Strands of Strife and Life Vol. 1: South Caribbean Fighting Arts

The pioneering Hoplology expedition in generations from the eyes of its participants.In Strands of Strife and Life Vol.1, the readers are taken deep within the world of Southern Caribbean martial arts. On the Island of Barbados, a group of eight men met on the first of many future Hoplological projects. For those unfamiliar with the term ‘Hoplology,’ it was coined by the 19th century Irish/Anglo explorer, scholar, and polymath Sir R.F. Burton in the 19th century. For Burton, Hoplology was the scientific study of armed combat. With Burton in mind, members of the Immersion Foundation sought to capture, document, and explore the existing combative traditions of Barbados (Sticklicking), Trinidad (Kalinda and Gilpin) and Tobago (Whip/Rope-Jab). However, as part of the Immersion Foundation method, members did not just content themselves by passively documenting how these arts were done and recording oral narratives about them. Every member of the team had trained intensely in a variety of armed combative systems and brought their understanding of armed combat and a desire to test their arts with other like-minded men to see how they would fare. A critical factor in the study of bodily knowledges is they must be tested to understand the type of combat they were designed to meet. And how they perform under diverse circumstances. Two, through what the Greeks called ‘Agon,’ or struggle, reveals a man’s true character. Members demonstrated, remembered, explained, and sparred through this crucible of 16 –18-hour days for almost two weeks. Then they reflected on events and repeated the whole cycle the next day. What this engendered was trust, confidence, and a desire to showcase their arts to the best of their ability. Sticklicking was once an island-wide method of self-defense, a recreational pastime, and a professional sport until the introduction of Cricket in the 1960s led to its almost total disappearance. Trinidadian Kalinda, a recreational pastime with deep roots in African philosophy, is carried on by young, determine