Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

Africa and African America
Although many of the societies of Africa developed in close proximity to
Egyptian civilization, with its highly developed fighting arts and rivalry
with other “superpowers” such as the Hittites, their martial systems developed
in relative isolation from Middle Eastern combat disciplines. Rather,
the martial arts, particularly those of the sub-Saharan Africans, belong to
a world where (until the arrival of Europeans) the greatest martial threats
came from the other sub-Saharan groups, rather than from another continent.
Some of the African peoples did have contact with the Arabs, who
brought Islam to the region and threatened the indigenous populations
with enslavement. To the best of current knowledge, however, the technology
and martial development of cultures relying on the same subsistence
bases (for example, hunting and gathering and agriculture) were roughly
the same for most of the civilizations of Africa, and they continued to be
so until the arrival of the Europeans in the beginning of the fifteenth century.
Even at this point, some groups resisted advanced weaponry when it
became available because of cultural biases. For example, the Masai and
Kikuyu viewed firearms as the weapons of cowards.
When one discusses the traditional African martial arts, it is important
to note the wide variety and diversity of weapons that were available.
Some groups had mastered the art of iron smithing. Although this knowledge
probably crossed the Sahara in the fourth to fifth centuries B.C., the
spread of iron occurred much later, and, in fact, the distribution patterns
were irregular. For example, when the Portuguese entered southern Africa
ca. 1500, the Khoisan pastoralists (“Hottentots”) and hunter-gatherers
(“Bushmen”) did not have access to iron.
Those groups who did obtain iron were able to develop the usual variety
of weapons that came from the art of iron smithing, such as swords,
daggers, and metal spear points. For example, in Benin, Portuguese merchants
encountered soldiers armed with iron swords and iron-tipped
spears. Their shields, however, were wooden, and their anteater skin armor
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