Alemungula is a traditional

mancala Mancala ( ''manqalah'') is a family of two-player Turns, rounds and time-keeping systems in games, turn-based Strategy game, strategy board games played with small stones, beans, marbles or seeds and rows of holes or pits in the earth, a board ...

game played by the people living along the border of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

and

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

. The name "Alemungula" is specifically used by the Wataweat people of the Asosa- Beni Sangul area, while essentially the same game is called Um el Bagara by the Baggara people of Sudan. Another name used in Sudan for the same game is Mangala. For the

muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

people of the Sudan-Ethiopian border, Alemungula/Um el Bagara is a typical game to play in the day hours during

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

References

* ''Gabata and related Board Games of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa''. In «Ethiopia Observer», 1971; 14 (3): 205. * R. Davies, ''Some Arab Games and Puzzles''. In «Sudan Notes & Records», 1925; 8: 137–152. Traditional mancala games Culture of Ethiopia Culture of Sudan {{board-game-stub