The board has 2 rows of 6 pits. Your row is the bottom row. Each pit starts with 4 seeds (48 in total).
Sow: pick one of your pits. All its seeds are dropped one by one into the next pits, moving anticlockwise (left to right along your row, then right to left along the top).
If a pit has 12 or more seeds, sowing goes round the board and skips the pit you started from.
Capture: if your last seed lands in your opponent's pit and makes it 2 or 3, you take those seeds. Then check the pit before it: if it's also the opponent's and has 2 or 3, take those too, and so on.
No grand slam: if a move would capture every seed on your opponent's side, you sow but capture nothing.
Feed your opponent: if their side is empty, you must play a move that gives them seeds if you can.
Winning: the first to capture more than 24 seeds wins. If a player can't move, the other player takes the seeds left on their own side and the game ends.
These are the widely played Ayọ̀ / Abapa rules. Families and towns often have their own variations.