“Even if the Chinese Grow Wings and Fly”: Recasting Martial Arts in a Tanzanian Karate Dojo

Abstract

In a Tanzanian seaside dojo, Sempai Ali Issa Hassan, a Swahili martial artist, filmmaker, and healer, offers an alternative history claiming the East Asian martial arts originate in the Afro-Islamic world. Starting from his reaction to a visit by a Chinese Shaolin master, we trace the contours of our experience making sense of claims which both challenge and recast assumptions about Afro-Asian cultural exchange.[martial arts, Africa-Asia connections, Swahili, Tanzania, spiritual knowledge] Master Wang's martial arts performance was spectacular. 1 The arena for his performance was Bagamoyo Film and Martial Arts (BAFIMA), a dojo in a fishing town near Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It was our first time to witness such a performance. Before this, the Chinese martial arts we experienced were in movies. Everything we saw during this show was mesmerizing: Master Wang's aquamarine costume, a long silk shirt and pants; and the props he used, a sword with a dangling bundle of thread resembling a bird's tail and a thin spear with an elongated silver blade. The different Chinese fighting styles and their forms also captivated us. Wang's smooth delivery marked with graceful motions also impressed the students and contrasted with the energy-demanding Karate exercises that we normally practiced at BAFIMA (Fig. 1). As Yunus stood watching, he overheard his fellow students exclaim in excited Swahili: "Dah!" (Unbelievable!), "Aisee!" (I say!), "Kweli?" (Is it true?). Everyone's eyes fixated forward, soaking up Wang's every move. For two weeks after, students changed their exercises to imitate Wang: his low Shaolin style stance, kicks, and movement.Master Wang trained at China's famous Shaolin Temple and came to Tanzania in 2013 with the Confucius Institute to teach Wushu (Chinese martial arts). Alongside the recent growth of Chinese investment, trade, and migration

Kutau Martial Ritual Of Community In The Suro Village

“…This purification is carried out at night and is carried out only by rough trainers. The rough trainer will pray and ask for blessing from the owner of the universe (Allah) and also ask permission from the ancestors of the farming land, ancestors and forefathers who inherited the kutau martial arts knowledge (Rafiq & Sheridan, 2022). This ritual process is carried out while carrying rube , namely golden bananas, or young coconuts and incense.…”