You can make your own Shisima game, too! All you need is a home printer, some crayons, a piece of cardboard, and some glue. But, I decided to make an octagonal board for my kids out of cardboard so it’s more durable for repeat gameplay. Often, kids in Kenya will simply draw a game board (the shape of an octagon) in the dirt to play and use rocks or bottle caps as their game pieces. Once you learn the rules and practice, maybe you will be able to move your imbalavali as fast as the kids in Kenya! Likewise, Shisima players move their pieces so quickly it’s hard to keep up. Water bugs move very quickly, making it hard to keep track of where they are.
