Huka Huka is a traditional sport practiced by various indigenous people who live on the Land of Xingu (pronouced 'Shin-goo') in Brasil. It's also called the Panther Fight because of the way the men, and sometimes women, batttle by imitating the movements of the big feline from a forest Brazillian natives call Onça. There're two main concentrations of Indians on the Xingu river. The Arawakan tribes on the upper river banks and the Caribs further down. I'm no anthropologist nor am I trying to sound like one, but what made me want to share this interesting piece of info a friend put me on to is the connection between this region's peoples and Haiti. Before the French and Spaniards arrived to this side of the globe the Arawak Indians had already established themselves as the rightful residents of what later became Haiti or Ayiti, as in Land of Mountains. So to now discover that their influence spread to Brasil challenges what my high school history teacher taught me--and still teaching me--on the beginnings of Hispaniola, the island that both Haiti and the Dominican Republic share. Besides the centuries-old pastime, I find it fascinating that here we are in modern times and Brazillian Black brothas are seen participating in the same tradition as original Haitians did before the word 'Hispaniola' was even conceptualized. It not only says that some people just never die, but that Indians and Africans are more similar than opposite; more connected than apart, especially when you consider the fact that the Nubians in ancient Africa had been practicing the very same tradition long before the African slave trade. This, to me, suggests that we were indeed one people before falling to division by Europeans and that this business of portraying the art of wrestling as an ancient Greek thing is mere propaganda, since we now know it was the African who taught the Greek how to be civilized, thanks to conspicuously murdered Black historian George G.M. James (The Stolen Legacy).
Makes you wonder what else is untrue and true in White-washed history books? And how long will yet another revelation come to light just in the natural way of how we go about being who we are?
Makes me want to come back--if I have to come back--as a Brazillian who likes to fight with panthers...
...just for the sport of it!
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