Three centuries, One game. How stories made Cops and Robbers immortal

“Kpow kpow kpow!!!” So far, the evening had been prone to intrusion, but this particular one was rather unusual. In keeping with my resolution to write a weekly article, I was sitting on my balcony trying to recollect a scene that involved driving a manual car. I had tried to call the specifics of the incident to mind earlier, but having failed, I decided to try the balcony for a change of scenery. I closed my eyes and tried to picture it, but the mosquitoes were having none of that. They stung furiously, forcing me to retreat temporarily for some insect repellant. Returning to the balcony, I closed my eyes once again, enjoying the brisk breeze as the sun set over Accra. And that’s when the sound rang out.

“Kpow kpow kpow!” The racket startled me, but I shut my eyes tight and tried to focus on the memory I was trying to conjure. “Kpow KPOW KPOOOOWWW!!!” The commotion was more insistent this time, and now I was irritated. My focus had been broken, so I opened my eyes to locate the source of the noise. “Kwei, I shot you.” “No way, you missed!” I was intrigued. I started eavesdropping, wondering what the neighborhood kids were up to. “Okay, this time we’re the police and you’re the thieves,” a young girl squealed excitedly. Distraction became delight for me, as I realised that the kids were playing Police and Thief (or Cops and Robbers, depending on where you grew up). That game was the mainstay of many of my childhood afternoons. The rules were simple. The group split into police and thieves. The former pursued the latter, and thieves who got caught were taken to a home base called jail. In return, the thieves could liberate their mates by sprinting to jail without being caught. I’d love to sit here and tell you that I was an upstanding policeman, thwarting youthful criminals. But the truth is, I came alive when I played thief, lungs bursting with every stride I took to get further away from the chasing officers of the law.

Looks like this robber got caught

The kids’ evening excitement made me reminisce, but it also gave me pause. Something was niggling at the back of my brain, and I couldn’t exactly figure it out. It had been almost 15 years since I last played a robber baron on the run from the law. So how come almost two decades later, children of a distinct generation, in a different neighborhood, were playing the same game? The question plagued me so much that I suspended the article I had intended to write and began a search for answers that culminated in the one you currently hold in your hands. So let’s find out — exactly how does a children’s game propagate itself across different eras and disparate environments?

In my super serious research on police and thief, I found sources that highlighted the game being played as far back as the early 1800s, with the first video footage of children playing cops and robbers dating back to 1957. Put differently, kids around the world had been playing police and thief before the bicycle was invented and before Ghana became an independent state. Essentially, the two decades I had initially marveled at were beginning to look like, well, child’s play. Focusing my investigations on *how* cops and robbers stayed alive for centuries, I began to notice a pattern. See if you can spot it in these quotes from separate sources.

The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary describes cops and robbers as “a children’s game in which the players imitate the way police chase and shoot at criminals in movies, on television, etc.” Conversely, the Toledo Police Museum offers clarity on the game’s longevity, explaining that “cops and criminals have long been fascinating subjects for literature, television and childhood games.” Did you catch it? While entertainment media such as books, movies and television feature prominently in the quotes, a common thread binds them — Stories. Cops and robbers tells us a familiar story in a new guise — good vs evil, heroes against villains. The police are the good guys, the thieves are the bad guys. It’s a simple story, but it works for kids (and adults too, if we’re being honest).

Stories are certainly fun and entertaining, which is why they are constantly represented across television and literature. But they also have a unique property that makes them vastly more important — stories are memorable. Think of the most famous speech you know. There’s a very high likelihood that Dr. Martin Luther King’s iconic “I have a dream” oration popped into your mind. Why? The speech spun a story of a future America for all people, a republic built on opportunity and equality. Let’s try another exercise. Name three iconic brands. There’s a decent chance that Apple featured in your list. How come? Again, the story. For decades, Apple has spun a tale of being the creator’s brand, starting with its classic ‘1984’ ad positioning it against IBM, which represented everything big and corporate.

But why are stories so effective at turning everything from childhood games to personal computers into superglue for the brain? It turns out we have evolution to blame for that. As the human species has developed over the centuries, various civilisations around the globe developed oral traditions as a means to transfer knowledge and share experiences. Cultures as disparate as the Ancient Greeks, the Choctaws of Native America and the kingdoms of Western Africa independently nurtured deeply entrenched oral storytelling customs. Each of these cultures took advantage of a simple fact — the human brain has evolved to be better at remembering stories than other information, including figures and lists. But don’t just take it from me. Research from Stanford University study showed that when asked to recall highlights from a lecture, only 5% of people could cite the statistics shared in it, but a staggering 63% of participants successfully retold the story.

Stories by the fireside

At this juncture, you may be torn between thinking stories are more important than you knew and wondering how to leverage that. Let’s reconcile the two. The crux of the matter is simple. If something truly matters to you, create a story around it. Got a job interview you need to ace? Brush up on standout stories from your career to make yourself memorable. Want prospective clients to have you top of mind for their next purchase? Make your product the hero in a brand story. Need to make a kids’ playground game stick around for centuries? Tell a… you get the idea. Our brains are wired for narratives, so take advantage of that biological quirk. Craft a story around your next project, and it just might become immortal.