A West Indian or African-derived stick-fighting dance or musical tradition, performed especially in Caribbean culture.
From African and Caribbean Creole traditions, the exact etymology is debated but likely reflects a word from Bantu or other African languages blended with Caribbean culture. It emerged as a cultural practice among enslaved and free Black communities.
Calinda was a stick-fighting dance that enslaved people used both as a cultural practice and as a way to practice combat skills—colonizers were so threatened by it that many tried to ban it, which tells you how powerful they understood it to be.
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