![Bao players in stone town zanzibar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Bao_players_in_stone_town_zanzibar.jpg)
The mancala games are a family of two-player
turn-based
In video and other games, the passage of time must be handled in a way that players find fair and easy to understand. This is usually done in one of the two ways: real-time and turn-based.
Real-time
Real-time games have game time progress cont ...
strategy
Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...
board game
Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
Many board games feature a comp ...
s 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 set of the opponent's pieces.
Versions of the game date back past the
3rd century
The 3rd century was the period from 201 ( CCI) to 300 (CCC) Anno Domini (AD) or Common Era (CE) in the Julian calendar..
In this century, the Roman Empire saw a crisis, starting with the assassination of the Roman Emperor Severus Alexander ...
and evidence suggests the game existed in
Ancient Egypt. It is among the oldest known games to still be widely played today.
Names and variants
![Newone - ô ăn quan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Newone_-_%C3%B4_%C4%83n_quan.jpg)
The name is a classification or type of game, rather than any specific game. Some of the most popular
mancala games (concerning distribution area, the numbers of players and tournaments, and publications) are:
*
Ayoayo {{Short description, Traditional mancala played by the Yoruba people in Nigeria
Ayoayo (Yoruba: ''Ayò Ọlọ́pọ́n'') is a traditional mancala played by the Yoruba people in Nigeria. It is very close to the Oware game that spread to the Ameri ...
, played by the
Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
people in
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
; similar to
Oware
Oware is an abstract strategy game among the mancala family of board games (pit and pebble games) played worldwide with slight variations as to the layout of the game, number of players and strategy of play. Its origin is uncertain but it is wide ...
*
Alemungula Alemungula is a traditional mancala game played by the people living along the border of Ethiopia and Sudan. The name "Alemungula" is specifically used by the Wataweat people of the Asosa- Beni Sangul area, while essentially the same game is called ...
or gebeta (ገበጣ)– played in
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
and
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
.
*
Ali Guli Mane or
Pallanguzhi
Pallanguli, or Pallankuli (, , , , ), is a traditional ancient mancala game played in South India, especially Tamil Nadu and Kerala. This game was later introduced to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in India, as well as Sri Lanka and Malaysia. The ...
– played in Southern India.
*
Bao la Kiswahili – played in most of
East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa:
Due to the historical ...
including
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
,
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
,
Comoros
The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...
,
Malawi
Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...
, as well as some areas of
DR Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
and
Burundi
Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili language, Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French language, French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the ...
.
*
Congklak (a.k.a. ''congkak'', ''congka'', ''tjongklak'', ''jongklak'') – played in
Malay Archipelago
The Malay Archipelago (Indonesian/Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Archipe ...
by
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
(i.e.
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
people).
*
Dakon (or ) – played in
Indonesian archipelago
The islands of Indonesia, also known as the Indonesian Archipelago ( id, Kepulauan Indonesia) or Nusantara, may refer either to the islands comprising the country of Indonesia or to the geographical groups which include its islands.
History ...
(especially in
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
island).
* Gebeta (Tigrigna: ገበጣ) – Ethiopian and Eritrea (especially in Tigrai).
*
Hoyito
Hoyito (also known as El Hoyito, Casitas or Mate) is a traditional mancala game played in the Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antil ...
– played in the Dominican Republic.
* Igisoro - played in
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
.
*
Kalah
Kalah is a modern variation in the ancient Mancala family of games, the oldest known version having been found carved into a stone tablet in the 16th-century BCE pyramid of Cheops. The Kalah variation was developed in the United States by Willia ...
–
North American
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...
variation, the most popular variant in the
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and state (polity), states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. .
*
Lamlameta {{No footnotes, date=March 2021
Lamlameta is a traditional mancala game played by the Konso people living in the Olanta area of central Ethiopia. It was first described in 1971 by British academic Richard Pankhurst. It is usually played by men. The ...
– played in Ethiopia.
*
Ô ăn quan
Ô ăn quan (literally: Mandarin Square Capturing) is a traditional Vietnamese children's board game. This game is valuable for enhancing calculating and strategical ability.
Board, pieces, and players
* A rectangle which is divided into ten ...
- played in Vietnam.
* Ohvalhugondi - played in
the Maldives
Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...
* Omanu Guntalu (in
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
) – played in rural areas of Telangana, India.
* Opón ayò – among the Yorubas of Nigeria.
