Obridjie

Obridjie is a Mancala variant of the Ijaw (also: Ijo ) in Nigeria . The game was first observed in January 1946 by KC Murray, the son of the English game historian Harold James Ruthven Murray (1868-1955). In Germany it was mentioned in a game book in 1980, where it was written "Obridjic" (it is correct in the table of contents!). This incorrect spelling has been found again and again since then.

Obridjie is very similar to other Nigerian variants of Mancala, including Whyo (Oron Clan, Ibibio), J'erin (Yoruba), and Lok (Jaba). It's a simple game that is mostly played by women.

Rules of the game

The game board consists of two times six game hollows and one profit hollow on each of the two ends of the board. At the beginning of the game there are four seeds in each slot. Each player has a row and the winning trough on his right.

Starting position

In each turn a player takes the contents of one of his gambling pits and distributes them individually counter-clockwise to the following pits. If the last seed falls into a filled trough, its contents are distributed along with the last seed.

If a play pit is filled to exactly four seeds during the turn, its contents belong to the player on whose side it lies. The contents of this trough are immediately placed in the profit trough. But if the last seed fills a hollow to four seeds, its contents belong to the player who played, regardless of which side the hollow is on.

A turn ends when the last seed is distributed in an empty playing pit or when a playing pit is filled to four seeds.

The game ends when a player can no longer move.

The winner is whoever catches the most seeds. The seeds that are still on the board are not counted.

literature

• Murray, HJR: A History of Board Games other than Chess . Oxford 1951, 185-186.
• Steuer, H. & Voigt, C .: The new rororo playbook . Reinbek 1980, 39-40 & 232.