Kiothi is a traditional
mancala game played by the
Meru
Meru may refer to:
Geography Kenya
* Meru, Kenya, a city in Meru County, Kenya
** Meru County, created by the merger of
*** Meru Central District
*** Meru North District
*** Meru South District
* Meru National Park, a Kenyan wildlife park
Tanza ...
people in
Kenya. The word "kiothi" simply means "to place" (i.e., placing the seeds in the pits). This mancala is closely related to the
Enkeshui
Enkeshui (or Engesho) is a traditional mancala game played by the Maasai of both Kenya and Tanzania. It is a rather complex mancala game, and bears some similarities to the Layli Goobalay mancala played in Somaliland.
Rules Equipment and gameset ...
and the
Giuthi mancalas, respectively played by the
Maasai Maasai may refer to:
* Maasai people
*Maasai language
* Maasai mythology
* MAASAI (band)
See also
* Masai (disambiguation)
* Massai
Massai (also known as: Masai, Massey, Massi, Mah–sii, Massa, Wasse, Wassil or by the nickname "Big Foot" Mas ...
, the
Kikuyu Kikuyu or Gikuyu (Gĩkũyũ) mostly refers to an ethnic group in Kenya or its associated language.
It may also refer to:
*Kikuyu people, a majority ethnic group in Kenya
*Kikuyu language, the language of Kikuyu people
*Kikuyu, Kenya, a town in Centr ...
and
Embu people
The Embu are a Bantu people inhabiting Embu county in Kenya. They speak the Embu language as a mother tongue. To the south of Embu are to be found their cousins, the Mbeere people. In essence Embu county encompasses the ethnic Kî embu dialec ...
.
Rules
The Kiothi board is 2x10, i.e., 2 rows of 10 pits each. Each player owns a row and 30 seeds. At game setup, seeds are placed in the 5 rightmost pits of each player's row, 6 per pit. Before the game starts, anyway, each player can take the seeds from one of his pits and distribute those seeds freely on the board (including in the opponent's pits).
At his or her turn, the player takes all the seeds from one of his pits and
relay-sows them counterclockwise. When the last seed is dropped in an empty pit:
* if the pit is in the opponent's row, the turn is over;
* if the pit is in the player's row, and the sowing has crossed the opponent's row, the seed is captured; any seeds in the opponent's opposite pit are also captured.
As an exception to the above, seeds in any pit cannot be captured if the player owning the pit has never been sowing (or relay sowing) from that pit.
Another exception is that if the capturing seed was dropped in the leftmost of the player's pits, and the opponent's opposite pit is non empty and it is followed by a sequence of non empty pits, then seeds from ''all'' those adjacent non empty pits are captured.
When a player cannot move anymore, the opponent captures all the seeds remaining on the board. The player who captured most seeds wins.
External links
Kiothi
Traditional mancala games
Culture of Kenya