Haitian Machete Fencing

[GeneChing]

This looks intriguing. I'd love to see the doc - working on a kickstarter they are.

Grace, danger blend in Haiti's machete fighting


David McFadden
In this July 2, 2014 photo, Alfred Avril, left, instructs a student in the little-known martial art of machete fencing, just outside the town of Jacmel, Haiti. An effort to bring awareness about the obscure tradition has been launched by a small group of aficionados that have formed a group called the Haitian Machete Fencing Project. They are organizing summer training sessions for a fee for “serious-minded foreigners” at Avril’s home and recently filmed a short documentary about the 70-year-old farmer called “Papa Machete” that they are trying to get into film festivals. (AP Photo/David McFadden)

Posted: Wednesday, July 9, 2014 9:04 am | Updated: 11:11 am, Wed Jul 9, 2014.
Associated Press | 0 comments

JACMEL, Haiti (AP) — Two men pivot and slide in a forest clearing, their bodies weaving before a handful of spectators in what could be a graceful dance except that each waves a machete, blades glinting in tropical sunlight.

The barefoot men are father and son, Alfred and Roland Avril, and are farmers by trade in southern Haiti. Their passion, however, is machete fencing, an obscure martial art with roots in the Caribbean country's history of slavery and rebellion.

In the smoky, greenish light under the trees of his property, 70-year-old Alfred, a master of machete fencing, moves back and forth in fluid, trance-like steps. He explains later that his skills have been honed through decades of practice and mystical visions. "At the moment I am about to fight with the machete, I can see it all unfold in a dream," he said without further explanation on a recent morning.

This obscure practice that emerged around the Caribbean in the colonial period is gaining new attention thanks to the very modern phenomenon known as Reddit. Videos showing the elder Avril instructing students were posted on the popular Internet site, catching the attention of a Miami-based writer and filmmaker who quickly was hooked with the menacing beauty of the fencing.

"When I found out that there was an actual martial art using the machete, and that somehow it was wrapped up in the history of the Haitian revolution, I knew I had to go to Haiti to train," said Jason Jeffers, one of the founders of the Haitian Machete Fencing Project, which seeks to promote and preserve a vanishing practice that is part sport, part art.

Jeffers is putting the finishing touches on a short, crowd-sourced documentary about Avril called "Papa Machete" that he's hoping to get into film festivals. He's in early planning stages for a full film, perhaps featuring other machete masters in Haiti's central Artibonite region, where the tradition is most common. Other project members are organizing summer training sessions with Avril in the southern beach village of Jacmel.

Experts say machete-based martial arts can be found among people of African descent in other countries, including Colombia and Cuba. Related styles of fighting include "stick-licking" in Barbados and "kalenda" in Trinidad and Tobago. But the Haitian tradition is a unique fusion of traditional African stick-fighting and European saber fencing that researchers say can be traced back to the earliest days of Haiti's slave revolution at the end of the 1700s.

T.J. Desch-Obi, an associate professor of history at New York's Baruch College who has researched machete fencing, said the art is rooted in combat methods used by the slaves who rose up against their French oppressors in the Haitian revolution of 1791-1804.

"Haiti's revolution really started with just machetes in the early days of the war when they didn't have much access to firearms," said Desch-Obi, author of a 2008 book "Fighting for Honor: The History of African Martial Art Traditions in the Atlantic World," which suggests expertise in machete combat contributed to the success of the slave revolution.

In the 20th century, Haiti's machete-fighting tradition was kept alive by secret societies that required initiates to learn the art, Desch-Obi said. Over the years, he said, he has met about 10 machete masters in Haiti but the exact number in the country is unknown.

It's imbued, at least in Avril's version, with some of the esoteric ideas of Voodoo, a blend of West African religions created by slaves during the colonial period also known as Vodou. The martial art served mostly as a means of self-defense among people living in the Haitian countryside where the handy agricultural tool is used for nearly every purpose under the sun.

Michael Rogers, founder of the Haitian Machete Fencing Project, hopes that showcasing the tradition for visitors will help his aging teacher and preserve what remains of the practice passed down through generations. Although Avril lives close to Jacmel, a coastal town that draws tourists, it tends to be practiced by people in communities deep in the countryside where few foreigners venture.

