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Evidence for Oware
1 pieces of evidence found.
Id DLP.Evidence.793
Type Ethnography
Location Ghana
Date 1927-01-01 - 1927-12-31
Rules 2x6 board, with a storage hole on either end. The game starts with four counters in each hole. A player picks up all of the counters in one of the holes in their row and sows them one-by-one in a counterclockwise direction in consecutive holes from the hole the pieces originated. The starting hole is always left empty, even if a player sows in a complete circuit of the board, the original house is skipped and sowing continues in the next hole after it. Players capture counters when the final counter is sown in the opponent's row and the hole containing it has two or three counters (counting the counter just dropped into it). If the hole before it also has two or three counters, these are also captured and so on until reaching a hole without two or three counters or one not belonging to the opponent. A move which would capture all of the opponent's counters is not allowed. If an opponent's holes are all empty, the other player must make a move placing counters in the opponent's row. If not possible, the player captures all the counters in their row. The player who has captured the most counters wins. If the game continues in a repeating loop, the players can agree to end the game and capture the counters remaining in their row.
Content "The game of Wari, as played by the natives of the Gold Coast, is a game for two players using as apparatus 48 pebbles and a board hollowed out into two parallel rows of six cups. (a dozen patty-pans and four dozen marbles make a convenient substitute.) The plan of the board may be represented by the diagram... where the letters are inserted for convenience of reference in the description of the game now to be given.
The players P and p sit facing each other with the board between them. The six cups ABCDEF are on P\s side of the board, and are here named in alphabetical ordered from his left to his right hand; and similarly the six cups abcdef are on p's side of the board and are lettered from left to right as seen by him. The large extra cup Z at P's extreme right hand is for holding the pebbles won by P; and the extra cup z at the opposite end is, similarly, used by p to hold the pebbles won by him. When the board is set ready for play each of the twelve cups ABCDEF abcdef hold 4 pebbles (the cups Z and z being empty)...The players P and p then play alternately an observe the following rules.
Rules of the game
(I) When P plays he empties any one of the six cups ABCDEF on his own side of the board and deals them round the board cyclically until they are exhausted. In his cyclic sequence the cup F is followed by cup a, and the cup f by cup A...
When p plays he empties any one of the cups abcdef and deals round its contents according to the same cycle...
(ii) P wins pebbles by his dealing when (and only when) the last pebble falls into one of p's cups abcdef and, there falling, makes 2 or 3 pebbles in that cup. He then captures the 2 or 3 (whichever it is) and places them with his winnings in cup Z. Similarly p captures 2 or 3 pebbles from one of P's cups ABCDEF when the last pebble he deals produces a 2 or 3 when it falls in the cup...\
(iii) Captiures by P may consist of any number (up to six) of 2's and 3's, provided only that they are in consecutive cups of p's, and that the last of the series of cups receives the last marble dropped. That is, when P captures a 2 or 3 from one of p's cups he captures also the contents of the next cup of p's to his (P's) right if that also has become a 2 or 3; and so on for as many 2's and 3's are consecutive...Captures by p, similarly, are made from P's cups only, and consist of 2's and 3's consecutive with the 2 or 3 captured from the last cup...
(iv) A heavily loaded cup may in the course of play accumulate 12 or more pebbles, and the playing of this cupful will give a deal making more than one complete cycle of the board. For the cup emptied is always to be left empty. The cycle of cups which receive, by dealing, the contents of the cup emptied are therefore in effect the 11 cups remaining after the omission of the one emptied...
(v) An exception to P's free choice of any one of his own cups, from which to play its contents, occurs when p's cups are all empty. If P is able to play from a cup which feeds pebbles into p's cups he must do so: he may not play a cup which does not reach p's cups. If, however, no move of P plays pebbles into p's cups, then P captures the whole contents of his own cups...Similarly for player p. When P's cups are empty p must, if possible, play so as to feed P's cups; and if p cannot do so he captures the whole contents of his own cups.
If p's cups are empty and it is p's own turn to play (p's cups having just been cleared by P), then also P becomes owner of the total contents of his own cups...Similarly for P, with empty cups after p has just played; the contents of p's cups become p's.
(vi) When very few pebbles remain in play it may happen that they circulate in a cyclic and periodic chase with no captures possible for either player. Each player then takes the pebbles which are circulating through his territory." Bennett 1927: 382-385.
Confidence 100
Source Bennett, G.T. 1927. 'The game of Wari.' In Rattray, R. S. ed. Religion and Art in Ashanti. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 382–390.
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