Bao (Swahili for: "board") is a mancala game widely played in Eastern Africa. The Yao in Malawi changed its original name to Bawo. In Malawi it is said that it was first played along the shore of the Lake Malawi.

The game was first described to Europeans by the French traveller Flacourt in 1658 who saw it on Madagascar. Thomas Hyde found it 1658 on Anjouan, Comores. The oldest still surviving Bao board was made in 1896 in Malawi and is kept today in the British Museum in London.

Some call Bao/Bawo the "king of mancala games", as it is usually considered the most difficult and complex of them.

More information can be found on the following websites:

www.wikimanqala.org

Wikipedia on Bao/Bawo

Wikipedia on Macala games

German Wikipedia on Mancala

Gamesmuseum on Mancala

Gamesmuseum on Rhodesia

Ubao la kiswahili on Bao

Mind Sports World on Mancala and Bao/Bawo

The Free Library on Bawo

Philipp Greenspun on Isolo, the Sukuma Royal Game