African Vintage Mancala Game Board MATTER COLLECTION

This vintage Mancala game board has a handle and surface decorations.

Mancala is a family of two-player turn-based strategy board games played with small stones, beans, marbles, shells or seeds and rows of holes or pits in the earth, a board or other playing surface. The objective is usually to capture all or some set of the opponent's pieces.

Versions of the game date back past the 3rd century and evidence suggests such games existed in Ancient Egypt. It is among the oldest known family of games still widely played today.

You can use cowrie shells (which we sell), stones, marbles, or anything small, as game pieces.

Provenance: Matter Collection

From the collection of Margie and Phil Matter. Margie lived in South Africa, and later she and her husband Phil opened a gallery in Tucson. Everything in this collection was in their home for more than thirty years. Africa Direct recently bought the collection; at 95, Margie wants to share the things she has loved so much.

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