Mefuvha

Opening Position

Alternate Names

Mefuvha means "foggy rain". Mefuhva is a common misspelling. Moruba, Tchouba, and Njombwa are all closely related games.

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

Mefuvha is traditionally played on a solid wood board with an equal even number of square holes in each of the four rows from six to twenty-eight in a row, the usual number being between sixteen and twenty. The game commences with two seeds in every hole except the leftmost hole of each player's inner row, which is empty, and the holes adjacent to them in the inner rows, which have just one seed.

History

Mefuvha is played by the Venda people in north-eastern South Africa. It is closely related to Moruba played in the same area by the Pedi; and to games such as Tchouba and Njombwa played by the Tonga in Mozambique. The game is played by men only, while women play Ndode, a game of dexterity. The game was previously regarded to be the largest mancala game until it was reported in 1971 that Nsolo is played on bigger boards (up to 4x36 holes). Since 1995, Tchouba is known to be even larger (up to 4x40 holes).

Objective

Play

Each player (or team) only uses his side of the board.

On his turn a player takes the contents of one of his holes, which must contain at least two stones, and distributes them, one by one, counterclockwise into consecutive holes on his own side.

If the last stone falls into a non-empty hole, its contents are distributed in another lap in the same direction.

The move ends (kulala; literally "to sleep") when the last stone is dropped into an empty hole.

If the last stone falls into an empty hole of the inner row and the opposite hole of his opponent contains stones, these enemy stones are "killed" (tlaba) or "hit". Additionally, the stones in the hole of the same file in the outer row are "captured" (tlola). The killed or captured stones are removed from the board. The player is then entitled to capture the contents of any two other enemy holes.

When a player has only singletons, he is permitted to move them, but only in empty holes.

The player who has still stones at the end of the game is declared the winner. It is a draw, when the board position repeats without anything being captured.

Strategy

Variations

Moruba is the same game played on a different board with a different setup.

Tchouba

Njombwa

Sources

1. Mefuvha at Mancala World. http://mancala.wikia.com/wiki/Mefuvha