
If the child can correctly predict the hand that holds the seed, the player plays first. One person holds up a seed in one of their fists towards a child. Basics of Mancala Players: The game is played by two players. The playing equipment can be as simple as stones or seeds as the playing pieces and holes dug in soil or boards with holes as holding cups. There are hundreds of variants found around the world. There is a rule for choosing the first person to play. Mancala is a count-and-capture board game with an ancient heritage. In Kenya, the Mancala variant that’s common here is called Bao, and the game-play is soo simple that even a kid can play and excel in it. This is possible when one player has one piece in each small house or when one player captures all the stones. The first difference between the rules of Uganda’s mancala game and the one described above is that there is no storage in Omweso (Omweso or Mweso is the Ugandan name for mancala).Īnother difference is that the way to win is to be the final person who makes a move on the board. Other variant mancala rules in some African countries When this situation happens, the second player can capture all the remaining seeds on the board The game ends when the six holes on a player’s row no longer have any seeds.Once your last seed ends in a blank hole, you’ve lost the opportunity to repeat the process.You can cross-capture the Mancala pieces that are in your opponent’s small house directly adjacent to yours if the last stone on your hand is placed in an empty hole that’s on your row in the Mancala board.You are allowed to repeat the process if the last Mancala seed is dropped in the large hole.These rules are a modification of the basic rules and depend on a pre-existing agreement between the players. Only drop seeds into your storage house and not your opponent’s storage house.A player can drop one seed in the large storage house if they cross it during their movement.Always move in an anticlockwise direction and dropping a seed per hole during the movement.Hence, Mancala is highly effective in improving a Kid’s fine motor skills. Pick up and drop seeds with only one hand.The player that starts the game will choose his/her preferred row, and pick all the Mancala pieces in a row to begin the game. Ideally, when the game is about to start, the storage houses will be empty. Each player places four seeds in each of the six small houses for a total of 24 seeds. The rules of basic play don’t make one “color” more valuable than the other. The varying colors and materials of these pieces are for style preference.

This house is also called “the storage house,” and you are to put each seed that you capture in this house. There is a large rectangular house on each end of the board. The horizontal row in front of each player has six holes for keeping the player’s Mancala pieces.

The 2-rank mancala board (which is the most popular variant of the board) has a total of 12 small holes, also called ‘pits’ and ‘houses.’

You need to understand the basics of the mancala game before trying to understand the rules and variations of the games.
