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Capoeira is one of Brazil’s most characteristic cultural

expressions. We often see definitions stating that the “game

of capoeira” is a sport practiced at clubs, academies or in

the streets, with no set rules but characteristically ordered

nevertheless, with its own music, for which the instrumentthat sets the pace at practice bouts is the berimbau, or mu-

sical bow. This definition, however, reduces capoeira to its

purely sporting aspects, to the detriment of the ways all its

other features blend in with Brazilian society. The purpose

of this publication is to reveal those elements of capoeira

that transcend physical exercise, and cover the profound

implications of the many ways the practice of capoeira af-

fects the way we live in society. For all of these reasons, ca-

poeira may be considered one of the most complex among

Brazil’s cultural expressions.

Capoeira’s mythical and religious aspects, for instance,

are a part of that which is considered “sacred” in Brazil,something that permeates all beliefs, lifestyles, dreams

and struggles in our society. Sérgio Buarque de Holanda

summed it up most eloquently as religious feeling, both

intimate and close to the heart, accepting of spiritual con-

tributions from many sources, and a paradigm of the cour-

teous nature with which that writer credits the Brazilian

people. Thus, the magic that imbues the world of capoeira

– albeit rooted in popular imaginings – gives form to a vast

spectrum of meaning through which this expression of Af-

ro-Brazilian culture maintains ties with all that is sacred, and

with a panoply of the expressions and traditions of Brazil’s

popular culture.

The language of capoeira helps us to understand someof the peculiarities in the way Brazilians relate to their en-

vironment. The names of many capoeira moves and tech-

niques often have to do with our natural surroundings, and

indicate how closely this practice relates to paying attention

to one’s environment. The very etymology of the indig-

enous word “capoeira” provides another example, in that it

originally meant “a clearing where jungle once stood.”

The History of Capoeira fleshes out these social aspects

by adding a wealth of relevant historical significance. The

changes through which capoeira has evolved reflect a num-

ber of transformations occurring over the last few centuries.

A comprehensive look at our history must therefore includesome remarks concerning the war on capoeira, which per-

sisted throughout the 19th and into the early 20th century.

Despite concerted efforts at its suppression, however, ca-

poeira managed to overcome all obstacles. That this was so

may be owing to the fact that capoeira is a broad-based and

deeply-rooted aspect of what it means to be Brazilian, and

therefore not something that is easily crushed.As a product of grassroots culture, capoeira was re-

garded with grave misgivings by the ruling cultural elite, as

something associated with idlers and ruf fians entirely lack-

ing in social graces. It is therefore instructive to observe

that capoeira today serves to eliminate some of the very

social ills for which it was accusingly blamed in the past.

Capoeira has revealed itself an excellent vehicle for social

inclusion. This is largely due to the way capoeiristas, in their

circle ceremonies, place opposites on an equal footing, en-

courage diversity and constantly foster the exercise of pa-

tience and humility.

In 2007, the Ministry of External Relations was pleasedto sponsor more than 50 capoeira events all over the world.

The spread of capoeira to other countries has greatly

strengthened and benefited this martial style. Today there

are mestres in many countries whose command of the

style is as good as we see in Brazil. It would not be too

much to say, then, that although capoeira has its cultural

roots in Brazil and is without question a symbol of Brazilian-

ness throughout the world, it is now so widely practiced on

a global scale as to constitute Brazil’s contribution to the

cultural heritage of mankind. Standing as mute witness to

the fact are the illustrations in this volume – photographs

by Pierre Verger and drawings by Carybé – both men hail-

ing from foreign lands, yet who, through their art, master-fully shed light on aspects peculiar to capoeira.

In the annex to this current issue of the Texts from Bra-

zil series, there is a disc with an excerpt from the documen-

tary “Mestre Bimba: the luminous capoeira” (“Mestre Bimba:

a capoeira iluminada”), whose permission to reproduce was

graciously granted by Lumen Produções. Based on the

book “Mestre Bimba: Corpo de Mandinga” by Muniz Sodré,

the film shows testimonies by old pupils and never-released

images of the life trajectory of one of the major names in

the history of capoeira. The reader who has never seen a

roda de capoeira will thus be able to enjoy a sampling of

capoeira movements, music and ritual. Hopefully, he or shewill also be encouraged by both this publication and the

DVD to join the fascinating world of capoeira...

INFORMATION COORDINATING OFFICE



The Challenges Capoeira Faces Today

CA P O E I RA HA

S L I T E RA L L Y C I R C L E D

T H E G L O B E.

O N C E P RA C T

I C E D B Y A F R I C

A N S LA V E S A N

D T H E I R

D E S C E N DA N T

S, D O C U M E N T

E D BA C K I N T H E DA Y S

O F T H E C O L O

N IA L E M P I R E,

CA P O E I RA H

A D B E -

C O M E A W O R

K I N G - C LA S S M

A L E PA S T I M E

D U R I N G T H E

O L D R E P U B L I C 1

. I T E M E

R G E D A S A S P O

R T I N

T H E 1 9 3 0 S, A N

D WA S F L O U R

I S H I N G B Y T H

E 1 96 0 S A N D

7 0 S, W H E N I T

A T T RA C T E D Y O U N G P R

A C T I -

T I O N E R S, MA L

E A N D F E MA L

E, F R O M A L L

WA L K S O F L I F

E. B E G I N N I N G

I N T H E 1 9 8 0 S

, CA P O E I RA H

A S

B E E N D I S S E M I

NA T E D W O R L

D W I D E, A N D I

S C U R R E N T L Y

P RA C T I C E D B

Y H U N D R E D S

O F T H O U SA N

D S

O F D E V O T E E S

T H E W O R L D O

V E R.

