Black Combat Arts Institute.
AFRICA · LIVING · REVIVED
Mbapatt
Wrestling encounters held in Senegal within a multi-ethnic framework: bouts organised by weight class or, among some peoples, by levels of rank distinguished by dress.
ORIGINS & SOCIAL FUNCTIONS
Wrestling meetings held in Senegal in a multi-ethnic frame, the shared arena where the country's wrestling cultures meet, measure and rank themselves.
THE GAME
Combats organised by weight category or, among some peoples, by levels of rank distinguished by dress: the hierarchy is worn before it is fought.
PLACE IN THE FAMILY
The mbapatt shows the family's games building their own institutions of equity, weight, rank, costume, long before and beside the sportive codifications. The visible hierarchy of dress makes the game's social function explicit: the contest as the public ordering of worth.
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. Mbapatt. In: The Atlas of the Black Combat Arts [online]. Black Combat Arts Institute, 2026. Available from: https://www.blackcombatarts.com/atlas-en/mbapatt [accessed date].
RELATED PRACTICES
→ Lamb, Senegalese wrestling
→ Kokowa, Arena wrestling
→ Butej, Senegalese confrontation games