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The lead reads "similar to Nine Men's Morris".
There is another Morris game Twelve Men's Morris which has the same board and the same number of pieces as this game. Are these rules different for these two games?
SmithBlue (
talk)
13:24, 10 December 2008 (UTC)reply
The game is exactly 12 Men's Morris, even the name Morabaraba is derivitive of "morris". Be warey of promotional sites which overemphasize popularity of the game in Africa and misrepresent it as some sort of indigenous game. Most people in South Africa have never heard of it. In cities those few who have heard of it would typically know of it as an old obscure English game and are not aware that Africans play it. Those in rural ares who do actively play are are typically unaware of its British origin.
Kuratowski's Ghost (
talk)
13:25, 12 December 2008 (UTC)reply
The rules of the game slighly differ from British 12 Men's Morris. The name Morabaraba is NOT related to "morris" (a South African
mancala game is called
Moruba, btw), and while some sites may overemphasize its popularity, the statement above clearly downplays its importance. Morris variants played with 12 counters are also known from Zimbabwe, Somalia, Armenia, India and Mongolia. Actually Morris seems to exist in Africa as an indigenous game independent of European colonialism. There have been reports of South African Morris board scratched into the rock that are at least 800 years old. Maybe the legend of British origin is based on racist bias - white South Africans also claimed that the ruins of villages (archaeological sites) built of stone could impossibly be constructed by Black Africans and invented wild theories to explain them (e.g. the Queen of Saba made them).
84.175.173.33 (
talk)
06:42, 30 January 2013 (UTC)reply
The only difference I can see is that in Morabaraba, if all of your counters/cows are in mills then you can shoot any of your opponent's counters/cows regardless of whether they're in mills or not. I don't believe this is the case in Twelve Men's Morris. — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
77.89.170.66 (
talk)
08:10, 24 May 2013 (UTC)reply