About Oware

Where it comes from

Oware is a count-and-capture game of the mancala family. The word mancala comes from the Arabic root naqala, “to move”.² Its exact origin is uncertain, but it is widely believed to come from the Ashanti people of Ghana.^{1, 5}

The family is old. The oldest securely dated mancala boards were found at Matara and Yeha, in the Aksumite area of present-day Eritrea and Ethiopia, from the 6th–7th centuries AD. Boards cut into a Roman bathhouse at Gedera, Israel, are older still, from the 2nd–3rd centuries AD.²

In Ghana it is played across the Ashanti, Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Central, Western and Eastern regions.¹ Enslaved Africans carried it to the Americas during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and it is still played throughout the Caribbean as warri.^{2, 1}

The name

An Akan legend tells of a man and a woman who loved the game so much that they married, so they could play without stopping. Oware is said to mean “he or she marries”.^{1, 5}

Other names

The same game, or a close relative, goes by many names.^{1, 3}

Why the rules differ

Oware is played worldwide with small differences from place to place.¹ The app has four rule sets:

• Abapa is considered the best suited to serious, adult play. You capture when your last seed makes 2 or 3 on the other side. Even the grand slam is settled differently from place to place: the move may be illegal, or capture nothing, or give the seeds away. The app follows the common international choice, where it captures nothing.¹
• Ayò, the Yoruba game, keeps sowing from where the last seed lands, and asks you to feed an opponent whose row is empty.³
• Fours follows the Ghanaian games of fours, such as Ba-awa: any pit that reaches four while you sow is captured.^{4, 5}
• Nam-nam is the version played by children in Ghana. It is played in rounds, and the seeds you win decide how many pits you own in the next round.^{5, 4}

The rules used in each game are listed under the board, and the lessons teach Abapa on the board.

A solved game

In 2002, two computer scientists worked out the result of every one of the 889,063,398,406 positions that can arise in Awari. With perfect play from both sides, the game is a draw.⁶ People are a long way from perfect, which is why it’s still worth playing.

Words used in the app

Pit

One of the twelve hollows. You own the six on your side.

Store

Where the seeds you capture are kept, off the board.

Sow

Scooping every seed from one of your pits and dropping them one by one, counterclockwise.

Lap

Sowing 12 or more seeds goes right round the board. In Abapa the pit you started from is skipped.

Relay sowing

Keeping on sowing from the pit your last seed lands in, as in Ayò, Fours and Nam-nam.

Capture

Taking seeds into your store. Each rule set has its own way: 2s and 3s, a raid across, or fours.

Chain capture

In Abapa, capturing the 2s and 3s just before your last pit as well.

Grand slam

A move that would capture every seed your opponent has. In Abapa it captures nothing.

Feeding

When your opponent’s row is empty you must give them seeds, so they aren’t starved out.

Round

In Nam-nam, one game. The seeds you win decide how many pits you own in the next.

Match

In Nam-nam, rounds played until one player owns 10 pits.

Sources

1. Wikipedia, “Oware”. Citing African Games of Strategy (University of Illinois, 1982) and Lucile Davis, Ghana (1999).
2. Wikipedia, “Mancala”. Citing Natsoulas (1995) on the Aksumite finds.
3. Wikipedia, “Ayoayo”. Rules of the Yoruba game.
4. Wikipedia, “Ba-awa”. A Twi game of fours; the article itself has no sources.
5. Lemery Games, Ludos Africa: Oware rulebook. Oware and its Nam-Nam variant, from a published Oware set.
6. Wikipedia, “Solved game”. J. W. Romein and H. E. Bal, “Awari is Solved”, ICGA Journal 25 (2002).