Ladja (Danmyé)
Martinique combat dance in which two fighters face each other in a circle to drums and singing. On the island it is also called danmyé, kokoyé or wonpwen.
Quick Facts
MartiniqueCharacter & 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 Ladja (Danmyé)
Ladja is a combat dance from Martinique. Thomas A. Green, in the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World, indicates that in the south of the island it is called ladjia, in the north damie, and also ronpoin and kokoye. He ranks it among the African martial traditions carried to the Americas and arts similar to capoeira. Two fighters face each other in a circle to drums and the singing of a lead singer, answered by a chorus, and according to Green the music sets the tempo and character of the fight. Sources explain the relation of the names ladja and danmyé differently. Green describes a bloody fighting ladjia in the south and a more dance-like damie in the north. Pierre Dru recorded in his thesis that some older witnesses distinguished the two forms, but most fighters asked considered ladja and danmyé the same. The association AM4, in a document from 2004, indicates that the names danmié, ladja, kokoyé and wonpwen now denote the same practice. The American dancer Katherine Dunham, according to the Library of Congress, saw and filmed ladja (ag'ya) on her Caribbean trip from 1935 to 1936. Her first full-length ballet L'Ag'Ya premiered on 27 January 1938 at the Federal Theater in Chicago. According to its website, AM4 founded a bèlè school and a danmyé school in 1983 and was itself founded in 1986.
History
Green indicates that the Martinican forms are often compared with kadjia from Benin, a ritual tied to an agricultural ceremony in which grapples and throws predominate over punches and kicks. Pierre Dru presents two hypotheses on the origin of the word ladja: a Wolof (Senegalese) origin and a combination of the terms lagia and kadja. According to Josy Michalon, kadja is a ritual wrestling bout from Séméré in the Atakora province of Benin, danced at full moon during the yam festival. According to the news website Outremers360, in the book Le ladjia, origine et pratiques Michalon derives danmyé from the kadjia wrestling of the Basantché people and the kokoulé wrestling of the Kotokoli people of Benin, relying on the similarity of the terms. English Wikipedia attributes to T. J. Desch-Obi the view that the core of ladja technique corresponds to a Bantu system and that West African wrestling played only a limited role until the early 20th century.
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According to the Library of Congress, Katherine Dunham saw and filmed ag'ya, the combat dance of Martinique, during her trip around the Caribbean from 1935 to 1936. Dru indicates that she filmed ladja in 1936 mainly in the communes of Le Vauclin and Les Trois-Ilets and that guides led her, sometimes on a mule, to places where it was played. According to Dru, ladja in this film included holds, but in some places not yet wrestling, which then existed as a separate form of combat. The ballet L'Ag'Ya, inspired by this trip, premiered on 27 January 1938 at the Federal Theater in Chicago. Dru's informants name among others Marin, Rivière-Pilote, Rivière-Salée, Sainte-Marie, Grand-Rivière, Robert and Lamentin as communes famous for ladja. Dru collected testimony from witnesses from 1974, practised danmyé from 1983 and in 1986 took part in founding the association AM4 (Association Mi Mes Manmay Matinik). According to Dru, the association at first played down the dance side of danmyé, because young men saw male dance as something that devalues them, until some elders demanded the cadence of danmyé. In 2025 Lionel Arnaud analyses the rediscovery of the danmyé, kalennda and bèlè dances in Martinique and how its interpretation was influenced by négritude (Aimé Césaire) and antillanité (Édouard Glissant).
How it differs
Green names as the most striking regional difference the bloody fury of the fighting ladjia in the south versus the dance-like approach of damie in the north. Dru also recorded the opposite view, that ladja is danced more and danmyé is more of a fight. AM4 writes on its website that danmyé was played in all parts of Martinique with the same ceremony and orchestra, but with musical shades between north and south. According to AM4, southerners consider northern danmyé softened by bèlè influence, northerners consider the southern one too rough. Green classes ladja among arts similar to capoeira and names the Cuban mani as another, possibly extinct Afro-Caribbean martial art.
