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African Martial Arts
Martial arts are styles of combat that stem from various cultures and their traditions. In the past, the primary uses of these fighting styles were originally for war preparations, rites of passage, testing one’s courage, and combat dancing that stemmed from spiritual and folklore traditions. In modern times, most people practice martial arts for health and fitness reasons or discipline and character development.
When watching the various types of martial arts, one will notice many reoccurring themes in the methods of fighting: hand strikes, kicking, leg sweeps, throwing, pinning, submission holds, chokeholds, head butting, or the use of sticks, machetes, swords, and similar items that could be viewed as a weapon. Some of the more folkloric and ritualistic styles may include dance-like movements where the practitioners move to the rhythm of the music being played. The area of combat may contain boundaries, where one of the objectives is to remain within the constraints or knock your opponent outside.
Throughout the world, one can find various styles and hybrid versions of older styles. In the age of globalization, certain fighting styles have been gone international, creating a worldwide following of people from various backgrounds learning martial arts from a culture that differs from theirs. Karate, taekwondo, Muay Thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and kung fu have some of the largest global followings, and they are well known to many people who have never participated in martial arts.
Like Asia, Africa contains many martial arts styles, some of which date back to ancient times. During the time of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade, practitioners of these art forms were captured and taken overseas. As a way to keep the various traditions alive, elements from African martial arts have been used overseas by their descendants. Due to people of different tribes and ethnic groups being forced to coexist together on foreign lands, certain martial arts were blended together and elements were added or taken out, thus creating a new art form. These new styles of fighting were often used as a way to retaliate against the European slave owners, the most commonly known one being capoeira in…
