Juego de Mani
A Cuban combat dance of African origin from the sugar plantations. Today it is kept alive mainly by folkloric ensembles, not fighting clubs.
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What the style is built from
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About Juego de Mani
Juego de maní is a Cuban combat dance created by enslaved Africans on the sugar plantations. It has no founder and no documented year of origin. The name does not refer to peanuts: maní means war game or war dance in one of the African languages, and the precise language cannot be determined. Scholarly discussion also divides over the origin — one side places it in West Africa, the other in the Congo. What is documented is its spread across the provinces of Matanzas and Las Villas in the nineteenth century. Enslaved people played maní in what little free time they had; plantation owners bet on the outcomes, and cases are recorded of slaves being forced to fight for their masters' entertainment. Besides maní the names baile de maní, bambosa and juego de maní con grasa are used. The original form placed a single dancer in the middle of a circle, evading blows from every side; only later did this become a contest between two. The repertoire covers low kicks, foot sweeps, punches, head-butts, elbows, forearms, knees and palm strikes, along with cartwheels and handsprings as evasions, and weapons in the form of a cane staff or a machete. The rhythm comes from the Afro-Cuban religion Palo Monte, with drummers matching their accents to the movement. In the 1930s women were barred from taking part, and maní gradually lost its combative character. Today it is maintained by folkloric organisations such as the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional. It has much in common with capoeira, but the footwork is more of a stamping motion than capoeira's flowing ginga.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.