*
Oware
Oware is an abstract strategy game among the mancala family of board games (pit and pebble games) played worldwide with slight variations as to the layout of the game, number of players and strategy of play. Its origin is uncertain but it is wide ...
(''awalé, awélé, awari'') –
Ashanti, but played world-wide with close variants played throughout
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
(e.g., ayo by
Yorubas
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
and ishe by
Igalas) and in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
.
*
Pallanguzhi
Pallanguli, or Pallankuli (, , , , ), is a traditional ancient mancala game played in South India, especially Tamil Nadu and Kerala. This game was later introduced to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in India, as well as Sri Lanka and Malaysia. The ...
- played in Tamil Nadu, India
*
Sungka
Southeast Asian mancalas are a subtype of mancala games predominantly found in Southeast Asia. They are known as congklak ( VOS Spelling: tjongklak), congkak, congka, and dakon in Indonesia, congkak in Malaysia and Brunei, and sungkâ in the P ...
– It was first described by the Jesuit priest Father José Sanchez in his dictionary of the Bisaya language (Cebuano) in a 1692 manuscript as ''kunggit''. Father José Sanchez who had arrived in the Philippines in 1643 wrote that at the game was played with seashells on a wooden, boat-like board. The
Aklanon people
The Aklanon people are the ethnolinguistic group who lived in the province of Aklan. They are part of the wider Bisaya ethnolinguistic group, who constitute the largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group.
Area
Aklanon form the majority in the provinc ...
still call the game ''kunggit''.
*
Toguz korgool
Toguz korgool ( ky, тогуз коргоол - "nine sheep droppings") or togyzkumalak ( kz, тоғыз құмалақ), is a two-player game in the mancala family that is played in Central Asia.
Board
The game is played on a board with two ro ...
or Toguz kumalak – played in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
* ''Vwela'' – played by the nyemba (lucazi) people distributed between Southern Angola, Northern East Namibia, and Zambia.
They differ from other mancala types in that the player's store is included in the placing of the seeds. The most common type has seven holes for each player, in addition to the player store holes. This version has identical rules throughout its range. But there are also numerous variations with the number of holes and rules by region. Sometimes more than one version can be played in a single locality.
Although more than 800 names of traditional mancala games are known, some names denote the same game, while others are used for more than one game. Almost 200 modern invented versions have also been described.
History
![MuseoDeBurgos20130911133533SAM 3411](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/MuseoDeBurgos20130911133533SAM_3411.jpg)
Evidence of the game was uncovered in Israel in the city of
Gedera
Gedera, or less commonly known as Gdera ( he, גְּדֵרָה), is a town in the southern part of the Shfela region in the Central District of Israel founded in 1884. It is south of Rehovot.
In , it had a population of .
History
Gedera ...
in an excavated Roman bathhouse where pottery boards and rock cuts were unearthed dating back to between the 2nd and 3rd century AD. Among other early evidence of the game are fragments of a pottery board and several rock cuts found in
Aksumite
The Kingdom of Aksum ( gez, መንግሥተ አክሱም, ), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom centered in Northeast Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in wha ...
areas in
Matara (in
Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
) and
Yeha
Yeha ( gez, ይሐ ''yiḥa'', older ESA 𐩥𐩢 ''ḤW''; Old South Arabian: 𐩺𐩢𐩱 ''Yḥʾ'') is a town in the Maekelay Zone of the northern Tigray Region in Ethiopia. It likely served as the capital of the pre-Aksumite kingdom of D'mt. ...
(in Ethiopia), which are dated by archaeologists to between the 6th and 7th centuries AD; the game may have been mentioned by
Giyorgis of Segla
Giyorgis of Segla (c. 1365 – 1 July 1425), also known as Giyorgis of Gesecha or Abba Giyorgis, was an Ethiopian Oriental Orthodox monk, saint, and author of religious books.
Giyorgis' work has had great influence on Ethiopian monastic calend ...
in his 14th century
Geʽez
Geez (; ' , and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient Ethiopian Semitic language. The language originates from what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Today, Geez is used as the main liturgi ...
text ''Mysteries of Heaven and Earth'', where he refers to a game called
qarqis, a term used in Geʽez to refer to both Gebet'a (mancala) and ''Sant'araz'' (modern ''sent'erazh'',
Ethiopian chess).
