My entertainment this
weekend came in the form of seven friends and I attending a Lutte Match (Wrestling
match). Lutte is by far the most popular
sport in Senegal and varies in many ways from what Americans consider
wrestling. In the United States my naïve
view of wrestling consists of a cage, large body-builder men, women wearing
little clothes, and lots of yelling. In
Senegal Lutte consists of large wrestling men dancing in unison, milk pouring,
bags of water and ice cream, very adamant fans adorned in clothes with each
wrestlers face, and ending in about a minute of actual wrestling.
One of the most important aspects of each Lutte match is
the pre-wrestling dance ritual where each wrestler and his “posse” do about 10
minutes of a choreographed dance accompanied by a jambé band. While dancing their posse is pouring liquid
on them that ranges from plain water to milk.
The liquids are a blessing from their ancestors for luck in the
match. Each wrestler is also ornamented
with Gri-Gri, another form of luck from the Islamic Marabou and come in the
form of bracelets, and waist chains. All
of these pre-wrestling rituals are narrated by possibly the coolest sports
announcer I have ever seen rocking an all white buubuu and hat. Overall the rituals take about two hours
whereas the actual matches last about a minute each and the goal is to force
your opponent to the ground. We saw
about 5 matches, one of which was between two of the largest men I have ever
seen in real life, each weighing probably about 300 pounds of muscle. One of them, Juan, was from Spain and won as
the underdog! The final match featured
Ama, the Senegalese favorite and when he won it was pure chaos. I have never seen so many people move that
quickly as each person ran from their seat into the arena dancing and yelling. One of the boys in the jambé band even took
off his pants and began to dance in his SpongeBob underwear, until the
Gendarmerie (police) kicked him out of the stadium.
The Lutte match was not only entertainment but also a
remarkable insight into Senegalese culture.
Lutte emphasizes tradition just like everything else I have encountered
in Senegal and I basked in the unspoken bond each Senegalese at the match
shared based in religion, tradition and ritual.
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