Black Combat Arts Institute.
CARIBBEAN · ENDANGERED
Tiré baton / Tiré machèt
A stick and machete fencing practised in Haiti by the Creole peasantry of the South and the Artibonite, handed down from master to disciple: footwork, feints, parries, controlled touches.
ORIGINS & SOCIAL FUNCTIONS
A fencing of the Creole peasantry of Haiti's South and Artibonite, transmitted from master to disciple within the rural world — a discreet, lineage-based transmission that has kept the art alive at the margin of official visibility.
THE GAME
Stick and machete: footwork, feints, parries, controlled touches. The exchange is a dialogue of lines and openings, where the touch — not the wound — demonstrates mastery.
PLACE IN THE FAMILY
Haiti's branch of the stick-and-blade pole, kin to the mayolè and the cocobalé. Its controlled touch is the family's horizontal dimension in its purest armed form: to reach without destroying — the demonstration of a superiority that has no need of blood, the civilising of the weapon by the rule.
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. Tiré baton / Tiré machèt. In: The Atlas of the Black Combat Arts [online]. Black Combat Arts Institute, 2026. Available from: https://www.blackcombatarts.com/atlas-en/tire-baton-tire-machet [accessed date].
RELATED PRACTICES
→ Stick fighting — Caribbean stick complex
→ Mayolè — Stick & machete to the drum
→ Cocobalé — Stick and machete combat