Mr Mancala

Welcome and "Hallo"!

My page in German. Meine Seite auf Deutsch.

My page in Portuguese. Minha página em portugues.

My favorite hobbies are mancala games, hiking, cooking and animals (I have three chicken and four running ducks). In my spare time I co-moderate the Yahoo!Group mancalagames, a gorgeous forum founded by the British Oware player Paul Smith, and I am the owner of a large international forum (almost 600 registered members) on intentional communities. I studied Culture and Religion at Tübingen University and graduated in 1999 (Master of Arts).

My favorite mancala games are Togus Kumalak (German spelling ;-), Lamlameta, 55Stones, Kauri and Layli Goobalay (as played in Berbera, Somaliland). In 2011, I became the German Vice-Champion in Toguz Kumalak.

Certif-1 — German Toguz Kumalak Championship 2011

I have invented numerous mancala games: 55Stones (2002), Afrika (2004), Geisterfahrer (2004), Pas de Deux (2004), Progressive Mancala (2004), Rondell (2005), Kauri (2006), Manji (2007), Trias (2008), Dogon (2010), Dracala (2010, and Toguz Poddavki (2010). In addition, I suggested some meta-games such as Condi Mancala (2006), Royal Mancala (2006) and Suicide Mancala (2010). There are also a few other board games I authored: Netak (1973), Doppelt hält besser (mid-1970s), Einauge (mid-1980s), Dornröschendame (1986), 1000-Volt-Go (1988; tournaments in Germany and the USA), Walking Purchase (2001) and Écoute-moi! (2002).

Almost a decade ago, I authored numerous articles for the Canadian Abstract Games magazine until the it became defunct. At that time (in 2002/2003) I was a jury member of the Simultaneous Game Design Competition sponsored by About Abstract Games and Abstract Games magazine. What a pity - there wasn't even one single mancala game!

Collector

In my library, I have a small collection of mancala boards (about 70), a growing number of monographs on mancala games (42 at the moment) and many research articles on mancala (more than 400).

The highlights of my collection (traditional boards only) are:

An Adi board (Teak wood, adorned with graven huts) from Togo (Kpalimé region)
Six Oware boards ("Airport" style), one of them made by Kofi Tall, and one magnificent Oware game table (board carried by an elephant) from Ghana
An Ayo board from Nigeria made in the 1970s
Three Bao boards from Zanzibar, Tanzania
One Endodoi board (2x8) from Tanzania
One Bao board from Kenya
One Bao board from Italy (Changamano)
An Omweso board from Uganda
Five Toguz Kumalak boards (plastics) from Kazakhstan
One Toguz Kumalak board (wood) handcrafted by the German Toguz Kumalak master Jurij Nold
One Toguz Korgool board (plastics) from Kyrgyztan
A Chonka board (lacquered wood) from Borneo, Indonesia
A huge Congkak board from Indonesia shaped like a dragon boat
A fish-shaped Dakon board (wood batik) from Java, Indonesia
A sophisticated Mechiwa board from Bali, Indonesia
A Sungka board (wood batik) from the Philippines
A handcrafted Alemungula board made by Portuguese students in Lisbon

My Articles

First published on wikimanQala

I authored the following articles (the actual name on Mancala World is given):

Modern Mancala Games

Traditional Mancala Games

Other Sowing Games

Meta-Games

Other Terms related to Mancala

People related to Mancala

Mancala Lists

Dictionaries

Bao dictionary (together with Víktor Bautista i Roca).
Hus dictionary
Omweso dictionary

First published on Wikinfo

Modern Mancala Games

Two-dimensional Sowing Games

Traditional Mancala Games

Meta-Games

Time-limited Mancala

General Mancala Articles

Capturing

First published on Mancala World

The following articles were first published here:

Mancala Games (critical review) (book)

Mangala III (critical views)

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