Oware by Many Other Names

Mancala (from the Arabic manqala or minqala, with the accent on the first syllable in Syria and on the second in Egypt, from the verb naqala 'to move' - H. J. R. Murray, The History of Board Games Other than Chess) is the name of a specific game played by several Arabic peoples. The noted anthropologist and game historian Stewart Culin applied the name to the entire, very large family of games based on distributing seeds or pebbles or shells, pieces, into holes or cups. Mathematicians who study games often call the Mancala family 'sowing' games. Some call them pit and pebble - you get the idea.

H. J. R. Murray established a taxonomy of such games. He first divides them into groups according to the number of rows of cups there are. There are many two row games, called Mancala II, and many fewer Mancala III and Mancala IV games. Three and four row games may be older than the two row games, Flinders Petrie found a three row board in Egypt dating to 1500 B. C., but they seem to have declined in popularity over the centuries.

Another distinguishing difference is the method of capture: although all captures are determined by where the last seed sown falls, the criteria for effecting a capture vary. In many of the Near East variants a capture is made if the last stone falls in any empty cup, sometimes on the player's own , sometimes on the opponent's side, sometimes on either side, whereupon the pieces in the hole opposite are captured. In the West African games captures occur if the last pebble lands on the opponent's side and the count in that cup is then a specified number (usually two or three). Most boards have two additional cups for storing captured pieces. In a number of the Arabic games these holes, called kalah or kalaha, participate in the sowing. In most of the Subsaharan games they do not, being solely repositories for captives. Many games, especially among the Arabic varieties, allow several "laps" per move, usually contingent on where the last stone falls. For instance, if the sowing ends in the player's own kalaha, then he makes another move right away.

A less important difference is the number of cups in each row. For all the major variants of Mancala there are minor variants with differing hole counts. For example, in the Oware family the most common forms have six cups per side but 5 and 7 are also fairly common. Another minor distinction is the direction of play. In most games moves are made counter-clockwise but clockwise is not uncommon. In some, moves are allowed in either direction, perhaps conditionally, and this can lead to quite different, more complicated tactics.

In the Oware family (Awale, Awele, Ayo, Ourin, Wari, etc.), the most common minor variations in the rules involve the definition of the end of the game and whether "clean sweeps" are allowed, not allowed or even punished. Some games end when the majority of pieces are captured, some only when one side is deprived of pieces , therefore unable to move, or when no more captures are possible. Sometimes scores are accumulated over several "deals". OWARE! allows the player to choose any of those three options.

A clean sweep (or" grand slam", or grand coup) occurs when a player captures all the opponent's pieces in a single move, ending the game. In the traditional, or purest form of the game clean sweeps are not only allowed, they are a major strategic feature in playing the game. This is the rule in the Ashanti form of the game, described by Dr. Bennett 70 years ago, and because so many Ashanti and Yoruba were brought to the New World by the slave trade, the most common rule in the Caribbean variations of Wari. Some versions of the game, seen today in Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and even Ghana, either prohibit the clean sweep or, in the extreme cases, award all the captured pieces to the victim rather than the player "perpetrating" the move. OWARE! uses Dr. Bennett's rule set.