Gender and the Embodiment of Honor in Afro-Colombian Grima

The Afro-Colombian martial art of grima trained exponents to fight using the machete, lance or unarmed body as weapons. Over the course of the nineteenth century, grima proliferated into over thirty unique styles, each with its own special choreography and approach to combat. Grima has been a resource, albeit a limited one, in the day-to-day struggle of black Caucanos from the nineteenth century through the mid twentieth century. A successful maestro (master of grima) could use his skills to bring notoriety to himself and his community. Grima functioned as a form of cultural capital, an art of personal display, a form of dueling, and a method of personal and collective defense that in the past aided active participation in larger social struggles. This paper will explore grima’s role as a resource for both men and women in these communities.