Jekaben 2009

From Nelson Mandela to Muammar Gaddafi, national leaders have long dreamt of a united Africa. This board game was designed to educate and encourage that vision.

Scattered about are 25 small squares, each of which covers a little section of the African map.

"The goal is to make the African youth be aware of the need to work closely together and to quickly achieve the United States of Africa." -Designer Salif Tidiane Ba

Players utilize a die and banknotes in the traditional African currency, the cowry. Each player must answer questions on the challenges facing Africa or African history. As the game progresses, tiles are added to complete the map of Africa, thus simulating a unified continent.

The final step for players is to earn their African passport, the game's ultimate goal.

Currently, the game is published in English, Arabic and French and work is being done to translate it into Spanish and Portuguese. But Mr. Ba is pushing to have more translations added in other African languages.

"We are planning to have it translated by next year into Swahili, Mandingo, Hausa, and other African languages," he said.

The game's name, Jekaben, is a term in the Bambara language which he says means "let's unite and decide together".