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Dissertation Information for M. Thomas J. Desch-Obi

NAME:
- M. Thomas J. Desch-Obi

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2000)

ADVISORS:
- Edward A. Alpers

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: Engolo: Combat traditions in African and African diaspora history

Abstract: A rich and complex heritage of combat traditions originated in Africa. This dissertation explores the social history of African martial traditions and their extension into the New World. The first section focuses on two of the many combat arts of Africa. It begins with the engolo of southern Angola, a form of kicking, tripping, and evasions that can been seen as representative of a wider Bantu pugilistic system. The history of the engolo is considered in terms of the changing social history of the region from its early settlement by Bantu speakers (c.1000AD) to the end of the transatlantic slave trade around 1860. The second half of the African section focuses on Igbo mgba , one of many wrestling styles in a larger West African grappling system and a more specific system stressing leg-wrapping techniques. The history of the mgba is addressed in terms of Igbo social systems and the slaving patterns that ravaged the Bight of Biafra.

The second section turns to the Americas where these styles were disseminated by the trade in captive Africans. These combat arts were not perpetuated as static "survivals," but dynamic living African traditions overseas. In North America captives taken from the Angolan and Biafran coastlines comprised the majority of enslaved Africans. These Africans and their descendants continued in the tradition of the engolo and mgba that came to be known as knocking and kicking and side-hold, respectively. In Martinique a creolized form is explored as a derivative of the engolo rather than the mgba as suggested by other scholars. Finally, the case of Brazil is examined where the engolo tradition became an urban weapon in nineteenth century Rio de Janeiro. The art was later repressed in Rio and reemerged in a more ritualized form in Bahia during the early twentieth century.

MPACT Scores for M. Thomas J. Desch-Obi

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-09-11 15:44:55

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Students under M. Thomas J. Desch-Obi

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None