The full game of Bao Kiswahili is one of the most complicated of all the Mancala games so for this reason, a beginners version called 'Bao La Kujifunza' has been outlined. The fourth game is a version of Bao Kiswahili another very popular game played on a four-rank Mancala board, which is played in Zanzibar, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and eastern Zaire. We have two versions played on a 2 x 8 board in Kenya - Bao for children and beginners and a version of Bao from Kenya played with 32 pieces. The third game is simply called Bao (although Bao is a generic term referring to a number of Mancala games played in East Africa).
Oware Nam Nam is a game played on the same board by children in and around Ghana although it is just as complicated and quite different to Oware.
Oware (or variants of it) is the most commonly played Mancala game in international competition. The first game listed here is Oware which is played on a two-rank Mancala board and which is common to West Africa and the Caribbean. Throughout Africa, the West Indies, India and Arabia literally hundreds of variations exist. Probably more than any other game, variations of the board game Mancala are multitudinous.
