BOARD GAME called Awalé
Ivory Coast
First half of the 20th century
Wood and pigments
H.: 15.5; L.: 55; Thickness: 25 cm

Wooden tray hollowed out with two rows of six round cavities, centered with an anthropo-zoomorphic decoration: two faces seen from the front and pigmented in blue are sculpted on either side of a lizard.

A strategy game belonging to the sowing games, awale is played by two people using Caesalpinia crista seeds, the aim being to fill each of the twelve cups with four seeds.
Our game has forty-one seeds, it should have forty-eight.

Text and photos © FCP CORIDON

Ref.: 4906