Mancala board games and origins of entrepreneurship in Africa

Mkondiwa, Maxwell

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0240790

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…In this regard, African farmers, seeking to express their sincerity and good wishes for a bountiful harvest, devised Mancala Games during their leisure time as a simulation of farm sowing. These entertainment games, with various regional variations, trace their origins back to ancient civilizations deeply rooted in farming culture (Abayomi et al, 2013;Mkondiwa, 2020).…”

Section: Farming Culture Integration: Exploring Mancala Games In Afri...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of Mancala Games in Human Evolution, Cultural Development, and Education: An Anthropological Inquiry

Zhang

Liu

Yin

et al. 2023

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Mancala games, a diverse category of traditional board games played across cultures worldwide, bear resemblances to chess in their significance to human evolution and cultural progress. Drawing from anthropological investigations, this research uncovers the adaptability of mancala games to farming, marine, and nomadic cultures, tracing their origins to ancient Egypt and their subsequent spread among diverse civilizations in Africa, Malaysia, and China. This study highlights the extensive contributions of mancala games across various educational domains, encompassing moral, intellectual, physical, and aesthetic education, all of which foster comprehensive human development. By examining the cultural, historical, and educational dimensions of mancala games, this research unveils their profound impact on human societies throughout history, shedding light on their enduring significance. Mancala games emerge as powerful tools for promoting moral reasoning, critical thinking abilities, strategic planning skills, physical coordination, and cultural understanding. They embody cultural traditions, transmit ancestral knowledge, and foster social cohesion. Through their entertainment value and ability to shape and enrich human experiences, mancala games weave a cultural tapestry that intertwines with human societies, both past and present.

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Section: Farming Culture Integration: Exploring Mancala Games In Afri...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of Mancala Games in Human Evolution, Cultural Development, and Education: An Anthropological Inquiry

Zhang

Liu

Yin

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As far as games are concerned, he promoted studies seeking relations between the types of games developed in each cultural context and the culture of reference (e.g., Roberts et al, 1959 ; Roberts and Sutton-Smith, 1962 ; Chick, 1998 ; Peregrine, 2008 ). Later studies would show that those classifications on which the above research was based could even be more complex (e.g., Parlebas, 1988 ) and that the complexity of the cultural plots showed limitations in this type of correlations ( Mkondiwa, 2020 ). In any case, as to the old suggestion that games could be an agent of enculturation, formulated by Malinowski in his first ethnography of 1922 ( Malinowski, 2014 ), all these studies advanced an idea that Parlebas(1988 , p. 114) summarizes well by saying that ‘when playing, children learn their social universe, unknowingly witnessing the culture to which they belong.’…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the socialization mechanisms have been well-defined in a number of educational psychology studies (e.g., Elkonin, 2005 ; Bruner et al, 2017 ), the mechanisms to understand certain cultural values and meanings through play still remain unclear ( Mkondiwa, 2020 ). To access said cultural meanings, linguist and semiologist Ana Pelegrín suggests that games may be analyzed as drama plays, since they may transmit certain cultural messages.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Images for Old Symbols: Meanings That Children Give to a Traditional Game

2021

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Traditional games are considered agents of enculturation. This article explores the procedure to access the cultural meanings transmitted in a traditional game. The goal is to understand what children aged 6–11 make of the game called ‘the chained bear’ and to compare the meanings retrieved with those of different traditional versions of the game. For such a purpose, through an exploratory cross-sectional study, cartoons depicting people playing the game were exhibited and viewers (n = 359; age range: 6–11; Mean age = 8.79; SD = 1.81) were asked to interpret them as a drama play, as well as contributing a title, a plot and saying how they would name the characters. The results show that, beyond the individual images that each child created in their mind, most of them coincided in stories about harassment and defense and theft and protection. These plots match those of the ludic tradition, showing that the actions evoke different pictures to each individual, but share common cultural meanings in turn. The study shows a procedure to access the meanings that traditional games transmit and confirms that games contain pieces of culture, which makes them agents of enculturation.

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“…Equally, rock-cut board games were found in countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sri Lanka (Kyule, 2016). Although the mancala board game has spread to the mentioned areas, existing research on Bao in studies such as Chan (2010), de Voogt (2021, Kyule (2016), and Mkondiwa (2020) have focused on the origins, historical, educational, and cultural aspects. Kyule (2016) added that more research on Bao is needed in order to understand Bao.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception of Bao as Sports Tourism: Evidence from Tanzania

Mkwizu

2021

S. Asian J. Tourism & Hosp.

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Sports tourism is one of the ways for countries to rebuild the tourism sector. Existing literature on Bao as a board game is mostly from a historical, educational, and cultural angle, whilst there is less attention on the potential of Bao as sports tourism. To expand the literature, this study focuses on Bao from a sports tourism perspective by exploring the perception of Bao as sports tourism from the residents' views. An interpretivism paradigm approach was applied, and the data collection instrument was designed with open-ended questionnaire to gather data from the respondents. Purposive sampling was used to select the respondents, and the collected qualitative data was subjected to content and thematic analysis. The main findings revealed that perception of Bao as sports tourism from residents' views such as leisure, refreshing the mind, locals and tourists are attracted to Bao, can play Bao with family and friends, and locals and tourists join playing Bao. Further findings revealed that a sense of belonging to a group and a sense of belonging to a community is how residents perceive Bao as sports tourism. Researchers in other parts of the world, such as South Asia, where mancala board games are played, can conduct similar studies and even go beyond to apply a quantitative approach to further understand the phenomenon of mancala from a tourism marketing perspective. The tourism stakeholders such as destination marketing organizations should consider the factors such as leisure, refreshing the mind, the attraction of locals and tourists to Bao, and the sense of belonging to a group or community when promoting Bao as sports tourism.

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Mancala board games and origins of entrepreneurship in Africa

Cited by 4 publications

References 67 publications

Role of Mancala Games in Human Evolution, Cultural Development, and Education: An Anthropological Inquiry

Role of Mancala Games in Human Evolution, Cultural Development, and Education: An Anthropological Inquiry

New Images for Old Symbols: Meanings That Children Give to a Traditional Game

Perception of Bao as Sports Tourism: Evidence from Tanzania

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