More than merely a combat sport, Senegalese wrestling combines professional athleticism with cultural traditions, political relations, and religious belief. For many young men in Senegal, wrestling also represents a model of success in otherwise challenging circumstances characterized by socio-economic crisis and increasing precarity. Young wrestlers must navigate and perform an elaborate set of identities in order to demonstrate their success—both within the sand-filled arenas in which fights take place, and in the complex social worlds which have emerged around the practice. Referring to a panoply of identity markers including ethnicity, religious affiliation, and village or neighborhood loyalty, wrestlers simultaneously demonstrate their alignment with dominant discourses around masculinity and urban knowledge. The article draws upon lengthy ethnographic research to explore the dynamic, contradictory, and hybrid processes of identity construction through which wrestlers present themselves to the world.

塞内加尔摔跤不仅仅是一项格斗运动，它还将职业运动与文化传统、政治关系和宗教信仰相结合。对于塞内加尔的许多年轻人来说，摔跤也是在以社会经济危机和日益不稳定为特征的其他挑战环境中取得成功的典范。年轻的摔跤手必须驾驭和表演一套精心设计的身份，以证明他们的成功——无论是在发生战斗的沙子竞技场内，还是在围绕练习出现的复杂社会世界中。谈到包括种族、宗教信仰和村庄或邻里忠诚度在内的一系列身份标记，摔跤手同时展示了他们与围绕男性气质和城市知识的主流话语的一致性。