Bao (Mancala game)

Bao game in Zanzibar . Two Maasai in the lodge in Kizimkazi

Bao is a mancala game from Africa . It is played in some countries in East Africa (including Tanzania , Kenya , Malawi , Burundi and Eastern Congo ). In Malawi, it is also known as Bawo . It is most popular among the Swahilis of Tanzania and Kenya. The word bao means 'board' in Swahili .

Some call Bao "King of the Mancala Games" as it is considered the most difficult and complex of them.

There are several varieties of Bao. The most complex is called Bao la Kiswahili ("Bao of the Swahilis"). Bao la kujifunza ("Bao for beginners") is a simplified version of the Swahili game. Bao la Kiarabu ("Bao of the Arabs ") is an even simpler variant that comes from Oman , where it is known as Hawalis . The game "Omweso", which is played in Uganda , uses a board and stones similar to Bao and has similar rules of the game.

In Zanzibar , the masters of the game are highly respected. There are Bao clubs and Bao masters there, called fundi ( artist ) or bingwa ( expert ). Official championships take place in Zanzibar, Kenya and Malawi. Tournaments are also organized in Europe.

Game accessories

A bao board is generally made of polished wood. A Bao board has 32 hollows (called mashimo , "hollows"; Sing. Shimo ) in a 4 × 8 layout.

64 game balls, "seeds" (32 per player), are used. On Zanzibar, the nut-like fruits of the Mkomwe plant (caesalpinia bonducella) are used for this, the freely movable core of which prevents the ball from rolling away. These are the same game accessories that are used for a large group of Mancala games, particularly Omweso, Uganda and its many variants; Usually boards that were specially made for Bao can be recognized by the fact that two hollows (called nyumba , "houses") are of a different (usually angular) shape.

Bao board from Zanzibar . simple hollows ( mashimo ) are round, while houses ( nyumba ) are angular

Game objective

The aim of the game is to empty the opponent's front row or to deny him any further opportunity to bet (if none of his hollows has more than one piece left).

Rules of the game

Note: in the following the translated Zanzibari original terms are used

The game is played by two players (North and South).

The occupancy is noted at Bao by the numbers in the following scheme:

0
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
0

where the 0 symbolizes unoccupied holes and the individual lower and upper numbers represent the seeds in the warehouse.

The trough types

There are five types of hollows on the board

X : camp (ghala) (for the seeds in the first phase of the game)
# : House (nyumba)
& : Head (kichwa)
% : Place (kimbi) - according to Townshend (1979) the kichwa on Lamu are also referred to as kimbi .
0 : normal hollows

X
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
&	%	0	#	0	0	%	&

&	%	0	0	#	0	%	&
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
X

Main principles

The start phase (Kupanda = sowing)

At the beginning, 20 seeds are distributed on the board as follows:

22nd
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
0	2	2	6th	0	0	0	0

0	0	0	0	6th	2	2	0
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
22nd

22 seeds remain in storage (or in hand) for each player.

In the starting phase, each player sows a seed in a hollow. This phase of the game is called the Namua phase. If you win in the Namua phase, this type of win is called mkonomi ("in hand") because there are still seeds left in the hand to sow.

In this phase the player takes a seed from his hand and plants it in a not empty hollow of his front row. He has to "eat" the seeds of his opponent in the corresponding hollow (he takes the seeds and immediately plants them on his side). The meal is compulsory.

In order to be able to eat your opponent's seeds, three conditions must be met:

there must be at least one seed in the hollow of your own front row
there must be seeds in the opposing front row of the opponent
you put a seed in this hollow of the front row

With different planting options, you have to choose the one where you can eat opposing seeds.

literature

André Deledicq, Assia Popova: Wari et solo. Le jeu de calculs Africain (= Les Distracts. Vol. 3). CEDIC, Paris 1977, ISBN 2-7124-0603-6 .
Tom Kronenburg, Jeroen Donkers, Alex de Voogt: Endless moves in Bao. In: Journal of the International Computer Games Association . ICGA Journal. Vol. 29, No. 2, ISSN 1389-6911 , pp. 74-78.
Harold JR Murray: A history of board games other than chess. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1952.
National Museums of Tanzania: How to play Bao. National Museum of Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam 1971.
Philip Townshend: Anthropological Perspectives on Bao (Mankala) Games (= University of Nairobi. Institute of African Studies. Seminar Paper. No. 114). Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi, Nairobi 1979.
Philip Townshend: Bao (Mankala): The Swahili Ethic in African Idiom. In: James de V. Allen, Thomas H. Wilson (eds.): From Zinj to Zanzibar. Studies in History, Trade and Society on the Eastern Coast of Africa. In Honor of James Kirkman on the Occasion of his Seventy-Fifth Birthday (= Paideuma. Vol. 29, ISSN 0078-7809 ). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1982, pp. 175-191.
Philip Townshend: Games in culture. A contextual analysis of the Swahili board game and its relevance to variation in African mankala. Cambridge 1986 (University of Cambridge, Ph.D. thesis).
Alexander J. de Voogt: Limits of the mind. Towards a characterization of Bao mastership (= CNWS Publications. Vol. 37). Research School CNWS, Leiden 1995, ISBN 90-73782-49-X (Leiden, Rijksuniversiteit, dissertation, 1995).
Alexander J. de Voogt: Reproducing board game positions: Western Chess and African Bao. In: Suisse Journal of Psychology. Vol. 61, No. 4, 2002, ISSN 1421-0185 , pp. 221-234.
Alexander J. de Voogt: Muyaka's poetry in the history of Bao. In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Vol. 66, No. 1, 2003, ISSN 0041-977X , pp. 61-65.