The Push That Was Not a Punch

WHY THIS ARTICLE

A hand-to-hand game with the face as target looks like boxing. The anthropologist Anca Bertrand (1966), cited by the thesis, drew the decisive distinction: to unbalance, not to wound.

A very beautiful game of the bodies

The anthropologist Anca Bertrand (1966), a specialist of Antillean culture, described the bènaden as a very beautiful and supple game of the bodies, and clearly distinguished it from boxing. As today, it was practised at the wakes; music and song accompanied the combat, and the face was the favoured target.

To push, not to strike

The aim of the attacker was not to touch or strike the opponent, but to push him with the palm of the hand at the level of the chin so as to unbalance him: by the abrupt change of orientation of the head, the centres of balance are reached. The whole art lies in this displacement of equilibrium, not in the wound.

Why it matters

Read as boxing, the bènaden is a poor cousin. Read on its own terms — the palm to the chin, the balance broken — it is a distinct art with a logic of its own.

SOURCES

La capoeira et les arts de combat noirs : histoire effacée, techniques invisibles (1905–1984), thèse de doctorat, Université des Antilles, 2020 (Part III, B.1: bènaden, citing Anca Bertrand, 1966).

IN THE CORPUS

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HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE

MALO, Olivier. The Push That Was Not a Punch. In: Black Combat Arts Institute — Articles [online]. No. 69. 2026 [accessed date]. Available from: https://www.blackcombatarts.com/articles/the-push-that-was-not-a-punch. Adapted from the author's doctoral thesis, Université des Antilles, 2020.