Sioux City Journal Sioux City, Iowa Sunday, May 23, 1965 - Page 10
Kenyan at Westmar Hopes to Sell African Chess Game
Lemars, Iowa—A Westmar College senior, Charles Otanga Libutsi, from Kenya, Africa, has taken an ancient African marble game, applied for a copyright on an assortment of rules gleaned from memory, named it African chess, and now is looking for a capitalist to help develop a market for it in the United States.
The game, bearing some resemblance to a combination of Chinese checkers, monopoly and chess, requires a board with 20 grooved out holes—18 running in two parallel rows of nine and one at each end of the board.
Because he is a foreign student Mr. Libutsi cannot introduce the game to the market, but is looking for backers to do it. He came to the United States in September 1961 and will graduate from Westmar College May 30 with a B.A. degree. He plans to earn a M.A. degree and return to Africa to “help establish an African governmental system.”
Mr. Libutsi says the title “African Chess” may be misleading because it is not the African name for the game. However the marble game is widely played in Africa under various rules and names.
“In the process of experimenting my rules, I met people who have been in other countries who said that they saw something similar to African Chess … foreign students from the Philippines, India, Damascus and Ceylon say they have such games but with entirely different rules.”
The Westmar College student said he became interested in writing a set of rules for African Chess while working the E.U.B. church camp at Milford, Nebraska in 1963 when youngsters and camp counselors asked him to teach them some African games.
“I had no written rules on which I could rely. I figured from my memory anything that would be similar to what we used to play in Africa when I was young. I made the rules and began experimenting with them. The game caught on very quickly and many children and adults loved to play it whenever they had a chance.
“Since its introduction at Westmar College the summer of 1964, this game has become popular here and many people would like to have it sold on the market,” he said.
Mr. Libutsi can be contacted through Charles W. Semke, foreign students advisor at Westmar College in LeMars, Iowa.
Kenyan at Westmar Hopes to Sell African Chess Game 23 May 1965, Sun Sioux City Journal (Sioux City, Iowa) Newspapers.com