Luiz Renato Vieira e Matthias Röhrig Assunção

(1) The Old Republic (República Velha) is the

period in the history of Brazil that extendsfrom the proclamation of the Republic (1889)

until Getúlio Vargas comes to power in 1930.



The Challenges CapoeiraFaces Today

Public perceptions of capoeira have also changed dra-matically. Once a misdemeanor punishable by whipping, ora barbaric “Negro” custom blocking the path of progress, itis now the stuff of exotic folklore and worthy of preserva-tion, manifestly the cornerstone of a truly Brazilian martial art.More recently, attention has been lavished upon its variousaspects, and capoeira is on the verge of being declared a part

of the heritage of Brazil and of all mankind. Now globalized,it has become a Brazilian expression of what sociologist Re-nato Ortiz correctly described as international pop culture.

Since the 1980s, capoeira has also evolved into a properfocus of academic study, and the subject of many master’stheses and doctoral dissertations – in Brazil and elsewhere– in such fields as anthropology, history, sociology, edu-cation and physical education. Practitioners of the sport,scattered in groups throughout Brazil and beyond, debatethe merits of capoeira studies in their local milieus and atthe events they organize. No longer restricted to academiccircles and the performing arts, capoeira is making its debut

before a much wider audience, from the theater stage andcinema screen to the world of advertising.The generation of capoeiristas out there earning its rope

belts since the 1980s is driving a paradigm shift in the histo-ry of this form. While current practitioners are wearily famil-iar with the stories told by their masters – stories of perse-cution, of circles broken up by the cops and sent scatteringpell-mell through the crowds at public festivities – their ownexperience has been very different. Capoeira has earned itsplace as an institution covered by the media and respectedby the powers-that-be, and this has profoundly changed itsmeaning and its methods. The rapid pace of these changeshas been a challenge to capoeiristas, political institutions

and the various exponents of cultural values.

TOWARD A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD . To better explainhow today’s capoeira came about, we must look backwardthrough time. Capoeiristas were still seen as something farfrom ordinary in the early 1970s. The practice was taken tobe an expression of cultural form seeking a place for itselfas a sport, albeit a sport more at home among the poorer(mostly afro-descending) populations living on the outskirtsof town. The institutions of polite society regarded ca-poeira with apprehension, often from behind closed doors.Considerable effort was needed, by way of organization, to

keep capoeira from losing what momentum it had built upduring the early part of the 20th century.

Even though one could look back on many importantinitiatives in the development of capoeira, these were iso-lated efforts compared with the larger projects emergingin the 1970s and 80s. Capoeira was offered in schools, atuniversities, as physical therapy and training for the handi-capped. It became a major for licenciature degrees inphysical education and a fit subject for academic papersand theses, rehabilitation for juvenile delinquents and “the

No longer restricted to academic circles andthe performing arts, capoeira is making itsdebut before a much wider audience, fromthe theater stage and cinema screen to theworld of advertising.

Ministry of External RelationsTexts from Brazil



proper Brazilian style” of gymnastics. The literature on ca-poeira bristles with studies on the subject in all of thesefields – and in others too numerous to mention here. Theimportant thing is to recognize this turning point in the re-cent history of capoeira. It was also during the 1970s and80s that capoeira won its rightful place among Brazilian

sports. Even then, it stood under the aegis of the BrazilianPugilism Confederation, where it gained recognition froma number of educational and sports-related governmentagencies. In those early days, capoeira competitions resem-bled other martial sports. Stripped of its artistic heritage, itwas reduced to just another combat sport. Gradually overtime, those details were restored and capoeiristas and theircompetitions came to be judged in ways reminiscent of theoriginal capoeira circles. We mustn’t forget the importantpart played in these developments by Brazil’s Interscholas-tic Games ( Jogos Escolares Brasileiros,JEBs), which providedthe setting for a more holistic approach to capoeira.

One must recall that the 1980s were also the back-drop for the rapid nationwide growth of the larger capoeiraschools.2 The group-learning pattern of organization quick-ly jelled around the art, despite efforts by some to structurethe schools along the more traditional lines of federations.This was, without a doubt, the most significant step in therecent history of capoeira. Organization by groups becamea standard in which the teacher or mestre forms and or-ganizes his own school, then establishes ties with someinstitution which has already achieved recognition in the

marketplace. Still a lively topic of discussion is to what ex-tent that form of organization serves to preserve capoeirain its wealth of diversity while adding sinew to the nation’scultural backbone.

Another important trend in the early 1980s was re-newed appreciation of the “old masters,” together with the

strengthening of the Angola-style capoeira groups. Thesegroups gained in influence as the larger capoeira com-munity began having doubts about the metamorphosis oftheir practice into a commercial sport.3 A reflection of thiswas a trend toward re-Africanization within the capoeiracommunity – especially at its more traditional schools – atrend that affected their lingo, musical styles, instruments,and even the historical viewpoint of researchers. Capoeirascholars began to lay emphasis on its African origins, andbegan searching for earlier foundations and parallel styles,with discoveries that included the Caribbean ladja of Mar-tinique, and the moringue of the Indian Ocean. Simplistic

nationalism, once the dominant influence, gave way to a

(2) By way of clarification and context, each capoeira group is a school founded by one or more

masters, which unifies under a single name the teaching venues run by its graduates asteachers or mestres. They range from small groups, with two or three little academies, to large

ones, chartered as corporations and global in scope. Graduates of one school will often migrateto another group to teach professionally, a development that has profoundly altered master-

student relations throughout the world of capoeira. Up to the 1970s, the mestre’s name waspractically an added surname to the student (e.g. Mestre João Pequeno de Pastinha). Nowadays,

practitioners identify more closely with their groups.(3) Note also that under the military regime of the 1970s, characterized by intensive economic

development and a push toward modernization, capoeira was generally appreciated in terms ofits value as a sport and its characterization as “Brazil’s national martial art.”

