9,485 Abibisika (Black Gold) Points

Rank: Unranked Obibini

The discourse on self-mastery that you seek is captured most clearly in Shaha’s book Essential Warrior. Another place where you might find some interesting inspiration is Downey’s Learning Capoeira. Of course, Dr. Edward Powe offers an interesting take on this as well via his definition of “Black Martial Arts”, a definition that derives from his study of African arts on several continents. I’ll post that statement below.

As it relates to techniques though, we have still not institutionalized these arts in such a way so as to make them seamlessly accessible. I would suggest that you assess your local community. Capoeira tends to be pretty easy to find. If you don’t have anything locally, then identify someone who is doing the kind of teaching that you want to learn, and seek them out. I’ve spent the entirety of my time in the African martial arts introducing myself to new people who had knowledge that I wanted to acquire. This has produced some very good relationships and has connected me with some wonderful teachers.

“By ‘black’ I mean those people of African, Melanesian, Dravidian, and/or Australian Aboriginal origin, including their Diaspora, in various parts of the world and by ‘martial arts’ I means a combat involving daring and risk-taking against any type of adversary. In my definition, the adversary may be another person (as in Capoeira de Angola from Brazil), an animal (as in the Savika bull domination of Madagascar), an object (as in Mallar Khambam pole acrobatics of Tamil Nadu), an element of nature (as in walking on heated stones in Fiji), or even one’s self (as in the painful Sharo flogging ritual of the Fulani cattle herders of Nigeria, the Tamil Kavadee ritual of Mauritius and India, or the Combat Yoga tradition of Southern India).”
-Edward Powe, What is Black Martial arts?