How to Play Bao

Bao is a traditional two-player mancala board game from the Swahili coast of East Africa. This guide covers the board, the moves that make Bao tick, and the rules of every variant - from the gentle learning game to the full Bao la Kiswahili. You can play Bao free in your browser while you read.

The board and the basics

A Bao board has four rows of eight pits (32 pits in all) and is played with 64 seeds. You control the two rows nearest you. The row that faces your opponent is your front row (also called the inner row) - this is where captures happen. Each player also has a special square pit called the nyumba (house).

The core action is sowing: pick up all the seeds from one of your pits and drop them one by one into the pits that follow, travelling counter-clockwise around your two rows. If your last seed lands in a pit that still had seeds, you scoop those up and keep going - a relay (or multi-lap). A relay only stops when your final seed drops into an empty pit. What changes between the variants is how you capture and how you win.

The four ways to play

1. Bao la Kujifunza (Bank) - the learning game

A gentle, no-capture version, perfect for getting a feel for sowing. You only ever play within your own two rows; there is no interaction with the opponent. Seeds accumulate in your house, and you win by gathering all of your seeds into your nyumba. Because a sowing only banks seeds when it actually ends in the house, the key skill is loading the pits nearest the house so you do not overshoot it.

2. Bao la Kimasai (Masaai) - capturing

Captures now appear. You sow within your two rows as before, but the aim is to take the opponent's seeds. When your last seed lands in an empty front-row pit and the enemy pit directly across is loaded, you capture all of those enemy seeds. You win by capturing every oneof your opponent's seeds.

3. Bao la Kimasai Mrefu (Long Game) - bigger captures

Exactly like Masaai, with one greedier twist: a capture also sweeps the enemy pit directly behindthe one you took - the whole column. Captures are larger, so they cut both ways: avoid stacking your back row behind a vulnerable front pit. You again win by capturing all of the opponent's seeds.

4. Bao la Kiswahili - the full traditional game

The complete, competitively played version. You start with most of your seeds in hand (a reserve) and only a few on the board, and the game runs in two phases:

• Namua (the planting phase): each turn you drop one seed from your hand into one of your non-empty front-row pits. If that pit faces a loaded enemy pit you capture across and relay-sow the captured seeds back into your rows, starting from a kichwa (an end pit) in a direction you choose. If it does not capture, you instead pick that pit up and sow it onward - a takata move - again choosing the direction.
• Mtaji (the main phase): once your hand is empty, you lift a pit with two or more seeds and sow it, capturing the same way. The nyumba has special powers here - you are not forced to empty it, and opening it can drive a long multi-lap sowing.

You win when your opponent has no legal move - in practice, when their front row has been emptied of seeds.

Glossary of Swahili terms

Bao:

The board (literally 'wood' in Swahili); also the name of the game.

Nyumba:

The 'house' - a special square pit on each side of the board.

Kichwa:

A 'head' - an end pit of the inner row, where relay sowing begins.

Kimbi:

Pits near the kichwa that constrain the direction of a capturing sow.

Namua:

The opening phase, where seeds are introduced from the hand.

Mtaji:

The main phase of lifting and sowing pits already on the board.

Takata:

A non-capturing move that still sows (and relays) but takes nothing.

Frequently asked questions