Technique
According to Green, ladjia is played to percussion, mainly drums but also sticks struck together, and to the songs of a lead singer with a choral response. The music sets the tempo and character of the fight, and practitioners, according to Green, claim that without singing there is no ladjia. When the chance arises, fighters kick, punch or jab fingers into the eyes. Whoever lifts the opponent and throws him on his back is declared the winner. According to Outremers360, two fighters meet in a circle of spectators called lawonn and combine strikes and grabs to the rhythm of the drum. Dru's glossary states that danmyé music is the same as for ladja, but with one drum only, tighter and more combative. Dru also states that ladja includes strikes with the head, fists, elbows, knees and feet. Based on AM4 materials, French Wikipedia distinguishes three fighting stances: kò doubout (upright), kò ba (low) and kò ba atè (very low), four groups of punches and nine of kicks. It also states that some strikes are prohibited in competition.
Ranks and progression
French Wikipedia states that clothing in danmyé distinguishes pupils (apranti, black bottom and red top), masters (djoubaka, red bottom and black top) and competition dress (black bottom and any top).
Competition
In Dru's glossary, the AM4 association defines katel as the name of a competition in danmyé, whereas those who remember describe katel as an agreed fight (konba arété), a challenge or a meeting to fight. According to texts received at the Sanblé danmyé seminars in 2015 and 2016, published on the AM4 website, danmyé has three forms: danmyé lib (a free traditional circle without a referee or fixed rules), katel danmyé (a sporting competition with rules, a referee called met katel, a jury and a prescribed outfit) and danmyé fè moun wè (demonstrations). Since January 2014, a met lawonn has acted in danmyé lib, and he alone may interrupt the fight. The same texts distinguish danmyé anmizé with controlled strikes that are only indicated or touched, and goumen danmyé, or danmyé sérié, with full-force strikes. In it, lethal and maiming strikes are prohibited, and protective gear and a medical team are mandatory.
Today
Sociologist Lionel Arnaud examines in La politique des tambours (2021) the association Tanbo Bô Kannal in Fort-de-France, which he followed from 2011 to 2018 and whose activity revolves around danmyé, kalennda and bèlè. According to Arnaud, such associations try to move these practices from despised folklore into the tools of political, social and cultural recognition. The association AM4 states that four schools emerged from its danmyé school founded in 1983: lékol bòkannal, lékol lonè vié neg, lékol lisid and lékol jenn manmay. In a platform from 2004, AM4 described danmyé as a fight between two danmyétè (majo or jwa) in the circle won, formed by supporters (atlaj) and spectators and directed by the orchestra (mizik-la). On the list of the French national inventory of intangible cultural heritage, published by the Ministry of Culture, neither danmyé nor ladja appear. From Martinique, only La yole ronde de la Martinique figures there.
Did you know
According to English Wikipedia, plantation overseers skilled in ladja were called majò, a word that later came to praise a skilled fighter. The word majo for a fighter also appears in the 2004 AM4 platform. According to an informant from Sainte-Marie in Dru's glossary, the word kokoyé is used more in the north of Martinique and also denotes the drum that accompanies it. Dru points out that T. J. Desch-Obi, in the introduction to Fighting for Honor, describes the African origin of capoeira, ladja and danmyé and also discusses engolo from central and southern Angola.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ladja and danmyé?
Sources disagree. Green describes a bloody fighting ladjia in the south of Martinique and a more dance-like damie in the north, but most fighters Pierre Dru spoke with considered both names the same thing. The association AM4 states that the names danmié, ladja, kokoyé and wonpwen today denote the same practice.
When is a winner declared in ladja?
According to Green, the winner is declared to be the one who lifts the opponent and throws him on his back. The katel danmyé competition has, according to texts published by the association AM4, rules, a referee called met katel and a jury.
What does ladja have in common with Katherine Dunham?
According to the Library of Congress, American dancer Katherine Dunham saw and filmed ladja (ag'ya) in Martinique during her trip around the Caribbean from 1935 to 1936. Her first full-length ballet, L'Ag'Ya, which premiered on 27 January 1938 in Chicago, was inspired by the trip.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.