In today’s post, you’re going to learn Mancala Rules and how to make your own Mancala board at home, using just a few simple materials!

The Spruce / Catherine Song Mancala's Primitive History. Mancala is a game where players 'sow' and 'capture' seeds. Historians believe that mancala may have originated with the dawn of civilization as a record-keeping technique, a harvesting ritual, or a divination tool. There's evidence that the game was played thousands of years ago in ancient Sumeria (modern-day Iraq), in ancient Sudan on.

Mancala is basically a two player strategy game that involves moving tokens between holes or pits, with the object being to capture as many of your opponent’s tokens as you can.

Mancala is actually a lot of fun to play and is super easy to learn. Mancala rules are simple and straightforward, and almost any age group can easily figure it out.

The game of Mancala is great in the classroom, since it reinforces math skills, logic, and strategy.

Making your own mancala board is also a great project for groups. I’ve seen it used in girl scout groups, homeschool co-ops, and even at senior citizen centers as a craft project!

It really does work well for LOTS of ages.

Mancala is considered the oldest board game that is still being played today. Evidence of its origins date back to some of the oldests civilizations in the world.

I was introduced to this game when I was in high school by my dear friend Brandon. He used to make a joke out of beating me, which he ALWAYS managed to do.

When I went off to college and spotted a gorgeous wooden Mancala game board at my local mall, I bought it immediately. I’ve had that same game in my home for over 20 years now.

We keep my lovely wooden game board in our living room, available for play whenever any of us want to start a game.

It only takes a few minutes to play a game of Mancala, so we find ourselves playing it a lot.

As much as I love my wooden game board, we discovered that it’s quite easy and inexpensive to make your own DIY Mancala game using items your either already have at home or can find at your local dollar store.

First, I’ll explain the Mancala rules. Then I’ll tell you how to make your own board!

Mancala Rules

The Objective

Mancala rules are relatively simple. The objective of the game is just to have the most tokens in your mancala (or your well) at the end of the game. Easy enough, right?

But be aware, playing Mancala requires some strategy if you want to win!

The Set-Up

Each player sits opposite each other, with the long sides of the board facing them.

Four tokens are placed in each of the twelve small wells in the center of the board, leaving the two large wells at the ends, known as mancalas, empty.

The six small wells closest to each player and the mancala on their right side belong to them.

Game Play

On each turn, a player will take all the tokens from a cup on their side of the board.

Moving clockwise, players will place one Mancala token in each well until you run out of tokens. This includes placing one in your own mancala, but not your opponent’s.

Capture as many of your opponent’s tokens you can (as outlined in the next step).

Now your turn is complete.

Play continues with alternating turns.

Capturing Your Opponent’s Tokens

If you place the last token of your turn in an empty well on your side of the board, you capture all of the tokens in your opponent’s well directly across from it.

Place all the captured tokens and the capturing token into your own mancala.

If your last stone lands in your own mancala, you may take another turn.

Winning Mancala

As soon as all wells on one side of the game board are empty, the game is over.

Any remaining tokens on the other side belong to the player who the side belongs to.

The person with the most tokens at the end of the game wins.

Those are the rules of Mancala! Pretty simple, right?

DIY Mancala Board: Supplies

There’s a reason this game has been around so long. It doesn’t take much to put a board game together.

People around the world play this game on anything from a carved wooden board to just little holes in the ground.

For our version, we used a few items you’ll EASILY find around your house.

All you need is:

• An old egg carton
• 48 “tokens” (more on these in a minute)
• Glue
• Scissors
• Our FREE Printable Mancala Rules

When it comes to tokens, you have a lot of options. I chose to use some “glass gems” that I found at my local dollar store just because they were pretty and they were the perfect size for this game.

You could use anything really. I’ve seen small rocks, dried beans, beads, buttons, even pennies.

You could make the game really fun and use jelly beans or candy, and you eat what you win.

Mancala Rules On Game Pigeon Play

Just make sure the items you use will fit appropriately into the wells of the egg carton.

It’s really up to you what you’d like to use for this project.

