Ashorkor: Chapter 2

Five years later, Lumei Ashorkor received her invitation from the the league of African Martial Artists to participate in the All- African Martial Arts Tournament.

Her first opponent was an asafo skilled in the use of the akofena. She used Mim Dzee (art of evasion) to evade the wooden akofena swung at her and struck his chest with her fists using Akotoku (art of fistfighting), sending him crashing backwards onto the combat mat beneath their feet.

She then faced a Hausa boxer who weaved and bobbed away from her punches. Ashorkor resorted to attacking with her feet using Intia Shomo (the art of complex kicking and feet attacks) felling her.

She finally made short work of a Builsa warrior, one of the toughest in the country, flooring her with one punch in the first five seconds of the first round.

That very evening, she set off for the airport to begin her trip across the rest of the continent as part of the tournament. By the next day, she had touched down in Angola and reached the fighting arena by midday. A mestre (master of capoeira) sunk into an offensive stance and tried to hit her with high and low sweeps of her feet.

Ashorkor slipped into a trance like state, focusing solely on her opponent and blocked the feet attacks with her own before felling her with a low sweep of her left leg.

In Benin, one of the Mino (the Fon word for our mother, which referred to the all female fighting regiment of the Dahomean army), drew a machete at the same moment as Naa did. After three strikes at her opponents blade, using Ka Klante Ke Nomo (art of bladed combat) she disarmed her opponent.

In Senegal, a hulking Senegalese wrestler, grappled with her fiercely until she used the grappling aspect of Abotri to restrain her opponent and forced her to submit.

In South Africa, she faced the top most South African stick fighter, wielding two of the fighting sticks, one to attack and the other to defend against attacks. The lumei used Adzenkluku (the acrobatic sciences) to slip past her opponent's defenses and struck her with ferocious double handed slaps and kicks.

Two days later she made it to the Egyptian arena to face the reigning champion, a woman who was reputed to have mastered what was referred to as a fusion of all the African martial arts, passed down to her from ancient times. The two opponents sunk into offensive stances in the shadows of the pyramids.

The Egyptian struck first in a flurry of kicks and punches, switching from one martial art to another in minutes. But Ashorkor was faster and met every fist with her own and every kick with her own, forcing the champion into a corner with ferocious double handed slaps and kicks.

After 12 rounds, Ashorkor was awarded 10 points more than the champion in terms of hits, and was declared the new champion of the tournament