Mancala & Awale

Mancala is a family of games. The many different variations of Mancala are spread across most of Africa and the Middle East. Forms and variations of Mancala are present in Nigeria. One of these is Awale.

Awale has many other names. These names include Ayo, Awari, Wari, Owar and Woaley. As well as tittles, Awale also has multiple variations, differing rules and assorted boards. The way boards can differ has a minute impact on the game and boards are easily improvised.

The Awale board has twelve equal holes. All the holes. All the holes are in two congruent, horizontally parallel rows. These holes are called cups. A board may or may not have two additional holes on either end. If the board does have such holes, they are called banks and are used for holding captured seeds. If there are no such holes, it is a possibility use the edge of the board or ground near the board as a storage place for captured seeds.

Seeds can be substituted with beans, stones or just about anything that is a similar size. Of course, many of whatever type of item is selected will be needed to play. Forty-eight playing pieces are needed for Awale. Each of the twelve holes, not including the banks, must contain four pieces to begin play. Now it’s time to play.

Awale is a two person game. In Awale, the first step is to pick the person who will go first. That person will take the seeds out of any one of the holes of his/her side. Moving counter-clockwise, the player will drop one seed in each hole, not including the banks, until no more seeds are left in the hand. If the last hole that the first person lands in was on their opponents’ sides, then he/she takes all the seeds in that hole and puts them in their bank. If the last seed is emptied on the player’s own side, nothing further is done. Then it’s the other player’s turn to do the same.

The game goes on until the person who’s turn it is cannot go. Then, the player who still has seeds remaining takes all the seeds left and puts them in the bank. The player with the most seeds wins. Awale also has many variations.

Here are a couple variations. Some people play that a player can only capture seeds in a whole that has two or three seeds in it. Others play that the player picks up the seeds in the last hole in which they land as long as there were seeds there before placing the player placed the seed from the hand in the hole. If the place where the last seed was placed is on the player’s own side, the player takes the seeds in the adjacent hole on the opponent’s side. If it was on the opponent’s side, the player would do nothing. This game uses a lot of math.

First, there is the obvious math, counting. The player must count the pieces in a hole and plan which hole to choose that will count out to the hole that will get the most seeds. That is also where strategy comes into play. The strategy is in the math and math is a major contributor to the game of Awale. Winning takes strategy in many ways.

Strategy is needed to know which holes are best to land in and how to land in these holes. Another strategy is how to prevent the opponent from getting a large number of seeds.

Awale is an interesting form of Mancala. As all forms of Mancala are different, a person may think this is not how Mancala is supposed to be played. It is not the way to play Mancala; it is one of many ways to play. It is also the most popular way in Nigeria. There is no right way to play Mancala.

[This is only a very small part of a gigantic project called the World's Fair Project. The full project extended over a full quarter with tons of research and creativity as well as many late nights up finishing this or touching up that. The World's FAir Project was my first real research project and mine was on Nigeria. This certain part of the project was very helpful in learning how to write instructions. That should come in handy some day, even if it has not yet.]