A groundbreaking investigation into the migration of martial arts
techniques across continents and centuries
The presence of African influence and tradition in the Americas has long
been recognized in art, music, language, agriculture, and religion. T.
J. Desch-Obi explores another cultural continuity that is as old as
eighteenth-century slave settlements in South America and as
contemporary as hip-hop culture. In this thorough survey of the history
of African martial arts techniques, Desch-Obi maps the translation of
numerous physical combat techniques across three continents and several
centuries to illustrate how these practices evolved over time and are
still recognizable in American culture today. Some of these art
traditions were part of African military training while others were for
self-defense and spiritual discipline.
Grounded in historical and cultural anthropological methodologies,
Desch-Obi's investigation traces the influence of well-delineated
African traditions on long-observed but misunderstood African and
African American cultural activities in North America, Brazil, and the
Caribbean. He links the Brazilian martial art capoeira to reports of
slave activities recorded in colonial and antebellum North America.
Likewise Desch-Obi connects images of the kalenda African stick-fighting
techniques to the Haitian Revolution. Throughout the study Desch-Obi
examines the ties between physical mastery of these arts and changing
perceptions of honor.
Including forty-five illustrations, this rich history of the arrival and
dissemination of African martial arts in the Atlantic world offers a new
vantage for furthering our understanding of the powerful influence of
enslaved populations on our collective social history.
