Nuba Wrestling

Nubian martial art figure number 77 depicted on row 4, of Baqet III's tomb, armed with an axe and mace in Middle Kingdom, Kemet.

Nuba Wrestling

African Origin of the Martial Arts

The birthplace of humanity is Africa. On this continent, techniques and systems of combat were first established. Kemet, otherwise known as Egypt, is one of Africa’s oldest, and best preserved civilizations. The martial arts were represented there fully by the 11th and 12th Dynasties, although they were in existence much earlier. In an area roughly 150 miles south of present day Cairo, along the eastern banks of the Nile river is an area known during it’s time by the people of Kemet as Mahez (the name for a long-horned African antelope that proliferated in that area). It was later referred to by the Greeks as the Oryx provence and is today called Beni Hasan, meaning "hill of the Hasan family"(Arabic: بني حسن‎). There are 39 rock tombs that exist. These tombs were the resting places for the governors of that region.

Beni Hasan rock tombs Lepsius-Projekt tw 1-1-63 B

Of the 39 tombs, three of them are unique in all of Kemet (Egypt). In these three tombs, hundreds of illustrations represent the oldest known martial arts on Earth. The illustrations in the tombs of governors Baqet, Khety, son of Baqet, and Amenemhat date from around 2,800 B.C., between the 11th and 2th Dynasties, and represent not only hand to hand combat which consists of grappling, kicking, and punching, but also weaponry (bow and arrow, axe, mace, lance, staff, clubs, stick fighting, and throwing sticks) as well as military technology such as a shielding device known as a testudo, and also castle architecture. For these reasons, martial arts historian and researcher Nijel Binns, author of the book Nuba Wrestling™: The Original Art^[1] has referred to Nuba wrestling as the Rosetta Stone of the martial arts. It is the key to unlocking the origins of the world’s present day martial disciplines and understanding the history of martial arts. Eighteenth century European explorers such as the French Jean Champollion, the Italian Hippolito Rosselini, and the English Percy Newberry recorded what was written and illustrated on these tomb walls. The most notably of these explorers was Percy Newberry. He produced a three volume set titled Beni Hasan which included illustrations traced from the walls of, among others, the tombs of Baqet lll, Khety, and Amenemhat. In so doing he documented aspects of the ancient African martial systems that we have become familiar with in western boxing and Asian martial arts.

Key Concepts in Kemetic Martial Arts

Nuba wrestling is like a "Rosetta Stone" of the martial arts as it contains the origins and key concepts to understand martial arts that were developed thousands of years later, in several lands.

The three rock hewn tombs belonging to Governors Baqet III, Khety, and Amenemhat contain hundreds of illustrations of fighting figures which makes it the oldest and most prolific visual treatise ever recorded in ancient times. Key martial art concepts and traditions such as:

• belts worn by combatants
• kicking
• boxing
• grappling and joint locking
• pressure point striking
• stick fighting
• archery
• fortification
• battering rams

have found their way into Europe and Asia from Africa.

Baqet III's tomb

Governor Baqet lll’s tomb is identified as Tomb No. 15 by Newberry. In the tomb of Baqet, on the east wall, there are 336 figures grouped either in pairs, sometimes three, or as individual combatants. Of the 336 martial artists, 222 of them are pairs of warriors engaged in empty hand combat. On row 1, figure 1 we find two empty hand warriors about to square off to fight. The warrior on the left holds a rope to tie around his waist while the figure who stands before him is already tying the rope around his waist. In figure number 2 the two combatants square off to fight. This illustration represents the first historically documented use of belts being put on by fighters before they engage in the martial arts. This scene is also repeated on the east wall tomb of Baqet’s son Khety for his burial tomb.

Spread of Africa's martial art legacy

Moving forward in time from Africa in 2,800 B.C., it is not until about 2,024 years later that the first people outside of Africa study the Nubian form of martial arts in great detail. These people were the ancient Greeks. In 776 B.C. the Greeks began the practice of wrestling in honor of the African God Amon whom they renamed Zeus. Original African names have undergone many name changes and for that reason, the origins of many traditions have become obscure. Kemetic gods were renamed by the Greeks. When the Romans gained power, they in turn renamed what the Greeks had earlier renamed. The Kemetic god Amon became Zeus to the Greeks, and later Jupiter under the Romans. The Kemetic god Auset became Isis to the Greeks and Romans. Thus, many modern accounts of the origins of traditional African arts of wrestling, boxing that were adopted by the Greeks and presented to the western world as the Olympic Games carried the believe that the exact origins of the Games are shrouded in myth and legend. However regarding their origins, the Greeks themselves were very clear.

As depicted in the hundreds of illustrations from the walls of the tombs of Baqet III, Khety, and Amenemhat, martial arts as practiced in ancient Kemet was an all encompassing art that was expressed with kicking, punching, grappling, weaponry, and more. When the Greeks were introduced to this discipline, they chose a name for it; pankration which means all powers. The etymology of the word pankration may reveal it’s Kemetic roots. The prefix "pan" means "all". The suffix "tion", or "ion" denotes action or state of being. The "krat" portion of the word defines the concept of "powers" in pankration. Krat refers to the all inclusive methods of fighting that are exemplified by the practice of several forms of combat. The Greek word "krat" could also refer to the grouping of three words found in an earlier Kemetic vocabulary.

The ancient Kemetic writing system is known as medu neter. The Greeks called it hieroglyphics, or writings of the Gods. In the medu neter the word "Ka" has a double meaning dealing with the spiritual and physical. Ka means the vital energy of the soul. Note the concept and spelling of Ka in ancient Kemet and the words "ki" in Japanese, and "chi" in Chinese. The three words refer to a vital, internal energy. In Kemet, the word ka also means the physical body, or more precisely, "the dead body".

The word "Ra", or "res" means to wake up, to keep awake, or to watch. Ra is also the name given to the Sun which re-news itself by circling to re-appear each day. The word ra speaks of regeneration.

"Te", or "t" means hand. In the ancient Kemetic writing system the symbol for te is a hand. The word te means out of, to go out, to emit, to give, to set, or to place. Te denotes action. Also, note that the Japanese word for hand is also te.

The krat in pankration means powers and may be derived from the older Kemetic concepts of Ka (vital physical and spiritual energy), ra (to rise up, to regenerate), and te (the act of). It is interesting to note that in Japan, the words Karate Do translates to mean "empty hand way". Kara means "empty" and te translates (the same in the medu neter) to mean hand, as noted above. The word "do" means way (in Chinese it is "tao"). Note that legendary martial arts master Masutatsu Oyama wrote in his first book What is Karate?, published in 1958, that "The oldest records we have concerns unarmed combat on hieroglyphics from the Egyptian pyramids...".^[2] Oyama makes specific reference to Beni Hasan as the source of martial arts.

References

1. ^ Binns. Nuba Wrestling™: The Original Art. Trans-Continental Network Productions, 1990, ISBN 1-928935-02-8
2. ^ Oyama. What is Karate?. 1958, ISBN 0-87040-147-5

External links

• Beni Hasan (with plates) by Percy Newberry, et al.