While moving, you should keep dropping a bead in each hole and you continue till the last of the beads fall into an empty hole. The player places a bead into each of the boards.Īfter placing the last pebble into your Mancala hole, you’ll carry all the beads that are in the hole and move in a counter-clockwise manner around the kalah board. Just like in the AyoAyo, each row contains small marbles or beads that the player can pick to play the game. The holes are placed in rows and are shared between the players. In every variant of Mancala, there is a board that has an even number of holes. The movement of the game is in the counter-clockwise direction.Īlthough AyoAyo is becoming less prominent in Nigeria, it can still be seen around in some traditional settings. Both players will then agree on who goes first, and the game begins. One row belongs to a player while the other belongs to the opponent. Each seed has 4 seeds, making 48 seeds in total. And just like most Mancala variants, the game has 12 holes that are divided equally across two rows. The gameplay is extremely similar to Oware that was taken to South America in the era of the slave trade. The AyoAyo variation of the Mancala game is one that’s largely played by the indigenous Yoruba tribe of Nigeria and the Benin Republic. Here’s we’ll touch on five of the most popular Mancala variations that are available: Mancala in itself is not a game but a family of games that share common rules of play.Īre you enthusiastic about board games? If you are, there’s no doubt that you’ll be ruminating on the variation of the game that exists since it’s a family of games. The game is widely accepted in different continents of the world and across numerous cultures.
The nighttime spirits of the ancestors would participate in this “electoral combat”, influencing their preferred candidate to win, giving their seal of approval to the new chief through the result of one or several games.Anyone that’s knowledgeable about the Mancala game will know that it’s one of the longest existing board games that have graced the planet earth. The Alladian and Baule peoples of Ivory Coast also used this game at night and behind closed doors to determine who would be the next chief. The players only play to entice and distract the soul of the deceased and any other lurking spirits. However, sometimes, people will take this risk for ritual purposes.ĭuring funerary wakes, mancala is played at night in Dahomey, for example.
It is believed that an individual’s soul could be stolen, they could be cursed with sickness, their mother could die, if they were to play during the time the spirits are active.
Anyone playing at night takes extreme risks in attracting malicious spirits and offending them with mortal play. At night mancala players leave their game boards and pieces outside for the spirits’ entertainment. When a Fon girl of Dahomey has her first menstrual cycle, she will seclude herself in her home for seven days as part of her initiation, which includes playing mancala. Women who want to give birth to twins will play against pairs of girls or boys. Playing with a girl will increase the odds of the baby being born female, playing against a boy will inversely make it more likely their baby will be male. It’s thought to have an influence on the sex of unborn children, so the Baule women of Ivory Coast play a special variant of the mancala game in hopes of influencing their child’s development. Mancala can also take on a more serious aspect. The Dogon of Mali do not encourage children to play mancala for fear that it will bring misfortune to the village, but adults playing the game seemingly don’t carry the same risk. For example, The Wolof of Senegal traditionally forbid non-initiated boys from playing. In certain areas, it is seen as a man’s game, and in others areas, men don’t play, making it a female game.Īlthough mancala games have educational value in teaching arithmetic skills, some places forbid boys or girls from playing. The rules of who is allowed to play vary from place to place. The word Mancala is derived from the Arabic word Naqala (na-ka-la), which means “to move” or “to transfer” It is widely believed that Arab traders brought the game with them when traveling and it quickly spread all over Africa and the world, but it is uncertain to know where the game first originated.
The board was carved out of limestone bearing a striking resemblance to modern-day Mancala boards. However, the oldest Mancala boards were found in An Ghazal, Jordan in the floor of a Neolithic dwelling. Ancient Mancala boards were found in Aksumite settlements in Matara, Eritrea, and Yeha, Ethiopia. There is archeological and historical evidence that dates Mancala back to the year 700 AD in East Africa. Mancala is one of the oldest known two-player board games in the world, believed to have been created in ancient times.
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