Let us briefly explain you this interesting game that we were lucky to learn in Yoruba land, in Western Africa, according to some people from Osogbo, located in the heart of southwestern Nigeria.

ARRANGEMENT OF SEEDS ON THE BOARD

board

This game is played on a 2×6 board with 4 seeds in each hole at the start of play. The top row belongs to player A. The bottom row belongs to player B. In the following diagram you can see a schematic representation of the board for play ọlọwuka.

game pieces

In mancala games is common to use stones, seeds, small conches, feces of goat,…… as gaming pieces. Generally, these pieces are called “seeds” although they are stones or other objects. In this game you need 24 seeds per player, although seeds of each player does not differ from each other.

MOVEMENTS

seeding and harvesting

The basic movements of the mancala games are called “seeding” and “harvesting”.  Seeding involves placing seeds one by one on consecutive adjacent holes. Harvesting involves the capture of one or more seeds contained in one or more holes according to the rules of each game.

The direction of movement in this game is counter-clockwise. The seeds are placed into the ensuing holes.

Olowuka game is played by Yoruba-speaking people in Nigeria with multiple laps.

The game begins when a player distributes the chosen seeds of a hole in his own territory in counterclockwise direction, from left to right.

You sow all the seeds from any chosen hole of your own row in counterclockwise direction. If the last seed sown falls into a hole in the opponent’s row, containing 1 or 2 seeds, the player captures the 2 o 3 seeds. The hole is left empty. The captured seeds are removed from the board or collected into the own player’s “store”. When a player picks up 2 or 3 seeds, and the precedent hole contains 2 or 3 seeds as well, these are also captured, and so on but without crossing the limits of the territory or row. So, these multiple captures you can only perform in one side of the board each time. The multiple capturing ends in the first hole of a row.

But this game unlike as ayò or awalé game, if you fall in a hole containing more than 3 seeds, you must to sow again these seeds, with multiple laps until you can capture seeds in the opponent’s row or when your last seed is dropped in an empty hole. If this happens, then your turn is over.

On the other hand, you play as the same way as ayò or awalé game, if possible, you must “not starve” your opponent. A player can not play a hole that leads to capturing all the seeds in his opponent’s row and can not be left his opponent with no seeds. If a simple move leads to capture all the seeds in the opponent’s row, in this game the player may make this movement, but the seeds contained in the last opponent’s hole with seeds are left. You must let the remaining seeds in the last hole that contains seeds.

OBJECT OF THE GAME

The goal of the game is to capture more seeds than the opponent player. The player who got the most seeds has won the game. The object of the game is to capture as many seeds as possible. The first player to capture 25 seeds or more wins the game. A draw is possible in this game with each player capturing 24 seeds.

To illustrate better all that we just explained, you can see the following examples:

Let us suppose that you are player A and is your turn of play. You decide start from the hole 4A containing 2 seeds. You sow these seeds in counterclockwise direction and you reach with the last seed of the lap into the hole 6A containing 5 seeds. Now there are 6:

Your turn is not over and this move is allowed. Do not worry!  You do not let without seeds your opponent player. In  ọlọwuka game, with this arrangement of seeds, you end multiple capturing in the first hole of your opponents player’s row. You continue sowing with multiple laps, and pick up the 6 seeds of the hole 6A, so that the last seed sown falls into the opponent’s hole 6B. You can see the following diagram:

You capture 3 seeds contained in the hole 6B and continue with multiple capture:

Because the preceding hole also contains 2 or 3 seeds, you capture 2 seeds in the hole 5B and you remove these from the board.

As you can see, in this game if your lap leads to capture all seeds contained in the opponent’s row (B), then you may make this movement but the seeds contained in the last opponent’s hole with seeds are mandatorily left. In this example the hole 1B is left with the 2 seeds contained. So, in only one lap you capture 11 seeds! Congratulations!

In this lap you capture all the seeds in the player B’s territory and you remove these from the board, except the seeds contained in the last hole containing seeds. In this example the hole 1B is left with 2 seeds into it.

In the other hand, as happens in the ayò or awalé game, you are not allowed to “starve” your opponent player: You must give your seeds to enable your opponent to continue playing. The winner is who captures the most seeds.

So, if you have understood this example, then you know how to play ọlọwuka game. Practice Now!