Moring : the fight of ancestors

Moring, a martial art of Malagasy African origin, made a full come back in Réunion Island . Youth appreciates the elegance of its figures and its rituals, rendering homage to its slave ancestry.

For over fifty years moring was only a memory in Réunion. The ritual fight was brought to the island by African and Malagasy slaves and was performed until the abolition of slavery in 1848.

One supposes that slave masters allowed it as long as the loud jousts did not disrupt life on the plantations. Later, when the living conditions of many poor white or metis colonists were no better than those of the now free blacks, moring became a happy escape from the daily misery in the working class suburbs and the sugar cane fields.

Here is the opportunity to strike merciless blows, a show of force. Rules may not be broken, the competitors must belong to the same age group to avoid unfair fignts. Rum gives courage to the fighters and excites the supporters. Moring is a godsend for shopkeepers and wizards alike. Trade in moonshine potions is booming.

In 1946, the faraway French Colony of the Indian Ocean becomes an overseas Department of France. Slowly but surely, life style changes, modern western ways take over. Everything that harks back to the colonial past and to slavery is denied in an amazing collective loss of memory. The only cultural expression deemed to be "correct" is the one that comes from mainland France. Moring is one of the fatalities and loses its reason for existence.

New leisure activities take over; Reunion discovers the up-to -date sports.

Born in 1960, Jean René DREINAZA only knew moring throught the stories of his mother. However, he praticed French Boxing since college and attained the highest levels. He was twice European Champion and three times Champion of France.

In 1989, he visits Mdagascar, the country of his faraway origins for the first time. This visit comes as a shock. In Madagascar Jean René discovers the traditional martial arts, the moraingy of the coast, the diamanga and the dakabé of the highlands.

The boxer remembers the stories of his mother. "What appealed to the me most was the musical and ritual aspect of the fight, the respect for the forfathers" he says.

Back in Reunion he tackels a somewhat crazy project. He will bring moring back to life. Jean René DREINAZA soon draws young people interested in learning an elegant technique, halfway between sport and show. The first clubs are strated, the older generation is called upon to remember the correct ancient figures.

Today, the Moring Committee of Reunion has 20 school all over the island, with more than 800 members. More and more are enrolling every month. It is a fact that in only a few years, moring found its fans. In the sixties a small cultural group tried unseccessfully to revive the moring tradition, with a more theatrical purpose.

If Jean René DREINAZA the boxer did succeed, "it is simply because moring remains a martial art. One must be a fighter to understand that".

After all, the former champion is the first to claim the cultural renewal, in an island where the African an Malagasy contribution was for a long time looked down upon or even ignored. "You must know who you are to know where to go", he repeats. He has taken up a new challenge, that of establishing a "moring house", a place where the Malagasy African contribution in Reunion will be celebrated.