A game from Africa

How to Play Mancala

Sow the seeds into your store. One of humanity’s oldest games.

Origin AfricaPlayers 1–2Price Free

The rules

Scoop all the seeds from one of your pits and drop them one by one into the following pits. Whoever ends with more seeds in their store wins. Land your last seed in your store and you go again.

Where it came from

Played across Africa and the Middle East for thousands of years — among the oldest board games humanity has. Traditionally played with pits dug in the ground and beans or pebbles. The name comes from the Arabic for "to move." Hundreds of regional variants exist.

How to win

Chain your extra turns. Prefer moves that land exactly in your store and build sequences of them. Landing your last seed in an empty pit of your own captures everything opposite — a devastating swing.

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