Zulu internal power

http://ancestralvoices.tumblr.com/post/43311525884/umbilini-is-a-primal-force-used-by-zulu-shaman-to

Stick to techniques that can be executed while emaciated.

There are many methods of martial arts which require or focus on the generation of great physical power. It has been my experience however that chances are you will have to defend yourself most often when you are at your weakest point physically, for this reason a great deal of time should be spent training in a way in which you use the minimal amount of energy necessary to manage a physical, mental, or spiritual conflict. This demands SKILL. The attack hardly ever comes when you are at your best. How would your method of training serve you while weak and vulnerable?
This is not taking into account the ability to channel internal power which is a different matter.

Ahati Kilindi Iyi (Interview)

https://archive.org/details/NoHoldsBarredAhatiKilindiIyi

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/carlos_castaneda/3.html

The other side of the coin of Martial Arts

The other side of the coin.

Just as in modern times a warriors training is inclusive of developing a mental toughness and intrinsic methods of coping with harsh psychological phenomenon that is a part of martial engagement the old world methods of martial training also included such training though for the most part this aspect is ignored in the west as to not offend the sensibilities of the student. The prayers, words of power or incantations etc.., used to center, strengthen the mind and or trigger biological processes of survival are part of the other side of the coin of training and represent the source of the various systems as a whole which is often referred to as the internal art.

The beginning.

Boxing, wrestling, stickplay and rock throwing were my introduction to martial arts (can't forget a game called " pic'em up mess'em up" ) . In my early teens I began the study and practice of Shotokan Karate-Do. Shotokan and later American as well a Shorinji Kempo would provide me with an excellent platform to study other martial arts. The focus on body mechanics in Karate provided a sound understanding of kinetics while the study of Shorinji Kempo and American Kempo provided more open hand and an introduction to the animal totems, having also studied Aikido formally blending, leading, etc.. became part of my tool box. Unlike most of my contemporaries rather than looking at the differences of the arts I studied, I always sought to find the similarities and foundation principles of the arts. Once the consolidation process began of putting it all together I would meet a Master of the African Martial Art training methodology. I call it that because at the school, various arts are practiced however the African Art with it's unique approach to anything I had experienced was the rule, with the other arts acting as points of reference. I would find there all of the principles I had studied in my years of training were presented all at once. I knew I was home.

Silat Bridge to better translation of African Warrior Traditions into art.

Silat as a reference for translating the War dance of Africa.

In my initial struggle to understand the African martial arts I came in contact with one thing most troubling to me. What is the system, where is the cohesive structure that I was accustomed to in the Asian Martial Arts that I had studied? How could I organize these very organic principals and mechanics into a training method that I could also pass on.

My study consisted of being immersed in the culture, I quickly found that this was to shocking for my student as well as just plain unrealistic for most. I would then meet a Silat Guru (Dutch-Silat short forms) who could articulate pure principles of martial science unlike I had ever witnessed, in a way a college professor would discuss physics. This perspective was my bridge to translating the war dances so to speak into a system of martial science that could be easily transferred to the student. Without expounding, I found Silat and the African martial arts to be so similar in fact that as time goes on I wouldn't be surprised if Silat is eventually considered as part of the African Martial Arts and vise versa, after all it is a art of the Pyramid Temple builders, guard, and priests I suspect. ;)

 

Breath deep, expanding in all directions at once. Feel the surge of energy enter, exhale allowing the flow of vital life force to circulate, flowing, emptying to the ocean and flowing like a stream, nourishing the cells of the body as if vegetation along the river bank.

The last frontier for revolution/evolution

My thought is that the good brothers whole point is that the last frontier for revolution is that of the consciousness. And only by returning to the practices of the ancestors or "your peoples", can you truly come full circle. Look and what has happened in the fields of science, technology, etc... by those who did. A deep thought indeed. What a ministry that brother has undertaken. Respect...

Can't find a place to train?

Ok, you're an African Martial Arts practitioner, and you can find a school where ever you might happen to find yourself. What do you do? You go dancing.

What Makes That African Martial Arts?

