What are Mancala games? – WOMEN IN MANCALA GAMES

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.

The games improves players’ cognitive, motor and social skills and strategic and creative thinking, and teaches them to be patient and considerate. It is transmitted both informally and through formal education.

Mancala games have been played in many part of the world, and variations of the games exist across different countries:

Bao – played in most of East Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Madagascar, Malawi, as well as some areas of DR Congo, and Burundi
Gebeta – played in Ethiopia and Eritrea (especially in Tigray).
Mangala – played in Turkey
Omweso (mweso) – played in Uganda, some players and tournaments also in the UK.
Oware (awalé, awélé, awari) – Ashanti, but played world-wide including Europe (England, France, Catalonia, Portugal), where it is mostly played (but not exclusively) by expatriates; close variants in West Africa (e.g., Ayo by Yorubas (Nigeria), Ouri (Cape Verde)) and Warri in the Caribbean
Pallanguzhi – played in Tamil Nadu, India.
Ovvaḷugoṇḍi – played in Maldives
Songo – played in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, also among expatriates in France.
Sungka – Popular variants are known as Congklak (a.k.a. congkak, congka, tjongklak, jongklak) and Dakon (or dhakon) – played in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei; boards are often sold in fairtrade shops in Germany and other European countries.
Togyz korgool or Togyzqumalaq – played in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
Eson Khorgol (Mongolian: «nine balls»), also Eson Xorgol, played by the Kazakh minority in the aimag province of Bayan Ölgii in north-western Mongolia.

As an international community for playing mancala games grows, this project initially will focus in the games played in international competitions, mainly: Togyzqumalaq, Oware and Mangala.