Nuba fighting
Encyclopedia
Nuba fighting is done by people of the Kurdufan
hill country of central Sudan
, involving both stick fighting
and wrestling
.
is to slam the opponent to the ground. Wrestling is relatively recreational, and serious injuries are rare.
Nuba wrestling has no pinning and no submissions. Although there are strikes, these are essentially part of the grappling; in other words, this is not a boxing system, as is, for example, Hausa
dambe
. Therefore, Nuba wrestling is best viewed as a system of standing grappling, historically practiced naked, but in towns, today practiced in T-shirts and shorts.
Nuba stick fighting essentially mimics the movements of fighting with spear and shield. Little armor is worn, so injuries can be severe.
Nuba stick fighting tournaments usually take place after harvest. This is partly because this is the traditional war season, and partly to give thanks for a good harvest. Because stick fighting is dangerous, participants pray before bouts, and amulets may be worn for protection. If a participant is seriously injured, then he or his family are supposed to be compensated by the other village, usually in the form of a cow or similar valuable commodity.
During wrestling and stick fighting tournaments, feasts, music, dance, and stories about former champions are integral to the practice. Although stick fighting tournaments are not usually seen in modern cities (police take a dim view of crowds of armed young men roaming the streets), wrestling tournaments are often used by people living in those same cities to help them retain their sense of cultural identity.
Kurdufan
Kurdufan , also spelled Kordofan, is a former province of central Sudan. In 1994 it was divided into three new federal states: North Kurdufan, South Kurdufan, and West Kurdufan...
hill country of central Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, involving both stick fighting
Stick fighting
Stick fighting is a generic term for martial arts which use simple long slender, blunt, hand-held, generally wooden 'sticks' for fighting such as a staff, cane, walking stick, baton or similar....
and wrestling
Wrestling
Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
.
Techniques
The goal of Nuba WrestlingNuba Wrestling
The history of Nuba wrestling as recorded on tomb walls in 11th and 12th Dynastic Egypt, provides a look at the world's oldest known system of combat.Nuba Wrestling-Ta-Seti "Land of the Bow":...
is to slam the opponent to the ground. Wrestling is relatively recreational, and serious injuries are rare.
Nuba wrestling has no pinning and no submissions. Although there are strikes, these are essentially part of the grappling; in other words, this is not a boxing system, as is, for example, Hausa
Hausa people
The Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. They are a Sahelian people chiefly located in northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger, but having significant numbers living in regions of Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Chad and Sudan...
dambe
Dambe
Dambe, also known as Kokawa is a form of boxing associated with the Hausa people of West Africa. Historically, Dambe included a wrestling component, known as Kokawa, but today it is essentially a striking art...
. Therefore, Nuba wrestling is best viewed as a system of standing grappling, historically practiced naked, but in towns, today practiced in T-shirts and shorts.
Nuba stick fighting essentially mimics the movements of fighting with spear and shield. Little armor is worn, so injuries can be severe.
Training
Training for both wrestling and stick fighting includes practicing under the supervision of former champions, performing athletic dances, learning traditional songs, and drinking lots of milk while avoiding promiscuity and beer.Tournaments
Nuba wrestling tournaments are associated with planting and harvest festivals. The purpose of the wrestling at these festivals is to build group identity and display the prowess of the group's young men. (At Nuba wrestling matches, youths represent their villages rather than themselves.)Nuba stick fighting tournaments usually take place after harvest. This is partly because this is the traditional war season, and partly to give thanks for a good harvest. Because stick fighting is dangerous, participants pray before bouts, and amulets may be worn for protection. If a participant is seriously injured, then he or his family are supposed to be compensated by the other village, usually in the form of a cow or similar valuable commodity.
During wrestling and stick fighting tournaments, feasts, music, dance, and stories about former champions are integral to the practice. Although stick fighting tournaments are not usually seen in modern cities (police take a dim view of crowds of armed young men roaming the streets), wrestling tournaments are often used by people living in those same cities to help them retain their sense of cultural identity.
Contentious areas
- There are frescoFrescoFresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
es showing wrestlers and stick fighters in the temples at Beni HasanBeni HasanBeni Hasan is an Ancient Egyptian cemetery site. It is located approximately 20 kilometers to the south of modern-day Minya in the region known as Middle Egypt, the area between Asyut and Memphis.While there are some Old Kingdom burials at the site, it was primarily used during the Middle...
, in EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. These temples date to about 1950 BCE. Some of wrestlers and stick fighters shown in these frescoes are black, and some of the techniques shown in the illustrations can be seen in Nuba stick fighting and wrestling. See, for example, Carroll, cited below. If the people who currently live in Kurdufan share the same culture as the people who live in Kurdufan today, then there could be a relationship between modern Nuba wrestling and ancient Egyptian wrestling. Cautions here include the following: 1) Pictures of wrestling and stick fighting tend to look alike, no matter who is in them. 2) The people who live in Kurdufan now may have moved there more recently than 4000 years ago. If so, who influenced whom? 3) The Nuba are not noble savages.Noble savageThe term noble savage , expresses the concept an idealized indigene, outsider , and refers to the literary stock character of the same...
Instead, they are people whose cultureCultureCulture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, like all cultures, has changed over time.
- Carroll, cited below, reports traditions suggesting that Nuba learned techniques for wrestling and/or stick fighting from watching animals play. Many warrior societies have stories attributing the development of their martial arts to warriors getting ideas after having watched birds, insects, or animals fight. Whether such stories are literally true is not as important as whether subsequent practitioners repeat them. If they do, then such stories become integral parts of the shared values that distinguish groups, communities, and cultures.
Text sources
- Carroll, Scott T. (Summer 1988). "Wrestling in Ancient Nubia," Journal of Sport History, 15:2, 121-137.http://www.aafla.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1988/JSH1502/jsh1502b.pdf
- Luz, Oskar and Horst. (1966). "Proud Primitives, the Nuba People," National Geographic 130:5, pp. 673–699.
- Riefenstahl, Leni. (1973). The Last of the Nuba. New York: Harper and Row.
- Rodger, George. (1955). Le Village des Nouba. Paris: Delphire.
- Sweeney, C. (1969). Jebels by Moonlight. London: Chatto & Windus.
External links
- http://www.nubasurvival.com/Nuba%20Vision/Vol%201%20Issue%202/8%20Wrestling.htm
- http://www.nubasurvival.com/Nuba%20Culture/Nuba%20Culture%20index.htm
- http://www.pbase.com/travelling_terry/nuba_wrestling_north_khartoum
- http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0302/feature3/index.html?fs=www3.nationalgeographic.com&fs=plasma.nationalgeographic.com
- http://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/africaphotos/home.html
- The Nuba Mountains Homepage