My personal qualifying factors when considering African Martial ART Traditions.

It has lineage, culture and traditions.
Similarities can be plainly observed when you trace the system back to its source. It has a source and is based on sound principles and experiences.

There is written and/or oral history.
It has a internal aspect and cosmology which is inseparable from the Martial Tradition.
It has gone through a period of reforming and systematic refining to be presented as ART and taught as Art.

Basically the same standard as any other martial art.

 

African Martial Arts

The African Martial Arts Lives
Carlos Thompson

The warrior traditions of Africa were not lost by Africans who migrated to the United States or those who came as cargo, but rather these arts were synthesized into new traditions. Many African American traditions are rooted in the warrior traditions of the African mainland, and are expressed in much the same way using ritual, music, as well as dance and drumming to express their truths.
The highest expression of African martial arts is not in fighting techniques but rather in that sacred knowledge of indwelling divinity that is transferred through the various mystery systems that lay behind all African martial arts. These mystery systems lead to an understanding of one’s self, but more implicitly they lead to the displaced Africans understanding of origin and identity. The key to understanding African martial arts is to understand the migration of the indigenous African to other parts of the world; the Olmec’s African presence in South America, the Dravidians of India and the African presence in Europe during African Imperialism all hint to the mysterious origins of African Martial Arts.
The shamanistic animist cultures prominent in many indigenous cultures also lend insight to the mystery of Martial Arts as a whole, the first of which to come in contact with ethogens being Africa. Terrence McKenna speaks of the history of psychoactive drugs in his book Food of the Gods, in it he states that shamanistic tradition have their origin in ancient Africa; he states that, “[i]n Tassli-n-ajar which is modern day Algeria around 12,000 b.c.,…[i]n this milieu the psilocybin-containing mushrooms were encountered, consumed, and deified…[l]anguage, poetry, ritual, and thought emerged from the darkness of the hominid mind (Mckenna, 1992).”
The story of African martial arts practice dates back to the early dynasties of ancient Egypt and is credited to the Ethiopians who founded the ancient Nubian empire and continued up the Nile River into modern day Egypt (Ra Un Nefer Amen,1990). Evidence of the ancient Egyptian martial traditions can be seen in the temple of Medinet Habu in the form of hieroglyphics that are found on the temple wall (Crawford,2002). These hieroglyphics depict ancient Egyptians practicing, stick fighting, wrestling, and many other martial arts movement that look similar to what we now know as the martial arts of Asia. These hieroglyphs are found on various temples in Egypt, they speak to the origin and history of these martial sciences being from the Heru Shemsu, or the followers of Heru, the Egyptian god of war.
The Egyptian god of war is said to have trained humanity in the ways of forging weapons from metal as well as various forms of martial arts. The followers of Heru were charged with perpetuating the martial traditions (Leadbeater, 1926). These warriors were the elite temple warriors who protected the pharaohs and the priesthood. These mighty warriors were the first to organize a systematic approach to the martial sciences.
The Yoruba people of Africa trace their traditions back to their ancestors who had been given the status of gods and attribute their warrior traditions to the god of war “who lives in the flame the of blacksmith (Green, Iyi, 2004).” in the Yoruba tradition it is said the Ogun appeared from the forest and taught man methods of building shelter and weapons, after being made king, Ogun missed life in the bush so much that he left his throne to venture back to the bush. The Yoruba cosmology and methods of transferring knowledge is very similar to the Egyptian cosmology and is considered to have a direct lineage going back to Egypt.
In the Yoruba tradition of martial arts, the machete is taught by channeling Ogun through the dance. The warriors, dances the dance of Ogun to the tradition Bata drum beat of Ogun, while the song is chanted explaining the nature and history of this deity. In this martial tradition the young men after puberty are initiated into this mystery, coming in direct contact with the realm of the various gods they learn those skills of warrior ship among other things which are essential to survival (Iyi, 2009). Many of the Africans who were brought to the Americas come from Nigeria, a region that is called Yoruba land.
