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Wrestling is an ancient tradition of mountain tribes inhabiting Southern Sudan and Nubia. Unlike contemporary Nuba wrestling, the ancient mountain wrestling was ceremonial sport involved adult men, boys and young girls.
As other customs of mountain tribes inhabiting the territory of the contemporary Sudan, wrestling traditions were a part of conventional rituals devoting to various celebrations – from harvest to wedding ceremonies and teenager initiations. The ancient wrestling was more a celebration of youth and health than a competition of tribes and villages (as it is now). Whereas wrestling has continued among men, celebrating strength and manhood, the female wrestling that took place at harvest times is unfortunately disappearing. Female wrestling used to be traditional female transition ceremonies, and its discontinuation was not viewed as a matter of individual choice but as a matter of fundamental changes in Sudan where Islam became dominant. Such an activity as female wrestling would definitely collide with an Islamic view of what a woman should be. Female wrestling is interpreted there as nudity and shamelessness rather than a feast of health and physical perfection as it used to be in the mountains long ago.
Wrestling matches for girls were mostly ceremonial which may correspond to the ceremonial beating of the boys. For the girls there were similar markers signaling the change from childhood to womanhood. After having her first child a girl would no longer wrestle.
Girl wrestling seems to remain as vestiges of paganism among small remote Sudanese tribes such as Lotuko, Talodi and Lafofa.
Traditional ancient wrestling of Sudanese mountain dwellers is mostly ceremonial and recreational form of wrestling kindred to Nuba standing wrestling style. The goal of a wrestling match is to slam an opponent to the ground. There are no pins or submissions. Wrestling is relatively recreational, and serious injuries are rare. This wrestling style is best viewed as a system of standing grappling, historically practiced nearly naked, but in towns, today practiced in T-shirts and shorts.
Ancient rock paintings depicting Nuba wrestling
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