I’m thrilled to announce that Cable Street has published my poem, “A Game of Oware in Ghana.”
Oware is a pit and pebble mancala board game from Africa. Oware is played with two players and a board of two rows, each with six pits. The game starts with four stones in every pit. With couplets of six syllables in each line, the stanzas are built to look like an Oware board :).
While I have never been to Ghana, I did immensely enjoy doing “research” for this poem by playing Oware on an app that I downloaded :). Part of the fun of being a poet is following playful curiosities in whatever surprising ways they may develop. One day, I’d love to travel to Ghana to see a game of Oware in person.
I did want to make sure, however, that this poem rings true for the experience that these verses describe. I therefore offer deep gratitude to Christiana Afotey at The African Chisel, Shelley Chapman, Portia Agbo, Lynn Chapman, Erin Washington, and Dzifa Awunyo-Akabafor for their clarifying guidance.