Anywoli
Game type: Two-player two-row mancala with storage pits, twelve holes per row; multi-lap relay sowing; mid-sow fours captured by pit owner, lap-ending fours captured by the mover with an extra turn.
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Overview
Anywoli, an Anuak term translating literally to "birthing" or "giving birth," is an expansive two-row mancala game played by the Anuak people of the Gambela region in western Ethiopia and neighboring districts across the border in South Sudan (including Akobo, Pochalla, and Jokau). Numbering around 78,000, the Anuak are traditionally riverine fishermen, agriculturalists, and hunters. The game was first brought to broader scholarship in 1971 by Ethiopianist historian Richard Pankhurst. Anywoli is structurally aligned with West African casa mancalas such as Ghanaian Ba-awa and Nigerian Obridjie, but is distinguished by its magnificent 2x12 board layout utilizing 96 seeds.
Board
- Ranks/rows: Two
- Holes per row: 12
- Stores: Yes, one store at each end of the board to hold captured seeds (seeds are never sown into the stores)
- Seeds per hole at start: 4
- Total seeds: 96
- The playing holes are called oto (plural udi, meaning "houses"). The seeds are called nyibaré ("children of the board game").
How to Play
- Players take turns moving seeds. On their turn, a player selects one of the holes under their control containing seeds.
- The player picks up all seeds from the chosen hole and sows them, one by one, counter-clockwise into consecutive holes. Seeds are never sown into the end stores.
- Sowing proceeds via multi-lap relay: if the last seed lands in an occupied hole, all seeds in that hole (including the newly placed seed) are scooped up and sown in a new lap starting from that hole.
- Sowing continues until the turn concludes, which occurs either when the final seed drops into an empty hole, or when the final seed creates a capture of four seeds.
- A player must move if they have legal moves available, but passes if they have no seeds in their row.
Capturing
- If at any point during sowing a hole accumulates exactly four seeds, all four are immediately captured and placed into the store of the player who owns that hole. Multiple mid-sow captures can occur during a single move.
- Final-seed exception: If the final seed of a sowing lap lands in a hole and brings its contents to exactly four seeds, those four seeds are captured by the moving player, regardless of which player owns the hole.
- After securing a capture with the final seed, the moving player is entitled to make an immediate additional move.
End of Game and Winning
- The game ends when all seeds have been captured, or as soon as only four seeds remain on the board.
- Pankhurst described a lottery to determine who receives the final four seeds on the board; games researcher Ralf Gering noted two alternative conventions from related games. This app uses the first of these:
- The player who took the penultimate four-seed group also claims the final four seeds, ending the game.
- The player who first achieved a final-seed capture during the game wins the final four seeds.
- The player who captures the greater number of seeds wins the game.
Notes
- Anywoli's 2x12 board is among the largest in the two-row African mancala tradition, demanding sustained stamina and foresight over 96 counters.
- Anuak tradition includes formal endgame puzzle compositions; Pankhurst documented an intricate forced-win problem for South demonstrating advanced tactical calculation among Anuak masters.
Source: Mancala World – Anywoli