Kalinda (Caribbean Stick Fighting)
Trinidadian stick fight bois in the gayelle circle, accompanied by drums and singing. Today it is held as a competition with referees during carnival.
Quick Facts
Character & Origin
Training
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 Kalinda (Caribbean Stick Fighting)
Kalinda (also calinda or kalenda) is a stick fight (bois) in Trinidad, held in a circle called the gayelle, accompanied by drums and a lead singer's singing. According to the Trinidadian National Carnival Commission (NCC), the word kalenda denotes the stick fight, the dance, the songs and other accompanying performances, and its beginnings reach back to the end of the 18th century at the latest. Labat documented the word calenda as early as 1722, but for a dance of couples of enslaved Africans on the French islands, without sticks or fighting. After the abolition of slavery, according to J. D. Elder and Michael J. Ryan, kalinda found its way into carnival. According to Elder, the police effort to suppress it led to the Canboulay riots in 1881, after which stick fighting retreated into obscurity in towns. In a peer-reviewed article from 2020, Ryan describes present-day kalinda as a formal martial art with a hardwood stick and a sport with referees. The NCC holds a national competition every year, and the individual winner receives the title King of the Rock.
History
In his travelogue Nouveau voyage aux isles de l'Amérique (1722), Labat described the calenda as a popular dance of enslaved Africans on the French islands. It was danced in two rows of men and women facing each other inside a circle of spectators, accompanied by drums and a lead singer whose refrain the spectators sang and clapped to. Labat states that on the islands decrees were issued against calendas because of indecent movements and because of fear of large gatherings of slaves, which could lead to revolts. He distinguishes the calenda from the dance of the Congolese, which he describes as completely opposite. Julian Gerstin concludes in a 2004 study that slaves from the Congo and Angola regions probably played a key role in the origin of these early dances, whose spread was connected with French colonialism.
Read more
The National Carnival Commission (NCC) states that kalenda as a stick dance reaches back to pre-colonial times, to the end of the 18th century at the latest. According to the NCC, it is not, contrary to some myths, a hybrid of African stick fighting and European fencing, but an art close to martial arts of African origin. J. D. Elder wrote that after emancipation in 1838 kalinda and canboulay found their way into carnival, and the lead singer (chantwelle) sang the warlike songs of kalinda in town yards for the fight with hardwood sticks, accompanied by drums. According to Elder, the police attempt to suppress kalinda led in 1881 to the Canboulay riots, after which singing and stick fighting retreated into obscurity in towns, but never died out in the countryside. The English Wikipedia reports riots in 1881 and 1884 and a law from 1884 that banned, among other things, carrying torches, drumming and wrestling with sticks in public. According to Ryan, the state from 1904 at the latest enforced a ban on carrying sticks longer than three feet, and in 1944 further restrictions came for kalinda players and African drummers. Government recognition of kalinda in the forties of the 20th century was, according to him, part of an effort to create a national identity, and in the nineties kalinda again became an integral part of carnival.
How it differs
Green's encyclopedia from 2001 states that Trinidadian stick fighting apparently derives from the techniques of the long staff and the baton with an overhand grip, and that bois, practised in the former French colonies in the Caribbean, is apparently la canne mixed with African traditions. The NCC, by contrast, explicitly rejects the idea that kalenda is a hybrid of African stick fighting and European fencing. Ryan classes with kalinda the art of Gilpin with two machetes, which claims the same social roots, was hidden from the public until 2018, and whose movements derive from the movement mechanics of kalinda. The English Wikipedia mentions related forms in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Barbados and Puerto Rico.
Technique
According to the NCC, in kalenda dancers meet with sticks (bois) in a mock fight in the middle of a circle called the gayelle, accompanied by drums and singing, often in Creole (patois). They were led by a lead singer (chantuelle), male or female, who encouraged or mocked the dancers, accompanied by a chorus of women. Ryan describes kalinda as a formal stick-fighting martial art with a hardwood stick about 48 inches long. The International Centre for Martial Arts of UNESCO (ICM) states sticks about 80 centimetres long, often oiled and hardened by fire. According to Ryan, the main target is the head, where the fighter tries to split the opponent's skin so that he bleeds.
Competition
According to Ryan, kalinda is a formal sport with one or more referees. Drummers at the circle start the rhythm, the lead singer sings a refrain to which the fighter's entourage and the spectators respond, and each opponent performs solo dance steps. The only main ban is a strike below the belt. A match is won by the one who splits the opponent's skin on the head, knocks him out with body blows, or if the referees decide the winner. A fighter with a bleeding head is led to the blood pit in the middle of the circle to sacrifice blood to the ancestors. The NCC national competition (National Stick Fighting Competition) culminated in 2026 in a final on 9 February in Moruga between four teams of three, after a semifinal on 4 February in Sangre Grande. An older NCC page says the final takes place in the early hours of carnival Friday. An individual receives the title King of the Rock and a team the title Champion Gayelle. In 2015, according to the Trinidad Express newspaper, they were won by Selwyn John and his team Rio Claro Gayelle. In January 2026 the NCC introduced one-round Welcome to the Gayelle competitions in various municipalities, the first of which, in Moruga, was won by the former five-time national champion O'Neil Odle.
Today
Green's encyclopedia states that stick fighting persists in the streets of Trinidad during carnival as kalinda and that Trinidad and Tobago promotes stick fighting competitions at carnival time. The NCC calls kalenda an integral attraction of present-day carnival. According to the English Wikipedia, the Canboulay riots are commemorated by an annual reenactment in Port of Spain on carnival Friday. The English Wikipedia also calls kalinda the national martial art of Trinidad and Tobago, but we have not found an official declaration. Selwyn John, the winner of 2015 and 2017, declared in 2017, according to the Trinidad Express newspaper, that for such a dangerous game the reward should be about 100 000 dollars.
Did you know
Elder cites an old kalinda refrain Depi mama fe mwe, nom pa ka ba nwe bwa en bataille-la, which he translates as Since my mother bore me, no one has beaten me in battle. In the towns, according to him, the calypsonian replaced the kalinda lead singer, carnival tents replaced the old kalinda yards, and the refrain Sans d'humanité survived as the closing of songs as late as 1928. According to Ryan, fighters also harassed Indian merchants and workers, merchants hired men skilled in the Indian stick art lathi, and during the riots of 1880 the police chief of Port of Spain called South Asian fighters to help. The name canboulay derives, according to the English Wikipedia, from the French cannes brûlées, burnt cane, and Elder translates it as burning of cane.
Frequently asked questions
How do you win in kalinda?
According to Michael J. Ryan, the winner splits the opponent's skin on the head, knocks him out with body blows, or is given victory by the referees. The only main ban is a strike below the belt.
How old is kalinda?
Labat documented the word calenda in 1722, but for a dance of couples without sticks. The Trinidadian National Carnival Commission places the beginnings of kalenda as a stick dance at the end of the 18th century at the latest.
Is kalinda related to calypso?
According to J. D. Elder, the kalinda lead singer sang warlike songs for the stick fight, and in the towns he was later replaced by the calypsonian and the kalinda yards by carnival tents. The English Wikipedia states that carnival songs derive from kalinda chants.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.