WOMEN IN MANCALA GAMES
RAISING WOMEN VOICES IN ABSTRACT GAMES
A project about the stories and the inspiring women in Mancala games
About the project
“Women in Mancala Games” is a project that aims to raise the voices of women in the mancala games family around the world, as well as other abstract games.
Mancala games, one of the first abstract games recorded , some with more than 3,000 years of history have been (and are) part of many societies and cultures all across the world.
These games oware, togyzqumalaq, mangala are recognized as they are all played in a board where small pieces (pebbles, seeds, qumalaqs) have to be moved to capture in the opponent side.
Women in Mancala project
A project about the stories and
inspiring women in abstract games
Blog
International Togyzqumalaq tournament held in Amasya, Turkey from the 20th to the 25th of September 2025
As is usual of mancala competitions, men and women compete non-mixed. Regarding the women and girls in competition, I was surprised by the great number of young girls and women participating in the tournament. In all the games played, more women than men participated.
– In the togyzqumalaq classic tournament, 27 women and 21 men.
– In the oware tournament, 14 women and 13 men.
– In the mangala tournament, 47 women and 35 men.
– In bestemshe blitz tournament, 36 women and 24 men.
Meet Canan Alıcıoğlu: President & Founder of the Bestemshe, Togyzqumalaq & Magala Games Association in Amasya Türkiye
Inaugurating our series of interviews of the inspiring voices of Women in Mancala, today we meet Canan Alıcıoğlu, president and founder of the Bestemşe Dokuz Kumalak ve Mangala Oyunları Derneği (Bestemshe, Togyzqumalaq & Magala Games Association during the Czhech Open 2025 in Pardubice, Czech Republic, on her views about women in mancala games…
Meet Hana Kotinova: abstract games master, Czech international mancala athlete & organizer
The first time I saw Hana Kotinova was in 2024, at the 5th World Nomad Games in Astana, Kazakhstan. After that we have seen each other many times, ans have became, if she allows me, friends and also rivals in togyzqumalq and oware. Beating Hana in mangala would be another story…
Meet Aiyegbusi Oluwakemi: Nigeria’s Ayo Champion & former olympic athlete
Aiyegbusi or “Lady Kemitte”, as they call her in the Ayo (oware) world was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1981. She has been a professional athlete for many years in Nigeria, although not always in mancala games.
She started her career as a weight lifter for the Lagos State, and then qualifying for the Nigerian Olympic team which was going to compete in Rio de Janeiro in 2016…
Meet Érika Haydn: Brazilian awelé champion & Mancala teacher
Today we meet Érika Haydn, from São Paulo, Brasil. Many adjectives could describe Érika but she is best known for being a fierce mancala player and a comitted woman in the pursue of social and women equality inside and outside the mancala board.
Érika and I came across in the beginning of 2025. We could have never met, but I saw her playing and training online, playing mancala tournaments one week after another, especially Oware (Awelé), and I contacted her…
Meet Assel Daliyeva: 12-time Togyzqumalaq World Champion & 2 times Oware Nomad Champion
Meet Assel Daliyeva: 12-time Togyzqumalaq World Champion & 2 times Oware Nomad Champion.
As an athlete in Togzyqumalaq she has achieved the greatest title of those available for Togzyqumalaq: Honorary Masters of Sports; in oware, she holds the title of Master. Beyond her career as an athlete, she has written 12 books on Togyzqumalaq, translated to 5 languages…
Women in Mancala project
What are Mancala games?
Mancala games is a family of strategy and abstract “pit & pebble games”, two-player games on a board, played with small stones, beans, marbles or seeds or qumalaqs. The objective of the games is to capture all or some set of the opponent’s pieces.
They are considered “traditional intelligence games” and there here are several variations of the game. For example, the board can have two, three, four, six or nine pits arranged in order according to the number of players, and the duration varies according to the number of players.