MEET
The women
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
