Mweso - The Board Game

R.S. Shackell

Uganda Journal, No. 2, 1935, pages 14-20

[Note: This document was retrieved using a photocopier sometime in the 1960s. That generated greyscale colored images. Based upon a Mweso board in the collection, the greyscale image of the Mweso board in the paper have been been colored to offer the viewer a notion of what it might have physically looked like. ]

[Page 14]]If you have been in Uganda for any length of time and have not been too unobservant, almost certainly you will have noticed at some time or another a group of Africans seated round a board about eighteen inches long and twelve wide, intent upon a game played with little brown pellets. If your curiosity has moved you to stand and watch them closely you will, I imagine, have come away without any clear idea of how the game was played but with, perhaps, a feeling of admiration for the dexterity with which the players made their "moves". But if, on the other hand, you have gone further and taken the trouble to learn the game you will surely have come, like myself, to speculate as to its origin and to wonder at the ingenuity of the untutored savage. I have seen it played up and down the West Coast of Africa and inland, on the East Coast and inland, and I have little doubt that its vogue, with minor modifications, extends throughout tropical Africa. Where it originated and when I cannot say, but as it seems possible that the Muganda, for one, will gradually acquire the White Man's predilections for whiing away his leisure moments and will arrive one day at playing whatever has by then supplanted Contract Bridge, and that Mweso will fall into desuetude, I think that it may be of use to set down how the game is played today, in Kampala and round about.

Mweso Board

A Mweso Board and Men

Photograph No. 1. shows an ordinary board obtainable for about a shilling or so. More elaborate examples exist, some with feet, but whatever degree of ornamentation or fineness of workmanship characterizes a board, its fundamental plan remains unaltered. This plan, as the photograph shows, consists of a rectangle roughly in the proportion of 18 to 12, divided into thirty two equal rectangles. No particular wood seems to be favoured for the making of the board, so long as it be fairly soft and close grained; constant play soon gives it a patina all its own.

The little brown pellets which are used as "men" are of a particular kind. They are the seeds of a tree known to the Baganda as Luiki, and to scientists as Mesonellurum Welwitsciauum. It is a strong woody climbing plant which will often reach to the summit of a tree thirty feet high or higher; in which case its main stem near the ground will be four inches or so in diameter covered with a corky bark having large stumpy spines shaped like the "horn" of a rhinoceros. The seeds are carried at the ends of the upper shoots or the plant in pods, usually two to a pod and fall to the [Page 15] ground when ripe, enclosed in these pods. If a shoot of the plant grows outwards in a direction where it finds no support it may bend over until it touches the ground and then "strike" itself as a blackberry bush will. There is a specimen about three miles out of Kampala on the old Mubende road which has done this. On the West Coast of Africa the plant is well distributed from Senegal to Angola, but being of a slightly different variety is known as Mesoneurum Benthamianum. As soon as the seeds fall they are ready for use and beyond extraction from the pod require no preparation. They are hard and woody and last a very long time in play; only becoming useless when constant play has worn the outer covering away and exposed the kernel. Photograph No 2 shows some bark, pods, and a leaf. (Note: this photograph has not been included on this Webpage.)

So much for the board and men. Now for the game.

Each player has 32 men. The object of the game is to capture all the opponent's men or so to reduce them that he cannot move. The centre horizontal line of the board divides it so that each player has two rows each of eight squares. He may play only his own men on his own side of the board and may not interfere with those of his opponent except to count them or take them. When he takes any men from his opponent a player adds them to his own men and thereafter plays them exactly the same as his original 32.

Each player moves in turn. A move consists in taking up as many men as are in anyone square on a player's own side of the board (provided there are two or more) and dropping them one by one in each succeeding square, travelling in an anti-clockwise direction and starting from the square next to the one from which the men were taken. If the last man drops into an empty square the move is finished but if it drops into an occupied square then that square is emptied and the move continued from the next succeeding square. This process is repeated until the last man in the hand falls into an unoccupied square. It should be noted that a move cannot be started from a square containing only one man. This means that when a player is reduced to sixteen men or less, should they happen to be situated only one to a square, the game is lost. Of course he may be reduced to only ten men, but provided that one square at least contains two or more men he can still move and possibly win the game.

