……………