Chaudywogbaaga

My mother got a Mancala board for the kids. It is generally looked at as a good way to teach counting for younger kids. The board is very similar to the one in the picture. This seems to be the simplest kind of board. There are apparently many different variations. I’ve seen this kind of board before in museums, but had no idea how to play it.

As with most games play is simple to explain but difficult to explain all the strategy involved. In truth it’s a very engaging game. I found myself wondering why the game wasn’t more popular in the United States but quickly realized that there were several big obstacles to it.

One, there are many variations of the game. This is true of a number of games like dominos and many other card games like spades (i’ve never ran into two people that played spades exactly the same). This makes it hard to explain.

Two, the game is ancient. You can play it by digging little divots in the dirt and stones. There’s no way to copyright it. It’s almost too simple. It’s almost opensource before there was an opensource.

There’s something I fine especially fascinating about the game, more about it after the jump.

Follow up:

The thing I find most fascinating about Mancala is that it is not based on warfare. Chess, checkers, cards, all the traditional European and American games are based on combat strategy. Mancala may be as old as chess but it seems most scholars consider it younger but it comes from a significantly different background. Mancala is a sowing game. It is based on agriculture. This makes the game play significantly different from most board games. This is interesting because strategy is no less intense.

I find this difference interesting because games continue to be made that base the gameplay on warfare. Maybe the current Facebook fad of Farmtown is a modern day equivalent of a agriculture based game but there are not many other examples that I am aware of.