Capoeira is a martial art from the Angola region of African transplanted to Brazil. The Capoeira martial tradition uses music, song, and dance to express the physical art, also having an oral tradition used to transfer the martial knowledge much like the Yoruba. Capoeira comes from N’ tolo a martial art found in Angola which was transferred from Africa, to Brazil, Central America on into the Caribbean and The United States (Obi, 2008). Capoeira was used by the slave in many slave revolts and there are accounts of African slaves in Brazil fighting the Portuguese using Capoeira.
As in the case of the traditional martial arts of the African Mainland, Break Dancing, which is a Diasporas expression of African martial arts, carries with it an oral tradition, different crews having different specialized styles, as is the case on the African continent there being different tribes whose styles were shaped by their location and unique circumstances.
In New York many traditions merged giving birth to break dancing or battling. In break dancing competitors one on one or team against team square off in a dance that mimics fighting. The object is to outperform your opponent with a flurry of dance movements. Breaking has two main components; what is called top rock and what is referred to as going to the ground. In top rock the dancer attempts to exhibit superior footwork than the opponent ( Abeegunde, 2009). The initiator aggressively and at times playfully engages the opponent through dance, in an attempt to intimidate, discourage and gain the accolades of the encircling crowd. The response of the crowd generally decides the victor. The ritual of Capoeira and Break dancing as well as the physical movements share uncanny similarities and through the dance the martial significants is hidden in plain sight.
An important aspect of African Martial Arts is the use of music in training, in particular the drum. The music within the African martial arts is for far more then esthetics. Scientific Research has shown that music can alter ones state of consciousness, creating a trance like state that heightens the nervous system and reflexes (Bardellli). In this method of training responses to stimuli become almost involuntary as awareness is expanded. There is also inside of many martial traditions of Africa along with music to expand increase awareness and expand consciousness the use of ethogens or mind altering drugs. One of the drugs used in the African tradition is the cola nut, which is consumed by many Americans in the form of cola soft drinks, for the adaptive advantage of the caffeine contained within this sacred nut of Africa. This is an illustration of how elements particular to the African warrior culture is still alive and have been preserved in the United States.
The Black Greek Fraternities are structured much like the warrior societies of the ancient world. The Black Greeks match scholarship with warrior ship in what is a testimony to the ancient African Mystery systems of old. It is documented that many of the founders of these fraternities were Freemasons and inspired by Freemasonry, Freemasonry having as its origins in the mystery schools of ancient Kemet and Nubian (Pike, 2008). The Omega Psi Phi fraternal order refer to themselves as the gods of thunder and lightning, at fraternal gatherings they take to dance in what resembles the dances of the Yoruba god of thunder, Shango. As for the knowledge that balanced the warriors of ancient African warriors, much like the black fraternities who war dance, in his essay The Martial Arts of Africa, Kilindi Iyi states, “[t]hese secrets known only to the initiated, esteemed from the custodians of knowledge…the sacred language, and the following seven liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, logic, asthmatic, geometry, astronomy, music (Iyi, 2009).”
Perhaps the most difficult barriers African Martial Arts in particular have to overcome are those of social, political and religious prejudice. In a Judea, Christian society it is taboo to speak of African Gods as well as Africa’s ancient warriors, however, we now stand firmly in the information age and as scholars of this field produce work, it’s only a matter of time before the good, the bad, and the ugly of the ancient Africans martial history and tradition will take their rightful place, among the other traditions that we know as Martial Arts.
No, these Martial Arts traditions were not lost by those who migrated into other parts of the world or by those who were shipped as cargo. The African Martial Arts can be placed in one of three categories; those arts indigenous to Africa, those from Africa that adapted with the Africans who were transplanted or migrated to different parts of the world and those arts developed by modern Africans, where ever they might be in the African Diaspora. The great mystery of these traditions is that they are indigenous to one’s own consciousness and are awakened when the proper stimuli is given. Some African Martial Arts traditions have been preserved by the mimicking of these arts as well as with careful attention to detail, passing of the knowledge from generation to generation. However African Martial Arts is expressed in every person who brought out of Africa consciousness and made it their own. The story or African Martial Arts is the story of mankind.