Alexandre Gomes



more global view of the culture and early development ofcapoeira, which is now understood as part of the resistanceput up by Africans sold into slavery, and by their descen-dants all over the world. Capoeira had legitimate standingas a sport, true enough, but its larger cultural and artisticwhole resisted deconstruction into simply another sport.This cultural reawakening, which began in the 1980s, grew

stronger as expressions like “salvaging” and “cultural bag-gage” worked their way into the lingo current with capoe-iristas. One result of this was that capoeiristas, accustomedto conga drums fitted with easy-to-use tuning lugs, revert-ed to drums stretched and tuned with heavy knotted sisalcords. As a cultural phenomenon woven into the warp andwoof of Brazilian heritage, not simply a sport, capoeira tookthe world by storm during the 1990s, and merged withpopular culture on a global scale.

Gone is the lone capoeirista of the 1970s, risking lifeand limb overseas, replaced today by strategic thinkers

out to conquer new markets. Today there is not a suc-cessful group in Brazil that doesn’t have its own repre-sentatives abroad. With very few exceptions, capoeirais easily found and promptly recognized in any of theworld’s major cities, where native teachers – schooled byBrazilians – are teaching the style in their own countries.There lies the challenge that faces today’s scholars and

practitioners, namely, to understand where capoeira fitsin as its own facet of international pop culture. To theobserver it shifts, one minute showing its Brazilian roots,then appearing the next as a market phenomenon,paying homage to its African origins while standing in

judgemental contrast to the Western culture surround-ing it. Clearly, we must understand how this interna-tional Diaspora meshes with the dynamics of globalizedculture, but understand it also in terms of its own innerlogic, at odds with its inner contradictions.

This was, without a doubt, the mostsignificant step in the recent history ofcapoeira. Organization by groups becamea standard in which the teacher or mestre forms and organizes his own school, thenestablishes ties with some institution whichhas already achieved recognition in themarketplace.

Lilia Menezes





CONTEMPORARY CAPOEIRA STYLES. Two differentstyles emerged from the modernization of capoeira and itsacceptance as a sport beginning in the 1930s. “Capoeira re-gional”, the first modern style, was created by Mestre Bimba(1900-1974), and perpetuated by his group of students.Bimba thought the style in Bahia was too laid-back to hold itsown against the mixed martial arts entering freestyle com-

petition at the time. To develop his “Bahian regional fight-ing style,” Bimba kept the techniques he thought proper,dispensed with others he considered outdated and workedin some new moves – generally effective overall. Even moreimportant was his development of a teaching style in a moreformal academic environment – wearing uniforms – and set-ting disciplinary and ethical standards. But despite its hugesuccess, especially from the 1960s on, his style was not uni-versally accepted by capoeira devotees in Bahia.

A competing faction, headed up largely by Mestre Pastinha since the 1940s, chose to retain precisely those

elements of the earlier capoeira style which the regionalschool had discarded, such as chamadas and jogo de den-

tro (ritual breaks and slow intertwined movements), plus ahost of theatrical and ritual aspects of rodas (including theopening litanies). Even as Bimba labored toward innova-tion, Pastinha and his adherents struggled to preserve old-er traditions. This prompted them to add “angola” to the

name of their capoeira style, as a means of emphasizingthat they kept in touch with the African roots of the art. Yetalthough the angoleiros see themselves – to this day – asguardians of tradition, theirs is clearly a new style forged inpart from an effort to preserve capoeira as it was practicedin Bahia during the 1930s, but also springing from theirconcerted opposition to the regional style. For instance,whenever Angolan practitioners noticed that capoeira re-gional made use of balões – boosted sequences of assistedmoves – they were quick to condemn the practice, even

though these had long been a part of “traditional” Bahiancapoeira. We must bear in mind that even before the waveof modernization, Bahian capoeira was by no means uni-form and homogeneous, but rather, each individual mestre taught his own specific set of movements, rhythms andrituals. Indeed, the capoeira taught by other old mestres,men like Waldemar, Cobrinha Verde or Canjiquinha, were

very different in many features from what was taught bymestre Pastinha.

We therefore see that there was never a unique, monolithiccapoeira tradition in its early days in Bahia. This, in turn, made iteasier for later groups to emphasize dissimilar or even conflictingversions of the “tradition.” We should note that both the regionaland angolan schools parted company with the street-wise hep-cats of yesteryear, and transferred their schools indoors, wherethey offered scheduled training, uniforms and rules. They beganteaching larger classes and recruiting students – male and fe-male – of all ages and from all walks of life.

Further complications developed as modern capoeira,based on these two styles from Bahia, spread across thecountry. The knowledge was transmitted in several ways.Graduates trained by mestres in Bahia often set up shop indifferent states, most of them migrating to cities in south-eastern Brazil. Alternatively, students in other states prac-ticed capoeira on their own, and occasionally took classes

with the original mestres during trips to Bahia. Here, theself-taught nature of the art led to variations on the style,variations easily observed in the case of Rio de Janeiro’sGrupo Senzala. Furthermore, capoeira practitioners fromBahia came upon local capoeira traditions in many cities.How important the contributions of these local forms wereto the development of today’s styles is an issue shrouded incontroversy, especially in the case of Rio de Janeiro, whereteachers like Sinhozinho taught a non-musical style of ca-poeira even before the arrival of the baianos.

