Need a brain break at work? Keep a mancala set on your desk and use it to help clear your mind. And here’s a bonus: mancala doesn’t take that much time to play! You can complete a game in less than fifteen minutes. Mancala is an easy game to learn and play, making it fun for people of all ages and stages. Rather than seeds or stones, modern mancala games use glass or plastic pebble-shaped pieces or marbles for game play. The game board consists of twelve small pits with two large pits (mancalas) at either end of the board. Nowadays, mancala boards are often crafted from wood or plastic, but the concept is the same. In a nutshell, game pieces are moved from one pit to the next, and the person with the most pieces in his or her large pit (or mancala) at the end of the game, wins. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the Arabic word manqala means a “(device designed for) transfer (of board-game pieces from one position to another)” and the word naqala means to transfer, remove, or relocate. Originally, people would dig little pits into the ground to make the game board and then use seeds or stones as the game pieces. Mancala is often referred to as a “seed and pit” game. Needless to say, this game has long-lasting appeal for people of all ages and backgrounds!

The game became popular throughout Arabia, Africa, and Asia and spread from there.

History of the GameĪctually, if you thought that mancala was a character from The Lion King, you weren’t that far off! Archaeologists have found evidence of mancala games going back thousands of years in the region of North Africa and the Mideast. Despite being a game that has stood the test of time, many people still aren’t familiar with this entertaining pastime. Pronounced man-KAH-la, mancala is an easy-to-learn game that has been around for centuries. After all, mancala sounds more like the name of a character from Disney’s The Lion King than anything else, right? Manca…what? If you have no idea what mancala is, you’re not alone.

Play mancala