The awélé or awalé is a Board game combinative abstract of African origin , considered as the African Jeu of failures. It is most widespread of the plays of the family Mancala , together of African plays standard “to count and capture” in which one distributes stones, seeds or shells in cups or holes, sometimes dug with same the ground.

Other names

This play was propagated in many countries of Africa, then with the the Caribbean, this is why many names are found to him. Here are some: adi , adita-your , adji-boto (Ewes, Ghana & Suriname), awalé (Ivory Coast), awari , awélé (Ivory Coast and ga, Ghana), ayo or ayo-ayo (Yoruba, Nigeria), ourin , ourri (Cape Verde), oware or owaré (akan, Ghana), wallé , wari (the Caribbean), igisoro (Rwanda and Burundi) etc It is often called awari in English.

One should not confuse with the other plays of the family of the mancalas, with the close rules, such as the Bao, the nam-nam, the In Gehé (or engehei) or the Omweso (or omweeso, mweso). Mancala (or Kalah, kalaha) also indicates a play of the family of the mancalas.

Legends

They went a long time, very a long time through the Désert, until they arrive at the edge of the Mer. They made provisions of Coquillage S then set out again in their village. In way, they made holes in sand to store the shells. Thus was born the play: shells in holes. Here one of the legends on the birth of this play, but just like its names and its rules, they are numerous.

It is also said that the tree which produces seeds being used for the play exists only to this end.

The plate and seeds

The plate resembles, in its transportable model, with two half-logs connected by hinges. It is generally of wood and is dug of two lines of six holes, with sometimes two larger holes on the edges.

The majority of awalé in the form of articulated half-logs sold in France are manufactured with Large-Bassam, the first capital of the Ivory Coast, with a score of kilometers in the east of Abidjan. One of oldest awalé existing is exposed to the National museum of Mali to Bamako, with the Mali. It probably dates from the XIXe century.

The seeds are sometimes replaced by balls or stones. But most of the time, they are seeds coming from the tree Caesalpinia bonduc. They resemble green olives but are less perishable if they are not lost.

To the Gabon, the play bears the name of Mbekh O cola. The rules are almost identical but the captures with the singleton in last box on the right are prohibited and regulates it “to give to eat” is not applied (Deledicq and Popova 1977). Mbekh, in language fang, means kneader, trough or mortar. Samuel Galley in his dictionary fang-French gives the following definition.

Mbekh O cola: “cola” play which resembles a dugout or a village. There are 12 racks in which one puts stones or the fruits of the ôkola, plus two large racks at the ends.

When it is known that a village fang has a plan quite distinct from those of the villages of the other ethnos groups, it is seen that the shape of an apron of play is not indifferent. The study of the aprons was the subject of in-depth studies in the specialized publications.

Rules

In Ivory Coast, cohabit two principal rules, the rule bété, which is based on ten boxes, and a common rule in Akan (Baoulé, in particular) and in Dioula (" commerçants" in will bambara, concept which includes the representatives of the cultural communities of North). They are the rules of the latter which, more or less, are used by the International federation.

The variations being innumerable, we will detail of them only one which is relatively current, called Abapa, used in the tournaments and recognized by the international federation ( World Oware Federation ).

• Like the failures, only two players can clash, but contrary to the failures, the players must play quickly and the public can (but not in tournament) make noise, sing, discuss the blows.
• At the beginning, one distributes forty-eight seeds in the twelve holes at a rate of four seeds per hole.
• the players are one opposite the other, with a line in front of each player. This line will be its camp One chooses a direction of rotation which will apply to all the part. One also chooses a player who will begin the part.
• a turn is played in the following way: the first player takes all seeds of one of the holes of his camp then it shells them in all the boxes which follow on its line then on that of its adversary following the direction of rotation (a seed in each hole after that where it recovered seeds). If its last seed falls into a hole from the opposing side and that there are now two or three seeds in this hole, the player recovers these two or three seeds and the met on side. Then it looks at the preceding box: if it is in the opposing side and contains two or three seeds, it recovers these seeds, and so on until it arrives at its camp or until there is a number of seeds different from two or three.
• the goal of the play is to have recovered the most seeds at the end of the part.
• One does not jump of box when one shells except when one has more than twelve seeds, i.e. one makes a full rotation: one does not fill the box where one has just taken seeds.
• It is necessary to nourish the adversary, i.e., when this one does not have any more seeds, it is absolutely necessary to play a blow which allows him rejouer then. If it is not possible, the part stops and the player who was going to play capture the remaining seeds.
• If a blow were to take all unfavourable seeds, then the blow can be played, but no capture is made: the adversary should not be starved.
• the part stops when one of the players captured at least 25 seeds, that is to say more half or that there remain only 6 seeds concerned.

These rules are simpler than it does not appear to with it. They are quickly comparable by the beginners who carry out very beautiful blows quickly, which makes of it a very pleasant play for all and in all the situations.

External bonds

• Just as an alternative of Othello became commonplace (profit for Blanc in 6x6), only one among so much of alternatives of awélé was solved: a perfect part shows a tie. The resolution explored the 889.063.398 406 possible blows, which took 51 H on a bunch of 144 processors.
• free Play of awale (license GNU) for Windows, GNU/Linux, Mac
• the Councils of play
• Awélé with implementation of the algorithm alphabéta
• Analysis of the strategies
• Platform of discussion, information, rules, photographs, articles around the Play of Awalé == Notes and references ==

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