Luiz Renato Collection Luiz Renato

CapoeiraThe Challenges Capoeira Faces Today



In the search for a better life, many people migratedfrom Bahia to cities in the Southwest from about the1950s through 1980, when many others began migratingoverseas. Among this migrant population were capoeiramestres, graduate students and amateur practitioners.Outside the Northeastern region, capoeira became part ofthe cultural baggage of the migrant population, where it

accumulated nostalgic references to Bahia that linger tothis day. Living in exile strengthened the ties between ca-poeiristas of the various styles to the point of underminingthe rivalry between proponents of the regional versus an-golan schools. In many cases mestres and teachers of theangolan and regional styles jointly organized groups andtaught classes, especially in São Paulo (e.g. Cordão de Ouro,etc.). Generally speaking, however, the angolan style, withits greater cultural dependence on the Afro-Bahian frameof reference, was not as easily assimilated among the newgroups of practitioners, and gained little ground during thattime. The predominant playing style much more closely

resembled the form taught by mestre Bimba, even if, attimes, it dispensed with his study plans, such as practic-ing the eight basic patterns.4 Similarly, the music played bygroups outside of Bahia was not typically the regional style.The rhythm most often played on the berimbau bows was

São Bento Grande , a favorite in Angola circles.5 For thesereasons the next generation of masters living outside ofBahia lost interest in the rift between angolan and regionalcapoeira, often asserting they were “one and the same.”This “ecumenical” approach had its advantages: it defusedconflict among capoeiristas striving to convince the publicthat their sport had nothing to do with idlers and dissolutehepcats; at the same time it meshed perfectly with the na-

tionalist notion that capoeira – much more than a meresport – was “the” Brazilian martial art and raised its status asa privileged exponent of Brazil’s national identity.

The São Paulo Capoeira Federation was organized in1970 under the auspices of the military government thatgained control in 1964, and in 1972 the Brazilian PugilismConfederation (CPB) added a capoeira department as anumbrella organization for fighting styles lacking confed-erations of their own. Member groups agreed to abide byFederation rules, ranging from the minutiae of competitionregulations to mandatory uniforms and deferential salu-tations (such as the “Salve!” still in use at many capoeira

schools). These changes, true enough, facilitated the inte-gration of capoeira into the school system and sports on a

(4) “Regional capoeira patterns,” or “sequences taught by Mestre B imba” are one of the most telling

features of the teaching method developed by this important baiano master. They consist of asequence of attack and defense moves, simulating actual combat and acting as a sort of stock-

in-trade of the most important techniques in regional capoeira. Patterns (which some believe

total eight arrangements) were used to teach beginners and as part of daily training for moreadvanced capoeiristas.

(5) In addition to providing the rhythmic foundations for performing the “stock-in-trade” of capoeira,the berimbau is charged with important symbolism in capoeira circles. The tunes played on the

berimbau express the preferences of the group or mestre running the circle. They set the paceand determine other features of capoeira play. Thus there are, among many others, “Angola”

and “Regional” tunes.

To put it differently, this transformationof capoeiragem – by which is meant itssocial context – had an impact on itscontent. This tells us there is a need to gobeyond the classical binary angola-regionaldichotomy if we are to distinguish thevarious styles of capoeira from each otherand differentiate among them according tothe features they emphasize: contention,tradition, culture, diversion or dance.





national scale, and sparked yet another wave of expansionoutside of Brazil. Nevertheless, a backlash soon followed,from practitioners committed to the idea of resistance bythe underdog, which was still associated with the style.

A number of groups, including several of the largest, notonly refused to join the Federation but went even farther instaking out their alternative approach. For instance, they

established competing standards of rank, with associatedcolors of rope belts for each grade. In the midst of all this,a resurgence of Afro-Bahian traditions gained in strengthto the point of approaching the stature of capoeira angola– which had itself been declining with the passing of anentire generation of old mestres from Bahia, which declinereached its ebb with the passing of Pastinha (1981). Begin-ning in the 1980s this style resumed graduating its ownmasters and increasing its ranks in Brazil and elsewhere.Some friction has since arisen between one angola style,whose practitioners claim to trace their lineage directlyback to a baiano master, and styles we might call “ango-

lanized” in that they incorporate some of the moves char-acteristic of angoleiros without letting go of peculiarities oftheir own, peculiarities scorned by the angoleiros as “re-gional.” As time went on, several of the groups demandedrecognition as angoleiros, recognition withheld from themby what might be described as the “hard core” practitionersof capoeira angola.

The situation gets even trickier as we examine the quali-fier “regional.” To the angoleiros it is a handy category intowhich all other styles are indiscriminately lumped, so theterm itself acquires negative connotations in their lingo. Atthe opposite end of the style spectrum are several anointedheirs of mestre Bimba who seek to preserve his style with

no major changes. These worthies likewise announce tothe world that only they merit the title of regional. Thiswas reason enough for many capoeira masters to divorcethemselves entirely from both of the extreme or “purist”designations, and either describe their style as “contempo-rary” capoeira or claim that they practice both styles (anadvantageous marketing position in the face of increasingcompetition among teachers). This fence-straddling ledpurists to coin the pejorative “angonal” to belittle thesemiddle-of-the-road practitioners – until the miscreantstook to proudly sporting the title.

To describe capoeira as “contemporary” does not con-

vey a meaningful picture of the thing described. There are,after all, several clearly distinguishable forms, beginningwith the angola and regional variants. As capoeira outgrewits original context and broadened into academies, schools,universities, stage performance, mixed martial art competi-tions and even gained acceptance as therapy, it sproutednew meanings, interpretations, forms, training methodsand styles of play. To put it differently, this transformationof capoeiragem – by which is meant its social context – hadan impact on its content. This tells us there is a need to

go beyond the classical binary angola-regional dichotomyif we are to distinguish the various styles of capoeira fromeach other and differentiate among them according to thefeatures they emphasize: contention, tradition, culture, di-version or dance.

