Mancala

Mancala is a family of two-player games in which players sow seeds or stones among pits, following rules for movement, capture, and scoring.

Sowing (game mechanic): A game mechanic in which a player distributes pieces one at a time among successive spaces. Players pick up a pit’s contents and distribute them around the board.
Mancala board: A board with rows of pits used to hold and move seeds in mancala games. Its pits organize the paths along which sowing moves proceed.
Ancient Egyptian board games: Games played in ancient Egypt, known from boards, pieces, and depictions in archaeological contexts. Some pit-marked surfaces have been proposed as early mancala evidence, though identifications are uncertain.
Game theory: The mathematical study of strategic interaction among decision-makers. Mancala positions can be analyzed as choices between competing players.
Traditional African games: Games transmitted and adapted within African communities across generations. Mancala variants are often tied to local play traditions rather than one standardized rule set.
Capture (board game mechanic): A rule that transfers or removes an opponent’s pieces when a specified condition is met. Many mancala rules award seeds when a move ends in a qualifying pit.
Game piece: An object used to represent a player’s position, resources, or actions in a game. Seeds and stones function as the movable pieces in mancala.
African board games: Traditional board games originating in African societies, including numerous sowing-game traditions. Mancala encompasses many African games with distinct names and local rules.
Minimax: A decision rule that chooses a move by minimizing the opponent’s best possible outcome. Computer programs can use minimax to evaluate moves in finite mancala variants.
Oral tradition: The transmission of knowledge and cultural practices through spoken communication and performance. Rules and histories of many mancala games have been passed on through play and speech.

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