Mancala: The National Game of Africa

The visitor to the little Syrian colony in Washington street in New York City will often find two men intent upon this game. They call it Mancala. The implements are a board with two rows of cup-shaped depressions and a handful or so of pebbles or shells, which they transfer from one hole to another with much rapidity. A lad from Damascus described to me the methods of play. There are two principal ways, which depend upon the manner in which the pieces are distributed at the commencement of the game. Two persons always engage, and ninety-eight cowrie shells (wada) or pebbles (hajdar) are used. One game is called La’b madjnuni, or the “Crazy game.” The players seat themselves with the board placed lengthwise between them. One distributes the pieces in the fourteen holes, called bute, “houses,” not less than two being placed in one hole. This player then takes all the pieces from the hole at the right of his row, G, called el ras, “the head,” and drops them one at a time into the holes on the opposite side, commencing with a, b, c, and so on. If any remain after he has put one in each of the holes on the opposite side, he continues around on his own row A, B, C. When he has dropped his last piece he takes all the pieces in that hole and continues dropping them around as before. This is done until one of two things happens—his last piece drops into an empty hole, when he stops and his opponent plays, or it drops into a hole containing one or three pieces, completing two or four. In that case he takes the two or four pieces with those in the hole opposite, and if one or more of the holes that follow contains two or four without the intervention of a hole with any other number, he takes their contents with those opposite. The second player takes from the hole g, and distributes his pieces around A, B,C. If the head is empty, the player takes from the next nearest hole in his row. When the board is cleared, each player counts the number he has above his opponent as his gains. No skill is necessary or of any avail in this game, the result being a mathematical certainty, according to the manner in which the pieces were distributed in the beginning. La’b hakimi, the “Rational game,” or La’b akila, the “Intelligent game,” is so called in contrast to the preceding. Success in it depends largely upon the skill of the players. In this game it is customary in Syria to put seven pieces in each hole. The players, instead of first taking from the hole on their right, may select any hole on their side of the board as a starting place. They calculate the hole in which the last piece will fall, and the result depends largely upon this calculation. La’b rosëya is a variety of the first game and is played only by children. Seven cowries are placed in each hole, and the first player invariably wins. My Syrian friend told me that the shells used in the game are brought from the shores of the Red Sea. Mancala is a common game in Syrian cafés. Children frequently play the game in holes made in the ground when they have no board, a device also resorted to by travelers who meet by the way.