Black Combat Arts Institute.
AFRICA · EXTINCT
Krikara watita
A night wrestling under the moonlight, practised in Mali, from Bamako to Timbuktu, by the Bambara, Bobo, Malinké and Dogon peoples, by age class and by neighbourhood. Victory by bringing the opponent down onto the back, belly, head or side.
ORIGINS & SOCIAL FUNCTIONS
A night wrestling under the moon, practised in Mali from Bamako to Timbuktu by the Bambara, Bobo, Malinké and Dogon peoples, organised by age class and by neighbourhood — the city and the village at play after dark.
THE GAME
Victory by bringing the adversary to the ground on the back, the belly, the head or the side; the bouts run by quarter against quarter, class against class.
PLACE IN THE FAMILY
The krikara joins the great Sahelian takedown family, and adds to it the social geometry of the neighbourhood: the duel as the regulated rivalry of quarters. Its age-class order repeats the family's equity principle — the contest calibrated so that skill, not accident of size, decides.
SOURCES
Olivier Malo, La capoeira et les arts de combat noirs : histoire effacée, techniques invisibles, 1905–1984, doctoral thesis in History, Université des Antilles, 2020.
HOW TO CITE THIS ENTRY
MALO, Olivier. Krikara watita. In: The Atlas of the Black Combat Arts [online]. Black Combat Arts Institute, 2026. Available from: https://www.blackcombatarts.com/atlas-en/krikara-watita [accessed date].
RELATED PRACTICES
→ Kokowa — Sahelian takedown wrestling
→ Evalas — Wrestling by age class
→ Bara-bara — Onto the back, belly or side