Morabaraba

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Morabaraba

Morabaraba gameboard; pieces move from intersection to intersection along marked lines
Genres	Board game, abstract strategy game
Players	2
Setup time	< 1 minute
Playing time	< 1 hour
Chance	None
Age range	Any
Skills	Strategy, tactics
Synonyms	Mlabalaba, mmela, muravava, umlabalaba, mororova

Morabaraba is a traditional two-player strategy board game played in South Africa and Botswana with a slightly different variation played in Lesotho. This game is known by many names in many languages, including mlabalaba, mmela (in Setswana), muravava, and umlabalaba. The game is similar to twelve men's morris, a variation on the Roman board game nine men's morris.

While some believe that morabaraba was introduced to Southern Africa by British settlers, morris variants exist in many parts of the world, e.g., India (char bhar), Ghana (achi), Kenya (shisimia), Somalia (shax), Zimbabwe (tsoro yemutwelve), Iran(dooz), the Philippines (tapatan) and Mongolia (gurgaldaj). It is claimed that morabaraba boards carved in rock are dated to be at least 800 years old, which would exclude a European origin. However, many rock art images do not actually show morabaraba, but the mancala-type game of moruba (using rows of cupules).

Morabaraba is today most popular amongst rural African youth in Southern Africa. In the traditional European games like nine men's morris, the counters are commonly referred to as "men", but in the South African game the counters are referred to as "cows", the game being particularly popular amongst youth who herd cattle.

According to the OxfordDictionaries.com, the term morabaraba is derived from the Southern Sotho moraba-raba, meaning 'to mill' or 'to go round in a circle'.^[1]