Waka Waka

About this board game

Waka Waka is a trading game for 2–4 players that takes about 45 minutes to play. As African traders, players buy goods from faraway lands, seeking the best possible prices while managing uncertain information and valuable assistance.

The goods available for purchase are mostly obscured, making every buying opportunity a potential gamble. Before spending money, players can send out their chimpanzee to take a closer look at what is being offered. This extra information can help traders avoid buying a pig in a poke.

The market includes a varied selection of goods, each representing the richly themed world of the game:

• Hides
• Salt
• Tea
• Textiles
• Jewelry
• Fruit

Players also seek to keep the village shaman fulfilled. As long as the fire illuminates the shaman, he helps with trading efforts, adding an important source of support to each trader’s plans. Other villagers have special skills of their own, and players can call on them when their abilities are needed.

Waka Waka combines hidden market information, careful purchasing, and character-based assistance in a focused trading experience. Its name means “Do it” in Swahili, reflecting the game’s active commercial theme and African setting.

Released by Kosmos in 2012, Waka Waka is set in the same thematic world as Rüdiger Dorn’s Jambo, first released by Kosmos in 2004.