Awalé

Although it seems to go back more than a thousand years it is difficult to specify the age ofawalé, game spread throughout almost all of Africa, with different names but practically the same rules. It's a game of adult men, a game of skill and intelligence that is usually played at the end of the afternoon. The essential part of the game, despite its different modalities, is that two players sit face to face, starting from an equal number of chips (usually 24 seeds), will win the first one that manages to place the same number of tiles in each box, balancing for this purpose the cells of the opponent. Moving the arm from left or right or from right to left must release chips, two, three, four or none, depending on the tiles in each box. The concentration is maximum. It is observed, they act with gloomy speed. The chips fall with mathematical precision. Ticking, tacking of the chips when falling, is rhythmic, sustained, cadent, worthy to see.

The frame of theawaléis usually a single piece, ranging from a simple wooden plate in which they have carved the twelve squares to a true work of art in the most diverse forms. In this case it consists of two pieces. The set represents a crocodile with the tail folded. The holes intended to receive the tokens are carved on the back or back of the animal with a piece, listed the back, which covers them. This awalé is quite old, but an owner of his, African, varnished it trying to improve its appearance, and little by little, exposed to the weather is recovering its normal appearance.

theawaléThe seeds were the symbol of fertility and during the game a seed could not remain alone, isolated. Gathering as many as possible in a box represented filling in the reserve barn.

It is a game spread throughout almost all of Africa, with small variants within its different modalities and with different names according to geographical areas, such asakongorsongo.