Oware is an abstract strategy game among the mancala family of board games (pit and pebble games) played worldwide with slight variations as to the layout of the game, number of players and strategy of play.[1] Its origin is uncertain[2] but it is widely believed to be of Ashanti origin.[3]
Played in the Bono Region, Bono East Region, Ahafo Region, Central Region, Western Region, Eastern Region, Ashanti Region of Ghana[4] and throughout the Caribbean, oware and its variants have many names - ayò, ayoayo (Yoruba), awalé (Ivory Coast, Benin), wari (Mali), ouri, ouril or uril (Cape Verde), warri (Caribbean) Pallanguzhi (India) wali (Dagbani), adji (Ewe), nchọ/ókwè (Igbo), ise (Edo), awale (Ga) (meaning "spoons" in English). A common name in English is awari but one of the earliest Western scholars to study the game, Robert Sutherland Rattray, used the name wari.
- ^ "Oware". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
- ^ "Oware - Played all over the world". www.oware.org. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
- ^ "African Games of Strategy: A Teaching Manual". African Studies Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 20 December 1982. Retrieved 20 December 2017 – via Google Books.
- ^ Davis, Lucile (1999). Ghana. Capstone. ISBN 978-0-7368-0069-3.