This just in! In a world of screens, swipes, and fancy video games, our young people are enthusiastically embracing our traditional mathematical board game, Warri. All thanks to the School Call Een phase of the Warri Revival Programme. Could this lead to higher maths scores in the future? Listen, as our youth speak out about Warri !
Warri 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀: Trevor “Simple” Simon, Terrance “Kambue” Charles, and Peter Derryck of 𝗔𝗕𝗪𝗔.
With the School Call Een phase of the Warri Revival Programme, repeating in school is a good thing! This phase features repeat training sessions at schools across Antigua, with sessions in Barbuda scheduled for late November.
The Warri Revival Programme, facilitated by ABWA, falls under the National ICH Project that is funded by the UNESCO ICH Fund and led by Cultural Advisor Dr. Hazra Medica.
One of the Revival Programme’s main goals is to train five hundred and fifty (550) students and fifty (50) members of the business community, churches, community, and sports groups in the history and sport of playing Warri. The programme has already surpassed its target number for adult participation and is well on track to meeting its target for youth engagement.
For its part, theICH Projectis designed to address the urgent need, long voiced by the public, to safeguard important elements of our living heritage before they vanish. It will also bring to the forefront hitherto untapped economic activities and opportunities existing within our traditional knowledge, skills, and cultural heritage. To learn more about the project, click here.
The Warri Revival Programme kicked off on July 3rd with a dynamic week-long Train the Trainers Workshop. Sponsored by the UNESCO ICH FUND and facilitated by the Antigua and Barbuda Warri Academy (ABWA), the initiative produced five new Warri trainers—all students, aged 11 to 17.
Did the students enjoy the experience? Did they truly connect with the game?
You be the judge. Enough long talking—roll the video!
What’s next for the Warri Revival Programme?
The Warri Revival Programme, part of the UNESO ICH Fund-Sponsored National Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Project, will train 550 students and 50 NGO members in Warri-playing. The Revival will also birth a new generation of 18 Warri board makers, including youths from vocational programmes and the national prison. Furthermore, throughout this and the next year, ABWA will also plant 200 of the Caesalpina Crista, the “nickal”/”nicker”/seed-producing tree. Three varieties of the seeds are typical in Antigua and Barbuda: the grey, the brownish-orange, and the black.
Stay tuned for updates on how YOU could be a part of this project!
To learn even more about the WARRI REVIVAL PROGRAMME, see this previous article: Warri’s Epic Rebirth
Exciting times are ahead! The traditional game of Warri, an important African cultural retention, is in for a revival of EPIC proportions in Antigua and Barbuda!
Our nation is renowned as the “last bastion of Warri in the Caribbean”. It is the one Caribbean country where Warri is still very much visible as a heritage game/sport. Indeed our players are renowned as international champions/grandmasters!
A typical national scene: Warri being played at the West Bus Station in St. Johns.From one generation to another, a Warri training session.Ornate Warri Board with “nickal” seeds. (Artisan: Mr. Karl Henry)
According to Dr. Medica, The Warri Revival Programme is one of the flagship pilot safeguarding exercises within the larger National ICH Project. She revealed that the revival programme will be coordinated by the Antigua and Barbuda Warri Academy (ABWA) under the watchful eyes of founding member and InternationalGrandmaster Trevor “Simple” Simon (CN), with assistance from public, private, and civil partners.
During the first week of July 2025, the ABWA will train six students to become Warri trainers. Following this, the history and fundamentals of the game will be taught to five hundred and fifty (yes, 550!) students. These five hundred and fifty students will be selected from private and public educational institutions in Antigua AND Barbuda. Their training will occur throughout the 2025 summer and Christmas school holidays, and possibly extend into the 2026 Easter holidays.
Excitingly, fifty (50) members of selected NGOs will also benefit from similar training sessions. What is more, eighteen (18) young people will be trained in the craft of making Warri boards. One group of youths will be drawn from vocational programs and the other group from within our national prison.
Warri Boards created by Mr. Karl Henry. Photo credit: Trevor Simon (CN)
Attention will also be given to the seeds of the game. Throughout this and the next year, ABWA will embark upon a project to plant two hundred (200) of the Caesalpina Crista, the “nickal”/”Warri seed”-producing tree. Three varieties of the seeds are typical in Antigua/Barbuda: the grey, the brownish orange, and the black.