CHASMS AND CHALLENGES .This complex scenario,

which we can only outline here, places before the new gen-eration of practitioners, group managers, academies andpublic agencies, a laundry list of basic issues surrounding

Alexandre G

Embra




the development of capoeira. If past generations had to

cope with the possible disappearance of capoeira – andthis has actually happened to other other Brazilian com-bative dance styles or manly arts like the batuque, pernada

carioca and tiririca – the dilemmas unfolding in today’s sce-nario are altogether different. Capoeira is a part of every-day life in Brazil and has spread throughout the world asone of the most visible symbols of Brazilian culture abroad.Throughout this international expansion before mass audi-ences – as a sport one day and a cultural exhibition the next– stereotypes are emerging and becoming entrenched.The process involves trade-offs, as does any other processrelating to cultural change.

By current challenges we mean issues that, in our view,

merit inclusion in today’s discussion agendas on the topicof capoeira – whether it be in debates on capoeira activitiesabroad or couched in plans for government action relatingto the practice, teaching and popularization of the art in itsmyriad aspects.

One of the issues we perceive as crucial to currentdebate has to do with the passing along of ancient tradi-tions and capoeira lore. It is a recurrent theme in discus-sions about the sort of qualifications a practitioner oughtto have in order to become a teacher or master. After all,the traditional notion of a master – an individual known tothe community as possessing ancient knowledge handed

down by oral tradition and passed along gradually overtime in day-to-day contact with the trainee – is slowly be-ing replaced by that of a capoeirista whose title to thecalling arrives in the form of a grant by a given group, fed-eration or some sort of quasi-of ficial entity. Within the ca-poeira community there is nothing resembling a consen-sus on this topic. Although the larger schools or capoeiragroups have been successful in providing their masterswith a certain standing (so that the mestre derives his le-gitimacy from the strength of the entity he represents, as

Throughout this international expansionbefore mass audiences – as a sport oneday and a cultural exhibition the next –stereotypes are emerging and becomingentrenched. The process involves trade-offs, as does any other process relating tocultural change.

Lilia Menezes





well as from his own qualities and knowledge as an indi-

vidual), there is a whole world of capoeira practiced out-side of these fraternal gatherings of the art, a world thathas no clear standards as to what sort of qualifications ortraining a capoeira teacher ought to have.

The issue becomes even thornier when we consider thediffusion of capoeira across international borders. It is onlynatural, after all, to expect entities and individuals extendingtheir hospitality to Brazilian capoeiristas overseas to takean interest in what sort of credentials he or she has in Bra-zil. Yet there is no simple solution. Some of the sugges-tions put forth and widely debated in capoeira circles carrywithin them more problems than solutions. An example isto authorize this federation or that government agency to

compile and enforce an “of ficial” list of mestres or personsauthorized to teach the art. This subject must be studiedmore closely, and its boundaries clearly defined even in theabsence of a feasible way to establish standards applicableto all styles as a requirement for permission to work as acapoeira teacher or mestre. Those pioneering mestres whocarried capoeira outside of Brazil have from the outset wor-ried about the arrival of other capoeiristas, often unknownin Brazil and entirely lacking in teaching experience, to setup shop and, oftentimes, arrogate unto themselves the titleof mestre. In the past there has been some preoccupa-tion in Brazil over baseless claims to the title of capoeira

teacher or mestre. However, the widespread popularity ofcapoeira today, coupled with the development of its ownmarket, of which there is widespread public understanding,has effectively reduced the number of teachers workingwithout proper qualifications. This, however, is not yet thecase overseas.

In the absence of any significant discussion of the issue,the vacuum has been filled by a complex scenario in whichseveral actors predominate.6 Bear in mind the thoroughdiscussions undertaken in the late 1990s and still ongoing,

albeit with reduced emphasis, about the role of physical ed-ucation instructors in the teaching of capoeira. Federal LawNo. 9696, published in 1998, imposed regulatory require-ments for teaching physical education and created the cor-responding federal and regional job councils. It turns outthat widespread assumptions – later found to have beenerroneous – about the idea of “physical activities,” led the

Federal Council to spread the word that as of the date of itspublication, the law provided that only physical educationteachers were entitled to teach capoeira.

This brings us to another subject that, in our estima-tion, places today’s capoeira between the horns of a di-lemma – this one having to do with the preservation ofthe cultural diversity attending the art. Try as we mightto regard capoeira as a sort of universal body language,its constituent parts still fit together differently, result-ing in different “accents.” Here we refer not only to thedistinction between the angola and regional variants, butrather, to internal differences within these larger schools

of capoeira – ranging from technical features to the gameitself through concepts underlying the rituals and ethicalstandards which guide the practitioner’s choices and ac-tions. The organization of these large capoeira groups,with their corporate personas and aggressive strategiesfor expanding throughout the interior of Brazil – and eveninto other countries – are observed by several scholarswith some misgivings about the possible disappearanceof the more colorful outward features of capoeira amongthose provincial communities and along the peripheriesof larger cities. The work carried on by entities connect-ed with the spread of culture, and especially by govern-ment agencies having jurisdiction over that culture, must

be based on the principle that there is not just a singlecapoeira, but a plurality of capoeiras. To preserve thatdiversity and foster a culture of tolerance is to preserve ascenario in which every expression of capoeira is allowedto find its own place.

Preserving the diversity of capoeira often means ensur-ing that capoeiristas are able to earn a living from their call-ing. The issue is particularly thorny in Brazil nowadays inthe case of elderly mestres living in the nation’s traditionalcapoeira centers (cities such as Salvador, Rio de Janeiro andRecife) as well as small towns in the interior, where tradi-tional forms of capoeira survive even now. We consider

this one of the larger challenges on the road toward imple-menting a public policy to foster the valuation of capoeiraas part of Brazil’s cultural heritage.

