Bao

One opening used in Bao la kiswahili, a common variant of Bao. Here, each player begins with twenty beans in hand, which are represented by the beans at the sides of the board.

Alternate Names

"Bao" is the Swahili word for "board" or "board game".

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

A Bao board has two special pits at two of the four central stations called a ............................. Each player begins the game with 32 beans, which are arranged differently in variations.

History

Bao is popular among the Swahili-speaking people of Tanzania and Kenya but is known throughout most of East Africa including Comoros, Malawi and in some areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi.

Objective

Play

Strategy

Variations

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Omweso from Uganda is a similar and related game described on another page.

Bawo is a variant from Malawi.

Isolo or Isumbi, played by the Sukuma people of northern Tanzania, uses similar equipment and rules to that of Bao and Omweso.

Sources