How To Make Your Game Board

Now to the fun part, making your DIY Mancala game!

You’ll want to start by cutting your egg carton right down the middle. You’ll want to take care because you’ll need both sides of the carton,

Next you’ll want to trim off the locking tab on the side of the carton. You can discard it when you’re done cutting it off.

Next, cut the lid portion of the carton in half, trimming off any part that sticks up. For mine, I cut around the middle portion and discarded it.

This is what you should be left with now:

Next you’re going to want to attach the two pieces from the top of the carton to the bottom of the carton.

While you could use tape, I recommend using glue for this step. It makes the game board hold up a longer.

I know some of you may be tempted to use hot glue, but I would STRONGLY advise against that.

If you happen to be using a styrofoam egg carton, like I am in the example, hot glue will melt it straight away.

I recommend a good craft glue like Aleene’s or a regular old Elmer’s School Glue for this step. Both work great.

Use the glue to attach the two halves of the top of the egg carton to the bottom of the other portion of the egg carton.

You’ll want to place them in such a way that you create two large “wells” at either end of the egg crate.

Printable Rules For Mancala

Instead of guessing where the glue should go and ending up with a big sticky mess, I like to flip the carton over and place the glue on top of the little wells that the eggs go in.

Then I just place the bottom piece over the glue and press firmly.

Allow your glue to dry and then your board game is complete!

Mancala Game Set Up & Play

Mancala Rules On Game Pigeon Forge

Now you can set up your board game! Just follow the simple instructions above, or download and print the instructions by clicking here: Mancala Rules

It’s really quite simple, and more fun that you’d think. There are all sorts of strategies you can use to win the game.

The best strategy we use to win a game of Mancala is to try to think a few moves ahead. Then you can plan out your attack to get the most tokens.

Mancala Online

You can also use this DIY Mancala game to teach counting, logic, math, and other skills.

Now get out there and start playing!!

Looking for another fun project that will keep you entertained for a long time? Check out How To Make A Hexaflexagon!

Want to make an awesome, personalized t-shirt with just the supplies you have at home? Check out this Bleach Stencil T-shirt Tutorial!

Mancala Rules: Make Your Own Board Game and Learn To Play!

Mancala is an ancient game, traditionally played on the ground using holes, or dimples, dug out in the sand or rock and tree seeds or pebbles. Its origins are unknown, but from its wide spread, usage, and simplicity of materials it would seems that it is at least over 2000 years old. The game’s older variants exist mostly in Africa. As the African slave trade spread the game spread as well to Asia and the Caribbean, as well as the Americas and Europe. There are over 100 Mancala variants around the world.

2×6 Mancala Board, Yoruba People, Nigeria, Early 20th Century – Penn Museum, 2015-22-108.1

There have been many claims in recent years of oldest found Mancala boards found in Israel in Gadara in Roman bathhouses and in Ethiopia at Aksum. However, a closer look at the hole patterns carved in the rocks clearly shows that these are not Mancala boards, because the number of holes is different. The Aksum board have a 3×10 grid and is obviously Senet, the Game of 30 Squares, and the boards in Gadara, Israel have a variety of patterns, most notably 5×2 which is the Greek game Pente Grammai. It does not seem to appear that the Romans, ancient Egyptians, or Axumites played Mancala. The game seemed to be more of a pass time of the African tribes and hence remained undocumented until the Europeans came to Africa.

2×6 Mancala Board, Senufo, Guro, Baule People, West Africa, Early 20th Century – Penn Museum, 2015-22-85

Mancala is the Egyptian Arabic name of the game, derived from the word naql (نقل), meaning “to move”. So the name Mancala roughly means “movement”. Its earliest mention by name is in the Sunni Islamic law code, Kitab al-Umm (كـتـاب الأم) (VI, 213), written by Imam ash-Shafii (767-820 CE), where the game is called Hizzah and is described as, “a piece of wood in which there are holes for playing.” A commentary on Kitab al-Umm, called Az-Zawajir an Iqtirafal-Kabayir (II, 191), written by Ibn Hajar Al-Haytami (1503-1566 CE), confirms that Hizzah is a similar name to Mancala, by saying: “Hizzah is a piece of wood in which there are three rows of holes into which small pebbles are put for playing. It may also be called fourteen (shahardah / arbaata ashara). In Egypt, it is called manqalah. In the Taqrib of Sulaym, it is explained as a board in which there are twenty eight holes, fourteen on one side, and fourteen on the other, for playing.”