International Grandmaster Trevor Simon (CN) is urging the public to rally behind the programme. He acknowledges the current lull in the traditional sport/game noting that in the past Warri was played in all the villages throughout the nation. According to him, participating in the playing of Warri enhances social bonding, problem-solving, and mathematical skills.
The ABWA is promising that all training sessions and activities will be interactive, entertaining, and geared towards reigniting the entire nation with the Warri fever we once had. Training sessions for students will be held at the National Public Library, and the Multipurpose Cultural Centre.
It is anticipated that during, and following the Warri Revival Programme, competitive and frequent Warri championships will be staged. It is also anticipated that the Programme will increase women’s participation in the game.
To learn more about the Warri and the Antigua and Barbuda Warri Academy, click here.
To learn more about the Antigua and Barbuda National ICH Project, clickhere.
Warri is an African cultural retention whose survival undermines the amnesia thrust upon our enslaved African ancestors and their descendants. The skill of playing the game and the intricacies of making Warri boards has persisted through intergenerational transmission. In 1993, a Caribbean Beat Magazine article declared Antigua and Barbuda, “the last bastion of Warri in the Caribbean”. Our players are highly visible internationally as world champions. And perhaps none more so, than International Grandmaster, Trevor Simon CN.
Antiguan-born Trevor “Simple” Simon (CN) represented Antigua and Barbuda on twenty-eight occasions from 1998 to 2023. During this period, he won twenty-seven (27) gold medals and one (1) silver medal. He is an International Grandmaster of Warri, a warri trainer/tutor, administrator, and co-founder of the Antigua and Barbuda Warri Academy. In 2020, after winning his fifth (5th) championship title on his fifth appearance at Palais des Festivals in Cannes France, Simon decided to retire from competition playing. He announced that his focus would be on helping to further develop the game through mentoring, coaching, organising, and promoting the game locally and internationally.
In November 2022, Simon was awarded Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of the Nation (CN), in recognition of his contribution to the sport/sports in general.
Simon is co-founder of the Antigua and Barbuda Warri Academy. The Academy was founded in 2005, officially registered in 2006, by Simon and his then Warri partner September Christian (sadly, now deceased). The Academy’s goal is to teach the sport to students, church, and community groups as well as to impart the value of warri to Antigua & Barbuda and all people of African descent. The underlying objective is to ensure that warri is preserved and maintained as one of Antigua and Barbuda’s heritage sport.
Simon and Christian have conducted workshops on behalf of the World Warri Federation, the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, and the Barbados Cultural Foundation. Local schools, businesses, and community groups in Antigua have also benefitted from workshops organised by Simon and Christian. These include: All Saints Secondary, Jennings Secondary, Ottos Comprehensive, Pares, Potters, Villa, Mary E. Pigott, St. Nicholas, Minor Magnet, Optimist Club of St. John’s, APUA, Antigua Commercial Bank, Grace Hill Moravian, Church of the Nazarene, and the Precision Centre.
Trevor “Simple” Simon CN Warri Profile:
(Do not let the “Simple” deceive you!)
Participated in the Mind Sport Olympiad World Championships in England with results as follows: 1998 Gold Medal Winner, 1999 Gold Medal Winner, and 2000 Gold Medal Winner
For his feats, the Mind Sport Olympiad Organising Committee certified and conferred upon him the title of International Grand Master of Warri in 1999.
He was awarded the Antigua’s Sportsman of the Year title in 1999.
Palais des Festivals, Cannes France Invitational International Champion:March 2002, February 2016, and February 2017, February 2019, and March 2020.
Swiss InternationalGold Medal winner2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Swiss InternationalSilver Medal Winner2007.
Antigua and BarbudaInternational Championship Gold Medal winner October of 2013
Kazakhstan Friendly International Warri ChampionshipGold Medal Winner, April 2015, and September 2017. Czech Republic, Pardubice International Warri Gold Medal Winner July 2016.
Individual and team Gold Medal Winner at the third World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan September 2-9, 2018.
Colombia Championship, March 2023.
Photos courtesy of Trevor Simon CN.
See Trevor Simon CN’s entry in the Map of Creatives here
Click here to access the ABWA-prepared presentation on how to play Warri.
OR here to download Trevor Simon’s Rules for Playing Warri.
