Talk:Mancala

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[edit] The name

I found a nice public domain (written in 1894) source "Mancala, The National Game of Africa". It says:

Mancala, the name which the Syrians give to this game, is a common Arabic word and means in this connection the "Game of transferring."

This makes sense to me. The Arabic root "nql" is indeed about transferring, moving and carrying (as far as I know with my beginner's level Arabic). On the other hand, the explanation currently given in the wikipedia article, that this word means losing in Arabic doesn't make sense to me. Can someone point me to the source of this explanation?

By the way, should we perhaps link to that public domain article?

Nyh

The "explanation" that mancala means in Arabic "to lose" remains on the page... Like I said in the paragraph above, I am disputing this "fact". Can someone else please confirm the "to lose" meaning, or agree that the explanation needs changing?

Nyh 21:42, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I see that someone just modified the article to say that the verb begins "to move", not "to lose". That's what I thought. Nyh

[edit] Artificial version of Awari

Awari (Artificial version of oware/wari invented by computer scientists)

I removed this, because I can't find anything to indicate Awari in its most widely used sense is different from Warri, Wari, Oware, et al. I'd love to see evidence to the contrary, however. Kevin Saff 04:24, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)
PS 24 April - there is at least one minor variation between the game solved by the CS guys and that in championship level games. Not sure this warrants mention as an "invented game" though. Kevin Saff 04:11, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Age of mancala

There's a discrepancy in the History sections of Mancala and Oware. Mancala says 'Even less is known about the age of the family of games, which is generally placed as between 1000 and 3000 years' while Oware says 'The mancala family of games has been in existence for at least 7000 years'. Bwallberg 01:54, 2004 Apr 24 (UTC)

You're right. Sources seem to disagree about the age of this game. HJR Murray's History of board games other than chess supports the view of extreme age, while there is a more recent important paper published in a journal called "Board Game Studies" (or something like that) that claims there is little substantial evidence for an age older than 1000. Unfortunately, I have not yet found an opportunity to see either of these sources first-hand, so I don't know which age is likely better, nor how to present the issues... Kevin Saff 04:11, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I've read the Murray book, but not the recent paper. However based on my own work I would agree with the later date. One of Murray's key pieces of evidence (the board at the temple of karnak dating 1400bc) seems to be considered unreliable these days. --Imran 10:06, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I think I'll try to make it clear on both pages that the age is fuzzy, until we get better information. Either that, or copy frequent practice of claiming it's older than sex, without reference. Kevin Saff 14:59, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Hi, I'm the owner of manqala.org and I've just registered on this wiki to try to arrange information about mancala games. --Viktor 12:55, 16 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Invitation to WikiManqala

The English WikiManqala is rapidly growing: http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames

These are new articles:

http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/Diffusion http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/ProgressiveMancala http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/Ba-awa http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/Congkak http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/Jerin http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/Obridjie http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/Sungka http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/CondiMancala http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/Cross-Mancala http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/ReverseMancala http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/StoreHole

There will be soon an article on Anywoli: http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/Anywoli

The Bohnenspiel article has been much expanded: http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/DasBohnenspiel

Please contribute to our WikiManqala by correcting mistakes or adding new articles.

Ralph 03/12/2006

[edit] Other sources

I just found this external link on the eddiem.com domain. I am posting it here now because I don't want to lose it and because it may or may not be worth some sort of inclusion in the main article. Luis Dantas 20:01, 3 December 2006 (UTC)



I thought that Mancala originated in ancient Egypt!!!!!

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