(6) We must realize that under current legislation in Brazil, no exclusive monopoly is granted tosporting organizations such as federations or confederations. Such entities cannot, therefore,

be considered “of ficial” in the sense of having greater government support behind them than do

others – with regard to the organization and representation of practitioners of a given category.For any given category of sports there may be – and in many cases there are – more than

one federation per state and more than a single confederation national in scope. This is not tomention the leagues and other types of associations which, with regard to the subject discussed

here, have the same prerogatives as federations in the representation of their practitioners.Some capoeira groups have organized their own federations, confederations or leagues.

Alexandre Gomes




With that in mind, some attention should be given tothe importance of the Capoeira Viva project organized bythe Ministry of Culture (MinC). Unveiled in Rio de Janeiro in2006, its purpose is to promote capoeira and provide a ba-sis for government initiatives consistent with the industry.7

The project consists basically of providing support, throughrules publicly proclaimed in an of ficial posting given broad

circulation, to efforts related to the teaching of the art inpoor communities. Other actions have been undertakenby the federal government in the past, some of them dat-ing back to the 1980s. What sets the Capoeira Viva projectapart, as we see it, is the effort to give transparency to thesetting of standards for selecting projects to be funded, andwidespread publication of their results. We therefore have,as we embark on the 21st century, a pioneering and sys-tematic government effort aimed at furthering the devel-opment of capoeira.

With regard to the important movement aimed at re-storing the ancestral traditions of capoeira, we would like

to call attention to the very limited appropriations for his-torical memories and various other types of knowledgerelating to capoeira. Unfortunately, efforts to broaden ourresearch into capoeira have not been attended with similarefforts toward disseminating this knowledge to the prac-ticing community or to society in general. In other words,research relying primarily on the older capoeiras and theirsurrounding communities as primary sources has tendedto dislodge that knowledge, and led to the emergence ofan elite group of capoeiristas having plenty of formal aca-demic training, but little understanding of the importanceof mechanisms for disseminating that knowledge. Herewe identify yet another area in which the State ought to

intervene in order to promote popular culture and citizen-ship – not only by making the research possible, but tosee to it that it is also given everything necessary to bringabout those conditions that will strengthen the environ-ment in which it is produced as an expression of the life ofthose communities.

Lastly, there ought to be some discussion of the possi-bility of providing support to capoeira mestres and teachersoverseas. The Cultural Department of the Ministry of For-eign Relations (MRE) has, through its embassies and con-sulates, secured support for capoeiristas working outsideof Brazil. The embassies, however, could play a larger role

as touchstones for Brazilian culture by providing librariesand video display venues for masters, teachers, and otherinterested parties. We would like to further suggest that in-formal capoeira counsels be organized, supported by theircorresponding embassies, in countries in which significantvisibility has already been achieved. The duty of these coun-cils would be to offer opinions whenever rolls of teachers’names are compiled – so as to always preserve a plurality

(7) The project web site is: www.capoeiraviva.org.br

The Cultural Department of the Ministryof Foreign Relations (MRE) has, through itsembassies and consulates, secured supportfor capoeiristas working outside of Brazil.





of styles – or to help see to it that the decisions on sponsor-ship having to do with capoeira are more transparent. Aswe have already pointed out in the case of Capoeira Viva, wemust ensure that increased funding for capoeira, through aseries of cultural incentive laws, is placed under commoncontrol so as to also serve as an example for globalization ofother manifestations of Brazilian culture – something that

is already taking place, albeit in a hole-and-corner way, withsamba and maracatu rhythms.

CLOSING REMARKS. The ongoing globalization of ca-poeira provides an opportune moment for reflecting onthe popularization of Brazilian culture worldwide. It is ourview that, in a world where information circulates instanta-neously through the Internet, fitted out with resources suchas video sharing sites (widely used by capoeira practitionersthe world over), a minimalist view of what Brazil ought todo is not what we need at this time. In other words, it maybe important to reaf firm the Brazilian nature of our art, but

that alone will not suf fice to keep Brazil at the forefront intoday’s world of capoeira.

Brazil’s leadership in the world of capoeira today canonly be ensured by practical policies vesting value in thecapoeira culture as both a tradition and a part of daily life atevery level of Brazilian society. Only then – having availedourselves of the privilege of sheltering the lore of the art,and having been the cradle in which wonderful feats wereaccomplished by the great capoeiras of the past – will Brazilcontinue to merit recognition throughout the world as asource of historical memory and new experiences relatingto the practice, its musical heritage, and the teaching ofcapoeira itself.

Luiz Renato Vieira. Ph.D. in Cultural Sociology, Legisla-tive Consultant on social and minority assistance to Bra-zil’s Federal Senate, Capoeira Master for Grupo Beribazuand coordinator for the UnB Community Capoeira Project,member of the Council of Mestres for the Culture Ministry’sCapoeira Viva Project, and author of the book titled “O Jogo

da Capoeira: Corpo e Cultura Popular no Brasil (Rio de Ja-neiro: Sprint, 1998). E-mail: [email protected]

Matthias Röhrig Assunção. Ph.D. in History, Professor,Department of History at the University of Essex (England)and visiting professor at the Masters Program in History atthe Universidade Federal Fluminense, CAPES Scholar andauthor of the book titled “Capoeira. The History of an Afro-

Brazilian Martial Art” (London:Routledge, 2005)E-mail: [email protected]

Alexandre Gomes




The Metamorphoses of Capoeira:

Toward a History of Capoeira

T H I S AR T I C L E E N D E AV O R S T O T R AC E B AC K AN D R E C O N S T R U C T T H E H I S T O R I C AL D E V E L O

O F C AP O E I R A AN D I D E N T I F Y D E C I S I V E M O M E N T S , T U R N I N G P O I N T S AF T E R W H I C H T H E R O L

C AP O E I R A AN D I T S P R AC T I T I O N E R S W E R E C H AN G E D I N P O P U L AR P E R C E P T I O N AN D I N AC T

F AC T . O U R I N V E S T I G AT I O N M U S T , AT T H E O U T S E T , C L AR I F Y W H AT I S M E AN T B Y C AP O E I R A.