The games existed in especially eastern
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. In the Baltic area, it was once very popular ("
Bohnenspiel"); in Bosnia, where it is called Ban-Ban and still played today; Serbia; and Greece ("Mandoli", Cyclades). Two mancala tables from the early 18th century are to be found in
Weikersheim Castle
Weikersheim Palace (Schloss Weikersheim) is a palace in Weikersheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was a medieval seat and later a Renaissance residence of the princely House of Hohenlohe.
History
The castle was built in the 12th century as ...
in southern Germany. In western Europe, it never caught on but was documented by
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
orientalist Thomas Hyde.
The United States has a larger mancala-playing population. A traditional mancala game called Warra was still played in
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
in the early 20th century, and a commercial version called
Kalah
Kalah is a modern variation in the ancient Mancala family of games, the oldest known version having been found carved into a stone tablet in the 16th-century BCE pyramid of Cheops. The Kalah variation was developed in the United States by Willia ...
became popular in the 1940s. In
Cape Verde
, national_anthem = ()
, official_languages = Portuguese
, national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole
, capital = Praia
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, demonym ...
, mancala is known as "ouril". It is played on the Islands and was brought to the United States by Cape Verdean immigrants. It is played to this day in Cape Verdean communities in New England.
Recent studies of mancala rules have given insight into the distribution of mancala. This distribution has been linked to migration routes, which may go back several hundred years.
Etymology
The word ''mancala'' ( ar,
مِنْقَلَة, minqalah) is a
tool noun
Arabic nouns and adjectives are declined according to case, state, gender and number. While this is strictly true in Classical Arabic, in colloquial or spoken Arabic, there are a number of simplifications such as loss of certain final vowels an ...
derived from an
Arabic root
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or " radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowel ...
''naqala'' () meaning "to move". No one game exists with the name ''mancala''; the name is a classification or type of game. This word is used in
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
, and
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
but is not consistently applied to any one game; it was applied to
backgammon
Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...
in the ancient
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
. Mancala first appeared in Africa.
General gameplay
Most mancala games share a common general gameplay. Players begin by placing a certain number of seeds, prescribed for the particular game, in each of the pits on the game board. A player may count their stones to plot the game. A turn consists of removing all seeds from a pit, "sowing" the seeds (placing one in each of the following pits in sequence), and capturing based on the state of the board. The game's object is to plant the most seeds in the bank. This leads to the English phrase "count and capture" sometimes used to describe the gameplay. Although the details differ greatly, this general sequence applies to all games.
If playing in capture mode, once a player ends their turn in an empty pit on their own side, they capture the opponent's pieces directly across. Once captured, the player gets to put the seeds in their own bank. After capturing, the opponent forfeits a turn.
Equipment
![YosriCongkak1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/YosriCongkak1.jpg)
Equipment is typically a board, constructed of various materials, with a series of holes arranged in rows, usually two or four. The materials include clay and other shapeable materials. Some games are more often played with holes dug in the earth, or carved in stone. The holes may be referred to as "depressions", "pits", or "houses". Sometimes, large holes on the ends of the board called ''stores'', are used for holding the pieces.
Playing pieces are seeds, beans, stones,
cowry
Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, ocean, marine Gastropoda, gastropod Mollusca, mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.
The term ''porcelain'' derives from the old Italian language, Italia ...
shells, half-marbles or other small undifferentiated counters that are placed in and transferred about the holes during play.
Board configurations vary among different games but also within variations of a given game; for example
Endodoi is played on boards from 2×6 to 2×10. The largest is Tchouba (
Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
) with a board of 160 (4×40) holes requiring 320 seeds, and En Gehé (
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
), played on longer rows with up to 50 pits (a total of 2×50=100) and using 400 seeds. The most minimalistic variants are Nano-Wari and Micro-Wari, created by the Bulgarian ethnologue Assia Popova. The Nano-Wari board has eight seeds in just two pits; Micro-Wari has a total of four seeds in four pits.
With a two-rank board, players usually are considered to control their respective sides of the board, although moves often are made into the opponent's side. With a four-rank board, players control an inner row and an outer row, and a player's seeds will remain in these closest two rows unless the opponent captures them.
Objective
The objective of most two- and three-row mancala games is to capture more stones than the opponent; in four-row games, one usually seeks to leave the opponent with no legal move or sometimes to capture all counters in their front row.
At the beginning of a player's turn, they select a hole with seeds that will be sown around the board. This selection is often limited to holes on the current player's side of the board, as well as holes with a certain minimum number of seeds.
