Traditional boards usually have playing which have at least a diameter of 6 cm. Similar can happen with board made for tourists usually they have pits that are too small in relation to the size of the seeds. In Europe, industrially produced game boards often have rather small counters and playing pits so that the games can be sold cheaper, which, however, makes the playing cumbersome. The size of the pits depends on the number and size of the counters, which are typically used in the game. They are arranged in rows, usually two or four, but sometimes also in a circular fashion (i.e. The number of playing pits varies depending on the game, from two to 160. Children in Madagascar draw them on a sheet of paper and, as in Yunnan, south-eastern China and the Dominican Republic, with chalk on concrete. Pits are usually carved in wooden boards, while nomads and children often just dug them into the ground. The playing pits are used in actual game play, while the stores, if they exist at all, are used to store the captured counters.ĭigging holes in the earth to play Hoyito The pits are a characteristic feature of mancala games, which, for that reason, are also called 'pit-and-pebble-games' in English. The players will always play facing each other across the shorter axis of the game board.The pits (also called holes, small holes, houses) are hollows of mancala boards, which contain the playing pieces. Color or other distinguishing characteristics of the pieces is not important in Mancala as the pieces are always undifferentiated as to ownership. Flat, smooth, or perfectly spherical objects are not ideal. The playing pieces are often called beans and may be exactly that, but many different sets of small objects may be used so long as they are easily picked up. These may be used to place beans captured and removed from play by their respective player or they may be incorporated into the play of the game. In addition to the regular playing cups, many types of board will have a larger cup called a store at each end. Also, each cup should probably be concave at the bottom for more ease in picking up the beans. Each cup should be large enough to contain several of the beans. The board consists of several cups (or pits) in which the beans (playing pieces) are placed and moved during a game. Traditional boards range from very elaborate carvings of wood or other materials to simple holes in the ground. The boards I provide here should only be used as models to construct a more functional board for the play of this game in all but the most extreme of circumstances in which no utilizable materials are at hand (prison comes to mind). Further, almost any devotee of the game will argue that it shouldn’t. It would be quite surprising, however, if this were found to be true.Ī Mancala board is not one which is easily played on a two-dimensional surface. It cannot yet be ruled out, however, that the opposite is true and some variety of these games is ancestral to Mancala. The most common and more specific variety of this hypothesis states that mancala games are ancestral to the race games described here as the Royal Game of Ur, The Jiroft Games, Tau, and Senet. The geographical distance between ancient archaeological sites yielding both varieties of boards is not great and both varieties of game stretch far back into antiquity. In general, two rank boards are found north of the Equator, and four rank boards south of the Equator.Īlthough there is not currently any proof for the hypothesis, several games historians have noted the similarity between mancala and games of the backgammon family and a theoretical connection must surely be considered. Variations of Mancala are played all over Africa. Mancala games spread regionally to the Middle East, Asia, just barely into Europe and into the Americas with black slaves. Claims for any game as the most ancient board game known derived by humans are largely fanciful and the true game deserving this title may no longer exist, but mancala and its relatives are most certainly nominees.Īncient Egyptian structures, Temple of Kurna, Pyramid of Cheops,Ī connection between agricultural sowing of seeds and Mancala The history of this game is largely unknown, but there are several indications that it is extremely ancient. The Mancala family of games is almost certainly Black African in origin. For reference, the games of this family are listed here: Several of these games will be considered separately, but a few words to regard their history in general are necessary. People unfamiliar with these games often refer to any game of this type as Mancala.

They are played throughout much of the world today. This is a family of games which probably originate from Black Africa and are at least as old as the African Neolithic.

Mancala playing pieces