Sadeqa II
Game type: Two-player, two-row store-less mancala (2×6 board, 3 seeds per hole) — multi-lap relay sowing, mandatory rightmost opening move, opposite-on-empty captures executed from either side of the board, and victory by hole survival
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Overview
Sadeqa serves as a broad regional designation for two-row mancala games played across southwestern Ethiopia and bordering zones of South Sudan. This distinctive variant, cataloged as Game 93 in the comprehensive 1971 ethnological survey by British-Ethiopian historian Richard Pankhurst, is centered in the market town of Dembi Dolo within the western Welega (Oromia) highlands. A beloved social pastime in traditional t'ej betoch (drinking houses serving honey mead), the game is played on carved wooden boards using small river pebbles or seeds.
Board
- Ranks/rows: Two
- Holes per row: 6
- Stores: None
- Seeds per hole at start: 3 (36 counters in total)
How to Play
- Sowing proceeds in a counterclockwise direction around the board.
- Multi-lap relay sowing: if the final seed of a lap falls into an occupied hole, all seeds in that hole are lifted to continue sowing in another lap.
- Sowing ends when the last distributed seed falls into an empty hole.
- Opening restriction: each player's very first move of the match must be initiated from their extreme right hole.
- The game terminates when a player has no legal moves at the start of their turn.
Capturing
- If a move concludes in an empty hole—regardless of whether that hole is on the player's own side or the opponent's side—and the directly opposite hole across the board is occupied, all seeds in that opposite hole are captured and removed from play.
- The seed that executed the capture remains in its landing hole. If the opposite hole is empty, no capture takes place.
End of Game and Winning
- The game ends as soon as a player is unable to make a move at the beginning of their turn.
- The player who still has occupied holes on their side of the board wins the game.
Notes
- Sadeqa II exhibits two notable mechanics rarely seen in African mancala traditions: territory-independent opposite captures (allowing captures regardless of whether the final landing occurs in friendly or enemy territory) and a survival-based victory condition where the winner is determined by who retains active seeds on the board rather than by a cumulative capture tally.
Source: Mancala World – Sadeqa II