My Take on "Mancala"

I hated this game. This game made no sense to me, I could not understand its appeal and how it had survived as a game for 1,400 years. Grrr…Mancala. I was taught Mancala by my little brothers and enjoyed the simplicity of gameplay, but could not understand how this could actually be classified as a game, as it seemed heavily weighed toward who went first… Oh, did I forget to tell you? I did forget? Whoops, I was taught this game wrong; very wrong. Rather than tell you how wrong and it in what ways, let me instead give you this caution… don’t learn Mancala from anyone claiming to be my little brother. There, that’s much easier.

Well, with that out of the way, one day I was on BoardGameGeek, bored and went to Mancala’s entry. Scanning over the description of the game, I saw that there were a few differences of how the game was actually played from how we had been playing the game. I then went to our copy of the game and read the rules. What the …?! They were the same. Having played this game for years, incorrectly, I decided to give this game another chance and play it correctly. One evening, I reeducated my family as to how to correctly play the game. Years earlier, I taught my family the way that my brothers had taught me… ah, the foolish traditions of our fathers and all of that…. My family picked it up quickly and Mancala actually became a game and a good game at that! So much so that Mancala is the game of choice to play between the time I get home from work up until when dinner is ready.

OK, sorry, that was a bit long-winded, but I wanted to give you some background. So what’s so special about Mancala:
- It is easy to teach; even correctly. It is also easy to understand. There is a bit of a learning curve as some of the concepts are not all apparent at first.
- Mancala is highly portable. At least my copy is, which folds in half and can be easily thrown in a carry-on bag.
- We have an El-Cheapo copy of Mancala that was bought at Tal-Mart or some such retailer. The version we bought was inexpensive and yet the components are nice. A nice wooden board and half, flattened, glass beads make a nice feel to the game. The production is simple and elegant in that simplicity.
- Mancala has depth. There is conflict. There are moves that come back to bite you later and there are moves you make that are “set-up” moves, offensive moves and defensive moves. There are also a couple of endgame strategies that have you biting your fingernails at times.
- Mancala is a brief game and can be played a handful of times in quick succession.
- I think this is a rumor. I had heard that the origins of this game were that the game was created in the savannahs of Africa. The game was originally played by digging shallow holes in the ground, to form the board, and that hardened dung was used as the pieces. There’s something to be said for a game that used poop as a component. Even, if it’s not true, the game is still good; poop or not.
- This game is engaging for all ages. I play this game with my wife, friends and children. I even play this game with my two-year old. He’s watched us play it enough that he understands how to play the game. He doesn’t understand how to win, but he enjoys picking up the beads and dropping them off in the cups. I think it makes him feel older. Any game that I can play with all of my children is a great game in my book.

Aspects of Mancala that irritate me:
- Little brothers should not teach older brothers how to play this game.
- In our copy of Mancala, the cups are a bit too shallow for the beads at times and they overflow. Mancala manufacturers, please give us deeper cups. Not a big deal, but in case you were wondering; bigger cups.

I love Mancala. Mancala is a great game to take on trips and to fill ten to twenty minutes. Mancala is deep enough and quick enough that if you lose, it is very common to hear, “Let’s play that again. I want a rematch.”, or “Come on, best two out of three.” I’d like to get a nice set of Mancala for the coffee table. I think it would really bring the room together. Mancala is a lot of fun and if you have children, it's a “must have”.