O T H E R W O R D S I T S H O U L D C O N V E Y T H E C O N T E N T O F T H E P R AC T I C E P L AY E D T O D AY AS T H

“ AR T O F C AP O E I R A.” C AP O E I R A I S E N G AG E D I N AT C L U B S , “ S C H O O L S ” AN D O N T H E S T R E E T S , AS

A S P O R T I N V O L V I N G P H Y S I C AL T R AI N I N G I N P R E P AR AT I O N F O R P AR T I C I P AT I O N I N A “ C AP O E I R A

C I R C L E ,” O R R O D A . T H E R E AR E N O H AR D AN D F AS T R U L E S , Y E T I T D O E S F O L L O W A C H AR A

C -

T E R I S T I C P R O T O C O L , W I T H I T S O W N M U S I C , I N W H I C H T H E I N S T R U M E N T T H AT S E T S T H E T E M P O

AN D D R I V E S T H E P E R F O R M AN C E I N S I D E T H E C I R C L E I S T H E M U S I C AL B O W O R B E R I M B A U . T H E

M U S I C , O F C O U R S E , C L E AR L Y S H O W S T H E L U D I C V AL U E O F T H E S P O R T – P E R H AP S I T S M O S T

E N D U R I N G F E AT U R E – B U T I T AL S O B R I N G S O U T A V E R Y L AR G E D AN C E C O M P O N E N T , AL B E I T

S U B O R D I N AT E D T O T H E B U S I N E S S O F E L U D I N G AN D O U T W I T T I N G O N E ’ S P AR T N E R / O P P O N E N T .

I N T H I S W E S E E T H E M AR T I AL C O M P O N E N T , W H I C H E N T AI L S B O D I L Y C O N T AC T , B U T N O T N E C E S -

S AR I L Y V I C T O R AN D V AN Q U I S H E D . B Y B I N D I N G T O G E T H E R T H E S E E L E M E N T S O F S P O R T , M U S I C ,

D AN C E , M AR T I AL S K I L L S AN D J O Y F U L C AM AR AD E R I E , C AP O E I R A C O M P R I S E S O N E O F T H E M O S T

O P U L E N T M AN I F E S T AT I O N S O F B R AZ I L ’ S P O P U L AR C U L T U R E .

Guilherme Frazão Conduru





Observe, however, that the above definition is historically de-pendent. To attempt to apply it indiscriminately – for instance, tocapoeira as practiced during the Second Empire (1840-1890)1 – would be anachronistic. In what follows we will identify severalmetamorphoses capoeira has undergone, and examine trans-formations in the way capoeira fit in with society at large.

1. EARLY REFERENCES (CIRCA 1770-1830).Some claimthat capoeira has been practiced since the time of the runawayslave outpost known as Quilombo dos Palmares (17th century).2 Associating capoeira with the history of black resistance to slav-ery is intriguing. Was it more than simple horseplay, in whichslaves could, at least momentarily, distract themselves fromtheir wretched plight? Might it also have been a weapon withwhich to prosecute the struggle for freedom? Current historicalresearch shows us no signs of capoeira being practiced by “qui-lombolas”, fugitive slaves who found refuge in fastnesses knownasquilombos. 3 At best, we may find references back to the latterhalf of the 18th Century, in urban surroundings at that.

Luis Edmundo, in his memoirs, describes the capoeiraplayer during the Vice-Kingdom of Brazil (1763 - 1808) asa sly, taciturn adventurer who nevertheless paid homage tothe holy figures at the ubiquitous public shrines that dottedcolonial Rio de Janeiro.4

Elísio de Araújo’s history of the police force in that oldcolonial capital5offers a different perspective – less literarybut more persuasive. Citing O ilustrado Dr. J. M. Macedo,without naming his source, he claimed that:

Back in the time of the Marquis de Lavradio, in1770, there was a militia of ficer, Second Lt. JoãoMoreira, nicknamed “the mutineer,” a brawny

and ill-tempered man who was perhaps the firstof the capoeira fi ghters in Rio de Janeiro; albeitan impeccable swordsman and fi ghter with knifeor club, he preferred the tactics of headbuttsand blows with the feet.

The report suggests that “the mutineer” was perhaps aforerunner to the celebrated Major Vidigal, right-hand-manto Brazil’s first Police Commissioner, Conselheiro Paulo Fer-nandes Viana, himself appointed by Dom João, the PrinceRegent. Vidigal entered history as a character in Memoirsof a Militia Sergeant, known for his “inquisitorial”6 police

(1) Editor’s Note: The Second Empire covers a period of 49 years in the history of Brazil. It extendedfrom 1840, when D. Pedro II was declared of legal age and enthroned as the second Emperor of

Brazil, until November 15 1889, when Brazil was proclaimed a republic.(2) See, for instance, the newspaper interview with Mestre Almir das Areias by Movimento on

09/13/1976, cited by Roberto Freire in Soma, uma terapia anarquista, Vol. 2/Prática da Soma

e capoeira, pp. 160-168, Editora Guanabara-Koogan, Rio de Janeiro, 1991. The mov ie Quilombo (1983), directed by Cacá Diegues, includes scenes suggestive of capoeira fighting techniques.

