Mancala e Colonialidade Lúdica: apropriações de epistemologias africanas no design de jogos de tabuleiro modernos

Abstract

This article investigates the contemporary appropriation of mancala mechanics, an ancestral game originating among multiple African ethnic groups, in modern board game design. The analysis begins by recognizing mancala as a living cultural technology, rooted in African epistemologies that articulate orality and ancestry. From a decolonial and Afrocentric perspective, the article argues that the abstraction of this mechanic in modern board games reveals, more than a mere “lack of sensitivity,” a pattern of epistemic invisibilization, in which non-Western forms of knowledge are converted into formal structures stripped of historicity. The text advances a critique on the regimes of legitimation that shape modern boardgame design and outlines methodological and pedagogical pathways toward practices that are more ethical and committed to the ontological plurality of games.