These
ancient
African
games are
part of a large
family of "sowing" or "count and capture"
games played in numerous
variations around the world. Play involves scooping the "seeds"
from one's pits and then sowing them one per pit around the
board. Captures are made a variety of ways. Since the pieces are
common to both players, and constantly rotate around the board
altering both player's positions, it becomes a challenging
strategy game. The "sowing seeds" imagery of these games
reflects the importance of agriculture in African life, even as
the "cows" imagery in the game of Morabaraba (below)
reflects the significance of their cattle.
The
best known games
of this family in the Western world are Oware (Ghana),
Kalah, Omweso (Uganda), and Bao (Zimbabwe) - though
the names may vary from place to place. Mancala games play a
role in many African and some Asian societies comparable to that
of chess in the West. They are some of the oldest games of the
world and have
many names
in many cultures. There are more than a hundred versions of play
on various size boards.
Board Variations:
Boards have
historically be improvised in many ways: rows of depressions in
sand or hollows in wood or stone, or rows of shells, using seeds
or pebbles as playing pieces. Boards may be elaborately carved
or simple and functional; they may include a pedestal, or be
hinged to fold lengthwise or crosswise and latch for portability
and storage, with the seeds inside. The pits may also be
arranged in a oval or circular pattern. They range from very
simple to museum quality works of folk art.
Oware (aka
Awale, Wari, Owari, etc) and Kalah
use a rectangular board usually made of wood with two rows of
six pits, and sometimes a pit at each end to hold captures.
These are the Mancala boards commercially available.
Omweso and Bao
both use boards with four rows of eight pits. The Bao
board has two square pits - one each in the two middle rows.
Ah-Wah-Ree
(A 3M Bookshelf Game from the 1960's uses a folding plastic
board with twelve pits arranged in a circle) can frequently be
found on Ebay. Playable by 2-4 players, it included the
possibility of capturing the other player's pits as well.
55Stones
a modern Mancala variation by Ralf Gering (2002) uses a board of
11 pits in a single row, and simultaneous play.
Oware
(The national game of Ghana, is called Awale (Ivory
Coast), Wari or Awari (Mali), and numerous other
names). This Mancala game is played on two rows of six pits each
using 48 stones and a storing cup for each player.
Kalah
Perhaps the
simplest Mancala game,
Kalah
uses two rows of six pits and 36 stones, and storing cup for
each player. The "Kalah" are the storage pits on the players'
right sides. Considered by some to be a children's game, it
gives an advantage to the first player to move. Its rules are
frequently included with the Mancala boards sold commercially.
Omweso and
Bao
These are played on
a board with four rows of 8 pits and using 64 seeds.
 -
Omweso
is the
national game of Uganda
and is played on a board with 4x8 holes and 64 seeds. The
setup is a part of the strategy of the game as each player
distributes his seeds through his two rows of pits as he
choses. In historic Uganda culture, women, children and
people with better things to do were discouraged from
playing the game as it can become quite involved. It was
useful way to keep a tribal king's retainers occupied
though.
-
Bao
(Tanzania and Zimbabwe) is reckoned to be the most
complicated of all mancala games: not only because of the
complexity of the rules, but also because of the strategies
and tactics it offers to its players. Aslo played on a 4x8
board with 64 seeds, each player has only ten seeds on the
board at the start. The other 22 seeds are kept off the
board and are brought into play one by one. Together with
Wari, it is the only Mancala game to have championship
tournaments.
Organizations'
Pages
Computer
versions
Books on Mancala
Games:
Morabaraba
Another
interesting African Board Game is
Morabaraba
Originally played by shepherds and herdsmen, it may have evolved
from Mancala. Legend says this game was used to teach young men
how to steal cows, and that the African Chiefs sought the best
players for their advisors.
It is obviously the forefather of
Nine Man Morris
a
game with
a long history in Europe. According to the rules of the game,
two players have 12 cows each and play on a wooden board ringed
with 24 circles. The ultimate aim is to take as many of your
opponent's cows as possible while moving your cows forward and
towards your opponent's back row. Captures are made when a
player gets three of his cows in a straight line. Fabricating a
board and pieces would be easy. There is an
Shareware computer version
of the game available and the game has been used as
tournament game
as well.
strategy
involved.
Also called
Umlabalaba, the game is a very old game,
played across the African continent.
The "cows" tactically manoeuvred around the board are actually
tokens, based on the traditional supreme symbol of wealth - the
number of cows that a man owned. In Ghana, the game was used to
teach kids how to count, add and subtract. Morabaraba is
especially popular in South Africa. In the Eastern Cape it is
called mlabalaba and in the Northern Province it is known
as mefuvha. In Zimbabwe, it is called tsoro and in
Angola it is referred to as mbau.
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