Dambe is a form of boxing associated with the Hausa people of West Africa. The name ‘Dambe’ derives from the Hausa word for ‘boxe’ and boxers are called by the Hausa word ‘daæmaænga’.
Historically, it was dominated by the Hausa butcher caste guilds, and over the last century evolved from clans of butchers traveling to farm villages at harvest time, integrating a fighting challenge by the outsiders into local harvest festival entertainment. It was also traditionally practiced as a way for men to get ready for war, and many of the techniques and terminology allude to warfare.
Today, companies of boxers called ‘armies’ travel, performing outdoor matches accompanied by ceremony and drumming, throughout the traditional Hausa homelands of northern Nigeria, southern Niger and south-western Chad.
This series of portraits of Dambe boxers were photographed in a fighting pit in Gidan Ali-Zuma, Abuja in 2016.