N'golo (anglicized as Engolo) is a traditional Bantu martial art and game from Angola, that combines elements of combat and dance, performed in a circle accompanied by music and singing. It has been proposed by some researchers as a possible precursor or influence on the development of capoeira, although the extent of this relationship remains debated in the academic literature.
Engolo is a traditional combat game associated with communities along the Cunene River in the Cunene Province of Angola. Contemporary descriptions of engolo highlight movements inspired by observations of nature, including the imitation of animal behaviors, such as a zebra's kicking motion or the swaying of trees. The practice includes physical combat elements, and accounts describe the possibility of serious injuries during its performance.
The combat style of engolo encompasses a variety of techniques, including different types of kicks, dodges, and takedowns, with a particular emphasis on inverted positions. Some researchers have pointed out similarities between engolo techniques and movements found in capoeira, such as meia lua de compasso, scorpion kick, chapa, chapa de costas, rasteira, L-kick, and others, although the extent and nature of any direct historical connection between these techniques remain debated.The documentary Jogo de Corpo. Capoeira e Ancestralidade (2013) by Matthias Assunção and Mestre Cobra Mansa provides insights into comparisons between engolo and capoeira. Some scholars suggest that African combat traditions, including engolo, may have contributed to the development of capoeira in Brazil, while the formation of capoeira also involved broader historical and cultural processes.
Engolo was documented in the 1950s when the Angolan artist Albano Neves e Sousa included it in a collection of drawings, highlighting its similarities to the Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira.THE VISIT OF ALBANO NEVES E SOUSA
Engolo is one of several African martial arts associated with combat traditions that spread to the Americas through the African Diaspora. Some researchers have suggested possible connections between engolo and combat traditions developed in the Americas, including knocking and kicking in North America, capoeira in Brazil, and danmyé in Martinique, although the nature of these historical relationships remains debated. Known sources document other African combat games with similarities to engolo in specific techniques, such as moraingy on Madagascar and surrounding islands.
Name
The term ngolo derived from the Kikongo Bantu language and signifies concepts related to strength, power, and energy. Moreover, in the 15th century, ngola was a title held by African kings. The term ngolo originates from a Bantu root *-gol, meaning to bend or twist.
Ngolo is also colloquially referred to as the Zebra dance.Body Games
Music
In West Central Africa, martial arts naturally take the form of dance. In Bantu culture, dance is an integral part of daily life. People danced while working, playing, praying, mourning, and celebrating. In Congo-Angola, dance is intricately linked to song, music, and ritual, and even incorporated into wartime preparations and battles.
Engolo is typically performed within a circle, accompanied by percussion, with participants humming, singing, and clapping hands. The dance synchronizes with the rhythm of handclaps. In Jogo de corpo documentary, sometimes the musical bow was also played (with mouth).
One of the traditional song in engolo is: “Who dies in engolo won’t be wept for”. There are also alternative translation from Kimbundu language:
Kimbundu English translationWankya kengolo mutanbo kwapkwapo Wankya kengolo kalilwaWho is killed (struck down) in engolo does not make a wake Who is killed (struck down) in engolo is not cried for
Another engolo song highlightes the all-important ability to dodge and escape: “Kauno tchivelo kwali tolondo”, meaning “You don’t have a door, maybe jump over”, emphasizing agility in evasions and cunning in finding creative solutions to challenges.
Engolo circle
Within the Bantu culture, the circle carries profound symbolism. Village dwellings are frequently arranged in circular formations, and communal meals are enjoyed while seated in a circle. Dancing in a circle holds significance, representing protection and strength, symbolizing the bond with the spirit world, life, and the divine.Talmon-Chvaicer, M. (2004). Verbal and Non-Verbal Memory in Capoeira. Sport in Society, 7(1), 49–68. doi:10.1080/1461098042000220182
The practice of engolo, as documented in the 1950s, involves a circle of singing participants and potential combatants, and, similar to a capoeira roda, participants must remain within a defined area. Sometimes, this circle is overseen by a kimbanda, a ritual specialist. The game starts with clapping and call-and-response songs, some of them featuring humming instead of lyrics. A practitioner enters the circle, dancing and shouting, and when another participant joins, they engage in a dance-off, assessing each other's skills. This interaction incorporates kicks and sweeps, with defenders using dodges and blending techniques to counterattack smoothly. This cycle continues until one participant concedes defeat, feels the match is complete, or the kimbanda overseeing the match calls for its conclusion.
In engolo games documented in the 2010s, players often initiate the engolo circle by challenging others. In such cases, they enthusiastically leap into the circle, showcasing agile movements and occasional shouts while awaiting someone to join and engage in the play. They can also select a specific individual to join them by using kicks or simulated kicks.
History
The origin of engolo
There is no written record of engolo's origin. Engolo practitioners claim that "engolo comes from the ancestors" and that their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers played engolo.
