![]() The Alladian and Baule peoples of Ivory Coast also used this game at night and behind closed doors to determine who would be the next chief. The players only play to entice and distract the soul of the deceased and any other lurking spirits. However, sometimes, people will take this risk for ritual purposes.ĭuring funerary wakes, mancala is played at night in Dahomey, for example. ![]() It is believed that an individual’s soul could be stolen, they could be cursed with sickness, their mother could die, if they were to play during the time the spirits are active. Anyone playing at night takes extreme risks in attracting malicious spirits and offending them with mortal play. At night mancala players leave their game boards and pieces outside for the spirits’ entertainment. When a Fon girl of Dahomey has her first menstrual cycle, she will seclude herself in her home for seven days as part of her initiation, which includes playing mancala. ![]() Women who want to give birth to twins will play against pairs of girls or boys. Playing with a girl will increase the odds of the baby being born female, playing against a boy will inversely make it more likely their baby will be male. It’s thought to have an influence on the sex of unborn children, so the Baule women of Ivory Coast play a special variant of the mancala game in hopes of influencing their child’s development. Mancala can also take on a more serious aspect. The Dogon of Mali do not encourage children to play mancala for fear that it will bring misfortune to the village, but adults playing the game seemingly don’t carry the same risk. For example, The Wolof of Senegal traditionally forbid non-initiated boys from playing. In certain areas, it is seen as a man’s game, and in others areas, men don’t play, making it a female game.Īlthough mancala games have educational value in teaching arithmetic skills, some places forbid boys or girls from playing. The rules of who is allowed to play vary from place to place. The word Mancala is derived from the Arabic word Naqala (na-ka-la), which means “to move” or “to transfer” It is widely believed that Arab traders brought the game with them when traveling and it quickly spread all over Africa and the world, but it is uncertain to know where the game first originated. The board was carved out of limestone bearing a striking resemblance to modern-day Mancala boards. However, the oldest Mancala boards were found in An Ghazal, Jordan in the floor of a Neolithic dwelling. Ancient Mancala boards were found in Aksumite settlements in Matara, Eritrea, and Yeha, Ethiopia. There is archeological and historical evidence that dates Mancala back to the year 700 AD in East Africa. Mancala Web Home (defunct: imagiware.Mancala is one of the oldest known two-player board games in the world, believed to have been created in ancient times.Thanks to Chet Gottfried at LookoutNow.Com for letting me use them, even after years of me not asking! JavaScript Mancala, This is where the Images for the above applet are from.The player with the most stones at the end of the game wins. The opposing player adds any remaining stones to their Mancala. Play ends when either player has no more stones on their side of the board (not including their Mancala).Place the opposing stones and the capturing stone in your Mancala. If the last stone is dropped into an empty bin, on your side of the board, you capture any of the opponent’s stones in the opposing bin.If the last stone dropped lands in your Mancala, you get another turn.You are not allowed to touch the stones when ‘counting’ them.You always choose a bin on your side and drop stones starting in the bin immediately counter clockwise (to the right) of the starting bin.Players then alternate turns until one player has no more stones to move. The goal is to accumulate the most stones in your own Mancala. While dropping stones, treat your own Mancala as a bin, but do not drop stones in your opponents. The game begins with the stones evenly distributed among the twelve playing bins (in a 48 stone game, 4 stones per bin.) The first player removes the stones from one of his or her bins and, moving counter clockwise, placing one stone in each bin until they have exhausted the stones picked up. Each player’s Mancala is on their right, it is a storage bin for captured stones and is empty at the start of the game. The game of Mancala is an ancient Egyptian/African game played with 48 stones and a board with 14 bins, six on each side for each player, and one at either end called the Mancala. Try enabling the ActiveX if you are Internet Explorer user.
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