Gulugufe – Board Games that Make you go, “Hmmm..”
Gulugufe is Chitonga for “Butterfly” (the design says it all) and comes from Mozambique.
A favourite among the women in Mozambique, Gulugufe is a two player abstract strategy board game in the Alquerque family of board games.
When we think of two player strategy board games in the west, we think, “Chess” and, “No Friends Nigel”.
This is not the case in Africa. In Mozambique two player strategy games are among the most social past times. Like Dammi (Draughts in Ghana) and Bao in Malawi, Gulugufe is a game that involves plenty of onlookers, plenty of jeering and plenty of thumping the foot – or the board – in order to intimidate your opponent.
The Play of the Butterfly Game
The goal is to capture all of the opponent’s pieces, or be the one with more pieces when no more pieces can be taken by either player, or, stalemate the other opponent’s pieces such that they are immobilised.
There are a total of 19 intersection points for the pieces to be played upon. Each player has nine pieces. One player plays dark, and the other player plays light, however, any two colours will suffice.
The centre position is kept empty at the start of the Gulugufe game. Pieces are captured by hopping over them.
A piece moves one space per turn onto a vacant intersection point following the pattern on the board.
Captures are done by the short leap as in Draughts and Alquerque, where the adjacent enemy piece is hopped over onto a vacant point on the other side. The captures must be done in a straight line following the pattern on the board.
Multiple captures are allowed in Gulugufe as long as there is one vacant point in between the enemy pieces, and a vacant point beyond the last enemy piece. Captures are compulsory. If there are several options to capture in one turn, the player may choose any one of them.
Captured pieces are removed from the board.
If a player cannot perform a move or a capture because its pieces have been blocked or immobilised by the other players pieces, this is known as a stalemate, and the player loses; the other player wins.
If neither player can capture anymore pieces, the player with more pieces wins. If both players have the same amount of pieces, then the game is a draw.
The rules are simple and the strategies are endless – which makes Gulugufe a great deal of fun. Especially if your using a genuine Gulugufe board game from Africa.
Gulugufe is truly one of those rare and unique board games played by millions but known to only a few. It has been tucked away for so long and now it’s time to play! I recommend you give it a go.
About the Author
David Trounce is the owner of Games From Everywhere a source of unusual and high quality Board Games from Africa.
Games Kids Play Africa Questions
what would your scariest moment be ?
so far it would be on hols in mojaca (cnt spell it) but its in spain east of africa or something and there was coctail games oin in the hotel whick were games for teenagers nd kids so i met a friend there nd we sed we’ll play and they threw spoons into the big pool and said who over gets the most gets 100 euro so me nd louise sed we’ll do it toghter and spilt hte money nd a strong wind came nd we jumped in and went under we heard people scream and then we relised we were the only ones under and tryed to get up but sunbeds flew in and then sun umbrellas nearly stabbed us and we were strugglin to get up so swam really fast ova to side nd put our heads up nd people were screamin at us to duck so we did and a anohter unbrella nearly hit us we all had ot go inside cause it was a heat wave and aas we were walkin in sunbed fell from top of hotel right infront of us and we started screamin but it was a kl holiday besides the heat wave and loads of ppl went to ER cuz of umbrellas lol !
honest I am too laze today to read that. Here is one for you…
…Q: Why did the blonde take drivers ed?
A: So she could learn how to sit upright in a
car!!!
PS 2 games from USA dont work on PS 2 in South Africa?
My husband bought the kids PS 2 games in the USA. They are so disappointed because our PS 2 in South Africa cannot play the games. The same with the DVDs he bought, but we bought a Region free DVD player which plays the American DVDs. But what about the PS 2? Nobody here in S.Africa have a solution so far. Our PS 2 is one year old, so it is not the “old PS 2″ and it has PAL printed on the back. Please I am sure there must be a simple solution to the problem and that somewhere out there, there are brilliant people who would have a solution. Thank you so much
Hi yes there is a way,, modchip it and change the region code to your regin and it will play all kinds,,, I do repairs here for all systems,, the games wont work because the region is not set right or you will have to buy the games there in s.africa and try it
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