The way in which an opponent's men are taken is easy to demonstrate on a board but hard to describe. No men are ever taken from the board and the whole 64 remain in play from start to finish: they are merely transferred from one side of the board to the other. When, during a move, the last man from a player's hand drops into a square in the row nearest the centre line containing one or more men, and it so happens that the two squares on his opponent's side of the board immediately opposite are occupied, instead of con¬tinuing his move in the ordinary way the player takes whatever number of men are in those two opponent's squares and continues his move with them on his own side of the board. But, and this is important, he does not start from where he left off but from the square next to the one last left empty on his own side of the board.

[Page16] When this has been done the player's move may or may not be finished. If the last of these captured men falls into an occupied square the player continues his move in the ordinary way, unless it should so happen that this occupied square is in the row of squares nearest the centre line and that the two squares of his opponent's half of the board opposite arc occupied; in which case he again takes what men are there and proceeds to play them on his own side of the board starting from the square next to the one last left empty. It is thus possible for a player by a combination of relayed moves and moves made with men taken from his opponent to travel round his side of the board several times before falling out of play through his last man falling into an empty square. The skill of the game consists in working out the moves well ahead so that the opponent's men are taken whilst as few openings as possible are left to him.

Direction of play on the Mweso board

The arrows indicate the direction of play

There is one complication to mention: "Okutebuka" - "To go back". In certain circumstances it is permissible to move back, i.e. in a clockwise direction. In the diagram No. 1, it will be noticed that a thickened line has been drawn round the four squares on the left hand side of each player. If a player sees that the number of men (being two or more of course) contained in one of the squares numbered 1, 2, 15, 16, will land him when travelling clockwise into one of the squares in his second row (Nos. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) which is occupied and has two occupied squares of his opponent immediately opposite he may move in a clockwise direction and take the men. The men which he takes he [Page 17] then proceeds to distribute one to each square in the usual way, starting from the square on the anti-clockwise side of the square last left empty, (l, 2, l5 or 16 as the case may be), unless he finds that the number or men which he has taken will, if started from the square on the clockwise side of the square left empty land him in an occupied square in his second row which faces two squares of his opponent both occupied. In this last event he takes the men and goes back to the square left empty and continues his move in an anti-clockwise direction unless the requisite conditions for moving backward again prevail. In moving in a clockwise direction a player may not move beyond the right hand end of his second row of squares (square 9), even although he may be able to relay until he comes round again to a square in the second row which is conditioned to permit him to take some opponent's men.

As mentioned above the game is won when the opponent cannot move because he has no square containing two or more men. There is, however, one coup which counts as a win. This coup is known in Luganda as “Nkutemye” – “I have cut your head off". If a player, in one move (including a relayed move) succeeds in taking his opponent's men in squares 1 and 16, and 8 and 9, he wins - “Nkutemye”.

It is hoped that the above running description of the game is clear, but for reference a set of rules is appended.

1. The Board. The board is divided into 32 squares arranged in four rows of eight. The players sit at the long sides of the board so that each has two rows of eight squares before him.

2. The Men. The game is played with 64 men, 32 for each player.

3. The Object of the Game. The object of the game is to capture all the opponents men but the game stops when the opponent's men are so reduced in number that he cannot move, or when all the men arc taken from the squares at both ends of each row in one move. This last coup is known as “Nkutemye” -"I have cut your head off".

