Traditional Games Directory

What is mancala? A family of seed-sowing games

Short version: mancala is not one game. It is a family of two-player games in which players sow seeds, stones or beads around rows of pits and try to capture the other player's seeds. Oware, bao, congklak and sungka are all in the family. This page is a summary of two sources; it is not a rulebook.

Names and where they are played

Oware

Played in West Africa, with a Caribbean form called warri (Wikipedia). AramcoWorld says oware travelled west with enslaved people from the 16th to the 19th centuries and survives in the Americas as warri.

Bao

Played across most of East Africa (Wikipedia). AramcoWorld says it spread along East African trade routes.

Congklak and sungka

Congklak (also congkak or dakon) is played in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei (Wikipedia). Sungka is a Southeast Asian form of the game.

Wikipedia says more than 800 traditional game names are known and that some names refer to the same game. Other named versions include gebeta, kalah, omweso, pallanguzhi and songo.

How a turn usually works

1

Pick up one pit

A player takes every seed from one pit on their own side.

2

Sow

The seeds are dropped one per pit, in order, around the board.

3

Capture

In a common version, if the last seed lands in an empty pit on the player's own side, the player captures the seeds in the pit across from it.

4

Keep playing

Rules differ by game. Most mancalas take turns, but some use simultaneous rounds. In many versions captured seeds go into a house set aside from play; in others they leave the board.

Boards and pieces

Two rows of pitsFour rows of pitsTwo rows of six to four rows of seven or eightSeeds, beans, shells or marblesLarge end pits called stores (Wikipedia)

How old is it?

Not settled. Wikipedia reports a claim for boards at ‘Ain Ghazal in Jordan dating to about 5,870 BC and says other scholars dispute it; it says finds at Gedera in Israel (2nd and 3rd centuries AD) are more recent and undisputed. AramcoWorld says no wooden boards or rule descriptions survive from antiquity and that rows of pits carved in stone are only possibly boards, which specialists doubt. Treat any exact age you see on a product page with caution.

Where to find a set

See the listings for African games, Asian games and world and multicultural sets, and read how to choose a traditional game set.

Sources

Both pages read November 10, 2026. Wikipedia changes; check the live page for the current text.