The Origins Of Martial Arts

The History of Kwa Asilia Avita Sanaa-Mixed Martial Arts

Mixed Martial Arts or MMA (Ya or Kwa Asilia A Vita Sanaa)

History, Combat Sport, and Self defense

The origins of mixed martial arts and martial arts in general can be found in this statement by Masutatsu Oyama in his book "Advanced Karate" published by Japan Publications in 1969, "The oldest known records concerning combat techniques, hieroglyphic scrolls from Egyptian tombs date as far back as 4000 B.C. describing military training fights similar to boxing (Ngumi) and wrestling (Mkazo Ncha Shikana) ." Making ancient Egypt or (Kemet) the first record of martial arts in general and making martial arts a part of the curriculum of the Ancient Egyptian Mysteries. Second we have the Olympiad of 564 B.C. and the pankration found in the Olympic games of 648 B.C. Then there are the gladiators of Rome. "For many years scholars maintained that the Greeks were unique among the peoples of the ancient world because they alone had known sports competition." "By 1932 at the latest, every scholar should have known that the ancient Egyptians regularly organized such competitions for a select public. In that year the wrestling and stick fighting scenes from the funerary temple of Ramesses III in Medinet Habu were published in an exemplary edition. The oldest written account of a military contest is preserved in one of the masterworks of Egyptian literature, the Story of Sinuhe." Wolfgang Deckers book "Sports and Games of Ancient Egypt."

 

Herodotus the father of Greek history states, that long before Rameses II, ruled both Egypt and Ethiopia, perhaps as far back as 8000 B.C., boxing and wrestling was introduced to Egypt from Ethiopia. John Grombach "The Saga Of The Fist" A.S. Barnes and Co. Publishing. In the Beni Hasan Tombs of ancient Egypt, wall paintings show that the Egyptians knew virtually every hold practiced today and the wrestling is both of the upright and ground varieties. Graeme Kent's "A pictorial History Of Wrestling" Spring Books Publishing. Some of the gifts bestowed upon us by ancient cultures include martial arts, language, literature, science, and religion.

In addition to hand striking, kicking maneuvers (Teke), are also depicted on the walls of the Beni Hasan Tomb. Ancient Greece, Rome, India, and China also gave us precious knowledge in the form of combative systems. Cezar Borkowski and Marion Manzo "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Martial Arts" Alpha Books. Not many people are aware that the ancient Egyptians practiced yoga exercises, medicine, and meditation thousands of years ago. The Indian Mysteries of Yoga and Vedanta represent an unfolding and intellectual exposition of The Egyptian Mysteries, for example, In the school of life, the priests trained the chosen young men of Egypt the future scientists, philosophers, doctors, statesmen and generals from the doctrines of the Egyptian Mysteries System which includes all these disciplines and more. Also the study of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or Hinduism will provide greater comprehension of The Egyptian mysteries, since they all originated in ancient Egypt and are also based on Egyptian Mysteries System (And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptian, and was mighty in words and in deeds-ACTS: 7-22). Dr. Muata Ashby " Egyptian Yoga: The Philosophy of Enlightenment". Although no artifacts or records exist to describe combat techniques used in India before the northern invasions of the twelfth to the tenth centuries B.C. it is possible to assume that meditation under trees, the supposed origin of Yoga, was practiced by people of the indigenous Indus culture. Either to attempt to establish Yoga meditation as part of a combat regime or to try to limit it to a purely religious meaning would be to exceed the bounds of historical knowledge. Yoga was codified in the Upanishads, in the sixth to the fifth centuries B.C., the same period during which the first records of Indian combat techniques were written. When Gautama Siddartha-the Buddha-lived on this earth,himself a man of peace and love, was nonetheless a prince and as such received the military training given all people of high birth in those days. His skill was so great in a wide number of technique that it is said that he had never been defeated. In fact, before devoting himself to a life of religious meditation and teaching, he won the hand of the beautiful Princess Yasudara as a result of excelling above all other contenders in running, leaping, stone throwing, fencing, archery, and fisticuffs. However, it is enough to say that the people of the Indus culture created the Yoga which has exerted a tremendous influence on all Oriental martial arts. Masutatsu Oyama,s "Advanced Karate" Japan Publications.

In China 527 A.D. The Shaolin Temple made the step toward including martial arts as a course of study. That year an Indian Buddhist Prince named Bodhidharma or Da Mo arrived at the temple to preach, after this the monks began developing martial forms to complement their new powers. Yang Jwing Ming " Shoalin Chin Na" Unique Publications.

