Mancala, the National Game of Africa

by Stewart Culin

Mancala Boards.

Fig. 1.—Board for Kale (Mancala).
Falls of Gaboon River, Africa.
Cat. No. 164869. U. S. N. M.

Fig. 2.—Óchi Board for Bau (Mancala).
Mount Kilima-njaro, Africa.
Collected by Dr. W. L. Abbott. Cat. No. 181805, U. S. N. M.

Among the Fans of the Gaboon River the game is called Kale,[4] after the bean-like seed used in counting. ([Fig. 13] and [pl. 4, fig. 1].) Another board in the U. S. National Museum, collected by that adventurous traveler, Dr. W. L. Abbott, from the Wa Chaga tribe at Mount Kilima-njaro, has twenty-six holes arranged in four rows of six each, with two large holes at the ends. ([Pl. 4, fig. 2.]) He describes it in his catalogue, published by the Smithsonian Institution, under the name of Óchi, used for playing Bau, a common game throughout Africa, and says that it is played with nicker seeds and pebbles. Bent, in his “Ruined Cities of Mashonaland,” gives the following account of the game: “Huge trees sheltered the entrance to their village, beneath which men were playing Isafuba, the mysterious game of the Makalangas, with sixty holes, in rows, in the ground. Ten men can play at this game, and it consists of removing bits of pottery or stone from one hole to another in an unaccountable manner. We watched it scores of times while in the country, and always gave it up as a bad job, deciding that it must be like draughts or chess learned by them from the former civilized race who dwelt here.” He then proceeds to identify Isafuba with the games of Wari played on the west coast of Africa.

[4] The collector, Rev. A. C. Good, gives the following account of the game: “Two players seat themselves on opposite sides of the board, and four counters are placed in each of the twelve pockets. Then one player takes the counters out of a pocket on his own side and drops one in each pocket around as far as they will go, going to right and back on his opponents side in the opposite direction from that in which the hands of the clock move. They move thus alternately until one manages to make his last counter fall in a pocket on his opponent’s side, where there were only one or two counters. When he has done so he has won the counters in that pocket, including his own last counter. These he transfers to the receptacle in the end of the board to his right. A single counter taken from last pocket on player’s right can not win from opponent’s first pocket opposite, even though it contains only one or two counters. When a pocket has accumulated twelve or more counters, so that a player drops clear around and back to where he began, he must skip the pocket from which he started. When so few counters remain in the pocket on the board that no more can be won, the game is ended and each counts his winnings. The counters that remain in the board at the end of the game are not counted by either player. The game is sometimes varied thus: When a counter wins as above, not only the contents of that pocket is won, but of the pocket or pockets before it on the opponent’s side that has contained only one or two counters back until one is reached that has been empty or had three or more counters before the play. This last is rather the better game of the two. The Fans do not play these games skillfully. They seem unable to count ahead to see where the last count will fall. A white man, as soon as he understands the game, will beat them every time.”

Fig. 13.
BOARD FOR KALE (MANCALA).
Gaboon River, Africa.
From a specimen in the Museum of Archæology and Palæontology, University of Pennsylvania.

Prince Momolu Massaquoi, son of the King of the Vei tribe, described to me the manner of playing the game among the Vei. They call the game Kpo, a word having an explosive sound resembling a note of the xylophone, mimicking the noise made by the seeds or ivory balls with which the game is played when tossed into the holes on the board. The boards, which are made with twelve holes in two rows, with large holes at the ends, are called by the same name. The boards used by the chiefs are often very expensive, being made of ivory and ornamented with gold. He had seen boards which cost 20 slaves. The holes in the boards are called kpo sing or kpo kungo, kungo meaning “cup.” The game is usually played with sea beans, which grow on vines like the potato on the west coast, or by the chiefs with the before-mentioned ivory balls. These seeds are called kpo kunje, kunje meaning “seed.” He identified a board from the Gaboon River as suitable for the game, although he said that much more elaborate ones, like those in the Liberian exhibit, were common. The depression in the middle of the board from the Gaboon River is intended to catch pieces that do not fall in the hole for which they are intended. Cheating is practiced, and to guard against it players must raise their arms and throw the pieces upon the board with some violence. Two, three, or four play. The game differs somewhat from that played in Syria and Egypt. A player may commence at any hole on his side. His play ends when the pieces first taken up are played. He wins when the number in the last hole is increased to two or to three. He does not take those in the hole opposite. When two play, four beans are put in each hole, but when three or four play three beans are put in each hole. When two play, the pieces are dropped around in the same direction as in the Syrian game, but when three or four play they may be dropped in either direction. When two play, each player takes one side of the board; when three play, each takes four holes, two on each side, dividing the board transversely into three parts, and when four play, each takes three holes. When two play, a winner takes only what he “kills” (fá); but when three or four play, when one completes two or three in a hole by his play, he takes those in the next hole forward. When a man takes a piece with one next to it, he uses his fingers to squeeze the pieces into his hand, the operation being called “squeezing” (boti), but this can only be done when one of the pieces is in one of the player’s own cups and the other one or two in that of an opponent. Players sit crosslegged upon the ground, and when the chiefs play large numbers often assemble to watch them. I have given Prince Momolu’s account somewhat at length, as several African travelers have declared the game incomprehensible to a white man.