Yamakasi are a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 group of practitioners of parkour

Parkour

Parkour is a method of movement focused on moving around obstacles with speed and efficiency. Originally developed in France, the main purpose of the discipline is to teach participants how to move through their environment by vaulting, rolling, running, climbing and jumping...

 and other types of acrobatics

Acrobatics

Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...

. But, the term 'yamakasi' is also used to call a particular form of a performance in order to distinguish it from other similar activities mentioned above.

Overview

The art originally termed l'art du deplacement, now also referred to as parkour, was founded in France in the 1980s by a group of nine young men who called themselves The Yamakasi. Yamakasi originates from the African Congolese Lingala language meaning loosely 'Strong Man, Strong Spirit', and summed up the original and still core aim of the discipline - to be a strong individual: physically, mentally and ethically.

The Yamakasi founders were Yann Hnautra, Chau Belle, David Belle

David Belle

David Belle is well known as the founder of Parkour. Belle founded Parkour based on his training and the teachings from his father Raymond Belle. The discipline has since spread around the world and now has adherents in virtually every country...

, Laurent Piemontesi, Sébastien Foucan

Sebastien Foucan

Sébastien Foucan is a French actor of Guadeloupean descent. Along with David Belle he is considered one of the founders of parkour and is the creator of free running. He is known as a representative of, and ambassador for parkour and free running to many countries...

, Guylain N'Guba Boyeke, Charles Perriere, Malik Diouf and Williams Belle.

Etymology

The word yamakasi is taken from the Lingala language

Lingala language

Lingala, or Ngala, is a Bantu language spoken throughout the northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a large part of the Republic of the Congo , as well as to some degree in Angola and the Central African Republic. It has over 10 million speakers...

, which is spoken in both Congo states (the Republic of the Congo

Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo , sometimes known locally as Congo-Brazzaville, is a state in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda, and the Gulf of Guinea.The region was dominated by...

 and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

). Ya makási can mean "strong body", "strong spirit", "strong person."