2×6 Mancala Board, Dan People, West Africa, Mid 20th Century – Penn Museum, 2015-22-53

The earliest detailed description of Mancala rules was described by Edward William Lane in 1833, where he saw it played in Egyptian coffee shops during his visit to Egypt in 1825-1828. The game that he saw was played on a 2×6 board with 12 dimples in total, with 72 pebbles or cowry shells, used as playing pieces. Lane describes two different sets of rules for the Egyptian Mancala. The first set is called, The Game of the Ignorant, (Leab El-Ghasheem), and the second set of rules is called The Game of the Wise, (Leab El-Akil). Since Lane’s description of the rules is the oldest available, I quote both of them here.

Lane’s Egyptian Mancala Rules – The Game of the Ignorant, (Leab El-Ghasheem):

1. Mancala is a 2 player game.
2. It consists of a 2×6 playing board, and 72 playing pieces all of the same color. Each hole is called beyt (plural: bayoot), and each pebbles is called hasweh (plural: hasa).
3. The board looks as follows:
4. Cells 1-6 belong to the first player, where as cells 7-12 belong to the second player.
5. The first player starts the game by placing all of the 72 pebbles in all 12 cells, unevenly. Meaning , that each cell can remain empty, or hold as many pebbles as the player wants. The act of distributing the hasa (pebbles) into the bayoot is called tebweez.
   1. The pebbles should not be placed evenly into all cells (meaning 6 per cell), because if that’s done then the player who goes first will for sure lose.
   2. Typically, the player should place at least 4 pebbles per cell, but they do not have to.
6. If the opposing player is not satisfied with their opponent’s distribution of the pebbles then they may turn the game around and take the opposite side of the board for themselves.
7. Once the pebbles have been distributed the other player begins moving the pieces, by picking up all of the pebbles in their most right cell (12 or 6), and placing one pebble per cell moving counterclockwise, first into their opponent’s cells and then into their own, and so on, until they run out of the pebbles in their hand.
8. If after the move, the last cell into which the moving player placed a pebble, contains only 1 pebble (i.e. the cell was empty before the move), then that player’s turn ends, and the opponent moves.
9. If after the move, the last cell and/or any of the preceding cells (in order) into which the moving player placed pebbles contain 2 or 4 pebbles, they collect the contents of that cell and also of the cell that is opposite to that cell, for themselves into a pile outside of the board, and this constitutes a score. Each pebble counts for 1 point. For example, if the player made a move from cell 10, which contained 6 pebbles, then they would place one pebble into each subsequent cell counter clockwise and their turn would stop on cell 4. Then, if cells 4 and cell 3 contain 2 or 4 pebbles in each, then the player will take the pebbles inside cells 3 and 4, and also inside cells 10 and 9, because they are opposite to those cells. However, if after the move, also cell 12 and cell 1 contained 2 or 4 pebbles, then the contents of those cells will not be removed, because they were not in sequence with the last cell (cell 4), because cell 2 broke the sequence, by not having the correct amount of pebbles in it (i.e. not 2 or 4). Once a player scores, they do not get a second turn, and the opponent moves instead.
10. If after the move, the last cell contains 3, 5 or more pebbles, then the player gets a second turn. They take the pebbles out of that last cell and go again, distributing them one per cell in a counterclockwise manner.
11. If a player has more than one pebble in any of the cells on their side, but the opponent has no pebbles at all on their side (i.e. their whole side is empty), then the player with multiple pebbles on their side must place a single pebble into the opponent’s first empty cell (cell 7 or cell 1).
12. If only one pebble remains in the game, that pebble becomes the property of the person on whose side its own, when it remains as the lone pebble, and gets added to their score.
13. Once the board has been completely cleared of pebbles, both players count how many pebbles they have in their score piles, and the person with the larger amount of pebbles wins that round, by the difference of how many pebbles they scored above the other player.
14. The players then continue to play another round and another round, until one of them reaches the final score of 60. Whoever, reaches the score of 60 first wins the game.

