Afrikan Tähti designer dead at 76
Kari Mannerla, the creator of Finland’s unofficial national board game, Afrikan Tähti, is dead at 76. He designed the game when before he was in his twenties and the game has sold about 3.5 million copies. I think every Finn, and probably every foreigner in Finland has some fond memories of playing this Afrikan Tähti.
Ofc that picture is from the new south american version.
Comment by finn — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 12:29 am
Er…I don’t think I’ve actually ever played this game. Does it come in English lol?
Comment by Southern Gal — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 1:28 am
I wonder why they used that bad underlighting to make him look so gnarled? What’s the point they’re trying to make, other than the fact that Finland has lousy photographers.
Comment by Finnpundit — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 3:24 am
I think its impossible for Finnpundit to talk about anything without negative edge.
Comment by Anonymous — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 5:45 am
The above was mine. Also, Phil, I hate to point this but you have made a mistake. He didn’t design the game “when he was in his twenties”, as you said, but BEFORE he was 20. Both of your links say so; Kaleva “under 20″ and the game-database “at 18″.
Comment by iJusten — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 5:49 am
Actually, I really am curious why the photo is so bad. The guy, after all, is a rather significant cultural figure, in the league with (almost: she was a genius!) Tove Jansson. Is that the best they could do with a photo?
I certainly remember playing Afrikan Tähti many times as a kid, until all those pieces wound up getting lost somewhere, and finally, the diamond Afrikan Tähti was gone for good, and the game got relegated to an attic somewhere.
By the way, that’s a real capitalists’ game, and a colonialists’ one, too. It’s all about lust for riches, choices in the routes you take, and taking a chance on the roll of the dice. Perhaps Kari Mannerla unconsciously created the game as a kind of protest against Finnish values? After all, in his generation, young Finns left Finland in a kind of diaspora, drawn by the lures of wealth in the outside world, as the staid Lutheran (and later, welfare-statist) Finnnish future never held any promise for adventure, and fun.
Comment by Finnpundit — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 6:34 am
Actually, the game was released when he was 21. Of course it’s hard to know for sure when he came up with the idea; 18 or “under 20″ seems to be the common answer.
Comment by Mikko — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 6:38 am
He should have picked a map of Finland instead of Africa. Are there any board games out there that use a map of Finland as its game board?
Comment by Phil — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 8:22 am
Oh good grief, Finnpundit! Could you be any more boring? Why do you always have to try and find some deep political, and negative, meaning in everything, even a kid’s game?
Maybe Kari Mannerla just created the game for fun? Maybe he set it in colonial Africa because at the time it was created, the continent was still very much under colonial and capitalist rule? Maybe he made it an adventure game because people all over the world like adventure an excitement in their boring day-to-day lives? It’s not like Tarzan, also a capitalist and imperialist character, was written by a Finn.
Comment by Anzi — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 10:04 am
I’ve never seen a board game that use a map of Finland. Another childhood classic, The Moomin Game, uses the Moominvalley map as a game board.
Comment by Anzi — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 10:06 am
Besides, Afrikan tähti was directly influenced by Tarzan, so whatever capitalist and colonialist undertones there are, they are probably from Tarzan, not Mannerla.
I’m quite sure there are children’s board games with Finnish map as a game board, but no decent games (well, excluding war games based on the Finnish wars). There’s a fan made Finland expansion for Ticket to Ride and I’ve seen a prototype of a wargame set in Finnish civil war.
Today’s Aamulehti said Mannerla waas 19 when he designed Afrikan tähti and that he had designed 16 games before that. Anybody know those games?
Comment by Mikko — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 10:16 am
Afrikan Tähti is still the favourite board game for rainy days at the summer cottage. You just have to love the colonial era romantic view of the continent…
http://bergie.iki.fi/moblog/2005-09-03-1125739805
http://bergie.iki.fi/moblog/2006-06-10-1149947406
Comment by Bergie — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 10:25 am
I actually find Afrikan Tähti to be a bit boring. It worked as a kid, but as an adult it feels outdated and monotonous. These days I prefer games like Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and my all-time favorite Alias.
Comment by Anzi — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 10:39 am
Could it be that the ad agency wanted to promote the new game with this particular photo? An old rugged guy who clearly knows his Tarzan Africa or Sierra Madre like Bogart? With a photo that stops you, the potential customer?
Probably not. As we all know Finnpundit is a clever guy who’s almost always right. So, probably the agency just screwed it up on purpose, in order to make fun of a person who didn’t fit their welfare-statist world view.
I’m glad, though, that Finnpundit’s fantasies this time didn’t lead to any morbid ideas - him wanting to see the the photographer masscred and the like, you know.
Comment by Anonymous — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 12:14 pm
These days I prefer games like Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and my all-time favorite Alias.
If you enjoy Ticket to Ride, then you need to check out “Thurn and Taxis”, it’s out in English and German and will be out in Finnish soon. Soooooooo much better than Ticket to Ride, but with sorta similar mechanics.
Comment by Phil — Tue, Aug 1st, 2006 @ 12:34 pm
Scotland Yard was my favourite board game ages ago.
Comment by punde — Wed, Aug 2nd, 2006 @ 2:03 pm
Finnpundit:”After all, in his generation, young Finns left Finland in a kind of diaspora, drawn by the lures of wealth in the outside world, as the staid Lutheran (and later, welfare-statist) Finnnish future never held any promise for adventure, and fun.”
Yeah his generation left to work in Sweden….. What a freaking huge relief that must have been. You know cause Sweden neverd had staid Lutheran (and later,welfare statist) future.
Comment by Matti — Wed, Aug 2nd, 2006 @ 5:39 pm
“What’s the point they’re trying to make, other than the fact that Finland has lousy photographers.”
Nice immature and childish ad homimen attack again. That’s pretty much sums up your intellectual capabilities.
Comment by Anonymous — Wed, Aug 2nd, 2006 @ 10:19 pm
I>Ad hominem attacks should be quite familiar to Finnish anti-American bigots.
Comment by Finnpundit — Fri, Aug 4th, 2006 @ 10:48 pm
Five years ago, I traded a Klein Bottle to a Finnish mathematician, asking him to send my family something that was completely Finnish. He sent the game of Afrikan Tähti. My two kids loved it; every year we rediscover the game. This morning, as our kids (now 10 & 11) started another game, and we looked up your website and found this sad news. Our game is all the more precious.
One question: My son has developed what my daughter claims is a “cheap and almost-cheating” strategy. Instead of going hunting for the Tahti, he looks for a horseshoe. When he finds a horseshoe, he takes the safest path to get close to home. He then just moves back and forth, very close to his home-base in North Africa. As soon as someone else finds the Tahti, he quickly runs home to win (first one back with a horseshoe gets the Tahti). So my kids are arguing- is this a legal game strategy?
Warm wishes to all on a cloudy Sunday mornint in Oakland, California, USA!
=Cliff
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