Istunka (Somali Stick Fighting)
An annual festival in Afgooye, Somalia, at which, according to Castagno (1975), groups of young men from opposite banks of the Shabeelle river met in a mock fight with sticks.
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About Istunka (Somali Stick Fighting)
According to Margaret Castagno's Historical Dictionary of Somalia from 1975, istunka is a stick-fighting festival held every year in Afgooye on the Shabeelle river. It is a mock battle between groups of young men from opposite banks of the river, a three-day event at the time of dabshid, the Somali seasonal new year. According to Abdulahi Ahmed, the fighters carry a bundle of freshly cut sticks in the left hand and use them one after another on the bare bodies of their opponents. Castagno writes that the festival used to be very bloody, but in the last decades before 1975 it became milder and turned into an attraction for visitors from other parts of the republic. Various stories are told about the origin, according to Castagno about an ancient battle for water from the river in the dry season or about the training of young men against a tyrannical sultan. The last dated report of the festival being held that we found is from 1996.
History
In the Historical Dictionary of Somalia from 1975, Margaret Castagno defines istunka as a stick-fighting festival held every year in Afgooye on the Shabeelle river, a mock battle between groups of young men from opposite banks of the river. According to her it is a three-day event at the time of dabshid, the seasonal new year. Castagno counts it among the pre-Islamic customs, often with a strong Islamic overlay, that she says were still kept up in Somalia then. She notes two accounts of the origin. In the first, the festival comes from an ancient battle over which group would use the river water in the dry season. In the second, it was originally an exercise to prepare young men to defeat the army of a tyrannical sultan, who had occupied the area and was then defeated and his village destroyed. The English Wikipedia states that the tournament arose in the medieval period of the Ajuran and in the 19th century was concentrated by the Geledi Sultanate under Sultan Ahmed Yusuf. The UNESCO International Centre for Martial Arts (ICM), citing Mukhtar's historical dictionary from 2003, states that the festival and its fight open the new sowing season in August or September and are meant to bring luck. Abdulahi Ahmed, on the other hand, writes in 2015 that istunka opens the harvest at the end of July or the beginning of August.
How it differs
Castagno describes istunka as a mock battle between groups and Ahmed as a mass fight in which one side drives the other out of the arena, not as duels of pairs. Castagno speaks of groups of young men, Ahmed of young and old.
Technique
According to the ICM, citing Mukhtar, the men fight naked except for a loincloth and a headband, wear amulets and hold fresh sticks in the left hand, using them to strike one after another. Abdulahi Ahmed writes that each fighter carries about a dozen sticks freshly cut from a tree known for its strength and toughness, holds them in one bundle in the left hand and uses them one after another on the bare bodies of his opponents. The prescribed dress is, according to him, the loincloth ma'wis, the shawl garbassar, a cloth band around the head with a silk tassel above the forehead and amulets around the neck or arm. Only Ahmed and the English Wikipedia state that axes and blades were once used.
Competition
Castagno describes istunka as a mock battle between groups of young men from opposite banks of the river. According to Ahmed, the inhabitants of the western and eastern banks of the river that flows through Afgooye meet, and the fight begins when an old man in the middle of the arena blows a long local trumpet, the siimbaar. One side eventually takes the field and chases the defeated from the arena into the streets. At the end the two groups embrace when their committee of elders tells them to stop.
Today
In 1975 Castagno wrote that istunka had become an attraction for visitors from other parts of the republic and that it used to be very bloody with many injured, but had become milder in recent decades. In 1999 the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada cited a report by the Xinhua agency of 22 July 1996, according to which the Galadi clan is one of the two main clans taking part in the three-day istunka festival in Afgooye district, which the agency described as 600 years old. According to the ICM, citing Mukhtar from 2003, the festival attracts many visitors, including foreigners. In 2015 Ahmed describes that the tournament usually lasts three days, accompanied by animal sacrifices, folk dances and songs praising the fighters, and then ordinary life returns to Afgooye. The English Wikipedia states that istunka is still held every year in the Afgooye area. We have not found a press report of the festival being held after 1996.
Did you know
According to Castagno, dabshid is the Somali seasonal new year, a night of fire, usually in one of the first four days of August, when a small fire is lit for family members to jump over. According to Ahmed, songs are sung and shirib poetry recited on the Friday night before istunka, culminating in the sleepless night dhafarka before the fight. The locals believe, he says, that if the fight were not held, there would be crop failure, hunger, plague, drought and women would not become pregnant. The English Wikipedia gives isgaraac as another name of istunka.
Frequently asked questions
How long does istunka last?
According to Margaret Castagno and a 1996 report by the Xinhua agency, istunka is a three-day festival. It is held at the time of dabshid, the Somali seasonal new year.
Who fights whom in istunka?
According to Castagno, groups of young men from opposite banks of the Shabeelle river in Afgooye. Abdulahi Ahmed writes of the inhabitants of the west and east banks and of a mass fight in which one side drives the other out of the arena.
Is istunka still held today?
The last dated report we found is from 1996, when the Xinhua agency wrote about the festival. The English Wikipedia states that it is still held every year in the Afgooye area, but without a reference to a source.
Similar styles
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