Owela

Owela is a mancala game played in Namibia , where it is known by several names.

history

Owela is a slightly simplified variant of ǁHus , which was first described in 1855 by the Lutheran missionary Johann Georg Krönlein (1826-1892). According to the myth, the game reproduces the role of the first human ( ǀGurihoeseb ). He won so many games that he finally destroyed the paradisiacal unity between nature and man. In addition, the game can also be associated with the meaning of rain, as it was often played with copper beads and the thunderstorm ( ǂEixaǀkhaǀnabiseb ) is mentioned in the same myth. Copper symbolizes lightning.

The Owela Museum , the cultural history department of the Namibian National Museum in Windhoek , is named after this game.

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Children at Play (2019)

Owela is played by two people on a board that consists of four rows of 8 to 16 holes (but always an even number). Originally the game was played in holes dug in the ground. If the game is played in teams, boards with up to 24 (but a maximum of 32) holes per row are used. Each player (or team) controls the two rows on his (or her) side of the field.

At the beginning all the holes in the outer row and those in the right half of the inner row for each player contain two stones, or a 2 × 2 square “hole” remains in the middle of the board, which does not contain any stones from either player. This free area (always 2 × 2 fields, regardless of the number of holes per row) is the only difference to ǁHus .

Game pieces are usually pebbles or seeds. The starting situation using the example of a board with four rows of eight holes:

here: start with 22 stones
2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
2	2	2	0	0	0	0	0
0	0	0	0	0	2	2	2
2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
here: start with 22 stones

The players take turns to move. In his round, a player takes all stones from a hole on his side of the board that contains two or more stones and sows them counterclockwise, one after the other, into the following holes. When the last stone falls into an empty hole, the round ends and it is the other player's turn. If the last stone falls into an occupied hole, its contents including the last stone sown are picked up and distributed in another round. However, if this occupied hole is in the inner row and the two opposing holes of the opponent are occupied, the stones of these two holes are picked up. The trapped stones are then sown in a new round starting in the hole following the one who made the recording.

If a player can no longer move, that is, if all his holes are empty or only contain individual stones, he has lost the game.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Have you ever played Owela in Namibia? accessed on May 11, 2019
2. ↑ Marybeth Gallagher and Marie Harlech-Jones: It costs almost nothing. John Meinert Printing, 2007, accessed June 2, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Alex de Voogt: Mancala: Games that count. In: Expedition Magazine. University of Pennsylvania, 2001, accessed June 2, 2019 . 
4. ^ Johann Georg Krönlein : Reports of the Rhenish Mission Society. Barmen 1855, p. 281 ff.
5. ↑ Hus. Mancala World

pronunciation

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Note: This article contains characters from the alphabet of the Khoisan languages spoken in southern Africa . The display contains characters of the click letters ǀ , ǁ , ǂ and ǃ . For more information on the pronunciation of long or nasal vowels or certain clicks , see e.g. B. under Khoekhoegowab .