Igisoro: sowing, relay sowing and capturing

1Why this matters

Igisoro is one of Rwanda's oldest games. It belongs to the family of seed-and-pit games called mancala, which are played across Africa, the Middle East and Asia; its closest relative is omweso from Uganda. It is not a physical game, yet it belongs in PE: it trains counting, planning, patience and the respect for an opponent that every sport needs. You can play it on a carved board, or on 32 small holes dug in the ground, with beans or small stones as seeds.

2The board and the start

• The board has 4 rows of 8 pits, which is 32 pits. Each pit is called an icuba.
• There are 64 seeds, often called inka (cows) or imbuguzo: 32 for each player.
• Each player owns the two rows nearest to them: a back row and a front row, 16 pits in all.
• The usual start: each player places 4 seeds in every pit of their back row (8 × 4 = 32), leaving the front row empty.

3The rules of play

1. Sowing. On your turn, pick up all the seeds from one of your pits and drop them one by one into the following pits, moving anticlockwise round your own 16 pits. Seeds never go onto your opponent's side.
2. Relay sowing. If your last seed lands in a pit that already held seeds, pick up everything in that pit and keep sowing from the next pit.
3. Capturing. If your last seed lands in an occupied pit in your front row, and both of your opponent's pits opposite it (their front pit and the back pit behind it) contain seeds, you may take all the seeds from those two pits. Sow the captured seeds again from the pit where you began your turn, into the same pits as your first sowing.
4. End of the turn. Your turn ends when your last seed lands in an empty pit.
5. End of the game. A player who cannot sow any seeds has lost.

Players in different places use slightly different versions of some rules, for example which pits you may start from and when you may sow clockwise. Agree the rules with your opponent before you start, and learn the local variations from an elder who plays.

Worked example: following a turn

Use the numbered pits in the diagram: 1 to 8 along Player A's back row, then 9 to 16 along the front row.

Turn 1 (simple sowing). From the start position, Player A picks up the 4 seeds in pit 5 and sows into pits 6, 7, 8 and 9. Pit 9 was empty, so the turn ends. Pits 6, 7 and 8 now hold 5 seeds each, pit 9 holds 1 and pit 5 is empty.

Turn 2 (relay sowing). Later, Player A picks up the 4 seeds in pit 4 and sows into 5, 6, 7 and 8. Pit 8 already held 5 seeds, so it now holds 6: the last seed landed in an occupied pit. A picks up all 6 and continues: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Pit 14 was empty, so the turn ends there.

Turn 3 (a capture). Now pit 9 holds 3 seeds and pit 12 holds 2. Opposite pit 12, Player B has 3 seeds in the front pit and 4 in the back pit. A picks up the 3 seeds in pit 9 and sows 10, 11, 12. The last seed lands in pit 12, which was occupied and is in the front row, and both of B's pits opposite are full. A captures 3 + 4 = 7 seeds and sows them again from pit 9, the pit where the turn began: pits 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16.

A tactical lesson. A capture needs both of the opponent's pits in a column to hold seeds. So if you keep the front pit of a column empty, the seeds in the back pit behind it cannot be taken.

Practice

Solution. 16 pits (two rows of 8) and 32 seeds (64 ÷ 2).

Solution. The seeds go into 15, 16, 1, 2 and 3, so pit 3. Check: 14 + 5 = 19 and 19 − 16 = 3.

Solution. Relay sowing: pick up all the seeds in that pit and continue sowing from the next pit. (No capture is possible from the back row, because only front-row pits face the opponent.)

Solution. No. Both of the opponent's pits opposite must contain seeds. Because the back pit is empty, you relay-sow instead.

Solution. It trains concentration, calculation and planning, and the fair play and respect for an opponent that all sports need. It is also part of Rwanda's cultural heritage.