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A popular game played throughout much of Africa is "Awale". During a safari or travels you may have seen African men or boys playing the game on a wooden board with depressions scooped out of it, or even in the dirt.

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Awale

(pronounced uh-wall-lay)

The Maasai say that the Awale was invented by Sindillo, the son of the first man, Maitoumbe, and was originally called "Geshe".

Also known as Awele, Ajwa, Lela, Chisolo, Kalak, Oware, Coo, Coro Bawo, Nocholokoto, Dara, Congkak, Mancala, Bawo, Omweeso, Adita-ta, Kasonko, Layo, Gilberta, Schach, Wari, Walle.

A ancient strategy game, the "Go" of Africa may originallty have come from Eithiopia but is now played throughout East Africa and parts of West Africa and Southern Africa. It is also described as being played in the Caribbean and as far East in Asia as Indonesia.

The board of Awale is the "mancala" (also called the "Kroo" sometimes) or plank or board with twelve hollowed out depressions and forty-eight seeds or pebbles.

Awale may be played with pebbles or stones, but is properly played with seeds. Moving the seeds is called "sowing" the seeds.

"If all seeds that fall were to grow, then no one could follow the path under the trees" Akan proverb

Variations of the game exist but here is one set of rules I have found.

Rules

Objective of the game:
Capture more seeds than your opponent. When the game ends, the player who has the most seeds is the winner. There are two players.

You may not touch your opponents captured seeds to count them.

The "mancala":
The board has twelve depressions with six on each side. Each player has a side of the board.

The forty-eight seeds are distributed among the depressions, four to each hole.

The first player to make a move is selected by chance. He takes all of the seeds from one of the depressions on his side of the board and puts one in each depression in a counter-clockwise direction starting with the depression next to the emptied one.

Capturing seeds:
If the last seed is placed into a depression on your opponents side of the board which only has one or two seeds in it, he captures all the seeds (ie two or three seeds) in that depression. This depression is now empty.

If the second to last hole on your opponents side of the board also has only one or two seeds, plus the seed just placed into it, he also has captured all of those seeds as well.

And so on, if the third to last depression on your opponents side of the board, is the same etc. You may only capture a maximum of five depressions in a single move, plusyou can not take all of the seeds on your opponents side in a single move. In this case, one variation of the game permits you to take all but the last depressions seeds (ie closest to the starting point of the move).

"Kroo":
On starting a play if there are enough seeds in the chosen depression, ie eleven or more (this is called a "Kroo"), on reaching the just emptied depression, he skips this depression and then continues placing one seed in each depression in the counter-clockwise direction.

Capturing all seeds in one move:
A player may not chose a hole that allows him to capture all the seeds in his opponents side in a single move.

End of the game:
1. If a player has exhausted all the seeds on his side of the board when it is his turn to make a move.
2. If a "kroo" happens and will continue to happen move after move ie enternally.
3. If a player leaves the game, the remaining player then captures all the remaining seeds.

The player with the most seeds wins.

A variation:

A variation to the above rules is when selecting the depression to make your move from, if only one depression will result in at least one seed ending up on your opponent's side of the board, then you must use this depression, and can not choose any other depression on your side.

Some Strategies:

A simple attacking strategy is to try to create "kroos". A kroo is a depression with enough seeds on your side of the board which will allow you to completely rotate around the board. If a kroo has enough seeds to end up on your opponents side of the board you have gained an advantage.

A simple defensive strategy is to try to have either empty depressions or depressions with more than three seeds on your side of the board. Thus making it harder for your opponent to capture seeds from those depressions.

Therefore the attacking strategy is potent, as revolving completely around the board, you have placed already one seed in his empty depressions, and of reaching them with a kroo and ending on one of these, you will now have captured what was previously an empty depression at the start of your move.

Defending against kroos:
As each move you make will result in an empty depression on your side, if your opponent has a suitable kroo, he may be able to make use of that empty depression.

Blocking a kroo - ensuring the last depression of your opponents kroo can not be captured ie ensure it has three or more seeds in it.

Oversowing a kroo - sow so many seeds into your opponents kroo that if he uses it, he ends up back on his own side of the board.

Pressuring a kroo - try to deny your opponents choice of a depression, so he must use his kroo prematurely, by trying to keep as many seeds on your side of the board as possible. This strategy is a key defensive strategy in the variation of the rules described above.

Counterattack his move - position your seeds so as to take advantage of your opponents kroo, when he places a seed or two seeds into empty depressions.

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Ezine.NitroExpress.com

Edited by NitroX (05/04/10 03:45 AM)