| ⚫⚫ ⚫⚫⚫ ⚫⚫ |
⚫⚫⚫ | ⚫⚫⚫ | ⚫⚫⚫ | ⚫⚫⚫ | ⚫⚫⚫ | ⚫⚫⚫ | ⚫⚫ ⚫⚫⚫ ⚫⚫ |
| ⚫⚫⚫ | ⚫⚫⚫ | ⚫⚫⚫ | ⚫⚫⚫ | ⚫⚫⚫ | ⚫⚫⚫ |
Mancala is a family of board games played around the world, sometimes called “sowing” games, or “count-and-capture” games, which describes the game-play. The word mancala comes from the Arabic word naqala, منقلة, meaning literally “moved.” There is no one game with the name mancala; instead mancala is a type, or designation, of game. This word is used in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt, but is not consistently applied to any one game.
Among the earliest evidence of the game are fragments of a pottery board and several rock cuts found in Aksumite Ethiopia in Matara (now in Eritrea) and Yeha (in Ethiopia), which are dated by archaeologists to between the 6th and 7th century AD; the game may have been mentioned by Giyorgis of Segla in his 14th century Geʼez text “Mysteries of Heaven and Earth,” where he refers to a game called qarqis, a term used in Geʼez to refer to both Gebetʼa (Mancala) and Santʼaraz (modern sentʼerazh, Ethiopian Chess). The similarity of some aspects of the game to agricultural activity and the absence of a need for specialized equipment present the intriguing possibility that it could date to the beginnings of civilization itself; however, there is little verifiable evidence that the game is older than about 1300 years.