Donga (Stick Fighting)
Ritual duel with a stick over two meters long among the Ethiopian Surma and Mursi in the Omo River valley. Anthropologist J. Abbink calls it the Surma national sport.
Quick Facts
EthiopiaCharacter & Origin
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Donga (Stick Fighting)
Donga is the name of a long fighting stick and, according to Mursi Online and a 2021 thesis, also of the duels fought with it among the Surma (Suri) and the Mursi in southwestern Ethiopia. The anthropologist J. Abbink, who studied the Surma, calls the duel thagine and describes it as the national sport of the Surma, a duel of young unmarried men. The related Mursi on the other bank of the Omo River know it too. According to Abbink, the sticks are made from the hard, straight wood of the kallochi tree and are 2.10 to 2.40 m long. Representatives of different village communities (buran) fight one another, older referees oversee the duel, and it ends when the opponent is knocked to the ground or is so exhausted and injured that he cannot continue without the danger of a worse injury. According to Abbink, even accidentally killing or maiming an opponent is a serious offense. According to Abbink, the main duels took place after the harvest of sorghum and maize. Since 1994 the state has tried to ban the duels, without success. A thesis from Addis Ababa from 2021 describes how young Suri stage duels for tourists for payment.
History
J. Abbink, in an article from 1997, describes the stick duel between young unmarried men as the national sport of the Surma in southwestern Ethiopia. According to him, the Surma consist of two groups, which call themselves Chai and Tirma, and live by farming and cattle herding in the lowland at the edge of the Ethiopian highlands. Their closest relatives are the Mursi, who live a day's journey away on the other bank of the Omo River and also know the stick duel. Abbink calls the duel thagine (thaginé in the Dutch text from 1997) and the long fighting sticks dongen, in the singular donga. According to his article from 1997, the most important duels of the year took place between November and January after the main harvest of sorghum and maize, and a second, less intense season came in April and May after sowing. In his article from 1998 he writes that in the preceding six or seven years the duels had been much more frequent and took place almost every two to three weeks for three to four months after the sorghum harvest (September to November) and also in January and in April and May. Among the Mursi, according to Mursi Online, a meeting of duels usually lasts several days, is negotiated several months in advance, takes place at a time of plenty of food, and is often spoken of as a war (kaman).
How it differs
According to Abbink, the fight is above all a group event of the Surma and Mursi, and members of neighbouring peoples cannot take part. The details differ between the two groups. Among the Surma the referee is called odda according to Abbink, among the Mursi kwethana according to Mursi Online. Among the Surma only the best fighters wear special gear, among the Mursi every competitor has tumoga gear.
Technique
According to Abbink, dongen sticks are made from the hard, straight wood of the kallochi tree (Grewia mollis) and are 2.10 to 2.40 m long. Only the best fighters may wear special fighting gear: a sturdy helmet woven from sisal, leather leg guards, leg bands, thick cotton bands around the neck and chest, belts of hyena or lion skin around the waist, a hand shield, and an iron cowbell or several small bells. Mursi Online describes a stick about two meters long among the Mursi. In the attacking stance it is held near the lower end with both hands, the left above the right, and the fighter tries to hit any part of the opponent's body, including the head, with the shaft, never with the tip, hard enough to knock him down. Blows are blocked by keeping the right hand at the lower end and sliding the left up the shaft above the place where the blow lands. Every Mursi fighter wears tumoga gear: a wicker guard for the right arm, leather shin guards, woven sisal rings on the elbows and knees, a leopard skin over the torso, a skirt of cut leather, and a cowbell at the waist, and his head is wrapped in long strips of cotton cloth.
Training
The sources do not speak of systematic training. Abbink interprets the duels as being, for most participants, the first serious opportunity to experience the fascination with violence in a limited, tamed form. According to him, elders and religious leaders of the Surma encourage boys to test their strength in the duels and gain fighting experience.
Ranks and progression
Abbink explicitly states that the fights are not part of initiation ceremonies or similar rituals and are not a way of resolving disputes either. According to his 1998 article, the main fighters are young unmarried men of the tegay age-grade. Bardula Olekibo's 2021 thesis, on the other hand, states that men from the youth group Tegen to the junior elders Rora take part in the fight, both unmarried and married.
Competition
According to Abbink, Surma society consists of territorial units, village communities called buran. The main fighters are young men of the junior age-grade from various buran, and two members of the same buran may not fight each other, whereas members of the same clan may, if they live in different buran. The fights are overseen by several elder referees (odda) who no longer fight themselves, and the fight between teams takes the form of a ladder competition. Dozens of fights take place during the day, each lasting at most three minutes, and at the end two fighters remain for the final fight. A fight is decided when the opponent is knocked to the ground or is so tired and injured that he cannot continue without risk of a worse injury. According to Abbink, deep wounds and fractures recur, but accidentally maiming or killing an opponent is a serious offence, after which the fights end at once and everyone goes home. Death in a fight counts as murder and requires compensation to the victim's family. Among the Mursi, according to Mursi Online, the fight is directed by one or more referees (kwethana), and the winner is whoever knocks the opponent down, or the one whose opponent withdraws injured, often with broken or bruised fingers. Other weapons such as knives, spears or rifles are, according to Olekibo, forbidden.
Today
In 1998 Abbink wrote that the influence of elders and referees is weakening and that after a lost fight young men grabbed Kalashnikovs and began to shoot, usually, but not always, into the air, which led to several accidental killings. According to him, automatic weapons spread massively among the Surma only in the last ten years before 1997. He warned that if the ruling age-grade of elders did not restore respect for the rules, the fight could lead to deep division or even disappear. According to Abbink, the state tried in 1994 and later to ban the fights together with customs labelled harmful, but without success. The English Wikipedia states that Ethiopian law prohibits stick fights, but we have not found the specific regulation. According to Abbink, a tourist mythology grew up around the Surma, fed mainly by an article in National Geographic from 1991. The 2021 thesis by Bardula Olekibo from Addis Ababa states that a real donga cannot be organised to order, but the arrival of tourists leads young Suri to staged fights for payment, which are often ordered by guides. Olekibo calls the donga the most important social event of the Suri, which attracts tourists to the area every year.
Did you know
According to Abbink, foreigners often wrongly claim that the fight is over girls. The winner is carried to the girls on a wooden litter, but does not choose a bride, because marriages between families are arranged long in advance. Among the Mursi, according to Mursi Online, his peers carry the winner on their shoulders and he is shaded by unmarried girls from his mother's clan. This custom probably gave rise to the notion that the winner chooses a bride, although marriage with a woman of the mother's clan is strictly forbidden. According to Mursi Online, the two sides visit each other in turns up to a year apart, to exchange their wounds, as Mursi Online figuratively calls it (chacha muloi).
Frequently asked questions
Is a bride fought for in the donga?
According to J. Abbink and Mursi Online, no. Marriages are arranged between families long in advance, and the idea that the winner chooses a bride is, according to Mursi Online, a mistake that probably arose from the custom of girls from the clan of the winner's mother shading him.
How long is a donga stick?
According to Abbink, 2.10 to 2.40 m. It is made from the hard, straight wood of the kallochi tree.
When does the duel end?
According to Abbink, when the opponent is knocked to the ground or is so tired and injured that he cannot continue without danger. Each duel lasts at most three minutes and older referees oversee it.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.