4. Commencement of the Game. Before the game proper starts each player distributes his men four to each square in his first row. The object of this is to ensure that each player has the correct number of men. Having checked this, each player proceeds to allot his men between the sixteen squares on his own side of the board as best pleases him. There is no rule as to the number [Page18] which may be placed in any square and any square may receive any number of men or none at all. Thus a player may place his men like this: (See “Seventeen Game” diagram below)

The 17 Game

This arrangement is known as "The seventeen game"

- or he may choose any other arrangement he likes. In his own interest he will not place men in squares in rows one and two which are opposite, to each other, as this is the position in which his opponent can take them.

5. Choice of first move. With the Baganda this is a matter of mutual arrangement and they do not usually bother to spin a coin or decide in any other arbitrary way. In second and subsequent games the loser always starts.

6. The move. A player moves by taking all the men which are in anyone square (provided there are two or more) and distributing them one at a time to each successive square starting at the square next to the one vacated and moving in an anti-clock wise direction. It does not matter whether a square traversed by the hand is occupied or vacant - each square receives one man and no more. If the last man falls into a vacant square the move is finished, but if it falls into a square already occupied the move is relayed, i.e. the men in that square together with the one which has just arrived are taken up and distributed one at a time to each successive square, still moving in an anti-clockwise direction, and starting from the square on the anti-clockwise side of the square just vacated. (By anti-clockwise side of a square is meant the left hand side of a square in the second row or the right hand side of a square in the first row. If men are taken from the left hand end square of the second row the first man is dropped into the left hand end square of the first row. If taken from the right hand end square of the first row the first man is dropped into the right hand end square of the second row.)

7. Taking of opponents men. If the last man of a player's move falls into a square in the second row which is occupied and if the two squares directly in [Page 19] line with it in the opponent's first and second rows are occupied the player takes whatever number of men arc in those two squares and distributes them one at a time to each successive square, moving in an anti-clockwise direction, but starting from the square on the anti-clockwise side of the square on his own side of the board which he last left empty. If, when he has done this, the last man again falls into an occupied square which is opposite to two occupied squares of his opponent he takes whatever men are in those squares and distributes them in the same way, starting necessarily from the same square as previously, because that will again be the one on the anti-clockwise side of the square last left empty. He continues to repeat the operation so long as the requisite conditions prevail, i.e. his last man falls into an occupied square in line with two occupied squares of his opponent. If, however, his last man falls into an occupied square which is in line with two of his opponent's, only one of which or neither of which is occupied he just relays his move as provided under Rule 6. He continues taking and relaying until such time as his move finishes because his last man falls into an empty square.

8. Moving backwards. Moving backwards, i.e. in a clockwise direction, is only allowed in the following circumstances:

  • (a) It is only permissible to move backwards by starting from the two squares to the left hand end of the first row or the two squares at the left hand end of the second row.
  • (b) The move must immediately result in the taking of some opponent’s men.

The distribution of the men taken may be started from either side of the square last left empty, but ill the case of a start from the square on the clock¬wise side of the empty square the move must immediately result in the taking of some more opponent's men. Having taken all the men possible by moving in a clockwise direction, the player continues his move in an anti-clockwise direc¬tion by starling to distribute the last lot of captured men from the square on the anti-clockwise side of the empty square, relaying where possible, and finishing when the last man falls into an empty square. Moving backwards is known as "Okutebuka" - "To go back".

9. Penalties. A player upsetting the board loses the game. There is no penalty for making a mistake in distributing men, but the mistake, if noticed, must be corrected.

10. Counting men. As a square may contain so many men that it is impossible to sec at a glance how many there are, a player at any time may count the number or men in any square on either his own or his opponents side of the board. [Page 20] I have tried to make the above rules clear and watertight but if any reader notices a mistake I should be glad to hear from him. Also if anyone is acquainted with variations of the method of play in other parts I should be very interested to know of them.

The rules sound more complicated than they really are, but even so the marvel to me is that the African has developed the game to its present pitch.

When a player is taking a long time to consider his move his opponent may remark in an offhand tone "Nkuyege zigulya” which might be translated "Hurry up or the white ants will cat the board". The untutored savage!

Last update July 20, 2010