Thereafter, Chinese refugees introduced Chinese Kempo or Chuan Fa to Korea, Okinawa, Japan etc... Because People from Dahomey, Nigeria, The Gold Coast, Senegal, Cape Verde, Ashanti, Angola, The Congo, Mozambique, and other African nations were traded in increasing number during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade this opened up an era of African Martial Arts in the Americas. THE HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN MARTIAL ART OF "KWA ASILIA AVITA SANAA". According to a book called “Fighting for Honor” by T.J. Desch Obi. Published by Cambridge University Press. Obi insists that it was the Kunene Engolo from West Africa that informed a variety of martial arts in slave communities of the Americas, including Knocking and Kicking in North America, Ladja in the French Caribbean and Capoeria in Brazil. This was restated in a TV series call “African American Culture A Second Look” by Dr. Robert Farris Thompson of Yale University when he had this to say about the book Drylongso by Prof. John Gwaltney “and in it there a reference to knocking and kicking the North American black Martial Art, which was practiced here on the soil of Georgia and North Carolina and many other places, knocking and kicking as you might have guest has to do with knocking with your head and kicking with your feet”. Other than the Olmec heads representing a very early African presents in Mexico. There is a popular Mexican hero that also represents the African presents in Mexico was Yanga an enslaved African who faught to be free (Early African American Martial Arts), escaped and moved up to the mountians of Veracruz, from there he set up 2 to 3 different camps and waged a rebelion against Spain and slavery eventually his rebelion was so successful that the king of Spain signed a treaty with him and by 1609 Yanga established the first free African American Community in all of the Americas.  Historians agree that Angola was one of the largest suppliers of slaves and was a major market for Brazilian products.

We have no doubt that Capoeira (Early African American Martial Arts) is intimately related to the presence of Africans in Brazil. The embryo of Capoeira as a rudimentary fighting style was created in the slave quarters, and fugitive blacks developed it as a system for freeing slaves, in exactly the same way as  and fugitive blacks in the United States Of America developed a fighting system (Slave Rebellions) and secret military intelligence network for freeing slaves called "The Underground Railroad". (Early African American Martial Arts). The fight to freedom actually began long before the Underground Railroad was known by that name. The Underground Railroad included a strict warrior code of espionage and secrecy, employing such practices as the art of hiding, positions of concealment, weapons, covert entry, the art of escaping and leaving no trace and more. The Underground Railroad was the covert faction of the first African American Church. For example from 1740 to the 1820's African prisoners of war were converted to Christianity by the thousands in resistance to slavery. And later "The fellowship of the Underground Railroad was truly ecumenical including Quakers, Roman Catholics, Jews, and Protestant". Is a quote from the same article on pg.23 of the July 1984 edition of the National Geographic Magazine. 

Spiritual men and women were often the leaders of Rebellions during the African Holocaust of Enslavement. In African American history, fearless spiritual leaders like Grandmasters Harriett Ross Tubman, Nat Turner, and Frederick Douglass Stired the martial spirit of their captive people. Bira Almeida "Capoeira: A Brazilian Art Form" Sun Wave Publishing. July 1984 edition of the National Geographic. The knowledge of the African American Martial Arts runs in my family, my grandfather Percy Rogers who as a share cropper in Mississippi used a cane knife to harvest a small crop of sugar cane and on my mothers side, my uncles Edward and Alvin McNair from Florida taught my older brothers and cousins wrestling and “Chest” a game of body toughness where you and your partner hit one another as hard as possible until one gives up, and “Slap boxing” which is boxing with open hands attacking the face and body of your training partner while at the same time moving your head defensively and blocking your partners attacks by slapping them out of the air and stopping them with your elbows, which they in turn taught me, not only making my brothers Reginald and Franklin my first Martial Arts Instructors but also making African American Martial Arts the first system of combat that I have ever learned. Still the over all creation of modern day martial arts cannot be credited to just one race of people because all races have a self-defense instinct and have created systems to protect themselves. The Underground Railroad not only included churches, it also included Native American Villages, Chinese Refugee Camps, Spanish settlements and the Mexican Army. This secret African American Martial Art (Ya or Kwa Asilia Avita Sanaa) and it's many cousins, African-Bazilian Martial Arts (Capoeira), African-Cuban Martial Arts (Mani), African-Jamaican Martial Arts (Machet'e), African- Haitian Martial Arts (Pinge), Ladja in the French Caribbean, all were born out of a burning desire for freedom. Grandmaster Rogers is the founder of Kwa Asilia Avita Sanaa (The Original Martial Art), the new name for the reorganization of the ancient Kemetic martial arts depicted on the tomb of Ramessu III in Kemet (Ancient Egypt)1080 B.C.E and others. As well as the early African American skills of knocking and kicking, bondage fighting, fighting with cane knives, hoes, clubs, and the guerrilla tactics, used by escaping African freedom fighters like those involved with The Underground Railroad and other successful rebellions and maroon colonies in North America. It is also used as a tribute and as remembrance of the African Holocaust of Enslavement.