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Evidence for Njombwa
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.1897
Type Ethnography
Location Yao
Date 1913-01-01 - 1913-12-31
Rules 4x8 board, occasionally 4x9 or 10. 29 counters in each player's leftmost hole in their outer row, two in the hole to the right of it and one in the hole to the right of that one. Sowing occurs in an anti-clockwise direction in the player's two rows. Each player begins with a stylised move, by sowing the contents of the hole with two counters. Players alternate turns sowing only from their hole with two counters. When finally a single counter is sown into an inner-row hole that is opposite a hole with a single counter in the opponent's inner row, this counter is captured. The opponent then sows their two remaining counters, capturing two from the opponent. Then, the players sow from their hole with 29 counters, picking up the contents of a hole when the final counter lands in an occupied hole, ending the turn when the final counter lands in an empty hole. When both players have completed this phase, the main phase of the game begins. Players sow from any hole in their two rows. When the final counter lands in an occupied hole, these counters are picked up and sowing continues. When the final counter lands in an empty hole in the inner row, and counters in the opponent's opposite hole in their inner row are captured. If there are also counters in the opponent's opposite hole in the outer row, these are also captured, but only when a capture from the inner row was also made. Players cannot sow single counters, unless there are no holes with multiple counters left, in which case single counters may be sown into an empty hole. Play continues until one player has captured all of the opponent's counters, thus winning the game.
Content NJOMBWA (YAO).
There are several different gambits for this game, which was played in every Yao
village till ousted by " Bau."
The arrangement and numbers of the holes are the same as in Bau, i.e., 4 rows of 8
(occasionally 9 or 10). In one game all the men are numbers. They are then removed and it into the hole at the end of the left-hand end of the back row. Two of them are then put into the second hole from the left of the back row and one
in the third. The position is then: The first player then spreads the two men in the second hole from the left to the
right (along the back row), arriving at the fourth hole from the left. His opponent does the same and they continue spreading in like manner, in turn along the back row and
back along the front row (from right to left). When one player in spreading arrives at
an empty hole opposite to one in which his opponent has a man, he takes the latter and removes it from the board. His move then ends. His opponent then spreads the two
men he has left, and, arriving at the hole opposite to that in which the first player has two, he takes them and also removes them from the board.
The first player then spreads the 29 men remaining in the end hole of the back row, starting at the next hole and putting one in each hole along the back row and back along the front and so on, till he has placed all the 29 men in the holes, arriving at the sixth hole from the right in the front row. The contents of this hole are then spread and the spreading continues as in Bau till the player arrives at an empty hole. His opponent
then does the same and on arriving at an empty .hole his move also ends. This completes the gambit. The position is then:...Men are taken from the opponent by spreading and arriving at an empty hole in the front row, not necessarily in one spread. The contents of the holes opposite to that arrived at, both in front and back, row, are taken, and are removed from the board. The move then ends.
The spreading must always proceed from right to left in the front rows and from left to right in the back.
The move ends without taking if the player arrives at an empty hole not in "opposition." When a player is left with no hole containing more than one man he may
move a " singleton " into the next hole, if empty, and, if such hole be in the front row and in oppositioli, he takes his opponent's man or men and removes it or them from the board.
At no period of the game can a man be taken from a hole in the back row if the corresponding hole in the front row be empty, though a man or men may be taken from a hole in the front row even if there be no man in its corresponding hole of the back
row.
The game is won by taking all the opponent's men." Sanderson 1913: 732-733.
Confidence 100
Source Sanderson, M. 1913. "Native Games of Central Africa." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 43: 726-736.
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