I also included here some posts and letters regarding further sources of information, but there's quite a bit of information floating about the net. (sample.) Here's a few key sites:
Pointer to a paper, "The Combinatorics of Mancala-Type Games: Ayo, Tchoukaitlon, and 1/pi".
Here are some posts regarding Tchukarama, describes as a "solitaire version of mancala".
Play Mancala on the web.
This page is
http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/uses-math/games/mancala/index.htmlLast modified 1999/09/22 by Dave Rusin, rusin@math.niu.edu