“When I was a student, gebet’a was one of my favorite games which I would like to play with my classmates. Every time, I used to sit on the stony bench which we used it as a seat and at the same time as a board to play the game. The bench made of stone and carved with a series of holes arranged in rows to play the game. Unfortunately, compared with my peers, I was not good at it, said Yeshi Derebie with a cheerful-looking and louder laughter.”
Yeshi, a teacher at Amigonian School, said that these days it is not common to see people playing gebet’a game though it can be played both at home and in schools with families and friends. Instead of such traditional ones, children are introduced to electronic device games. “gebet’a is beneficial for education purpose- to learn counting numbers and improve math skills.
As to her, like other mobile and computer games, it can improve children’s thinking ability. If parents prepare the board at home using the materials that they have already at hand and teach their offspring how to play the game, they can preserve and transmit the culture to the new generation.
As many historians indicate, gebet’a, referred widely as mancala around the world, is one of the oldest board game that was played in Ethiopia among adults and children. This ancient game is believed to have been first played in Ethiopia in the 6th or 7th century AD. The earliest evidence of the game are some fragments of a board made from pottery and several rock cuts found in Matara what is now in Eritrea and in Yeha, in Ethiopia.
Even these days, gebet’a is played in various parts of the country, particularly in the rural areas. Adults and children, enjoy the traditional game by carving woods or stone or just simply digging holes in the earth. The playing pieces used are usually seeds, beans, stones, cowry shells, or any other small objects that are put in and moved about the holes during play.
Gebet’a, even if it has similar game play rule and has same target- to collect more stones than the opponent- is known by numerous names as studies indicate. For instance, it is known as gebet’a in some areas and Qarqis (it is Ge’ez word) to refer to the gameplay. In Konso, the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s State, the game is called lamlameta, to mean ‘in couples’ and it is always played by men.
The board, used to play lamlameta, is called toma tagéga, comprises 2 rows (one per player) of 12 pits each; pits are termed awa.
According to a piece produced by Ethiopianism-Ethiopiawinet online revival, the holes referred to as “depressions”, “pits”, or “houses”. Sometimes, large holes on the ends of the board, called stores, are used for holding the pieces. Playing pieces are seeds, beans, stones, cowry shells, or other small undifferentiated counters that are placed in and transferred about the holes during play.
The game begins with the stones (they are called seeds) evenly distributed among the twelve playing holes (in a 48 stone game, 4 seeds per hole.) The first player, in a process known as sowing, removes the stones from one of his or her holes and, moving counterclockwise, dropping one stone in each hole until they have exhausted the stones picked up.
When sowing, if the last seed drops in an occupied hole, all the contents of that hole, including the last sown seed, are immediately re-sown from the hole. The process usually will continue until sowing ends in an empty hole.
The player’s move ends when the last seed of a sowing is dropped in an empty pit. If that pit is in the player’s own row, and the opposite pit in the opponent’s row contains exactly two seeds, then a capture occurs. In this case, all of the opponent’s seeds in any pit containing two seeds are removed from the board.
The game ends when one of the players has no seeds left. Then, the opponent captures all the seeds that are left on the board. The winner is the player who captured most seeds.
As Yeshi opined, introducing such traditional games for children and teenagers has multifaceted merits apart from its entertainment values. Especially, in this period of time where schools and offices are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic; and both parents and children are spending more times at home, the game can create togetherness between families; contrary to those computer and mobile games which compel teenagers to immerse entirely into the game and forget their surroundings. To this end, if parents teach children how to play gebet’a, they would benefit more in terms of educating their offspring, creating sense of competitiveness on them and transferring the culture apart from its recreational advantages. Most importantly, they can assist them to develop social interaction and reduce the feelings of depression and anxiety comes to happen due to the undesired impacts of electronic device games.
The Ethiopian Herald June 24, 2020
BY STAFF REPORTER
