Mancala (Arabic: منقلة, manqalä) is a family of board games played around the world, sometimes called sowing games or count and capture games, which comes from the general gameplay. Mancala games play a role in many African and some Asian societies comparable to that of chess in the West. The mancala games best known in the Western world are Kalah, Oware (or Awele), Congklak, Omweso, and Bao.
The word mancala comes from the Arabic word naqala (literally "to move"). There is no traditional game with the name mancala; rather mancala is a type of game. This word is used at least in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, but is not consistently applied to any one game.