The terms Arnis and Escrima (also Eskrima) have their origin in the spanish language. The meaning of Arnis is “armor”. Escrima is a filipinization of the spanish word for “fencing”.
The origin of the term Kali has various possible explanations. Most likely it derived from the pre-Hispanic Filipino term Kalis, which means “blades” and “fencing”. However this three terms stand all for the Filipino Martial Arts.
Kali was a martial art usually practised by the poor or commoner class in the nowadays philippines. Most practitioners lacked the scholarly education to create any kind of written record. While the same can be said of many martial arts, this is especially true for Kali – almost all of its history is anecdotal, oral or promotional.
The origin of Kali can be traced back to native Visayans fighting techniques during conflicts among the various Prehispanic Filipino tribes or kingdoms. These various clans kept their own martial art as a secret and only passed their knowledge further within the family structure.
When the Spaniards invaded the phillipines in the beginning of the 16th century, they got chaised away first from the natives; the climate, the unknown environment, their heavy armor and the skilled Kali figthers made the Spainards lose their leader and the battle. Later on they came back with modern technology like arbeques. But also with the political strategy of divide and conquer. Spain colonized the philippines for more than 300 years.
During this period the Spaniards prohibited civilians to carry live weapons as blades or knives in public. Until that point this was common amongst the native population – most of them were farmers and used these weapons as working tools.
As the prohibition came into force, the people started to exercise with rattan sticks and wodden knifes in secret to keep their culture alive.
Because of this colonial centuries the current form of Kali has a big spanish influence from old fencing Destreza (which originated in Spain in the 15th century). It has other influences as well, as settlers and traders were travelling through the Malay Archipelago brought the influence of Silat as well as Chinese, Arab, and Indian martial arts.
In the second half of the 20th century more and more people from all over the world went to the phillipines to discover this “new” martial art. This, because the filipino diaspora was growing in the USA and Kali grandmasters started to teach Kali there publicly.
As a logical consequence many grandmasters in the philippines felt the need to give Kali a less raw and bloody image. By giving the blade art a more sportive character they reached a broader audience. This brought Kali Tournaments into existence in the philippines. There participants wear full body protection and hit each other with rattan or foam sticks while neglecting Strategy and Tactics of the blade.
The prohibition of the Spaniards, later on the modification from a raw blade art into a well protected sport, and finally the modern perception of martial arts as a recreational activity – all this factors and many more had – in my opinion – a huge influence on the deadly art of Kali. In such a way, that it is nowadays mostly known and practised as a stick fighting martial art. And the origin of Kali, the blade art, falls more and more into oblivion.