Black Combat Arts Institute.
AFRICA · ENDANGERED
Kokowa
An arena wrestling of the Hausa of Niger and Nigeria, fought to drums and praise-song, lost the instant anything but the feet touches the ground.
ORIGINS & SOCIAL FUNCTIONS
The arena wrestling of the Hausa populations of Niger and Nigeria, contested to drums and praise-singing, a public institution of honour, where champions' names are made before the crowd.
THE GAME
Victory the instant any part of the body other than the feet touches the ground; the drums and the praise-singers carry the bout from challenge to verdict.
PLACE IN THE FAMILY
The kokowa anchors the Sahelian takedown pole, and its apparatus, drum, praise, arena, shows the family's constant: the duel embedded in a sung public economy of honour. It is the immediate kin of the Nuba wrestling to the east and the lamb to the west: one logic, the breadth of the Sahel.
SOURCES
Olivier Malo, La capoeira et les arts de combat noirs : histoire effacée, techniques invisibles, 1905–1984 [Capoeira and the Black combat arts: erased history, invisible techniques (1905–1984)], doctoral thesis in History, Université des Antilles, 2020.
HOW TO CITE THIS ENTRY
MALO, Olivier. Kokowa. In: The Atlas of the Black Combat Arts [online]. Black Combat Arts Institute, 2026. Available from: https://www.blackcombatarts.com/atlas-en/kokowa [accessed date].
RELATED PRACTICES
→ Lamb, Hausa-Sahelian wrestling to the drums
→ Mgba, Arena wrestling, ground contact decides
→ Krikara watita, Takedown wrestling
→ Dambe, Hausa combat, same people