Cultural roots and authenticity / African martial arts

I had to smile wryly when I read Lloyd’s latest post on the Piper System blog. He’s annoyed about Americans trying to co-opt African names and traditions, and using them out of context. Why do I smile? Two reasons:

• I’m Welsh, and Wales is a Celtic country. During the 90s, I was living in the heartlands of Welsh-speaking culture, and we got a lot of people coming through on a search for… something. A lot of people I knew got really annoyed, that these people (usually American or English) had this strange idea that the ‘Celtic peoples’ were ‘closer to nature’, more ‘authentic’ and ’spiritual’ – when the Welsh, and the Irish and Scots, are modern cultures just like everyone else. We don’t wear torques or have druids (well, apart from the Welsh, and that’s just for play) any more, but some of these people didn’t want to know anything about our culture after the Iron Age. It was the same kind of approach that’s annoying Lloyd in an African context.
• I also laugh because I’m not a native speaker of Welsh. I only really got motivated to learn and use the language when people kept on asking me about Welsh language and culture, and I couldn’t answer them. When was that? Why, while I was hitch-hiking around South Africa…

So  I can understand where Lloyd’s coming from. A lot of nonsense gets written and sold by people who have no real connection with, or understanding of, what they’re making money off. Well, people will pick and choose things they like from each other’s cultures. I prefer to look at the silver lining; people get attracted by the superficial stuff, and most will go no further – but there will be some who do, and that will create a market that makes it viable for people who really are qualifed and knowledgable to devote more time to publishing and training.

It’s only humanto be curious about, and borrow from, other cultures, and we can either embrace it or reject it. Rejecting it leads down a nasty, exclusivist road, which is no good for anyone. Embracing it can get weird, but it’s better. I realised how strange it can get once in Borders, here in Singapore. I, a Welshman, was sitting down reading a book on the I Ching; next to me, a young Chinese couple were reading a book on ‘Celtic Witchcraft’. Go figure. Of course, when someone starts claiming to be an ‘authentic’ Welsh person, or an ‘authentic’ African on the basis of reading some books and maybe a short holiday, well… they have a misperception.

As to why the zulu, out of all the African peoples, get so much attention? Good marketing, I guess. Above all: the film. No, seriously. Don’t the zulus come out of that looking good? They may lose the battle, but they fight well, are disciplined, honourable, and retreat in good order. It’s a pretty positive depiction (and I’m Welsh, so you know which side I’m cheering for). I really can’t think of a stronger and more positive depiction of African culture in the mass media. Also, of course, Isandlwana is one of the few well-known examples of Africans giving the British empire a right stuffing. For people of unknown African descent, searching for cultural roots to be proud of, I can see the attractions. And the zulus have kept up their strong ‘brand identity’ (sorry for slipping into MBA-speak). During the 80s, the Xhosa and the Sotho, for example, tended to work under the multi-ethnic banner of the ANC, with no particular tribal, cultural or other identification (plus, associated with the Communists, so rather dodgy for mainstream Americans). But the Zulus? Nope, they did their own thing. In all the media reports in the West, it was the Zulus who were mentioned by name. So I’m not surprised that they’ve got the best recognition in the West. Of course, renaming yourself “Shaka Zulu” is eye-rollingly corny, but that’s people for you.

The politics of identity, though: always has stirred up strong feelings, always will.

As for African martial arts: that’s an interesting field that deserves more attention. I think that what the Piper guys are doing is really interesting, and I hope more people will publish material about more traditional African ways of working. Martial arts, of course, are products of their environment; the Chinese and Japanese arts come out of a particular social, urban, economic and philosophical context. African fighting systems won’t be the same. Sub-saharan Africa wasn’t centralised, and was pretty resource-poor, so we can’t expect the same kind of coherence and standardisation. West Africa was more organised politically, had more resources, and was heavily influenced (directly or not) by Egyptian, Roman, and Islamic culture; there must be a lot of material there which is still to surface. The DeBordes Foundation that Lloyd mentions seem to be working on that. Interesting.

OK, so I don’t actually have a point to get to; this is just a stream of consciousness post inspired by Lloyd!