Mancala Game

Mancala is a board game from Africa for two people, played by children and adults.  It has many different names and rules.  The board is sometimes made from wood, but is often just a series of holes scooped out of the ground.  Placing the game pieces on the board is called “sowing”.  Beans, shells, or stones are traditionally used as game pieces, but you can use beads.

How to Play

Each player starts with 24 beads.  The object of the game is to capture the most beads.

1 Players sit either side of the board and put 4 beads in each hole on their row.  Each player has an extra hole on their right to act as a store.

2 Each player scoops the beads out of any hole on his or her side and sows the beads one at a time into each hole anti-clockwise round the board.

3 If the last bead dropped into an opponent’s hole and the beads total 2 or 3, then the player scoops the beads up and puts them in the store.

4 If the hole immediately preceeding the now empty hole also has 2 or 3 beads, then the player may also take these beads.  The game ends when a player has no beads left on his or her row.  The winner is the player with the most beads in his or her store.

Game Origins

Mancala is a popular game played by Africans from all over the continent.  Africa contains 50 different countries and has varied landscapes including deserts, mountains, rainforests, and grass plains.