![Awale](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Awale.jpg)
In a process known as ''sowing'', all the seeds from a hole are dropped one by one into subsequent holes in a motion wrapping around the board. Sowing is an apt name for this activity, since not only are many games traditionally played with seeds but placing seeds one at a time in different holes reflects the physical act of
sowing
Sowing is the process of planting seeds. An area or object that has had seeds planted in it will be described as a sowed or sown area.
Plants which are usually sown
Among the major field crops, oats, wheat, and rye are sown, grasses and leg ...
. If the sowing action stops after dropping the last seed, the game is considered a ''single lap'' game.
''Multiple laps'' or ''relay sowing'' is a frequent feature of mancala games, although not universal. When relay sowing, if the last seed during sowing lands in an occupied hole, all the contents of that hole, including the last sown seed, are immediately re-sown from the hole. The process usually will continue until sowing ends in an empty hole. Another common way to receive "multiple laps" is when the final seed sown lands in your designated hole.
Many games from the
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n subcontinent use ''pussakanawa laps''. These are like standard multi-laps, but instead of continuing the movement with the contents of the last hole filled, a player continues with the next hole. A pussakanawa lap move will then end when a lap ends just before an empty hole.
If a player ends his stone with a point move he gets a "free turn".
Capturing
Depending on the last hole sown in a lap, a player may ''capture'' stones from the board. The exact requirements for capture, as well as what is done with captured stones, vary considerably among games. Typically, a capture requires sowing to end in a hole with a certain number of stones, ending across the board from stones in specific configurations or landing in an empty hole adjacent to an opponent's hole that contains one or more pieces.
Another common way of capturing is to capture the stones that reach a certain number of seeds at any moment.
Also, several games include the notion of capturing holes, and thus all seeds sown on a captured hole belong at the end of the game to the player who captured it.
Psychology
Like other
board games
Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
Many board games feature a comp ...
, mancala games have led to psychological studies. Retschitzki has studied the cognitive processes used by awalé players. Some of Restchitzki's results on memory and problem solving have recently been simulated by Fernand Gobet with the
CHREST CHREST (Chunk Hierarchy and REtrieval STructures) is a symbolic cognitive architecture based on the concepts of limited attention, limited short-term memories, and chunking. The architecture takes into low-level aspects of cognition such as referen ...
computer model.
De Voogt has studied the psychology of Bao playing.
In popular culture
Mancala was used as a minigame in the multiplayer online game ''
Club Penguin
''Club Penguin'' was a massively multiplayer online game (MMO), involving a virtual world that contained a range of online games and activities. It was created by New Horizon Interactive (now known as Disney Canada Inc.). Players used cartoon ...
''. It is also one of the games featured in Nintendo's ''
Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics''. Mancala was also used as a minigame as a part of the "Nabooti" island adventure on ''
Poptropica
''Poptropica'' is an online role-playing game, developed in 2007 by Pearson Education's Family Education Network, and targeted towards children aged 6 to 15. ''Poptropica'' was primarily the creation of Jeff Kinney, the author of the ''Diary of ...
''. Mancala also features in 2019 Ethiopian
board video game
Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
Many board games feature a comp ...
''Gebeta'' released by Qene Technology.
See also
*
Abstract strategy games
Abstract strategy games admit a number of definitions which distinguish these from strategy games in general, mostly involving no or minimal narrative theme, outcomes determined only by player choice (with no randomness), and perfect information. ...
*
Tak
Tak or TAK may refer to:
Places
* Dağdöşü or Tak, Azerbaijan, a village
* Taq, Iran or Tak, a village
* Tak province, Thailand
** Tak, Thailand, capital of the province
Entertainment
*'' Total Annihilation: Kingdoms'' or ''TA:K''
* Tak, ...
*
List of mancala games
Games in the mancala family include:
Popular games
The most widely played games are probably:
* Bao is a complex strategy game of Kenya and Zanzibar, played on a 4×8 board.
*Kalah is the ruleset usually included with commercially available b ...
*
References
Further reading
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* Deledicq, A. & A. Popova (1977). Wari et solo. Le jeu de calcul Africain. Paris: Cedic.
* Murray, H.J.R. (1952). ''A History of Board-Games other than Chess''. Oxford at the Clarendon Press.
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* Voogt, A.J. de (1997). Mancala Board Games. British Museum Press: London.
{{Authority control
Traditional board games