Igisoro in Rwanda and Burundi and Omweso in Uganda is a game from the Mancala Board Game family. This video describes how to play the game. Regional and local rules might differ from the ones described here.
Thank you so much for this video. As soon as I saw it I purchased a board and my husband and I love it. It was easy to understand your video more than any other I could find. Again, thank you!
This is a good presentation of a good game. Please keep it up. Bao is now available in digital format called Bao Electronic Board Game. Bao Electronic Board Game has released free software updates in Apple App Store; that upgrades Bao game to version 2.0.1 with inbuilt "Learn" mode. It makes it very easy to learn and play Bao game.
There is a book on how to play. It's called "A Game People Play in Uganda," if I'm not mistaken. There are more details about the game in the book, but these instructions are very good and very well done, as a matter of fact. I have been playing Omweso since 1970, when I stumbled upon it in Uganda as a preteen. Apparently, I had misunderstood some of the rules of capturing. I used the book I mentioned earlier.
Jan! A good question and it has two answers. 1) The player can continue without picking if he/she do it with the purpose to gain more in following moves. There are conflictting views about this topic; can the opponent demand for a pick or not. My proposal is that you agree about this before you start the game. 2) Sometimes you just forget to pick, like I did when we did this video. About the seeds. Traditionally the game has been played with beans and stones. These seeds are manufactured.
Thomas, thanks and congratulations on sharing this game, my cousin introduced me to his friend who knew how to play Omweso, when I was about 13 years old, we used fresh coffee berries and had to dig the holes in the ground. I loved it and I still do love this game. Has a very mathematical aspect to it. You need to be able to calculate your opponent's moves twice as fast then calculate your next moves before you drop your last seed. Very exciting game.
Playing this in Eastern Uganda (Tororo district) among the japadhola jajulai, the game begins with 2 seeds in every "basket" across the whole of the board. Then at the same time, both players begin simultaneously. Picking up and sowing their seeds and "eating" their opponent's seeds. The first player to finish his sowing/eating then waits for his opponent to finish his turn. Then the first player begins the actual game. This method of starting Omweso (called "Chyesso" in the above mentioned region") is very fast paced and exciting. It really sets the pace for the rest of the game. Also, the players really pride themselves on keeping the game swift and tense, laughing and grunting often. I LOVE this game! My wife calls me obsessed. I am looking into making some boards and plan on making some more instructionals for RU-vid as well. The seeds are from a tree called the Chyesso tree in japadhola. I had the kids in the village knock down a whole bunch of the little fruits and we all sat and removed the seeds from them. I have three games worth of seeds. Now I just need more boards. Great job with this video by the way!
My advise is you watch the video. I don't think written instructions would clarify anything. The rules are simple and you can just ignore the minor differences between Omweso and Igisoro (the reverse move).
One more thing: As was briefly mentioned below in an earlier comment, I have proposed adding one more rule to this game to make it similar to Chess as far as strategy goes. It is a simple rule (more of an option really). Allow both players to pass on eating their opponent's seeds/stones when available. They must declare this as they do it or be penalized in some way (Penalty ideas include 1-their opponent can commander any one of their baskets worth of seeds or 2- their opponent may take one seed from any one basket). This would open up so many more options. I liken this to how chess used to be on a 7X7 square board with only 7 pawns and no queen. pretty straight forward play with a minimal amount of options. Add the queen and one more pawn on a 8X8 square board and you have a game with such depth as to be a staging point for shows of shere brilliance and creative possibilities. Play with this added option for a week and you will see an almost completely different game.
I get a little lost with the directions. Can you write them out for me? I want to teach my kids a game from my husbands country but he can't seem to tell me how to play.
Hello, Ananie I tried to download the files but they could not open for my Mac computer. My friends and I had designed and ran this omweso through the several stages up to the stage of man vs computer, and man vs man, we were still trying to figure out how to do the reverse capture move. When tragedy struck and the guy who had the computer, blueprint, codes, and the paperwork, died. We could not go on because his family thought this was going to be a moneymaker. They wanted us to pay money for these things. It was a group effort, we didn't have the kind of money that the family was asking for. So we just let that dream die. Nice to know and see that you have these out there. I will try to see if I can download thse files on a PC. Good luck.
