Bao la Kete

Game type: Four-row traditional mancala without stores; 2 players, 8 pits per rank; distinctive Lamu Archipelago variant of Bao featuring nemo reserve introduction, kuu six-floor emptying rules, and hizi zetu takasia priorities.

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Overview

Bao la Kete (Swahili: "board of counters"), known locally as Bao la Komwe (after the glossy, pebble-like seeds of Caesalpinia bonduc) or simply Kombe, represents the celebrated regional mancala tradition of the Lamu Archipelago along northern Kenya's Swahili coast. Documented by Walter Driedger in 1972 and ethnographically detailed by Alan W. Boyd (1979) and Philip Townshend (1979, 1982, 1986), the game occupies a central place in the cultural heritage of Lamu Island and Pate. Lamu competitors are renowned across East Africa for their lightning-fast multi-lap arithmetic and dynamic tactile mastery. Historically hosted in open-air baraza pavilions, in the shade of casuarina trees fronting the historic Lamu Fort, and on household verandas, matches traditionally pause around daily Muslim prayer hours, particularly Magharibi. The archipelago's master woodcarvers have elevated the creation of ornately embellished hardwood Bao boards into an internationally prized indigenous art form.

Board

• Ranks/rows: Four
• Holes per row: Eight
• Stores: none (seeds are captured from the opponent's front row)
• The board and play are similar to Bao la Kiswahili (Zanzibarian Bao); the nyumba is here called kuu.
• The holes are rounded except the fourth from the right in the central rows, which is square and called kuu ("house"). A kuu ceases temporarily to be a functional kuu when it has less than six seeds, and ultimately when its contents have been captured or moved in a lap.
• Initial position: each player has 22 seeds in reserve; seeds are laid out on the board as shown in the diagram:

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

How to Play

The Lamu rules are similar to Bao la Kiswahili with a few differences in the two stages of the game. Bao la Kete is a game with multilap sowing; each player only sows around his own two rows.

• There is an initial phase with special rules, called nemo (the namu stage of Zanzibarian Bao), in which seeds are introduced into play, and the main stage called hizi zetu (the mtaji stage), which starts after the move that put the last seed on the board.
• Moves can be with or without capturing. Non-capturing moves are also known as takata. Captures are mandatory.
• A prerequisite for making a capture is to have at least two occupied holes facing each other in the players' front rows. Any such position results in a capture during the nemo stage, but in the hizi zetu stage the last seed of the first lap must fall into an occupied hole in opposition to really effect a capture. Only the contents of the opponent's front row can be captured; those in his back row are safe.
• If the first lap of a move doesn't capture, nothing will be captured in the full move. If the first lap captures, multiple captures can follow, even if they are interrupted by non-capturing laps.
• If 16 or more seeds are sown in the first lap, nothing will be captured (this rule only applies to the second stage).

Nemo Stage (the namu stage of Zanzibarian Bao)

Non-capturing moves:

• If it is not possible to make a capture, the player takes a seed from his reserve and puts it into a non-empty hole in his front row:
  • If the player has a kuu, he is not permitted to put the seed into it unless it is the only occupied hole in his front row.
  • If the player has no kuu, he can only add the seed to a hole which contains at least two seeds, unless all non-empty holes in the front row are singletons.
• A kuu can never have less than six seeds. If, in takata, the player's only occupied hole of his front row is a kuu with six seeds, although it had more before, a seed is added to its contents, which are thereafter emptied and sown in either direction, thus destroying the kuu forever.
• After that the player picks all the seeds from this hole and sows them into consecutive holes in either direction (clockwise or anticlockwise).
• If the seed is put into a kuu, he takes just two seeds from it and sows them in either direction.
• If the last seed is sown into a non-empty hole, but not a kuu, its contents are taken and the sowing continues until the last seed falls in an empty hole, which also ends the turn.
• If the lap ends in the kuu, the move is not continued and the turn is over without delay.

Capturing moves:

• After the player has put a seed into a hole which effects a capture, he takes the contents of the opponent's inner hole opposite to it and sows them towards the center of his inner row starting in a kichwa:
  • If he has captured from a kimbi, he must start in the kichwa of the same side (left or right).
  • If he has captured from the four central holes, he may choose the kichwa.
• He continues in laps as in takata unless the last seed is dropped into an occupied hole of his inner row and the opponent's hole opposite is not empty either, which results in another capture:
  • The captured seeds must now be sown towards the center from the kichwa which is in the direction from where he arrived (so that the direction of sowing remains unaltered), unless he captured from a kimbi of the other end of the row; then he starts from the kichwa of this side and the direction of sowing is reversed.
  • If the player ends a lap in his kuu, he can either choose to stop sowing or he may continue (called safari), which would destroy the kuu forever.

Hizi Zetu Stage (the mtaji stage)

Non-capturing moves:

• If the player has no reserve seeds left and cannot capture, he may choose any hole of his front row (including the kuu) which contains more than one seed, and then sow its contents in either direction.
• If there are only singletons in the front row, he may take a hole in his back row, but no singletons. The move keeps on going with multiple laps until the last seed is dropped into an empty hole.
• The front row may never be emptied, not even temporarily. If the only occupied hole of the front row is a kichwa and it contains two or more seeds, they must be sown towards the center of the front row.
• The first takata move must start with a kuu, if it still exists.

Capturing moves:

• A capture can be effected starting from any hole in either row with at least two seeds. The captured seeds are sown in a new lap towards the center from the kichwa which is in the direction from where he came, unless he captured from a kimbi of the other end of the row; then he starts from this side and the direction of sowing is reversed.
• He continues in laps until the last seed falls into an empty hole.
• In contrast to the nemo stage, the player must safari (continue to sow) if the sowing ends in the kuu.
• The contents of a hole which were reserved by hizi zetu must be captured, even if the contents of other holes have also become menaced.

Takasia:

• A special rule of the hizi zetu stage. If after a takata move the contents of only one opponent's hole are under threat of being captured, but not one of the player's own holes is menaced (that is, the opponent must also takata), this hole is takasiaed. The opponent cannot start his turn from it, nor would a move be continued if a lap ends in it, unless it has been reached in the first lap from a kuu. A kuu itself cannot be takasiaed, nor can a hole that is the only occupied one or the only one containing more than one seed in the player's front row.

Capturing

• Captures are mandatory and only affect the opponent's front row; back-row seeds are safe.
• First-lap capture is required for any capture in a move (with multiple captures allowed afterwards).
• A move that sows 16 or more seeds in its first lap captures nothing (hizi zetu stage only).

End of Game and Winning

• The player wins either by "Bao hamna", that is capturing all seeds of the opponent's front row, or by leaving his opponent just singletons, so that he isn't able to move.
• Usually a match of up to three games is played, which ends as soon as a player has won two games.

Notes

• Linguistic and gaming taxonomy: In Swahili, bao serves as a generic term for any board game. The designation Bao la Kete ("board of stones/shells") or Bao la Komwe ("board of bonduc seeds") distinguishes this traditional mancala from other popular pastimes on Lamu, such as Bao la Dama (draughts) and Bao la Dumna (chess or dominoes).
• Social customs: As Philip Townshend documented in his 1982 ethnography Bao (Mankala): The Swahili Ethic in African Idiom, public play in open-sided town meeting pavilions (baraza) and street porches has historically been a male-dominated communal institution, while women have traditionally played recreationally in private household courtyards.
• Match play: Formal contests are traditionally contested as best-of-three series, concluding the moment a player secures two game victories.

Source: Mancala World – Bao la Kete

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