Lane’s Egyptian Mancala Rules – The Game of the Wise, (Leab El-Akim):

1. Mancala is a 2 player game.
2. It consists of a 2×6 playing board, and 72 playing pieces all of the same color. Each hole is called beyt (plural: bayoot), and each pebbles is called hasweh (plural: hasa).
3. The board looks as follows:
4. Cells 1-6 belong to the first player, where as cells 7-12 belong to the second player.
5. The first player starts the game by placing all of the 72 pebbles into the middle 4 cells (8-11 and 2-5) they want on their side, and in the opponent’s cells of the other side, opposite to the ones where they placed pebbles. The most extreme cells on each side (cells 7, 12 and 1,6) are left empty. For example, if the player placed pebbles in cells 8, 9, and 11, and left cell 10 empty as well, then they also must place pebbles into cells 5, 4, and 2, because they are opposite to cells 8,9, and 11.
   1. The pebbles should not be placed evenly into all cells (meaning 6 per cell), because if that’s done then the player who goes first will for sure lose.
   2. Typically, the player should place at least 4 pebbles per cell, but they do not have to.
6. If the opposing player is not satisfied with their opponent’s distribution of the pebbles then they may turn the game around and take the opposite side of the board for themselves. But if they do this, they forfeit the first turn to move, and go second.
7. Once the pebbles have been distributed the other player begins moving the pieces, by picking up all of the pebbles in any cell on their side that they chose (the one that makes most sense strategically) and placing one pebble per cell moving counterclockwise until they run out of the pebbles in their hand. The opponent may stop the moving player and request to count the number of pebbles inside a cell from which the move is being made.
8. If after the move, the last cell into which the moving player placed a pebble, contains only 1 pebble (i.e. the cell was empty before the move), then that player’s turn ends, and the opponent moves.
9. If after the move, the last cell and/or any of the preceding cells (in order) into which the moving player placed pebbles contain 2 or 4 pebbles, they collect the contents of that cell and also of the cell that is opposite to that cell, for themselves into a pile outside of the board, and this constitutes a score. Each pebble counts for 1 point. For example, if the player made a move from cell 10, which contained 6 pebbles, then they would place one pebble into each subsequent cell counter clockwise and their turn would stop on cell 4. Then, if cells 4 and cell 3 contain 2 or 4 pebbles in each, then the player will take the pebbles inside cells 3 and 4, and also inside cells 10 and 9, because they are opposite to those cells. However, if after the move, also cell 12 and cell 1 contained 2 or 4 pebbles, then the contents of those cells will not be removed, because they were not in sequence with the last cell (cell 4), because cell 2 broke the sequence, by not having the correct amount of pebbles in it (i.e. not 2 or 4). Once a player scores, they get a second turn, starting from any of the cells on their own side that they want.
10. If after the move, the last cell contains 3, 5 or more pebbles, then the player gets a second turn. They take the pebbles out of that last cell and go again, distributing them one per cell in a counterclockwise manner.
11. If a player has more than one pebble in any of the cells on their side, but the opponent has no pebbles at all on their side (i.e. their whole side is empty), then the player with multiple pebbles on their side must place a single pebble into the opponent’s first empty cell (cell 7 or cell 1).
12. If only one pebble remains in the game, that pebble becomes the property of the person on whose side its own, when it remains as the lone pebble, and gets added to their score.
13. Once the board has been completely cleared of pebbles, both players count how many pebbles they have in their score piles, and the person with the larger amount of pebbles wins that round, by the difference of how many pebbles they scored above the other player.
14. The players then continue to play another round and another round, until one of them reaches the final score of 60. Whoever, reaches the score of 60 first wins the game.

Mancala Rules On Game Pigeon Game

Bibliography:

1. Murray, Harold James Ruthven. A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess. Clarendon Press, 1952.