Mahjong is a tile-based game that is commonly played in many parts of the world, and Zimbabwe is no exception. It is thought to have originated in China and is usually played by four players around a table. The aim of the game is to collect as many āmeldsā (groups of matching tiles) as possible during the course of the game.
The main components of a Mahjong set include 144 tiles, including 148 coloured and patterned tiles, 4 racks (to hold the tiles during the game), and a set of dice. Each set of tiles includes 8 jokers, 36 dots, 36 bamboos, 12 characters and 16 winds.
Players take turns to draw and discard tiles, until all the tiles in the set have been collected and the person with the highest score wins the game. Scores are calculated at the end of the game and are based on the number of melds each player has collected.