![Wooden Mancala board](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Wooden_Mancala_board.jpg)
Layli Goobalay (or Layli Goobaly) is a board game played in parts of
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐; ar, ุงูุตูู
ุงู, aแนฃ-แนขลซmฤl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
. It is a variant of the classical
count and capture game ''
mancala
The mancala games are a family of two-player turn-based strategy board games played with small stones, beans, or seeds and rows of holes or pits in the earth, a board or other playing surface. The objective is usually to capture all or some ...
'' (from the
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
word ''naqala'', meaning literally "to move"), which is one of the oldest two-player strategy board games played throughout the world. ''Layli Goobalay'' means "to exercise with circles" in the
Somali language
Somali (Latin script: ; Wadaad writing, Wadaad: ; Osmanya: ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ) is an Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic languages, Cushitic branch. It is spoken as a mother tongue by Somalis in ...
.
Rules
Layli Goobalay is played on a 2x6 mancala board (i.e., 2 rows of 6 pits each), with 48 seeds. At game setup, 4 seeds are placed in each pit. Similar equipment and game setup are used for in other mancalas.
At his or her turn, the player takes all the seeds from a pit and
sows them counterclockwise. If the last seed of a sowing falls in a non-empty pit that is not a ''Uur'' (see below),
relay-sowing applies. Thus, the player's turn ends when the last seed in a sowing is dropped in an empty pit or in a ''Uur'' pit. Depending on the pit where this last seed was dropped, the following situations may occur:
* if the pit is a ''Uur'', nothing happens;
* if the pit is in the opponent's row, nothing happens;
* if the pit is the player's row, and the adjacent pit in the opponent's row is empty, nothing happens;
* if the pit is the player's row, and the adjacent pit in the opponent's row is non empty, the seeds in the opponent's pit are captured. This in turn may lead to two consequences:
** if the opponent's pit contains 3 seeds, one of those seeds is captured and placed in the same pit as the capturing seed. The two pits involved in the capture thus will have 2 seeds each. Those are termed ''Uur'' (meaning "pregnant") and they now belong to the player who captured;
** if the opponent's pit contains any other number of seeds, all those seeds as well as the capturing seed are removed from the game.
A player can never begin a sowing from ''Uur'' pits, and relay-sowing does not apply to ''Uur'' pits. Consequently, the content of ''Uur'' pits tends to grow over time.
The game ends when one of the player can no longer move. Both players then capture the seeds from their own ''Uur''s (remember that a player can own a ''Uur'' in the opponent's row) and from the other pits in their own rows. The player who captured most seeds wins the game.
Notes
References
*
Jama Musse Jama
Jama Musse Jama ( so, Jaamac Muuse Jaamac, ar, ุฌุงู
ุน ู
ูุณู ุฌุงู
ุน) (b. 1967) is a prominent Somali ethnomathematician and author. He is notable for his research on traditional Somali boardgames such as Shax.
Biography
Jama was bor ...
, ''Layli Goobalay: Variante somala del "gioco nazionale africano"''. Ponte Invisibile Edizioni,
Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
, (2002).
External links
* {{in lang, it}
Rules(by Jama Musse Jama)
Rules
Traditional mancala games
Somali games