West African Wrestling

Candace Feit

Set Ref:202

Date:18/02/2010

What began as a sport practied throughout the villages of West Africa has now boomed into a big business for wrestlers and sponsors alike. The biggest stars today have stage names like "Tyson" and "50 cent" and draw crowds of tens of thousands of spectators. Purses are huge and instead of winning a bag of rice or a goat as in the old days, big time wrestlers are now fighting for prizes of over 250,000 Euro.

All over Dakar, Senegal, wrestling schools train these up-and-comers hundreds at a time -- all of them trying to make their mark as wrestlings next star. For many of these young men, it is one hope to out of poverty. These images chornicle the struggle of wrestlers to achieve the dream of being the one rising star who makes it.