Bao la Kimasai (two rows)
Game type: Four-row traditional mancala without stores; 2 players, 8 pits per rank; two-phase pastoralist Maasai game with clockwise multi-lap relay sowing, reserve-cow introductions, and cattle-raiding captures.
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Overview
Bao la Kimasai (two-phase variant) is a traditional four-row mancala played by the Maasai pastoralists in northern Tanzania's interior, particularly in the plains surrounding Mount Kilimanjaro. The rules of this living tradition were documented in 2001 by David MacKay from Moinget Ole Kuney, a Maasai medical worker stationed at a dispensary near Kilimanjaro International Airport. Deeply infused with the cattle-herding culture of the Maasai, the game's mechanics and terminology directly reflect pastoral life: the board's pits are conceptualized as fortified cattle enclosures or kraals (enkang; plural: inkang'ite), while the seeds represent precious cattle (engiteng; plural: ingishu). Play unfolds across two contrasting phases: an opening herding phase where reserve cows are gradually brought to pasture, followed by an aggressive cattle-raiding phase where opposing herds are seized from enemy kraals across the divide and driven into the player's own corrals.
Board
- Ranks/rows: Four (each player commands the two ranks on their side of the board)
- Holes per row: Eight (32 holes total)
- The holes are called "cattle enclosures" or kraals (enkang; plural: inkang'ite).
- Stores: None (captured cows are assimilated directly into the player's own enclosures)
- Initial layout: Exactly one cow in each hole of both inner rows; outer rows begin completely empty (16 cows on board).
- Reserve: Each player maintains 24 cows in reserve off the board (64 cows total in the game).
- The playing counters are called "cows" (ingishu; singular: engiteng) by the Maasai.
How to Play
The game proceeds across two consecutive phases:
First Part: Herding and Reserve Introduction
- While players still hold cows in their reserve, each turn involves introducing livestock onto the board.
- On a player's turn, they place one cow from their reserve into any one of their non-empty holes, and then sow that hole's entire contents clockwise, one by one, into consecutive holes around their two ranks.
- Relay sowing: If the last seed of a lap falls into an occupied hole, its full contents are gathered and distributed in another lap.
- Turn termination: A turn ends when the final seed of a lap drops into an empty hole.
- First-turn exception: The very first turn of the game is played without introducing a cow from reserve. The opening player simply lifts the stone from any one of their occupied holes and sows it clockwise.
- No captures: No cattle can be captured or stolen during the first phase.
Second Part: Cattle Raiding and Open Play
- The second phase commences immediately after the final reserve cow has been brought onto the board.
- On their turn, a player picks up all cows from any non-empty hole on their side—even a singleton—and sows them clockwise around their two ranks.
- Stealing cows: If the final seed of a lap lands in an occupied hole of the player's inner row, and the directly opposite hole in the opponent's inner row contains cows, the player "steals" the opponent's cows across the divide.
- Driving the herd: The captured cows are immediately distributed in a continuation lap, dropping the first cow directly into the player's inner hole that effected the capture. The captured cattle permanently change ownership.
- The move ends when the last seed drops into an empty hole.
Capturing
- Capturing is exclusively permitted in the second phase.
- A capture occurs whenever the last stone of a lap falls into an occupied inner-row hole facing an occupied opponent inner-row hole.
- Back-row holes are immune to capture; only inner-row cattle may be raided.
- Captured cows are not removed from the board; instead, they are immediately re-sown into the capturer's circuit, augmenting the player's herd.
End of Game and Winning
- The game terminates when a player has no cows remaining in their inner row.
- The opponent who successfully cleared the enemy inner kraals is crowned the winner.
Notes
- Pastoral symbolism: The language and mechanics celebrate the cattle-centered worldview of the Maasai, where acquiring, herding, and guarding ingishu within protective inkang'ite forms the essence of wealth and prestige.
- Clockwise sowing: Sowing moves clockwise around each player's ranks, in distinct contrast to the counterclockwise norm found in most other East African mancalas.
- Ethnographic record: Documented in 2001 by David MacKay from Moinget Ole Kuney.