Um el bagara

From Wikimanqala

Um el bagara
mangala
Played in: Sudan
One cycle
Single lap
5 holes per row
Two rows

Um el bagara ("cow game"), also named mangala, is played among the Kababish Arabs who are living on the fringe of the northern desert in Kordofan Province, Sudan. It is primarily enjoyed during the fasting month of Ramadan, when the game whiles away the time and enables the players to forget their hunger and thirst. The game was first described by R. Davies in 1925 who reported the following:

Sometimes they forget too completely, as when a tornado, accompanied by hail, broke over the encampment of the Nazir of the Kababish in June, and he, absorbed in a game of Um el Banat, popped into his mouth a large hailstone, which melted before he realized, with dismay, that he had broken the fast.

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Rules

The rules are identical to alemungula with the sole exception that singletons can not be moved. At the end of the game such stones are owned by the player on whose side they are.

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