Alexander de Voogt


Alexander Johan de Voogt or simply Alex de Voogt is a Dutch researcher and associate professor at Drew University, who worked as a curator of African Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History and best known for his work on the logics of traditional mancala games. He is also editor of Board Game Studies, the main scientific journal on board games, sponsored by the International Board Game Studies Association.
De Voogt began studying mancala in the 1990s, while he was in Zanzibar for a field study on the Swahili language. At the time, he began analyzing the rules and logical mechanics of the Bao mancala game by interviewing acknowledged Zanzibari "Bao masters". In 1995 he published his PhD thesis Limits of the Mind: Towards a Characterization of Bao Mastership where he analyzed the intellectual abilities required to master the Bao game.
The work on Bao set the basis for all subsequent research activities by De Voogt. Among the many mancala games De Voogt has been collecting information on and studying there are Katro, Owela, Warri, Hawalis, Ohvalhu, Mangaley and Olinda Keliya.

Selected writings