Omweso

Omweso, sometimes shortened to Mweso, is the traditional mancala game of the Ugandan people. It is a two-player game of sowing and capturing seeds, played on a board of 32 pits arranged eight lengthwise and four deep, with each player holding the 16 pits on their own side and 64 undifferentiated seeds shared out so that each side starts with 32. Boards are traditionally carved from wood, and the seeds may be natural seeds or manufactured counters. A turn involves sowing seeds counter-clockwise around your own territory, with relay sowing when the last seed lands in an occupied pit, and a capture takes the seeds from two facing pits in the opponent column. A player normally wins by being the last able to make a legal move. The equipment matches the Bao game of Tanzania and neighbouring countries, but Omweso boards have no special house pit. Tradition credits its introduction to the Bachwezi people of the ancient Bunyoro-kitara empire, and it belongs to a wide family of eastern and southern African mancalas that includes Igisoro in Rwanda and Kombe in Lamu.