Nguni Stick Fighting
Stick fighting of the South African Nguni peoples, mainly Zulu and Xhosa, learned by herd boys. Zulu fighters use an attacking stick, a defending stick and a small shield.
Quick Facts
South AfricaCharacter & 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 Nguni Stick Fighting
Stick fighting is a tradition of the South African Nguni peoples, mainly the Zulu and Xhosa. The collective name Nguni stick fighting is used by South African History Online and Africanews, Marié-Heleen Coetzee writes about Zulu stick fighting, and the South African government included the Xhosa form, iintonga, among indigenous games. Boys learn to fight as herd boys. According to Coetzee, a Zulu fighter holds the smooth attacking stick induku in his right hand and in his left the longer defending stick ubhoko and a small leather shield ihawu. The main target is the opponent's head, and the fight ends when one is badly beaten or when blood flows. Under Shaka, according to Coetzee, stick fighting served to train young men for self-defence and war. Nelson Mandela writes in his memoirs that as a boy he learned to fight with a stick, which in his words was a necessary skill of every rural African boy. The South African ministry of sport included iintonga in the annual festival of indigenous games.
History
In her 2002 overview of Zulu stick fighting, Marié-Heleen Coetzee states that the genealogy of the supposed originators is derived from Amalandela, son of Gumede, who lived in the Umhlatuze valley around 1670. According to her, it is generally accepted that under Shaka stick fighting served to train young men for self-defence and war. Her informant Ntuli states that Shaka rewarded good and brave fighters with cattle.
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Under King Cetshwayo, according to Coetzee, stick fighting was an accepted way of settling internal disputes. Fighters used spear shafts without blades and followed a code that was not meant to lead to loss of life. In 1877, at the first fruits festival, a fight between the regiments iNgobamakhosi and uThulwana broke the customs when the uThulwana, after an initial defeat, attacked with spears. Benedict Carton and Robert Morrell, in a peer-reviewed article from 2012, examine stick fighting in the Thukela River valley from the beginning of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century as a mostly rural sport tied to boyhood, governed by customary duties and a patriarchal hierarchy. According to them, white domination changed the rules and drove young men into labour migration, but the ethos of stick fighting, namely learning restraint, remained essential for the upbringing of boys. Green and Tausk, in Green's encyclopedia, state that the Zulu and the Mpondo held fights between groups and within villages and that bouts with neighbouring communities often turned deadly serious. Apartheid laws forbidding people of another skin colour to own weapons or carry traditional weapons in public led, according to Coetzee, to umbrellas and ordinary walking sticks being used instead of izinduku. Stick fighting later expressed Zulu ethnicity and political affiliation with the Inkatha Freedom Party, and its link with violence led many Zulu to keep their distance. Nelson Mandela writes in his memoir Long Walk to Freedom that as a boy he learned to fight with a stick, a necessary skill of every rural African boy, and mastered parrying blows, deceptive movements and quick footwork.
How it differs
Coetzee classes the Xhosa, Pondo and Thembu among the southern Nguni, and the Zulu, Swazi and Ndebele among the northern Nguni. Among the Pondo of Mkantolo, according to the Mayers, the defence stick, unlike in Ciskei, is as long as the right-hand stick, reaches a boy's nipples, and the right-hand stick is pointed at one end. According to them, a young man of the Xhosa-Mfengu pattern gives up offensive use of the stick in his own cause, while among the Pondo the line between sport and deadly earnest is thinner. The government festival of indigenous games describes iintonga as a game with two sticks, a longer offensive and a shorter defensive one, i.e. the opposite of Coetzee on the Zulu. The GroundUp site in 2014 described a Xhosa fighter with two sticks and Zulu fighting as using one stick and a shield.
Technique
The Zulu attacking stick induku is, according to Coetzee, a smooth stick without a knob, usually about 88 cm long, held in the right hand. The defending stick ubhoko is longer, about 165 cm, and is controlled with the left wrist for defence only. The small oval cowhide shield ihawu is held in the left hand, is 55 to 63 cm long and 31 to 33 cm wide, is supported by a short stick umsila and has a pad inside, traditionally of sheepskin. The main aim of a Zulu fight is, according to Coetzee, to hit the opponent's head, and blows to the body are meant to open the guard. Green and Tausk describe two sticks, one held in the middle for guarding and parrying and the other for attacking blows. According to them, the Zulu thus acquired skills similar to combining a shield and an attacking weapon in war.
