Hoyito I
Game type: Two-player two-row mancala without stores; multi-lap relay sowing; casa-style captures of every four formed during sowing, claimed exclusively by the active player.
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Overview
Hoyito (also called El Hoyito, Casitas, or Mate) is the collective designation for several mancala traditions native to the Dominican Republic, where the name translates literally as "little hole." The game was formally recorded and analyzed by researchers Víktor Bautista i Roca and Salvador Cases i Majoral, who initially interviewed members of the Dominican diaspora in Catalonia in September 2004 before conducting three weeks of in-depth fieldwork across southwestern Dominican Republic in January and February 2005. Hoyito I bears a close structural resemblance to Ghanaian Ba-awa, distinguished primarily by its capture entitlement: every group of four (casa) created anywhere on the board during a move is claimed by the moving player rather than the pit's owner.
Board
- Ranks/rows: Two
- Holes per row: 6 (larger layouts of up to 12 holes per row were also observed, but are far less common)
- Stores: None
- Seeds per hole at start: 4 (total seeds: 48)
- The board consists of two rows of six holes called casitas ("little houses"). The holes are either dug directly into the soil or drawn on concrete; wooden boards are not traditionally used.
How to Play
- On their turn, a player picks up all contents from one of their own holes and distributes them, one by one, into subsequent holes in a counter-clockwise direction around the board.
- If the last stone lands in an occupied hole, its contents (including the last distributed counter) are picked up and distributed in a new lap starting from the next hole.
- However, if the last stone forms a casa ("house", a total of four counters), the four counters are captured and the turn ends.
- If at any moment during sowing a casa is completed in any hole across the board, the player who is currently moving captures those counters immediately.
- When the last stone drops into an empty hole, the turn ends.
- If a player cannot move because they have no stones on their side of the board, they pass their turn until stones enter their holes.
Capturing
- A casa (any hole holding exactly four counters) is captured immediately by the player making the move, regardless of whose side of the board it appears on.
- Both mid-sow casas (en passant captures) and casas formed by the final stone of a lap are awarded to the active mover. A final-stone casa also terminates the turn.
End of Game and Winning
- When only four counters remain on the board (after the penultimate group of four has been captured), the player who captured that penultimate group also receives the final four seeds, and the game ends.
- The player who has captured the greater number of stones wins the game.
Notes
- Hoyito variants are played across the southwestern provinces of Barahona, Bahoruco, and Independencia—an area collectively referred to as El Sur. Specific games were documented in Neiba, Villa Jaragua, Los Ríos, Postrer Río, La Descubierta, and Jimaní.
- Historically enjoyed across Dominican society, particularly among women, Hoyito is now largely played as a street game by children and adolescents.
- While historically played with woody seeds of the calabash tree (Crescentia cujete) called mate seeds, smooth pebbles have largely replaced them today. Occasionally children play for small stakes such as glass beads.
- Match play: Consecutive games are linked into matches. After a game concludes, each player fills as many holes on their own side with four pieces from their captures as possible. Any unfillable holes are closed for that round, but may be regained in subsequent rounds. The winner of the previous round plays first. A player who reduces their opponent to fewer than four pieces at the end of a round wins the entire match.
Source: Mancala World – Hoyito I