Endodoi

Alternate Names

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

An Endodoi board and 48 beans (seeds or pebbles) are required for play.

History

This is a game of the Mancala family that is played by the Maasai tribespeople of Kenya and Tanzania.

Objective

A player wins by capturing more than half of all available beans.

Play

The game commences with four beans in all pits other than the two stores, as above. After deciding which player will go first alternate turns entail the lifting of all beans in any pit on your side of the board and sowing them, one at a time, in each successive pit going anticlockwise around the board. Beans are not sown into either of the stores. If the last bean of a sowing is dropped into a pit that contains any number of beans, then all of these beans (including the one just dropped) are lifted and sown in each successive hole in another lap. The player continues making laps until the last bean is dropped into an empty pit.

If the last bean dropped on a turn is dropped into an empty pit on the player’s own side of the board, the player may capture any beans from the opposite pit on his opponent’s side of the board in addition to the single capturing bean from his side of the board. If the last bean is dropped into an empty pit on the opponent’s side of the board, or if it is dropped into an empty pit on that player’s side with no beans in the pit opposite from it, then no captures are made and the turn ends.

If a player cannot move because he has no beans on his side of the board, the game is over and the other player may capture any remaining beans from his own side of the board.

Strategy

Variations

The game may commence with three, four, five, or six beans in each pit.

A larger board of 2x10 holes is also used.

Ayoayo is a very similar game played by the Yoruba people of Nigeria. The primary difference is that here captures do not include the last dropped bean.

Sources