"I'm also hoping that other masters in other parts of Haiti will come out and show their stuff," Rogers said in a phone interview from Britain.

Historically, the rural tradition of machete fencing has been shrouded in secrecy. Initially, Rogers said Avril would only instruct him behind a wall of woven coconut fronds.

Trying to bring the secretive, rural Haitian martial art to foreigners involves certain trade-offs, but Avril is now eager to share his machete-fighting expertise with anyone who is interested. The former Haitian army drill instructor trained his sons, grandsons and neighbors to carry on his school.

So far, Avril says he's instructed about a dozen people from abroad. Novices are instructed on faux-machetes carved out of wood. Students say it takes weeks to graduate to a real machete.

One of Avril's veteran students is local bar owner Reginald Turnier, who was raised in the New York City suburbs by Haitian parents. He feels like he's unlocking the fighting techniques of his ancestors, and has several small scars on his hands and scalp from early lessons. "There's definitely a martial lineage I feel I'm connecting to," he said.

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David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd

[Faux Newbie]

There's an old tarzan movie I once watched with my wife (she loves Tarzan) that was filmed somewhere on location. Right in the middle, there is a sequence where two kids are sparring with machetes. You could see that this just happened, not planned, and they just filmed it because it was the best footage they had going. I've never been able to find it again, but as I remember it, it was pretty cool.

[mawali]

A positive trend! Hailing from the general area, weapon arts in the Caribbean/West Indies tend to be individual and without 'lineage', as it were.
Here are some points:
1. The individual family skill come from work in the canefield, now mostly gone
2. The country people use it to hunt forest animals.
3. The main origins are African with elements of European exposure to martial arts allowing for better and more pronounced 'social learning skill'
4. Other origins are indigenous (Carib usually and some Arawak remnants). #3 and #4 are most obvious in cuttting coconits from the tree.
5. Other origins are India and use of the cutlass (as called in Trinidad , Guyana and Surinam) with#3, #4, to create a different kind of weapon. In these area, it is used as part of homicides.

Here is one comparing Trinidad and Hawaii in the cutting of a coconut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXyD10CBzG4

[GeneChing]

'En Garde' Takes On New Urgency In A Duel With Machetes
January 24, 2015 7:03 AM ET
Linda Poon



Two men are sparring on a wooded slope in Haiti. Each has one hand behind his back. From afar, it looks as if they're fencing. But instead of using swords, the men are wielding machetes.

Yes, you read that right. They are aiming machetes at each other.

The older man is "Professor" Alfred Avril, a 70-year-old Haitian farmer who is also a master of tire machet, or Haitian machete fencing. He's quick but deliberate in his movements. His son and student, Jean-Paul, sways backward, descending to the ground to dodge the strikes.

At one point, Avril, with his machete resting on his son's, swings the blade up and it slices right into Jean-Paul's cheeks, drawing a speck of blood and ending the match.

The training session, which resembles a graceful dance as the two twist and turn their bodies, is documented in Papa Machete. The 11-minute documentary, produced by journalist Jason Jeffers and artist Keisha Witherspoon at Third Horizon Media, had its U.S. premiere on Friday at the Sundance Film Festival and will air three more times during the film fest.


Machete master Alfred Avril instructs his son, Jean-Paul.
Richard Patterson/Courtesy of Sundance Institute

The goal of the filmmakers is to show the world a different side of Haiti. "So often when you hear about Haiti, you expect that it's going to be a sad story," says Jeffers. "But Haiti has a remarkable cultural legacy. We hope people can see there's much more."

Like the little-known sport of machete fencing. The martial art form mixes European fencing with traditional African stick-fighting. The machete is the weapon of choice because it is ubiquitous throughout Haiti and the Caribbean, Witherspoon says. "You often see a machete leaning up against the back door, in the kitchen, in the yard."

She considers it the "pocket knife of the Caribbean" while Jeffers calls it the "Excalibur."

The art is rooted in the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804, when slaves used their farm tools to successfully revolt against French colonizers. "The history isn't very clear, but it's our understanding that before the slaves rebelled against the French, some of the underclass had trained with the French army to fight off the Spanish so a lot of them knew how to fence," says Jeffers.

As for Avril, he says his skill with the machete was a gift from his father and teacher — and from his ancestors. He says their spirits visited him and passed on their knowledge.

