Black Combat Arts Institute.
AFRICA · LIVING
Xalam Ma Ndir Bajjo
A one-against-many breakout game practised across Senegal (variants Halamadirbado, Naoagula in Casamance, Maaxala-Ndir-Bajjo): ten to thirty players join hands in a circle around a single central player, who must — during the chant — force the ring of linked arms, in some variants “like a battering ram” with shoulder or chest, and escape to a designated refuge. He who forces the chain and reaches the refuge wins; if caught first, he returns to the centre.
ORIGINS & SOCIAL FUNCTIONS
Widespread across Senegal, one against many. Variants: Halamadirbado (“let me through”), Naoagula in Casamance (no pursuit — forcing the ring suffices), and Maaxala-Ndir-Bajjo, with its answering chants.
THE GAME
Ten to thirty players joined in a circle; one player at the centre.
The central player must, during the chant, force the ring of linked arms and escape to a designated refuge — in the Maaxala variant “with a violent blow of the shoulder or chest, drawing back to gather all his force like a battering ram.” He who forces the chain and reaches the refuge wins, replaced at the centre by the player who let him through; if caught first, he returns to the centre.
PRINCIPLES OF PLAY
The invitation to rupture. The linked circle closes the field; the whole game is built on the search for the point where the ring will break. This structural principle — the deliberate seeking of the breach, the reinforcement of the risk of failure — is one of the foundations the thesis identifies across the family, from the roda to the Guadeloupean duel of challenge.
PLACE IN THE FAMILY
The breakout game inverts the family's siege logic: the circle is no longer defended but escaped, the many holding, the one forcing passage. With the baay-xaal and the zeibaka it forms the Senegalese one-against-many constellation — three scenarios of inequality, three resolutions by art rather than force, the chant timing the ordeal.
SOURCES
Répertoire de jeux traditionnels, CNEPS de Thiès (Senegalese Ministry of Youth and Sports). Maaxala-Ndir-Bajjo after M. Amar Samb (IFAN).
HOW TO CITE THIS ENTRY
MALO, Olivier. Xalam Ma Ndir Bajjo. In: The Atlas of the Black Combat Arts [online]. Black Combat Arts Institute, 2026. Available from: https://www.blackcombatarts.com/atlas-en/xalam-ma-ndir-bajjo [accessed date].
RELATED PRACTICES
→ Zeibaka — One against many, breakout
→ Lambi Golo — Forcing the ring
→ Baay Xaal — One against the seated circle
→ Sansanding Balomba — Forcing the castle