What you will need
- 2 x "6 cup" egg boxes. Make sure that you choose egg-boxes that have reasonably high dividers between the cups.
- Scissors
- Clear sticky tape
- Some dried seeds. Smooth beans/pulses are best - avoid rough/knobbly dried seeds like chickpeas. I used dried haricot beans.
Instructions
- For each box, cut off the retaining strip down each side
- Cut off the lids and then cut each lid in half.
- For each box, cut off the tops of the two middle prongs level with the sides of the box.
- Discard the four prong tops and the 2 retaining strips.
- Pair up the 4 lid halves so that when each pair is put together as shown, the holes are covered by the other half.
- Tape the 2 pairs together.
- Tape the two cup halves together length-wise. Eggboxes with a triangle at either end (as shown) are great - just do a cross of tape across the middle square that is formed at the join and then stick 2 more strips either side.
- You need four seeds in each cup.
Now, you can decorate the game, if you wish with poster paint or maybe glue and glitter - I will leave it to your creative imagination.
The board will fold in half for storage. The trays either end can be taped to the ends of the game but it is probably better to keep them separate. For versions of Mancala where the trays are not part of the game play, such as Oware, you may prefer to put the trays in front of each player rather than at the ends. When being stored, one can be put inside the other.