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by Abdul Mutakabbir (Author)
Beginning at the early age of 11, in 1962, Sijo Abdul Bari Mutakabbir began his journey as a faithful student of martial arts, training for over half a century. He initially became interested in the martial arts as a young child because of his sister's encouragement, who felt he needed stronger guidance to manage his anger while growing up in the rough streets of Harlem in New York City. Coming from a poverty-stricken household, training under a martial art's instructor seemed impossible at the time. So, he started training himself until he was able to train under a karate Master. Years later, Sijo expanded his knowledge to other martial arts systems that included Kung fu, Jujitsu and Internal art. As his martial arts career spanned over 50+ years, Abdul Mutakabbir became the co-founder of SWAM Academy of Modern Martial Arts that has, 40 years later, grown globally as "SWAM Nation". Being at the helm of this organization has earned him the title "Sijo" (meaning father of a martial arts system). Along with building his martial arts organization, he was also the co-owner of Hail/Swam Security Consultant firm that worked with Hollywood's elite in over 200 movies filmed in the NYC area. This Who's Who included: Spike Lee, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, Brad Pitt, Robert Redford, Harrison Ford, Will Smith, Bruce Willis, Whitney Houston, and Meryl Streep to name a few clients. This firm also protected many royal dignitaries from Africa and other influential people throughout the world, such as Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali. Sijo held his role as a model community leader very seriously, especially within the dilapidated NYC neighborhood where the SWAM headquarters' dojo is located. During the mid-1980s the epidemic of crack cocaine surged throughout that neighborhood. It got so bad that Sijo declared war on that neighborhood's local drug dealers who had terrorized the community. The straw that broke the camel's back was when Sijo and some of his students had to rescue an elderly lady that was being held hostage in her own home. The drug dealers were using her apartment as a drug den. Something had to be done that was never done before. The community members, led by Sijo, took the neighborhood back with a lockdown preventing the sale of drugs. This was the creation of a takeover called "the seize" that rocked the drug trafficking activity of $250,000 worth of drugs sold daily. This occurrence put a halt to drug sales for 40 straight days. Sijo and 200 other courageous men stood on street corners, rooftops, and inside/outside buildings, making sure NO drugs were bought or sold. Once the dojo's neighborhood was cleaned up, he pushed the seize to another neighboring projects, Baizley Park, where he and his fellow comrades put a stop to the sales of $1,000,000 worth of drug money being made per day. This historic moment made a big impact on the revitalization of these neighborhoods. Today, Sijo still directs and teaches at the legendary SWAM Martial Arts Academy in NYC as well as in their dojo in Atlanta, GA. Sijo is passionate about connecting with people and empowering humanity and has dedicated his life to the Martial Way. He believes the Martial Way is to be used as a platform to enable humanity to see the dignity within themselves so that they can in-turn, reinvest that positive energy into others.
