Ethiopia, a country with a history and culture dating back thousands of years, has yet to have its past fully documented and understood.
At the moment, there now exist over 293 registered traditional and cultural sports and games in Ethiopia.
The earliest evidence of one of these games was found in Yeha (modern day Ethiopia) and Matara (modern day Eritrea).
It is dated to between the 6th and 7th century AD during the time of the powerful Aksumite Kingdom and was found in the form of pieces of a pottery board with several rock cuts.
In the 14th century, Giyorgis of Segla who wrote the "Mysteries of Heaven and Earth" in Ge'ez, mentions the word "qarqis", which is a Ge'ez word referring to both the Gebeta and Senteraj board games.
It is widely believed that Gebeta, commonly referred to as Mancala is one of the oldest board games in history.
More recently, Ethiopian Emperors Tewodros, Yohannes IV and Menelik II were documented to have organized and led traditional and cultural sporting events, lavishly awarding the winners.
We recommend a very interesting article on Ethiopian sports and traditional games: https://allaboutethio.com/10-best-ethiopian-traditional-sports-games.html
