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　　Mancala is a family of board games popular in Africa, Asia, parts of South America and the Caribbean. Although no one knows exactly how old the game is, boards have been discovered in Zaire, Angola and Ghana dating back to the sixth century or earlier. The origin of the game continues to be hotly debated, with some experts favoring Africa and others Asia as its birthplace.

　　（1）

　　However, there has been a resurgence of interest in recent years with a number of commercial launches of the game in the West. The British Museum in London, for ex-ample, has just started selling the game, and the Oware Society is trying to raise the game's profile in the UK. Mancala is played on boards of different sizes and shapes. In some places, it is still played in sand or earth. The board usually consists of two, three, or four rows of holes, although the number of rows and holes in each row varies ac-cording to the game. A number of counters--usually shells or seeds--are used proportionate to the number of holes. A move consists of spreading counters one by one in adjacent holes in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction, the object being to capture the majority of the counters.

　　（2）

　　The capital of the Maldives is Male. It was here, in a shop, that I attempted to buy the Maldivian Mancala game, ohvalhu. Although there were none on display, an eager salesman left the shop in search of one, and returned shortly afterwards with a plastic board. I noticed that it had two rows of only seven holes. I asked the salesmen to show me how it was played, and was amazed to see that they played a game identical to one played in Indonesia and the Philippines.

　　（3）

　　Although my trip to the Ma/dives brought me no closer to discovering the origins of Mancala, it did prompt another question. How did the Mancala rules in the Maldives remain practically identical to those in the Far East when there had been so little contact between the Maldives and Indonesia and certainly none between players?

　　（4）

　　Despite its widespread distribution, and the fact that there is no contact between the players, the rules of warri remain almost identical across the game's geographical range. So much so that players from different countries are able to compete in international warri championships.

　　（5）

　　There is still a lot more research to be done. Meanwhile, the mystery of Mancala' sorigins remains, as does the question of why the game has remained so similar across space and time. The games are so widespread that further research only serve to throwup even more fascinating questions about the game. So, having gone full circle in my research, replacing one fundamental question with another, I am ready for another lap. Just as well that going around in circles happen to interest most Mancala players.

　　A. It was clear that the Maldivians play an Asian version of Mancala alter all. The puz-zling thing is that Sri Lankans, their closest neighbors, prefer a variation of Mancala that is not played at all in the Maldives.

　　B. Boardgames are very ancient indeed. The earliest examples, from the Middle East,date from as early as 8,000 BC and today, there is hardly anywhere in the world where some kind of game or other is not played.

　　C. With so little contact between Mancala players, it is hard to understand how the many games have survived almost unaltered over time and distance. Especially considering that the game has generally not been spread in written form. The Maldivians do not even know that they play the same game as Indonesians and Filipinos. And while Caribbeans are conscious of their West African heritage, no one could have predicted that the game has remained identical whether it was played in Barbados, the Ivory Coast Nigeria or the Cape Verdes.

　　D. It is a similar situation in the Caribbean, where they play a two-row Mancala game called warri (also known as ioware, wari, awele). Introduced to the island during the slave trade from West Africa, it is one of the most popular and widespread of all Mancala games, played throughout West Africa and as far as Surinam and some parts of Brazil. The rules of warri are relatively simple. However, as one player told me, "It is extraordinary that such simple rules provide so ninny intricate plays."

　　E. What we do know for certain is the early attempts were made to introduce Mancala to Europe and North America. The game was imported to the Netherlands from Indone-sia (then known as the East Indies) in the 17th century and Syrian immigrants are believed to have introduced their version of the game to New York in the late 19th century. But the game never took off.

　　F. While researching the Mancala collection at the British Museum in London, my attention was drawn to three particular boards. All were from the Maldives, an archipelago of coral islands in the Indian Ocean. What was so surprising considering its geo-graphical location was that the boards featured eight holes per row; an even number of holes is a common feature of African boards. This led me to believe that the Mai-dives could hold the key to the origins of Mancala.