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Evidence for Leyla Gobale (Gabradarre)
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.700
Type Ethnography
Location 6°44'29.95"N, 44°15'43.61"E
Date 1971-01-01 - 1971-12-31
Rules 2x6 board.
Five counters in each hole.
Play begins from any hole in a player's row and sown anti-clockwise. When the final counter falls into an occupied hole, the counters in that hole are picked up and sowing continues. If the final counter falls into an empty hole, the turn ends; if this hole is in the player's own row, the contents of the opponent's hole are captured if they contain one, two, four, or more counters. If it contains three counters, one of the opponent's counters is taken and placed into the hole where sowing ended, so that each now has two counters. These holes cannot be sown from for the rest of the game and are owned by the player whose turn created them.
Players cannot change their move mid-turn and counting of counters is forbidden.
Play ends when one player can no longer play. The opponent then takes all of the counters in their own row, and each player takes the counters that have accumulated in their captured holes.
A new game begins. The player with the fewest counters arranges them in their holes, distributing them as equally as possible. The opponent then mirrors this arrangement in their holes, placing aside any extras for use in subsequent games. If the player is reduced to four counters or less, these are arranged one to a hole and any empty holes are not used for the game (by either player).
The player who captures all the counters wins.
Content "Leyla Gobale II
This game (Game 36) varies somewhat from the above, and was played by Abdul Kadir Haji Abdulahi, a Radio Ethiopia entertainer from the Gabradarre area of Ogaden.
The game has the basic characteristics described in Game 37, but also has several distinguishing points, as follows:
1. The game is said to be usually played on two rows each of six holes rather than on the larger number of holes mentioned by Marin.
2. The game is anti-clockwise not clockwise.
3. The first player can begin his move anywhere on his row, though more usually on the extreme left, rather than on the extreme right as stated by Marin.
4. There are initially five balls per hole, not four as in Marin's account.
Abdul Kadir, whose play gives us more understanding of the game than is afforded by Marin, declares that a player having once began a move was not allowed to change it as a result of a change of mind, and that the counting of balls, other than at a glance was forbidden. He also tells us about the redeployment procedure adopted after the termination of one round and before the beginning of the next. He states that the player with least counters would rearrange these in his holes as he wished in order to have approximately the same number of balls in each of his holes. His opponent would then place his counters in an identical fashion so that the contents in each opposite pair of holes would be identical. the more successful player's surplus would be put aside for use in a subsequent round if need be. Should a player be reduced to four balls or less he would arrange them one to a hole, the unoccupied hole or holes being then closed down, the player's opponent doing the same with his opposite holes." Pankhurst 1971: 181.
Confidence 100
Source Pankhurst, R. 1971. Gabata and Related Board Games of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia Observer 14(3):154-206.
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