Gamegbee
How it is played
Two rows: Oware
- Two rows of six pits; each player owns the row nearest them. Four seeds go in every pit.
- On your turn, scoop up every seed in one of your pits and sow them one at a time, anticlockwise, into the pits that follow. If you go all the way round, skip the pit you started from.
- If your last seed lands in your opponent's row and leaves that pit with two or three seeds, you take them, along with any unbroken run of twos and threes just before it on their side.
- You may not take every seed on your opponent's side at once, and if their side is empty you must sow into it if you can.
- The game ends when no more captures can be made. The most seeds wins.
As Ludii ↗ records it, a research database of traditional games. Rules differ from place to place, and players know them best.
Four rows: Tsoro
- Four rows; each player owns the two rows nearest them. Two stones start in each hole of the outer rows.
- You sow anticlockwise around your own two rows only. If your last stone lands in a hole that already has stones, pick them all up and keep sowing.
- If your last stone lands in an empty hole in your inner row, take the stones in your opponent's inner-row hole opposite it, and then the outer-row hole behind it.
- Take every one of your opponent's stones to win.
As Ludii ↗ records it, a research database of traditional games. Rules differ from place to place, and players know them best.
Where it is played, and what it is called
| Name | Played in | Board | What the sources say | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oware also Wari | Ghana | 2 × 6 | Written down in Ghana as Wari as early as 1927; played across West Africa and the Caribbean. | ludii.games ↗ ludii.games ↗ |
| Ayò also Ayoayo | Nigeria | 2 × 6 | Listed among Oware's names by Ludii; Pulse Nigeria counts Ayo among the games Nigerians play, now on phones too. | ludii.games ↗ pulse.ng ↗ |
| Awalé | Côte d'Ivoire | 2 × 6 | Played at the tourism ministry's traditional games caravan, and in school clubs set up in Guiglo. | aip.ci ↗ web.tourisme.gouv.ci ↗ |
| Wurrey also Wari, Wuri, Beans | Gambia | 2 × 6 | A wooden case with six cups a side and four beans in each. In The Gambia's telling, a sowing that leaves 2, 4 or 6 beans in an opponent's house captures them, and 25 beans wins. | my-gambia.com ↗ |
| Uril also Ouril, Ouri | Cabo Verde | 2 × 6 | Popular across the islands and carried to Portugal; the first player to 25 wins. | ludii.games ↗ |
| Akong also Songo | Equatorial Guinea | — | A strategy game in which players compete to capture the most pieces. Malabo hosted the first regional Akong conference in May 2025, run by the Equatoguinean Akong Association. | minfopressyculturage.com ↗ |
| Gebeta | Eritrea | — | A count-and-capture game on a board with several rows of pits, listed among Eritrea's traditional sports. | erinoc.org ↗ |
| Abalala'e also Gabata | Eritrea | 3 × 6 | Three rows of six, from Eritrea's central highlands (called Gabata in the eastern lowlands). It opens with both players sowing at once, in a race. | ludii.games ↗ |
| Igisoro also Ikibuguzo | Rwanda | 4 × 8 | Thirty-two pits and 64 seeds, called cows. Boards carved into rock are found across Rwanda; the player with the most seeds wins. | artsandculture.google.com ↗ |
| Tsoro also Fuva, Imbwe | Zimbabwe | 4 × 6 to 4 × 21 | Boards of eight holes a row are most common; many regional ways to play. | ludii.games ↗ shonahistory.github.io ↗ |
| Mraha wa tso | Comoros | 4 rows | Studied on Grande Comore in 2018, with rules of its own that are not recorded for Bao elsewhere. | reference-global.com ↗ |
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How sure are we
- Names and places: each one has a source
- Rules: from a research database, not yet from players
- Checked with players: not yet
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