Conflict Displays in the Black Atlantic

Wherever Africans and Europeans converged as the mercantile transatlantic world developed, a lively exchange of stylized forms of public display emerged. Not least of these were the costumed battles featuring stick-fighting, and others that called for improvised songs or speeches. Many festivities took place at the holidays marked by the Roman Catholic or Protestant church calendars. Using European customary practices as a baseline for describing these display events as they occurred in the New World, it is possible to see to just what extent African styles and practices entered into their new formulations. In the anglophone sphere of the black