Afrikan tähti (; Finnish for 'Star of Africa'), known in Swedish as Den försvunna diamanten ('The Missing Diamond') or Afrikas stjärna ('The Star of Africa'), is a Finnish board game designed by Kari Mannerla originally in 1951. It has been one of the most popular board games in the Nordic countries for decades.
History
thumb|right|The "[[Great Star of Africa" cut from the Cullinan Diamond, which the game is named after. This picture shows a copy located at the Reich der Kristalle museum in Munich; the original diamond is attached to the sceptre of the ruler of the United Kingdom.]]
The board game was first published year 1951 in Helsinki, Finland. Stories of the world's largest diamond – the Star of Africa having been found in South Africa – had inspired the imagination of young Kari Mannerla after he had been watching Humphrey Bogart films. He managed to get a hold of a wrinkled map of Africa in the English language and picked exotic sounding places such as Casablanca and Dar es Salaam. He then drafted land, sea and air routes arbitrarily across and around the continent. During his design process, an important innovation was that players could pick their route of choice, instead of following a pre-set course. A further revelation was the tokens that are shuffled before each game and placed randomly throughout the board. None of the players know which surprise is hidden under each token. The robbers and horseshoes were considered to add to the excitement of the game.
Kari Mannerla had been designing board games since he was 14 years old. Some of his games included Totalisaattoriravit, Gangsterit kiinni, Radiumtaistelu Marsissa, Merten kauhu (1948) and Inkan aarre. He sold these games for a small one-time fee, and none of them became lasting favourites like Afrikan tähti.
Afrikan tähti was the last of Kari Mannerla's games. He was then already an "experienced" 19-year-old game designer and he intuitively sensed that this one was unique. He offered it to the large book publishing company Tilgmann. Price negotiations took a few years and finally he accepted a modest compensation for 10,000 printed games. His condition to the publisher was that any further prints would be negotiated separately. This was not an issue to the publisher because most board games would not go on to be reprinted. However, the next year another 10,000 copies were printed, and the game received many subsequent reprints. The game sold more than 100,000 copies in seven years, which is a record even today.
Mannerla first offered the game for publishing at the printing press Tilgmann. The negotiations for the price lasted a couple of years. Mannerla was satisfied with a rather modest reward for ten thousand copies on the condition that there would be an option for further prints. Tilgmann agreed, as it was not usual for games to get reprints. The deal was a success for Mannerla.
Mannerla only actually visited Africa for the first time in the 1980s when he was on a trip to Morocco. He later made a comment about being amused about the design of the game board, that "it was moving how infantile the knowledge used to design it had been". On the other hand, he also said that "if you make an educational program, you won't get a good game".
Afrikan tähti has remained one of the most sold board games in Finland for 65 years. During this time it has been translated to over 16 languages. It is most popular in the Nordic countries, where it became widely marketed in Sweden, Norway and Denmark in 1960. In Sweden the game is called Den Försvunna Diamanten, in Norway Den Forsvunne Diamanten (both meaning "The Lost [or, Vanished] Diamond") and in Denmark Afrikas Stjerne (Star of Africa). In Finland over two million games have been sold, in Sweden and Norway almost one million and in Denmark half a million. There are over 4.5 million sold games internationally. During his retirement years Kari Mannerla revived one of his old creations Inkan aarre ("The treasure of the Inca") in a completely modified version. Inkan Aarre has sold over 100,000 copies in Finland. In 2013 it had sold a total of four million copies internationally.</blockquote>
Academic research has claimed the game repeats colonialist myths about Africa and Europeans exploiting it: for example the diamond has to be "brought into safety" into European-controlled cities. When the game was published in 1951, many African countries were still European colonies. According to the Finnish website Lautapeliopas, the game is a "merciless game of luck that leaves little room for skill" and hating the game is "an important connecting factor" for board game hobbyists.
Video game version
Afrikan tähti was made into a video game for the Commodore 64 in 1985 by Otso Pakarinen and Jari Heikkinen who were given permission to make the game from Kari Mannerla. The game was published by Amersoft and produced by Jouko Riikonen. Programming the game took roughly two months. It was made with help of some PROMAL source code which the creators got from Amersoft.
In other countries
The game was launched in Sweden in 1958 by Alga, under the name "Den försvunna diamanten" ("The lost diamond"). In Denmark a variant of the game is marketed by Alga's parent company BRIO under the name "Afrikas Stjerne" (Star of Africa). In Norway the game has been sold under the name "Den forsvunne diamanten" ("The lost diamond") from 1956, and is currently marketed by Egmont. All publishing rights are directly copyrighted to Kari Mannerla's five daughters.