The Professor died in December, shortly after the film was completed. Only a handful of masters remain. Most consider machete fencing a family tradition that should be taught only to a few loyal students in secret. "It was not something to be shared," Jeffers says.


The Professor's pupils practice with wooden sticks, not sharp blades.
Richard Patterson/Courtesy of Sundance Insitute

Avril had a different attitude. He instructed roughly six students each day, including his sons, grandchildren (they practiced with sticks), nieces, nephews and a few others in his community. The fact that he opened his training sessions to the filmmakers — and essentially the world — is rare.

Jeffers first saw Avril in a video posted on the social media site Reddit by Michael Rogers, founder of the Haitian Machete Fencing Project. Jeffers and his production crew teamed up with the organization and headed to Haiti in 2013 for some training of their own.

Avril had his own style of fencing. "It was never about striking hard, it was about a certain amount of flow," Jeffers recalls. "He would say, 'This is not karate.'"

In fact, it's all about defense and Avril says so in the film: "I don't use this gift to kill people."

Of course, when you're dealing with machetes, minor injuries happen — small cuts to the fingers and face. A dab of rum from the bottles Avril often carried to training sessions, and the match would start over.

The film crew started a Kickstarter campaign to rebuild Avril's home, which was severely damaged during the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. A new building sits where the old home once was. And now the Alfred Avril Memorial Fund has been set up to help his family.

With the master gone, his sons, Jean-Paul and Roland, may take over the training.

"Anytime I go," Avril says prophetically in the film, "it is in their hands."

I hope to see this doc someday.

[mawali]

As the devil's advocate and I am aware that they want to upgrade the stock of the machete, but as a former fencer, the machete (cutlass) is more of a slashing instrument than a pointing one. Do you know why the Marine Corps high neck on dress blues is stiffer that other uniforms? When the Marines were on the Barbary Coast, a favourite tactic of the pirates was to use the sword to slash (attempt) the neck of Marines. The design and weight distribution favours slashing in all regards!

[GeneChing]

This seems to be doing well on the film festival circuit. Eager to see it.

Award-Winning Haitian Short Film ‘Papa Machete’ Is Now Streaming Ahead of Third Horizon’s Inaugural Caribbean Film Fest
09.16.16
by ERIN C.J. ROBERTSON

Black August marked the 212th anniversary of the Haitian Revolution of 1791 to 1804 led by Toussaint L’Ouverture—the only successful slave rebellion in modern recorded history.

Thus Haiti became the first independent Black republic in the world. However to this day, France forces Haiti to pay an “independence debt”—or reparations—totaling billions, to compensate long-dead colonists for the slaves who had won their freedom from Napoléon Bonaparte.

Overcoming incredible odds, having few guns and ammunition, slaves of African descent wielded machetes, the very tool they used to labor on sugar plantations, to achieve freedom.

It is from this rich legacy that short doc Papa Machete, written and executive produced by Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, introduces us to late tire machétt master “Professor” Alfred Avril who taught his fighting technique, often guarded in Haiti, to a select few.

“I don’t use this gift to kill people, but I have it,” Avril reveals in the film. “So if you attack me…Understand? You’ll be in a bad way. If you are cut, the blood will flow.”

The short, boasting lush cinematography, paints a picture of Avril who instructs on the practical and spiritual nature of the machete, especially valuable for Haitian farmers like himself, according to the press release. Through his efforts to provide for and educate all eleven of his children, Avril demonstrates his allegiance to Haiti. His sons Roland and Jean-Paul, both accomplished machete martial artists, carry forth into the future the memory of Avril and Haiti’s victorious past.

“They are the one’s who will see if things change,” Avril says chillingly. “[My sons] are the ones who will see if things get better.”

A hit on the 2014 international film festival circuit, including Sundance and Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the Jonathan David Kane-directed and edited intimate portrait is now streaming ahead of Third Horizon’s inaugural Caribbean Film Festival.

A passion project of Jeffers, and organized by a collective of Miami and Brooklyn-based Caribbean creatives, the film festival spotlights eight features and nine short films.. If you’re in Miami, be sure to check it out, running from Sept. 29 until Oct. 2.

And, of course, view Papa Machete at the top.