Mancala

Mancala (which means “alarm“) is an ancient game with roots as deep as the Acacia tree.  Some of the earliest artifacts suggestive of the game include fragments of a pottery board and a number of rock cuts found in Aksumite Ethiopia  (in Matara and Yeha,) which have been dated to between the 6th and 7th century AD by archaeologists. Mancala also may have been referenced by Giyorgis of Segla in his 14th century writing on “Mysteries of Heaven and Earth,” in which he speaks of a game called qarqis.  Qarqis was a term used in Ge’ez to refer to both Gebet’a ( a word translated as Mancala) and Sant’araz (akin to Ethiopian Chess). Although there is no explicit evidence that the game is much older than about 1300 years, its similarity to agriculture (having holes or pits and filling them with seeds, counting, and arranging rows) may indicate that this game is as old as the earliest days of human civilization.  Some Kurna temple graffiti in Egypt appears to depict the game — but the certainty of this is cast in some doubt.  Accurate dating of that graffiti has not so far been made, and any designs that have been found by modern scholars more readily resemble games of the ancient Roman world — not Mancala.

In Europe, Mancala is recorded as being played as early as the 17th century by some merchants in England.  Although it did exist in some scattered areas throughout Europe  never gained great  popularity except in the Baltic area where it was once a very popular game  called locally “Bohnenspiel,” and Bosnia, where it known as Ban-Ban and still played in the modern day. Mancala has been found also in Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, and in an isolated castle in the southern region of Germany.

Mancala is more popular in the USA.  In Louisiana, a traditional variant of the mancala game known as “Warra” was widely played  in the early 20th century. In the Cape Verde area, Mancala is called “ouril” and is played throughout the islands. It was brought to America by Cape Verde immigrants and is played to this day by Cape Verdean settlers around communities in New England.