Play Indigenous Games

We have developed a series of (mostly) indigenous games with SkillPod. The aim of these games is to encourage children and people who are not used to computers to engage with them in a fun and practical way. This is a proven learning tool and will lead to an increase in digital skills amongst players. The games are in English and isiZulu, to enable users to play/learn in their home language.

Caps Morabaraba

Morabaraba with a twist! Each player starts with 12 tokens called `cows`. Players alternately place cows on the board with your mouse. Once all the cows have been placed on the board, cows may only be moved on the board to free, adjacent intersections, except when a player has only three cows left (then he may move to any free intersection). The aim is to create rows of three called mills, either vertically, diagonally, or horizontally. When a mill is achieved, the player may capture one of the opponent`s cows by clicking on the cow. A player cannot capture an opponent`s mill if there are other cows on the board left to capture. Only one of the opponent`s cows may be captured at a time, even if two (or more) mills are achieved with one move. When an action is required from you, a prompt will appear. Players should try to block the opponent`s mills. The best intersections are the corners of the middle rectangle. Often a winning situation is a double mill. This is where a player can move back and forth between two mills, making a mill and removing an opponent`s piece on every turn. The game is over and a player loses when he has only two pieces, or has no moves left.

Mancala

Mancala games play a role in many African and some Asian societies comparable to that of chess in the West. The word mancala is derived from the Arabic word naqala literally meaning 'to move'.

The objective of this game is to collect as many gems in your mancala (the large cup on the Right) as possible. You and your opponent will take turns to move the gems, each time you want to move the gems, you need to pick up a cup on your side. And then you will take out all the gems in that cup and then distribute them to the next cups in the anti clockwise direction, one by one. If the last gem lands on your mancala, then you can pick another cup and move again. If the last gem lands on an empty cup on your side and the opposite cup has some gems in it, then you can capture all the gems in the two cups and put them into your mancala. The game ends when all the cups on your side or your opponent`s side are empty. The remaining gems on a player`s side will be counted as the gems of that player.

Morabaraba

Morabaraba is a traditional African strategy board game for two players. Although it is very easy to learn, even young children quickly master the rules. Morabaraba has the depth to provide a real mental challenge, and will stimulate strategic thinking.

Each player starts with 12 tokens called `cows`. Players alternately place cows on the board with your mouse. Once all the cows have been placed on the board, cows may only be moved on the board to free, adjacent intersections, except when a player has only three cows left (then he may move to any free intersection). The aim is to create rows of three called mills, either vertically, diagonally, or horizontally. When a mill is achieved, the player may capture one of the opponent`s cows by clicking on the cow. A player can not capture an opponent`s mill if there are other cows on the board left to capture. Only one of the opponent`s cows may be captured at a time, even if two (or more) mills are achieved with one move. When an action is required from you, a prompt will appear. Players should try to block the opponent`s mills. The best intersections are the corners of the middle rectangle. Often a winning situation is a double mill. This is where a player can move back and forth between two mills, making a mill and removing an opponent`s piece on every turn. The game is over and a player loses when he has only two pieces, or has no moves left.

More or Less

Practise your hand-eye coordination in this time dependant game!

In this game there will be a number of groups of objects, you need follow the instructions to pick up the group with the most or least number of objects as quickly as possible. The faster you click, the higher your score. But if you clicked the wrong group, scores will be deducted. There are a total of 10 levels and the number of groups and objects will gradually increase. Follow the instructions to Click the Group with the most or least number of objects.