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Evidence for Gabata (Wuqro)
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.1217
Type Ethnography
Location 13°47'3.77"N, 39°36'19.25"E
Date 1971-01-01 - 1971-12-31
Rules 2x6 board. Three counters in each hole. Play begins with a stylized move. One player takes all of the counters from their leftmost hole, and proceeding in an anti-clockwise direction, takes all of the counters from the holes in their row. They then begin sowing these counters into the opponent's row, proceeding around the board in an anti-clockwise direction. 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, the turn ends. The main phase of the game begins, in which sowing continues in the same manner, but the player may begin their turn from any hole in their row. At the end of sowing, any holes containing four counters are captured by the owner of the row in which the hole is located, unless it is the hole in which the final counter fell, in which case the player captures them and the turn ends. If at the end of the game there are not sufficient counters to cause a hole to contain four, the players decide how the counters are allocated, and a new round begins. The players fill as many of their holes with four counters as they are able. The player with more counters will capture as many holes from the opponent in which they can place four or more counters. If the player has three remaining counters after holes are filled with four, the opponent would cede their one remaining counter to the opponent to make four and the player captures one further hole. If there are two remaining, the players draw lots to determine which player owns the remaining hole. The player who played second in the previous round begins the new round with the same stylized move, and play continues as before after that. Play continues until one player owns no holes; the opponent wins.
Content "This game is played on two rows of six holes, with three balls per hole, an dhas obvious similarities with Game 7 and other lam waladach styles of play. The first player begins preferably on the extreme left of his row by picking up the entire contents of the hole; and, moving in an anti-clockwise manner, would proceed to take up the entire contents of his row which he then distributes in the following holes, picking up the contents of the hole in which his last counter fell, and proceeding in this manner and round the board until he reaches an empty hole whereupon he would stop. Thereafter the players could move from any of their holes by picking up its contents and distributing it in ensuing holes, taking up balls from the hole in which the last counter in their hand fell and stopping on an empty hole. All groups of four balls formed in this way, after the opening gambit, would belong to the owner of the row in which they were, unless they were made by the last ball in a player's hand in which case they belonged to that player. In this game, inlike many variants of it, a player effecting the later type of capture thereby ended his move, it then being his opponent's turn to move. When, towards the end of the game, there were insufficient balls to form a group of four the remaining counters would be allocated by agreement between the players. The captured counters would then be counted down into the board, three by three, the more successful player, as in other games of this type, capturing holes from his opponent, one hole for eery three balls gained." Pankhurst 1971: 173.
Confidence 100
Ages Adult
Genders Male
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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