Dambe is an ancestral martial artwork practised by the Hausa ethnic group in Nigeria. Throughout matches, rivals strike – with a single arm wrapped tightly in fabric, in addition to with their legs – to knock their opponents to the bottom. The lyrical brief documentary Elephant Meals Is for the Strongest Tooth profiles two rival fighters in Kano, Nigeria, highlighting how violence and non secular apply exist aspect by aspect inside dambe, a practice amongst butchers and fishermen. All through the movie, the threats that the game has confronted over the centuries in Kano – together with, most lately, a sequence of lethal rebel assaults by the militant jihadist group Boko Haram – linger within the background. Though they’re outsiders, the London-based administrators Michael Kinsella Perks and Will McBain lend their portrait of dambe a way of authenticity via intimate cinematography and an unique drum-and-voice rating offered by native Hausa musicians.
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