According to Desch-Obi, engolo was likely developed by Bantu shamans and warriors in ancient Angola, based on the inverted worldview of kongo religion. With this worldview, shamans put themselves upside down to gain power from the ancestral realm. Among the Pende shamans, the most used movement was the front crescent kick. Masked shaman kicked over sacred medicine to activate it and over the kneeling people to heal them. Moreover, engolo was a military training method to develop warriors' close combat skills.
Neves e Sousa believes that the techniques of engolo derived from the way in which zebras fight among themselves. Desch-Obi finds that using the zebra as a combat role model in Angola makes sense because it symbolizes nimbleness and agile defense. The engolo also resembled the zebra's fighting style, particularly the zebra kicks executed with the palms touching the ground, which is a defining feature of engolo.
Matthew Zylstra suggests that a dance performed by the Gwikwe Bushmen bears a striking resemblance to the Angolan art. He proposes a theory that the Bantu peoples in southern Angola, who interacted with San Bushmen groups in the region, may have known such dances and integrated them into their cultures. If this theory holds, it would imply that the origins of engolo could be thousands of years old.Matthew Zylstra, The real origins of capoeira?
Engolo in Africa
In precolonial Angola, mock combats were a major part of military training, and since hand-to-hand combat was essential to warfare, techniques to avoid blows and attacks were a key focus of martial exercises.
Since the Portuguese invasion in the 16th century, European chroniclers noted the martial skills of the local people. Mock combats were a common feature of military reviews in Kongo/Angola, similar to drills in Europe. These movements could be applied in warfare, as Angolan warriors heavily relied on personal maneuvers in their fighting technique. Written sources from the 16th century describe martial arts similar to capoeira. A Jesuit missionary in late 16th century described the abilities of the Ndongo warriors as follows:
In the mid-17th century, Italian missionary Cavazzi also described the handstand technique of Angolan nganga:
In 17th century, new military formation of kilombo, a fortified war camp surrounded by a wooden palisade, appeared among Imbangala warriors, which would soon be used in Brazil by freed Angolans. Angolan warriors mostly fought without shields, so evasion was essential to survive in missile and close combat. In the 19th century, Angolan warriors excelled in close combat techniques, surpassing Europeans.
In the early 20th century, Portuguese ethnographer Augusto Bastos documented a capoeira-like combat game in the Benguela district:
In the 1950s, "n'golo dance" was first documented when the painter Neves e Sousa visited Mucope, in Cunene Province. In his drawings, young men in their prime can be seen performing inverted kicks and challenging acrobatic moves. His engolo drawings show many of the foundational capoeira moves, including the chapa de costas, rabo de arraia, scorpion, and cartwheel kick.
During the 1990s martial arts scholar Desch-Obi undertook field research in Angola, documenting engolo techniques. Around 2010, as a result of a research project, a documentary was made about engolo Jogo de Corpo. This time, all engolo players were elderly individuals who used only a basic set of kicks and sweeps, without demanding acrobatics. They stated that engolo had not been actively played since the 1970s because of Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), and that youth were no longer learning engolo.
Engolo in Americas
The art of engolo spread from Africa to the Americas, mainly among enslaved people taken from Angola and transported to the colonies via the Atlantic slave trade routes. The art has been maintained for centuries, and its traces have survived to this day among the African diaspora. It descendant arts include knocking and kicking in North America, danmyé in Martinique and capoeira in Brazil. Knocking and kicking was secretly practiced in the states of South Carolina and Virginia, during the times of slavery in the United States. Angolans were the predominant portion of the enslaved population in South Carolina. Gwaltney characterizes knocking and kicking as "the ancient martial art practiced by clergy among the enslaved and their followers." The "clergy" of the old African religion was known as nganga in Congo/Angola. These clandestine gatherings were often referred to as "drum meetings."
The danmyé or ladja is a martial art from Martinique that is similar to capoeira. The term danmyé likely came from the drumming technique danmyé, played during the combat. The art was influenced by various combat techniques from West and Central Africa, including West African wrestling, but the core kicking techniques comes from ngolo. In the 1930s Katherine Dunham filmed the ladja matches. In that time, wrestling was not the dominant technique of ladja, but kicks, many of them inverted, and a significant number of hand strikes from kokoyé.
Engolo in Brazil
From the 16th century, Portuguese colonists began capturing enslaved Africans from Angola and transporting them to Brazil. In 1617, they established a colony in Benguela. In 1627 and 1628, they conducted military campaigns towards regions near the Cunene River and central territories inhabited by local populations.
Soon, enslaved people who escaped captivity, freed people, and other groups began founding settlements in remote areas, known as kilombo, a term of Kimbundu origin associated with military camps and organizations. Portuguese sources described the difficulty of capturing quilombo warriors, who defended themselves using a "strangely moving fighting technique". Some quilombos developed into autonomous communities, including Quilombo dos Palmares, one of the largest examples of resistance in colonial Brazil.