Once the music has taken hold of the crowd, a fighter will enter the circle and raise his open hands
above his head as a challenge to the present. Another fighter, normally one who feels he is close to or
above the skill of the challenger, will enter the circle with dance-like steps and raise his open hands,
palms forward, demonstrating his guard. [...] Once partnered off the two fighters will attempt to slap
each other in the face or body while dodging and blocking to keep the rival’s blows from reaching
their target. The encounter often turns into a hailstorm of attempted blows and normally ends when
one person lands a blow clean enough to dissuade his rival from continuing.^100The kandeka matches eventually end up in wrestling, with one fighter throwing the other to the ground.
According to Desch-Obi’s informants, this is frowned upon in many Bangala groups and considered ‘poor
form’. It is worth noting that a related form called onhandeka was observed among Bantu groups in
Namibia visited by Edwin Loeb during the 1940s. Yet among the Kuanyama, onhandeka consisted of
knobkerrie stick fighting and was referred to as a former war dance—it had no relation to the puberty
ceremonies (efundula) as would be suggested by the existence of a wider ‘Bantu pugilistic tradition’.
Although Loeb describes two other forms of wrestling, he does not mention any kicking or head butting, which
again shows how different fighting techniques could be associated with the same ceremony in related
Western Bantu societies.^101
According to Desch-Obi, the engolo takes place not only during the female and male puberty rites but
also during other festivals and today also when well-known fighters from other regions are visiting an area.
He highlights that engolo is more dangerous than kandeka, and for that reason ‘even the most experienced
fighters will only enter the engolo circle after drinking a substantial amount of makau (traditional fermented
beer made from sprouting sorghum) to bolster their confidence’. He describes a match as follows:
The music begins with clapping and a rhythmic humming that can take the place of a response in the
call-and-response songs that someone will begin to sing. Soon after the mantra-like song and
humming has fully formed, with a shout a practitioner will enter the circle dancing and often shouting
again to accentuate the techniques he begins to demonstrate. When a contender joins the challenger in
the circle the two will continue to dance to the music as they square off and one adept will launch a
kick or sweep at the other. This attack will be defended by dodging or ‘blending’ in such a way that will
then allow the defender to launch a smooth counter-attack. The two will continue in a cycle of
attacks, defenses, and counter-attacks in a smooth continuous flow.^102Desch-Obi also highlights that blocks are not used to avoid kicks, but rather acrobatic evasions. According
to him trickery and cunning are central to contemporary engolo (as it is in capoeira). There are thus some
important similarities with respect to basic capoeira movements and the roda (see Chapter 4), which have to
be acknowledged. Yet we also need to look beyond formal resemblances and enquire about social contexts
and cultural meanings. Desch-Obi asserts that wrestling did not exist as a social institution among the
Ovimbundu and ‘Bangala’ (Nyaneka), but that striking arts such as kandeka and the engolo (n’golo) and its
cognates were and are widely practised instead; and that related arts existed in the Kongo area.^103 This
allows him to construct engolo as the dominant Bantu pugilistic tradition from which supposedly
capoeira derived.
Following Neves e Souza, Desch-Obi maintains that rites of passage (the female efico or efundula and the
male ekwendje or etanda) remain the main occasion for engolo. He furthermore asserts that ‘the engolo also
contradicts many of the pastoral socio-religious ideals’ which supposedly do not apply in the circle where
the art is performed. He sees that as evidence that engolo is linked to the warrior codes of the former
52 THE CONTEXT OF THE BLACK ATLANTIC