Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

THE CONTEXT OF THE BLACK ATLANTIC 57
When they have danc’d an hour or two, the men fall to wrestle, (the Musick playing all the while), and
their manner of wrestling is to stand like two Cocks, with heads as low as their hips; and thrusting
their heads one against another, hoping to catch one another by the leg, which sometimes they do: But
if both parties raise their heads, by pressing hard one against another, and so having nothing to take
hold of but their bare flesh, they close, and grasp one another about the middle, and have one another
in the hug, and then a fair fall is given on the back. 124
A similar context is mentioned by Charles Leslie in eighteenth-century Jamaica. He possibly even observed
slave women not merely watching but partaking in combat games: ‘Sunday Afternoon the Generality of
them dance or wrestle, Men and Women promiscuously together.’ 125 Slaves’ wrestling and cudgelling is
also mentioned by John Stedman in Surinam. 126 It was also practised in the nineteenth-century pre Civil War
South of the United States, where planters sometimes arranged contests between slaves. 127 Despite these
sources attesting its existence in different regions, African-derived wrestling as a formalized martial art has
not survived in the Americas.
Stick fighting constituted the most widespread combat game in the Caribbean and was also practised in
Brazil. The male slaves’ predilection for stick fighting has been reported since the late colonial period. It
was (and often still is) practised on a number of islands, regardless of its colonial master: Trinidad,
Carriacou, Dominica, Haiti and probably many others. Moreau de Saint-Méry provided us with a crucial
eighteenth-century description for the French colony Saint Domingue (Haiti). According to him, slaves used
fighting sticks under two circumstances: in real fights between themselves, or in friendly contests (‘une
espèce de lutte’ or ‘joute’). Sticks were made of extremely hard wood for use in the second modality, the
lower third being covered with leather and decorated with golden nails.
The negroes handle this stick with great dexterity, and as they target the head, the blows are always
serious. Therefore the fighters are soon covered with blood, and it is not easy to separate them when
they are infuriated… 128
As a combat game, stick fighting was strictly regulated. A new fighter replaced the loser and the ultimate
winner earned a prize. An eighteenth-century engraving from the island of Dominica (see Figure 2.6) shows
that this kind of event was attended by slaves or freed persons of different age and both sexes. The game
provided an occasion for good fighters to show off:
[…] this mortal stick also serves to exhibit one’s adroitness, in a type of fight. One cannot prevent
oneself admiring how fast the blows are given and avoided by two well-trained negroes. They threaten
each other, they turn around to take each other by surprise, always holding and moving the stick with
both hands; suddenly a blow is given, the other stick blocks, and the strikes are imparted and
answered alternatively, until one of the combatants is hit by the other. 129
As in Africa, the ritual invocation of spiritual forces was important in colonial Haitian stick fighting.
Combat only started ‘after each negro has wetted his finger with saliva, passed it along the ground and
touched again his tongue, and beating his breast with his hand, raising his eyes towards the sky, he has, in
his own opinion, uttered the most horrible of all oaths.’ 130 Saint-Méry reports that police did forbid the use
of sticks, but their confiscation was to no avail since they were so easy to replace. His testimony and the
engraving by Brunias also seem to suggest that some masters enjoyed watching stick fight contests.