Evala wrestling

Kabye, also known as Kabiye, Kabre, Cabrai or Lanmba, is the name for a language and the peoples who speak it in the north central mountains and northern plains of Togo, West Africa. The Kabye are primarily known for farming and cultivation of harsh, dry, infertile lands of Togo. They grow cotton, millet and yams.

Kabye people also live in northwestern Benin near the Togolese border. The Logba or Lugba people of Benin are closely related to the Kabye. Broadly defined and subgroups included, the Kabiye people are the second largest ethnic group after Ewe people and they dominate the government and military of Togo.

The Kabye are a patrilineal society that has been primarily devoted to subsistence farming. In contemporary economy, many are migrant labor.

Evala is a form of traditional wrestling practised mainly by the Kabyé of northern Togo, in West Africa. Competitors meet yearly at a festival following a retreat marking the initiation of young men into adulthood.

Evala is the penultimate element of this initiation rite, during which young men are separated from their families for one week, residing in special huts where they are fed and subject to mental training. Prior to wrestling, participants go on a pilgrimage which involves climbing three mountains; those who do not complete it are not initiated into adulthood. Although wrestlers are initiated regardless of whether they win or not, losing is considered shameful to the family name. The last of these initiation rites is circumcision.

The country's former president, Gnassingbé Eyadema who seized power in a coup was of Kabye ethnicity. Togo is now led by Eyadema's son, Faure Gnassingbé.

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Wikipedia