Game:Black Jenga

The game Jenga in its current form was invented in 1974 by Leslie Scott. It grew out of a childhood game created around a present of wooden building blocks purchased from a local wood craftsman in Ghana. The family called it 'Takoradi Bricks' after the city in which it was made. She brought the game to England in the 1980s and introduced it to her friends at Oxford University. Calling it "Jenga," based on Swahili "to build," she started selling the game and took out copyright on the rules. Jenga was promoted in the United States by Robert Grebler and his firm Pokonobe Associates, and was first manufactured here by Milton Bradley (now part of Hasbro) in 1987. Today many different versions of Jenga exist. Like other popular games, Jenga is made with differing themes from popular culture to appeal to a broad market. It is still made in the UK under Leslie Scott's copyright and is also very popular as a company promotional product, especially in Japan.