Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

THE CONTEXT OF THE BLACK ATLANTIC 63
falling on two hands and going to the ground to avoid strikes, and the fast kicking similar to a rabo de
arraia in capoeira. Dunham concluded that
The fascination of the real ag’ya lies not in the lust of the combat, but in the finesse of approach and
retreat; the tension which becomes almost a hypnosis, then the flash of the two bodies as they leap
into the air, fall in a crouch, and whirl at each other in simulated attacks, only to walk nonchalantly
away, backs to each other, showing utter indifference before falling again into the rocking motion
which rests them physically but excites them emotionally.
She witnessed what was, or had become, more than a mere combat game: a martial art. Ladjia took place on
Saturdays on plantations, after workers received their wages, and just like capoeira, during the festivals
dedicated to patron saints. 145 According to Dunham, during the 1930s ladjia was still danced ‘on all feast
days or at any slightest provocation whatsoever’ in every single village or hamlet of the island, whereas 50
years later, it was only practised by a few men. She also distinguished various modalities, some more violent,
others more geared towards a show for the audience. The term ladjia itself was mainly used for real combat,
whereas danmyé rather denominated the friendlier modalities and shows. Despite the limited size of the
island, several local styles with different techniques and designations such as ronpoin or kokoyé developed.
Since there is no doubt that ladjia is the combat game most closely related to capoeira, it is worth
enquiring what explanations have been advanced about its origins. Katherine Dunham suggested that the
roots of ladjia lie in the Nigerian wrestling match, celebrated in the spring festival to the Earth Mother—
although she does not offer much justification for her claim. Robert Farris Thompson, in his precursor
article on black martial arts of the Caribbean called ladjia an ‘intensely creolized, Kongo-related martial
art’, but the only evidence he offered of the Congo origins is that one quarter of the slaves brought to
Martinique came from Angola and that the term is supposedly of Congolese origin. 146
Josy Michelon, author of the most detailed study on the topic, came up with a completely different
explanation. After carrying out field study in Benin, she concluded that ladjia from Martinique derived from
kadjia, the traditional fight performed by the Basantché people during the annual yam festival in the
province of Atacora. Her argument again relies on etymology, and is grounded on her discovery of kokoulé,
a similar combat game among the neighbouring Kotokoli. The ‘literal analogy’ between kadjia/ladjia and
kokoulé/kokoyé, she argues, is so striking that these two African contests are the most likely ancestors of ladjia
and kokoyé. 147 But despite the existence of a similar type of challenge prior to the fight, her detailed
description of these two African combat games rather reveals not only another social context but also very
different types of movements. Kadjia and kokoulé consist in wrestling and use no kicks (at least in
Michalon’s description). She also offers no systematic comparison of movements, rituals and other
contextual aspects that would support her claim, only underlining that both kadjia and ladjia enhance
flexibility, strength, dexterity and endurance.
The conflicting theories about the African origins of ladjia should alert us to the volatility of genealogical
exercises and the abuse of etymological ‘evidence’. T.J.Desch-Obi concedes that ladjia is a creole art form,
merging various fighting techniques from West and Central Africa, but still insists that ‘its major
techniques, overall rules, and aesthethics all conform to the Bantu system’. His argument is that ‘West
African wrestling form played very little part in the artform prior to ladya incorporation of other Africanderived
artforms in the first half of the twentieth century’ and that West African styles ‘all clearly fall under
the category of combat sport’, whereas in ‘the Bantu pugilistic tradition, victory is attained through
aesthetics, […] there are no defined winners and losers.’ 148 I agree with Desch-Obi that knocking and
kicking, ladjia and capoeira use the most closely related techniques within Plantation America, probably