The task facing Sudanese officials tallying the election results in Africa’s largest country seems less daunting after watching the complex counting game known in the south of Sudan as “aweet”.
Played most days under trees in villages across south Sudan, one team aims to win by capturing their opponent’s counters, which are nuts from the “thou” tree.
“If you are serious in calculation, you can make it last two hours, but it can last even one minute,” explains Joseph Ador, an aid worker in the village of Malaulkon. “It’s very addictive,” he says.
There is no restriction on who can play, but women do not often have the time to play it. “It needs your commitment,” says Mr Ador.
“You have to do three things: Calculate how many rounds you can go; account for something you have not found; predict what will come and you have to consider your defence,” he says.
Play starts at about 11 o’clock in the morning – and finishes at sunset. The person who is losing is the one who insists on staying until last light, the players say.
When someone loses a game, fellow players say he has been arrested. Scoring is done with whatever is to hand: bottle tops, cigarette butts, bones – and they represent the number of “arrests”.
After losing 12 games – or being arrested 12 times – a player “is hung” – and a plastic bottle is attached to a rope and hung from the branches of the tree.
Variations of the game are played in many other African countries, and it is thought in Malaulkon that aweet was introduced to the area during British colonial rule.
There is no betting or money involved. Players say it is played for the sheer pleasure. “It’s a very good game, it lights up your brain,” says Mr Ador. (Photos and text: BBC’s Lucy Fleming)
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