Bajan stick licking
Style of martial arts practiced in West Indies
- Type
- combat sport
Bajan sticklicking (often spelled stick-licking) is the traditional form of stick fighting in Barbados. 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. This art most likely came to Barbados during the 16th century through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
The earliest reference to stick fighting in the Caribbean was from a lithograph completed on the island of Dominica in 1779 by an Italian artist, Agostino Brunias. In the image, there are two persons in the middle and other stick fighters and watchers gathered around them; some who are willing to fight and others that are old and experienced observing and refereeing the fight.
Stickfighting started to spread across the region with each culture having its own name. 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.
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q4848847 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.