Bajan stick-licking

Bajan sticklicking (often spelled stick-licking) is the traditional form of stick fighting in Barbados.

[1] It is a stick fighting martial art that has its roots from Africa, where two participants used fire-hardened wooden sticks, varying in length as weapons and carrying out fighting techniques.

The earliest reference to stick fighting in the Caribbean was from a lithograph completed in Dominica in 1779 by an Italian artist, Agostino Brunias.

In Guadeloupe, its name was mayolé, while in Haiti and Trinidad, there were similar names, kalinda and kalenda respectively (Guyana – Setu; Carricou – Bois) and finally, the discussed art form Bajan Stick Licking.

However, Africans have a longer history of stick fighting than these countries do, so it’s more likely that they influence the others.