Wari

Alternate Names

Wari is a game of many names. It is called Wari, Woro, Oware, Warri, Wali, or Awari (note that these may all have have slight phonetic differences or may just represent different transliterations to English) by the Wolof people of Senegal, the Mandingo of Gambia, the Fulani of Guinea, the Ashanti of Ghana, and in the countries of Gabon, Mali, Guyana, Grenada, Barbados, St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Antigua, St. Kitts, and Surinam; Awélé by the Fulani of Guinea, Ga-speaking people of Ghana and the Kru people of Côte d'Ivoire; Kboo or Kbo by the Gola of Liberia; Ayo or Ayoayo by the Yoruba people of Nigeria; Kale by the Fang people of Cameroon; Adji by the Ewe-speaking people of Ghana and Togo; Aghi by the Aucaner of Surinam; Ouri, Ouril or Uril in Cape Verde, Nchọ/Ókwè by the Igbo of Nigeria; and Ise by the Edo of Nigeria.

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

The Wari board consists of twelve pits in two rows of six. The larger holes at the ends of the board are storage used for captured beans and not part of the playing area. Forty-eight beans or pebbles are also required for play.

History

Wari, like all pits and pebbles games, is probably very old or even ancient and its origins are certainly enigmatic but it has been speculated to originate with the Ashanti people of Ghana.

Objective

A player wins by capturing more than half (25+) of the beans. The game is a draw if both players capture 24 beans. If there are no further captures available in a game, the uncaptured beans are divided equally among the players, with the odd bean going to the player whose sector it is in (method of splitting? this needs some clarification).

Play

Strategy

Variations