Omweso is the traditional mancala

Mancala

Mancala is a family of board games played around the world, sometimes called "sowing" games, or "count-and-capture" games, which describes the game-play. Mancala games play a role in many African and some Asian societies comparable to that of chess in the West, or the game of Go in Eastern Asia...

 game of the Ugandan people. The game was supposedly introduced by the Bachwezi

Empire of Kitara

The Empire of Kitara is a strong part of oral tradition in the area of the Great Lakes of Africa, including the modern countries of Uganda, northern Tanzania, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi...

 people of the ancient Bunyoro-kitara empire of Uganda. Nowadays the game is dominated by Ugandan villagers. It is a very hard and fast game said to keep one's mind high and ever excited, which can make it addictive. The equipment needed for the game is essentially the same as that of the Bao

Bao (mancala game)

Bao is a traditional mancala board game played in most of East Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Malawi, as well as some areas of DR Congo and Burundi. It is most popular among the Swahili people of Tanzania and Kenya; the name itself "Bao" is the Swahili word for "board" or "board game"...

 game (found in Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

 and neighbouring countries). Omweso is strictly related to a wide family of mancalas found in eastern and southern Africa

Southern Africa

Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...

; these include Coro in the Lango region of Uganda, Aweet in Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

, //Hus

//Hus

//Hus is a traditional mancala played by Nama, Herero, Kwangari and other related ethnic groups from Namibia and neighbouring countries. It is related to the Omweso family of mancala games played in Eastern and Southern Africa...

 in Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

, Kombe in Lamu

Lamu

-Threats to Lamu:In a 2010 report titled Saving Our Vanishing Heritage, Global Heritage Fund identified Lamu as one of 12 worldwide sites most "On the Verge" of irreparable loss and damage, citing insufficient management and development pressure as primary causes.- See also :* Juma and the Magic...

 (Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

), Mongale in Mombasa

Mombasa

Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya. Lying next to the Indian Ocean, it has a major port and an international airport. The city also serves as the centre of the coastal tourism industry....

 (Kenya), Mongola in Congo

Congo Basin

The Congo Basin is the sedimentary basin that is the drainage of the Congo River of west equatorial Africa. The basin begins in the highlands of the East African Rift system with input from the Chambeshi River, the Uele and Ubangi Rivers in the upper reaches and the Lualaba River draining wetlands...

, Igisoro

Igisoro

Igisoro is a two player game in the mancala family. It is a variant of the Omweso game of the Baganda people , and it is played primarily in Burundi and Rwanda. Igisoro, like Omweso and other mancalas from Eastern Africa such as Bao, is played with an 4×8 board of pits and 64 seeds...

 in Rwanda, and Kiela

Kiela

Kiela is a traditional mancala played by the Kimbundu people in northern Angola, who describe it as "a game of peace". A national tournament of Kiela is held every year in Angola since 1999...

 in Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

.

The name "Omweso" is derived from Swahili

Swahili language

Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...

 word michezo, which means "game".

Equipment

Omweso requires a board of 32 pits, arranged with eight pits lengthwise towards the players, and four pits deep. Each player's territory is the 16 pits on their side of the board. In addition, 64 undifferentiated seeds are needed. This equipment is the same used for many variants of Omweso as well as for the Bao game from Zanzibar

Zanzibar

Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...

 and Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

. Unlike Bao boards, Omweso boards have no special pit (nyumba).

Object

The normal way to win the game is to be the last player to be able to make a legal move, possible by capturing all an opponent's stones or reducing the opponent to no more than one seed in each pit. Alternatively, a player can win by capturing on both ends of the board in one turn.

Setup

Before the game, four (4) seeds are placed in each of the eight pits closest to a player or alternatively, two seeds in each and every pit – to ensure that both players have exactly 32 seeds. The first player is chosen by lot. This player arranges all owned seeds on their side of the board according to preference (The arrengment should be strategic). Then, the second player also arranges their seeds. The first player then makes the first sowing move.

Sowing

Play consists of turns, each of which may involve several moves. A player moves by selecting a pit with at least two seeds, and sowing them one by one around their side of the board in a counter-clockwise direction from the starting pit. The player may only sow from one of the sixteen pits in their territory, and the sowing proceeds around this territory, not directly involving the opponent's side.

Although in the past it was common for players to spend much time in thought, in modern tournaments only three seconds of thought is allowed per turn. The referee counts omu, ebiri, and if the turn is not started the other player may steal it.

Relay Sowing

If the last sowed seed lands in an occupied pit (without resulting in a capture, see below), then all seeds in that pit, including the one just placed, are immediately sown, before the opponent's turn. This continues until the last sowing ends in an empty pit.

Capturing

If the last seed sown lands in one of the player's eight inner pits, which is occupied, and furthermore both the opponent's pits in this same column are occupied, then all seeds from these two pits are captured and sown starting from the pit where this capturing move began (i.e., from the last pit scooped, NOT from the original hole from the very beginning of the turn).

Reverse Capturing

Instead of sowing in a counter-clockwise direction, a player may sow clockwise from any of their four leftmost pits if this results in a capture. Upon re-entering these reverse-captured seeds, the player may sow them clockwise again, if and only if this play results in a direct capture. The player may also choose to sow reverse-captured seeds in the usual counter-clockwise manner, and there is no compulsion to play one direction or the other when the choice is available. During a relay-sowing move, one leg of which ends at one of the four leftmost pits, a player may also change direction and begin sowing the next leg of the move clockwise, if and only if this play results in a direct capture.

Alternate victory conditions

The normal way to win the game is to be the last player left with a legal move. However, there are two additional victory conditions:

Victory conditions

Victory condition	Definition
Emitwe-ebiri	during the same move, a player can win by capturing opponent's seeds on both ends of the board.
Akakyala	in some tournaments, a player may win by capturing in each of two separate moves, before the opponent has captured their first seed.

In addition, a special win called akawumbi occurs when a player captures seeds from each of an opponent's pits in one turn. In a tournament, this may be weighted several times a more mundane victory.

Never ending moves

It is possible for a move to lead to a never-ending sowing sequence. In tournament play, a player is allowed up to three minutes to finish his move - if this cannot be done, the game is annulled.

Never ending omweso moves have been of some mathematical interest. The Mayer Test can be used to determine whether a position can lead to a never-ending sowing.

External links

• James S. Coleman, Play in Uganda: Omweso a Game People, UCLA African Studies Center, 1970
• Article on Omweso rules and society in East Africa.