Training
According to Coetzee, Zulu boys learn stick fighting by observation, imitation and experience. Tiny boys practise with twigs on trees, and fathers spar kneeling with small sons. A practice fight between herd boys is called ukungcweka and differs from a challenge to fight: opponents do not aim at the head and a hit to the hand is a foul. It is supervised by inqwele, the leader of the herd boys. At about sixteen, the father took the boy into the forest to choose and cut his own fighting sticks. Philip and Iona Mayer in 1972 describe how among the Pondo older boys in a herd boys' group train younger ones, pair them for fights and teach them not to aim at the head, not to go on when the opponent drops his stick and not to hit the left hand so he lets go of the defending stick. According to the author Hunter, cited by the Mayers, mothers pair Pondo boys for fights from the age of two or three, and five-year-olds already carry sticks.
Ranks and progression
According to Coetzee, Zulu fighters begin to fight competitively in public at around eighteen, the youngest at about fifteen, and usually stop at around thirty-five. According to Coetzee, stick fighting is a prominent part of the Zulu rite of male puberty thomba. At the herd boys' festival iphapu, younger boys could challenge the leadership of the older boys. Philip Mayer and Iona Mayer in 1972 describe the boys' organisation Ibhavu in one community in Ciskei, divided into three grades, in which one advanced through stick fights. According to the newspaper Sowetan in 2012, the game instilled respect and honour mainly in Xhosa boys who had not yet undergone initiation.
Competition
In a Zulu fight, according to Coetzee, stabbing is not allowed, a stick with a head is not used in a challenge, and a shield blow, tripping and grabbing the opponent are fouls. Whoever fell or dropped his stick must not be struck. The fight ends when one fighter is badly beaten or blood is drawn. It is stopped by the herd boys' leader, a chief, a commander of warriors or an elder, and the fighters can end it by shouting khumu (enough). The challenger often leaps at the opponent crying Nansi inkunzi (here is a bull), and the reply is nansen yinkunzi (and here is another bull). According to Coetzee, umgangela is a highly organised, pre-arranged fight between districts with fixed rules, held in summer between November and January. According to Coetzee, stick fighting also belonged to the Zulu wedding, where a circle of spectators marked out the fighting place, according to a 1996 informant by then only in the countryside. Africanews in 2016 described a fight lasting up to five hours, in which opponents take turns attacking and defending and points count by the body part hit.
Today
The South African ministry of sport (Sport and Recreation South Africa) held in 2015 the tenth annual indigenous games festival with nine disciplines including iintonga, with an age limit starting from five years. According to the newspaper Sowetan from 2012, the ministry collected 23 indigenous games, launched them in 2001 and lists the stick game under the names intonga, melamu, izinkuku and umgangela. Godfrey Vulindlela Mona in an article from 2025 claims that the Xhosa game umdlalo weentonga was governed by rules that made it fair and less dangerous, and he appreciates government efforts to revive indigenous games. Africanews in 2016 wrote that stick fighting is again attracting spectators, although it was earlier banned in some parts of South Africa, and that some fighters died. The article does not say where and when the ban applied. Coetzee in 2002 describes Zulu migrants in Johannesburg who sometimes teach stick fighting as a martial art, and fights in hostels on Friday or Saturday evenings. According to her, the demonstrations for tourists in Shakaland are performances. Al Jazeera in 2013 stated that the pastime to which the young Mandela devoted himself in Qunu remains popular in the South African countryside.
Did you know
According to Coetzee, Zulu fighters traditionally prepared with the medicine intelezi from a healer, with which sticks were sprinkled overnight before a wedding fight or which was rubbed into small cuts. A professional Zulu fighter who travels to fights is called an ishinga, and in cities such as Johannesburg amashinga may fight for prizes or money. According to South African History Online, the most respected distinction of a fighter is a scar on the head called inkamb' beyibuza, wherever you go, people ask where he is from.
Frequently asked questions
When does a Zulu stick fight end?
According to Marié-Heleen Coetzee, the fight ends when one fighter is badly beaten or blood flows. Elders or leaders may stop it, and a fighter can end the fight by calling khumu (enough).
How many sticks per fighter?
According to Coetzee, a Zulu fighter holds an attacking stick induku, a longer defending stick ubhoko and a small shield ihawu. According to the government indigenous games festival, the Xhosa game iintonga is played with two sticks, a longer attacking one and a shorter defending one.
Is stick fighting practised in South Africa today?
According to the latest available sources, yes. The South African ministry of sport included iintonga in the festival of indigenous games, which it held for the tenth time in 2015. Africanews wrote in 2016 that stick fighting is attracting spectators again.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.