Morabaraba — Traditional Strategy Game of South Africa

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Morabaraba — Traditional Strategy Game of South Africa

Morabaraba is a two-player alignment game — sometimes called “Twelve Men’s Morris” — played for centuries by Sotho, Tswana, Zulu and Pedi communities across South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana and Eswatini. Unlike the mancala-family games such as Bao and Oware, Morabaraba is a “mill” game in the same family as Nine Men’s Morris: each player commands twelve “cows” (likhomo) and tries to line up three in a row to capture. It is one of the simplest traditional African games to learn and one of the most competitive once mastered. Mind Sports South Africa recognises Morabaraba as an officially sanctioned strategy sport with national tournaments, and rural games in Lesotho are still played in dust scratches drawn at the doorway of a homestead.

Game overview

Morabaraba is played on a board with 24 intersection points connected by lines forming three nested squares plus four diagonals. Each player has 12 cows (one player typically uses light tokens, the other dark — small stones, bottle caps, beans, or coins). The objective is to reduce the opponent to two cows, or to immobilise them so they cannot move — at which point you have won.

Morabaraba is sometimes called “Mmela” (Tswana) or “Umlabalaba” (Zulu) depending on the language community. The board layout, rules and twelve-piece count are the same across the region.

Equipment and setup

You need a Morabaraba board (24 intersection points laid out as three concentric squares with connecting lines and diagonals through the corners), 12 cows for each player in two distinguishable colours, and a flat surface. The board is often drawn directly into the dirt or chalked onto a stoep — no fancy equipment required. Carved wooden boards are sold at craft markets for collectors.

The board starts empty. Both players hold all 12 of their cows in reserve.

How to play

Morabaraba unfolds in three phases:

1. Placement phase. Players take turns placing one cow at a time on any empty intersection. If you form a line of three of your own cows along a board line — a “mill” — you immediately remove (capture) one of your opponent’s cows from the board. You may not remove a cow that is currently part of an opponent’s mill, unless all the opponent’s cows are part of mills, in which case any may be removed. The placement phase continues until each player has placed all 12 of their cows.
2. Movement phase. Players take turns sliding one of their cows along a single line to an adjacent empty intersection. Forming a new mill (or breaking and re-forming a mill) again captures one of the opponent’s cows.
3. Flying phase. Once a player has only three cows left, they may “fly” — move any of their cows to any empty point on the board, not just an adjacent one. This rule keeps the game alive deep into the endgame and creates dramatic comebacks.

The “open and close” tactic is the heart of Morabaraba: a player can move a cow out of an existing mill, then move it back the next turn to re-form the mill and capture again. Skilled players set up positions where they can “shuttle” a single cow back and forth between two mills, capturing every move.

Winning the game

You win Morabaraba in one of two ways:

• Reduce your opponent to two cows. With only two pieces remaining, no further mill is possible.
• Stalemate your opponent. If the opponent cannot make any legal move on their turn (all their cows are blocked), they lose — provided they have more than three cows (which would otherwise let them fly).

Draws are possible but rare in competitive play and are usually agreed when neither side can make progress and pieces simply shuffle without captures for a long stretch.

Strategy and tips

Morabaraba is famous for being deceptively simple and ferociously deep:

• Control the centre intersections. The four “T-junction” points on each side of the board connect to the most lines and are the most powerful squares — try to occupy them early.
• Build “double mills” (open-and-close shuttles). Two mills sharing a common cow allow that cow to move out of one and into the other repeatedly, capturing every turn. This is the single most decisive pattern in Morabaraba.
• Avoid placing your last few cows in a corner. Corners only connect to two lines, so a cow there has fewer movement options later.
• Watch the opponent’s placement, not just yours. A common beginner mistake is racing to build your own mill and ignoring the mill your opponent is one move from forming.
• Don’t fear the flying phase. Even down to 3 cows, flying gives genuine winning chances. Many Morabaraba comebacks happen when a player is reduced to 3 and then flies into a winning mill.

Cultural context

Morabaraba was historically played by herd boys watching cattle in rural Sotho and Tswana communities. The “cows” are not metaphorical — the cows in the game represent the literal cattle the boys were tending, and the rules of the game (build your herd of three, capture, defend) mirror the social importance of cattle in southern African pastoral culture. The game crossed into Zulu-speaking communities under the name Umlabalaba, and into Eswatini and Lesotho with similar names.

Today Morabaraba enjoys formal recognition as a Mind Sport in South Africa. Mind Sports South Africa runs national championships and includes Morabaraba in school strategy-game programmes. International correspondence tournaments link South African players with Lesotho and Botswana clubs. The game is sometimes used in education and life-skills programmes as a tool for teaching planning and patience to young people.

Playing Morabaraba today

You can play Morabaraba with nothing more than a stick to draw the board in the dirt and 24 small stones. Carved wooden boards are sold at craft markets in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Maseru and Gaborone. Mind Sports South Africa publishes a downloadable rules booklet and runs school and community tournaments. For digital play, several Android apps offer Morabaraba — search “Morabaraba” or “Twelve Men’s Morris” — and the long-running iggamecenter.com browser hub has an online multiplayer Morabaraba room. Local clubs in Soweto, Bloemfontein, Maseru and Gaborone meet weekly and run beginner-friendly evenings.

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