Mf Galaxy

This is Black Panther Month on MF GALAXY and with all the excitement surging about the Marvel movie about the Wakanda super-genius, superhero, super-fighter, the time is right to go beyond fictional African martials arts and discover authentic, deadly African martial arts from across the continent and across history. Most people in the West think of the phrase "martial arts" as referring to East Asian fighting systems such as kung fu, karate, and tae kwon do, without realising that "martial arts" means any combat system. And certainly every culture in the world produced its own combat systems or its people would have been assimilated or annihilated. So it really should not be a surprise that the African continent, home to humanity and birthplace of civilisation, should have scores of martials arts, ranging from the wrestling, sword systems, and stick fighting of Ancient Egypt, to the range of West African fighting arts, and that's where we begin today. Balogun Ojetade is a fascinating man with a remarkable hi