Object Details
Maker
Yoruba artist
Label Text
This gameboard is for playing ayoayo, the Yoruba version of mankala (also mancala), the generic term for an ancient family of "count and capture" games. Played by two people or, rarely, two teams, ayoayo uses undifferentiated pieces and a board with cuplike depressions evenly distributed in two, three or four parallel rows. The goal is for a player to capture a majority of the pieces or at least to immobilize his or her opponent. The successful player depends on strategy more than luck to win.
Mankala is or has been played in parts of Africa, Asia and the Americas. African captives brought the game to the Americas during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. Because of its wide distribution and the presence of two-, three-, and four-row gameboards on the continent, mankala has been called Africa's "national" game. It has thousands of vernacular names. The Yoruba ayoayo (meaning "real ayo," a men's term used to distinguish their game from those played by women and children) is played on a 2-row, 12-hole board (opon ayo), the type that predominates in West Africa. Hard, grayish green, inedible seeds act as the game pieces.
Gameboards range from holes scooped out of the ground or formed in exposed tree roots to wooden gameboards carved by professional artists. This elaborately decorated example is supported by 10 male figures and decorated with a male and female couple at one end and a pair of snakes at the other. Finely crafted boards like this were emblems of elevated political or social status and sometimes were given as prestigious gifts to important visitors.
Description
Two row, six cup gameboard with crouching figures between the cups and two standing figures, one male, one female at the end.
Provenance
Josef Müller, Solothurn, Switzerland, -- to 1977
Jean Paul Barbier and Monique Barbier-Mueller, Geneva, 1977 to 1993
Exhibition History
Gameboards, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., May 27-November 30, 1998
Art of the Personal Object, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 24, 1991-April 9, 2007
Published References
National Museum of African Art. 1999. Selected Works from the Collection of the National Museum of African Art. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 51, no. 79.
Content Statement
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Credit Line
Gift of Monique and Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller
Date
Early to mid-20th century
Object number
93-2-1
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Sculpture
Medium
Wood
Dimensions
H x W x D: 9 x 65.5 x 18.6 cm (3 9/16 x 25 13/16 x 7 5/16 in.)
Geography
Nigeria
See more items in
National Museum of African Art Collection
Data Source
National Museum of African Art
Topic
Status
snake
male
female
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmafa_93-2-1