Wrestling in Dakar

Overview

Traditional wrestling, or "laamb", is arguably Senegal's national sport, exceeding even football in popularity. Matches, usually held in open-air arenas, are social and cultural events with fighters and spectators enacting rituals with a significance that date back hundreds of years. The top tier of champions can earn up to $100,000 a fight, an unimaginable sum of money to most Senegalese, and the dream of becoming a professional wrestler spurs on many young men, for a few years at least. In the down-market suburb of Pikine in the capital Dakar - where 70 percent of the population are under the age of 25 and more than half the population lives on or below the poverty line - five friends are determined to become wrestling stars. Thiam, Lamine, Abdou, Cissokho and M'Baye have opened their own, informal, wrestling school and train for hours every day. Their hope is to catch the eye of one person in particular - Madame Ndeye Ndiaye Tyson, one of Senegal's leading wrestling promoters.