Blocks of Fury: 52 Hand Blocks An Indigenous Inner City Martial Art Form
Written by C'BS ALife Allah
Wait. You need to get you mind right through the ear. Let Rakim Allah do that for you, In the Ghetto.
Medina is the Asiatic name for the borough of Brooklyn in New York. Among the wise it is also known as the land of warriors. It makes sense that where I learned the art of the martial Rock (aka UPROCK)dance before the Golden Age of Hip Hop would also be the place where an Afri-Atlantic diasporatic martial art (fancy way of saying it's Black-Fu from the motherland) would be preserved amongst inner city jungles. I learned the basic in the art from big brother neighborhood types who did extended stays in Medina and came back to teach a few of the youth in New Haven, CT the arts of battle that they learned.
One of the side effects of the explosion of Kung Fu movies into the American consciousness is the wrong assumption that only the Chinese and Japanese developed martial arts. The reality is that many people across the planet have developed fighting sciences and Original People on the continent called Africa are amongst them. You can start out in the north and see the black and white hieroglyphics on the walls of a temple in Beni Hasan in Egypt that shows the form of wrestling that was adapted into Graeco-Roman wrestling. This form in its raw form is still practiced on the West Coast of Africa in countries such as Senegal and to the East in Sudan amongst the Nuba. It's not just wrestling. Its got blows and strikes up in there.
The countries in West Africa have a host of martial arts. A lot of the arts were devastated by the Maafa just like a lot of institutions in Africa. One art that was recorded was Sanga of Angola. Those who practiced it were called the Imbare. They were known for hand to hand combat and dodging weapons. Not everyone in the army learned these arts. Some of the moves of this art we're going to talk about later cause they may be directly related to 52 Hand Blocks. There is a family of martial arts that is known as Afri-Atlantic martial arts. They are fighing arts that traveled from West Africa during slavery and transformed into various forms once they hit the Caribbean and Americas. The most familiar one to people may be Capoeira of Brazil. There are a host of others though such as Mani in Cuba, Ladja in St. Martinique, Broma in Venzuela, Pinge (wrestling form) in Hati, Kalinda (stick fighting form) in Trinidad and more. They were preserved through secrecy, masking them in music, and strict means of transmission.
Now in North America there was a form around the Georgia Sea Coast Islands called 'Knockin and Kickin' which was also known as Pushing and Dancing. Finally it appears that the indiginous name of the art is Yuna Onse. This form appears to be the foundation for what is known as 'Jail House Rock'. Jail House Rock is the name which is used to describe the core of West African martial arts that made it to the Wilderness of North America. 52 Hand Blocks is the Medina manifestation of JHR. It may be the only form fully in existence nowadays as many died out.
Change gears, now rock that "Know the Ledge"
Stop all of the scholar talk God. What is 52 Hand Blocks? It's Black martial arts that whups your ass with style and finesse. If you've seen uprock you've gotten a glimpse of it. If you've seen slap boxing you got another peek. It you watch some old boxing matches with Black boxers you might catch a little here and there. See, a lot of the other Black martial arts developed in conjunction with music. It is no mystery why 52 Hand blocks has rhythm. It is not a static martial art. Often times the attack and defense are combined into one move. You don't wait for a blow. These are all elements of African martial arts. Why 52? No there aren't 52 blocks. There are many explanations as to the name. Most that I have heard have to do with the 52 cards in a deck from 'where the cards may fall' to the pairing up an exercise with a card. There is a technique where you assign a certain exercise (pull ups, sit ups, etc) to every card in the deck. Thus when you pull a card from a deck you do the exercise identified with that card. The same technique could be applied to the moves in 52 Handblocks.
One way that 52 Handblocks was preserved was through Black boxing and through the tombs (prisons). If you are familiar with boxing and the
Queensbury rules, there wasn't any bobbing and weaving going on. The Blackman brought that to boxing. My father, who was in the navy during WW II, use to teach me some boxing. Later on I noticed what I thought were 'quirks' which were probably remenants of JHR such as him following through his punch with an elbow strike or him stressing the importance of using the shoulder to guard the neck and ear. In West African martial arts there are fore arm strikes and slaps to set people up for another blow. These are all in 52 Hand Blocks.
Its funny that I grew up watching Kung Fu movies yet not realizing that the way I was taught to fight in the street was my own martial art. The moves, techniques, and styles had names such as Sleeping Beggar, Puppy Dog Walk, Dopefiend lock, etc. Later as I grew up and built with the Gods in Medina they would show me more techniques.
The prisons of upstate New York became like the temples of Shaolin. Martial scientist were developing techniques in there that were based off of the foundation that we knew in the streets. During the mythic 70's and 80's there were legendary battles taking place in the streets. You have to understand that this was right before the height of the (crack) Rock era. This was before guns flooded the streets and things were still handled hand to hand. After Crack came the youth started to not invest in proper hand skills and fighting protocall.
Nowadays there is a resurgence in the interest in 52 Hand Blocks. One of the main groups that is preserving the integrity of 52 Handblocks through proper recording of history, proper training, and proper transmission are the brothers at Fwape. If you want a reference point for 52 Handblocks this is where you need to go. They have several videos that will drop the history, the training, and also the technique. They are also 100% real.
Is the one god's name on that fwape video really "Devine" Knowledge or DIVINE Knowledge? Peace.
Impressive history lesson. written by ginogino,
November 19, 2007
Wow! I grew up far fromnewyork in the boondocks of pennsylvania farm country. This has given me a very quenching drink of insite toward music and dance and martial arts. Thank you for making this history available to me.
yes sir!....this brings back memories of being a shorty in medina watching the older heads practice in the middle of the street........if u was a known fighter in the hood you had to knowledge the 52's...good article lord peace
peace written by Brotheromi,
November 15, 2007
dope article. definitely needed. there is a very inexpensive dvd that breaks down the form is from the same website... called Boxing for Combat
The countries in West Africa have a host of martial arts. A lot of the arts were devastated by the 
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or DIVINE Knowledge? Peace.