 

The Powers

There are the mechanics,techniques, principles and the powers. The powers are generally taught in house or through transmission from an elder. It is the expression of the powers that are most impressive. The powers are ancestral and inherent in ones nature, a reflection of ones ancestry, hence we say some "got it honest". Unfortunately most of the ancestral powers passed down are suppressed or denied expression when seen out of context or the recipient is on able to "hold it". The modern tales if super heroes are merely stories on ancestors who expressed the powers. They are among us...LOL!

Ahati interview

http://www.global-mma.com/t7487-no-holds-barred-ahati-kilindi-iyi-and-the-african-fighting-sciences

I've been in these hills every since ah pup. I know all the knocks and crannys. Beautiful land I heard some say in town, I wouldn't know I have seen much else but these hills. I heard stories of the flat lands, my paw told me so flat you can nearly walk straight. Well yea funny what goes through the mind sippin on good shine flat land ha. Time to tussle up some vittles. This here scuarl ah do just fine. The family goin down to that new diner the boy don got particular to them burgers and fries even brought some home. Taste like a hot mess of nothing. Damn talkin box again..." hello, yep I'm over yonder...yea ok bring me one of those burgers home...ok love you too. Never thought that woman of mine would last long up here...yea she's ah keeper. 
No I wasn't over to Levis place, I told you I was over yonder, over yonder don't mean at the smoke house it means over yonder..we have a hole right here and I ain't particular to climbin so stop beating ah dead horse. Now give me some suga, where's the boy, if he always studyin how he ever gone learn his man trainin. He ain't gonna survive these hills without it. Ok I leave him be.
Yea that woman of mine left me few moons ago...can't remember much of the time she was gone gotta thank the good medicine fer that. Yea, when she come back though she said city folk done gone green...told her holdin your feet over ah smolderin camp fire cures that sorta thang she said naw, she then co-mence to talk about them plantin toematas, and such.  My cousin moved to some cities somewhere and started ah no profit teachin city folk how to farm. I told him when they wanna learn how to walk these hills call me on ma talkin box.
These hills, most of my next of kin dun left these hills, but I remain.  Some call me ah dinosaur, this learned store keeper in town called me uh custodian of the culture, I told him my culture don't need no cleanin thank you very much, the nerve of some peoples. Show did, told him ain't nothin' in my culture I care to throw away. Told him that, that there store could use some custodianin.
City folk, don't care fer them none, my peoples in the city don't take to me, that say i clean up well but don't talk good and talk to much say I'm ah bad influence on the cherin, before me and that learned store keeper had a stick to shake he told that woman if mine that I was " a throw back to the oral tradition" ... A swear if he sas me or mine one mo gen, he gon get his issue. Ah man ought not talk to another mans woman like that. Some things it seems they don't learn ya in those school houses.
Everything ah man need know can be taught in these hills and everything a man need can be found in these here hills till somebodies convince ya otherwise, never been to no school house just my paw and paw paw raised me up straight. Yes sir, I say, any lesson ah man teach  while ah sittin down is half taught is what was told to me,  from livin some, I say it's so. Pass me that there...now hold it...whew...don't mean to put ya to work but some say if a man visit ya wit empty hands you there by obligated to fill'em. Know that the pleasantries in ah manner of speakins don wit, I leave you to ya ma and my old lady, she ah get you squared away and we ah soon get our understandin.

 

move quote " Why should I teacher you my style"

I recently watched a martial arts movie in which the teacher asked a perspective student, "why should I teach you my style?". The teach added that his style was a national treasure. This resonated deeply with me I would imagine that those who would teach the martial arts have difficulty finding those who genuinely have a appreciation for the culture which gave birth to the art let alone respect for the teacher in this world of MMA culture or the fight club culture of quick fix technique culture. The more sublime levels of training seem not to impossible to reach by the modern multitasking world as having little value or requiring a life time to reach and so dismissed as unattainable. However who in modern society is more effective then our ancient ancestors for whom multitasking was a matter of life and death and who reached the hights of mastery while living in far more challenging environments than we now find ourselves in I would imagine.