# Anywoli

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**Anywoli** is a traditional [mancala](/source/Mancala) game played by the [Anuak](/source/Anuak_people) people of the [Gambela](/source/Gambela,_Ethiopia) province, in [Ethiopia](/source/Ethiopia), as well as in the [Akobo](/source/Akobo,_Sudan), [Pochalla](/source/Pochalla) and [Jokau](/source/Jokau) regions of [Sudan](/source/Sudan). The name of the game means "bringing to life" ("giving birth"). Anywoli has similarities to mancalas found in [Nigeria](/source/Nigeria) and [Ghana](/source/Ghana), such as [Ba-awa](/source/Ba-awa) and [Obridjie](/source/Obridjie).

## Rules

The board used to play Anywoli has two rows of twelve holes each. Anuak call these holes "oto" (pl.: "udi"), meaning "house". At game setup, four seeds are placed in each hole. Seeds are called "nyibaré", meaning "children (sons) of the board game".

Players take turns; each owns one of the rows.

At his or her turn, the player takes all the seeds from one of his/her holes and [relay sows](/source/Mancala#General_gameplay) them counterclockwise. The sowing ends when the last seed falls in an empty hole or when a capture occurs.

Capture occurs whenever, during play, a hole holds exactly four seeds: those seeds are removed from the game, and taken by the player who owns the hole. In the special case where the last seed of a sowing is placed in a hole holding three seeds (thus forming a four-seed hole), the captured seeds are taken by the player who is moving, independent of who owns the hole. This also ends the player's turn.

When only 8 seeds are left on a board, the player who moved first at the beginning of the game captures them and the game ends. The winner is the player who captured most seeds.

## References

- R. Pankhurst. *Gabata and Related Board Games of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa*. In «Ethiopia Observer», 14 (3), 1971, p. 203.

## External links

- [Anywoli](https://web.archive.org/web/20110211095010/http://www.manqala.org/wiki/index.php/MancalaGames/Anywoli)

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