The Game That Is Played on Two Planes at Once

WHY THIS ARTICLE

The family of Black combat arts is often treated as a flat list. The thesis draws a real internal distinction: kaleidoscopic games that unite both planes, and single-dimension games that hold only one.

Two families within the family

The thesis distinguishes, within the Black combat arts, the kaleidoscopic wrestlings and the complex (or paradoxical) ones. The first associate the two dimensions of the internal logic — horizontality and verticality at once: this is the case of capoeira, moring and danmyé. The second refer to only one of the two — either descending verticality, as in the Cuban manì and the Afro-Brazilian batuque, or a univocal relation to horizontality, as in the Guadeloupean games.

The manì's completeness

The manì, unlike the bènaden, tolona and batuque, rested — as in capoeira — on both horizontality and verticality. Two other Black combat arts share this completeness: the danmyé and the moring of Réunion.

Why it matters

The family is not uniform. Some of its games are 'extra-ordinary' in uniting both planes of space; others are extraordinary through the paradoxical principles beneath them. The distinction is structural, not decorative.

SOURCES

La capoeira et les arts de combat noirs : histoire effacée, techniques invisibles (1905–1984), thèse de doctorat, Université des Antilles, 2020 (Part III, on kaleidoscopic vs single-dimension games; the manì, danmyé and moring).

IN THE CORPUS

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HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE

MALO, Olivier. The Game That Is Played on Two Planes at Once. In: Black Combat Arts Institute — Articles [online]. No. 79. 2026 [accessed date]. Available from: https://www.blackcombatarts.com/articles/the-game-that-is-played-on-two-planes-at-once. Adapted from the author's doctoral thesis, Université des Antilles, 2020.