(3) See Memorial de Palmares, by Ivan Alves Filho, Xénon Editores, Rio de Janeiro, 1988.(4) See O Rio de Janeiro no tempo dos Vice-Reis , Athena Editora, Rio de Janeiro, undated.

(5) See Estudo histórico sobre a Polícia da Capital Federal de 1808 a 1831 , First part, ImprensaNacional, Rio de Janeiro, 1898, p. 56.

(6) See Memórias de um Sargento de Milícias de Manuel Antônio de Almeida , Irmãos PongettiEditores, Rio de Janeiro, 1963, preface by Marques Rebêlo, p. 28.

22

Foreigners visited Brazil in increasingnumbers after the Portuguese RoyalFamily arrived in 1808, and the writingsthey left behind have proven invaluable inreconstructing the society and customs thenprevailing. Among these writings, thoseof Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802-1858)appear to include the earliest description ofcapoeira (1835).




tactics. Vidigal was notorious for persistently antagonizingthe black community’s fugitive slaves, candomblés7 and ca-poeira practitioners, and is credited with having originated a

terrible series of tortures known as the “Cameroon delight,”8

reserved especially for capoeira practitioners and vagrants,considered a nuisance throughout the city.

Although the nation’s first criminal code – The CriminalCode of the Empire of Brazil, of 1830 – made no specificreference to capoeiras, they were presumed to fit the de-scription of “bums and mendicants,” under Chapter IV, Ar-ticle 295.9 Indeed, capoeira practitioners were stigmatizedas gang members, vagrants or actual delinquents. How thesocial stigma branding them as pariahs can be reconciledwith notions of “harmless entertainment” on the part ofslaves and freedmen is an issue that merits examination.

Foreigners visited Brazil in increasing numbers after thePortuguese Royal Family arrived in 1808, and the writingsthey left behind have proven invaluable in reconstructingthe society and customs then prevailing. Among thesewritings, those of Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802-1858) ap-pear to include the earliest description of capoeira (1835):

(...) The Negroes have still another warrior sport,considerably more violent, called capoeira: twochampions rush toward one another in an effort

to butt their heads against the chest of the ad-versary they wish to knock down. These attacksare avoided by equally skillful feints and fakes to

either side. Yet it sometimes happens that incharging each other, somewhat like goats, theirheads crash together with considerable force,and the horseplay often degenerates into a fi ght,knives enter the picture, and blood is drawn.10

To this description the German artist added two litho-graphs depicting the practice of capoeira, which – in all likeli-hood – are the oldest graphic representations of the subject.The first of these was titled São Salvador , in honor of thecapital of Bahia – visible in the background – as seen from apoint near the famous Igreja do Bonfim. In the foreground, a

group of dusky-skinned people – three men and four wom-en – appear as spectators at a contest between two blackcontenders. Although there are no musical instruments in

(7) Editor’s Note: Candomblé denotes the ensemble of ritual practices brought to Brazil byenslaved Africans from the countries now known as Nigeria and Benin.

(8) See Almeida, op. cit.; Waldeloir Rego,Capoeira angola: ensaio sócio-etnográfico, Editora Itapuã,

Salvador, 1968, p. 295; and Raimundo Magalhães Júnior, Deodoro: a espada contra o Império,Cia. Editora Nacional, São Paulo, 1940, vol. 2, p. 183.

(9) See Rego, op. cit., p. 291(10) Johann Moritz Rugendas. Viagem pitoresca através do Brasil , Livraria Martins, São Paulo, 1940,

p. 197.

São Salvador

J. M. Rugendas,1802 - 1858



sight, the stance and positions of audience and contestantssuf fice to convey a throbbing rhythm. One is struck notonly by the presence of women, but also that one of themis being of ficiously wooed by another spectator.

The second engraving, titled Jogo da capoeira, depicts asimilar audience of predominantly dusky-skinned individu-als watching a delightful bout between two contenders. A

conga drum is in plain view and one of the spectators is clap-ping hands. Except for one lady who is serving up a portionof food, everyone – even the lady balancing the basket ofpineapples – appears entranced by the rhythm and move-ments of the capoeiristas. The presence of the peripateticpineapple-vendor tells us that the setting is urban.

Observe that none of these lithographs shows a berimbau bow. From this we may surmise that the instrument was not,at the time, associated with the art of capoeira.11 One technicaldetail, notable from a fighting style standpoint, is that the con-tenders in the second engraving have their fists clenched.

The work of Jean-Baptiste Debret (1768-1848), though

it contains no explicit references to capoeira, nonethelessadds significantly to the historical reconstruction of capoe-ira through two of his watercolors and their correspondingexplanations. In describing the wood panel titled Funeral ofan African king’s son, the French artist wrote:

The procession is begun by the master of cer-emonies, who leaves the house of the deceasedand, swinging his cane, clears a path throughthe swarthy crowd blocking the way. Up comesthe Negro fireworks man, setting off rockets and

firecrackers, and three or four cavorting blacktumblers doing numerous backfl ips and other

somersaults to liven up the scene.

It is interesting to note the inclusion, in a funeral pro-cession, of these “black acrobats” whose displays would, inthe 20th century, be incorporated into the movements of

(11) See O berimbau-de-barriga e seus toques, Kay Shaffer, MEC/FUNARTE/INF, Monografias

folclóricas, 1981.

Observe that none of these lithographsshows a berimbau bow. From this we maysurmise that the instrument was not, at thetime, associated with the art of capoeira.11 One technical detail, notable from a fightingstyle standpoint, is that the contenders in the

second engraving have their fists clenched.

Jogo de Capoeira

J. M. Rugendas

Detail

São Salvador , J.B. Debret






capoeira – whether as flourishes with which to confound anopponent, as intimidating moves or even displays of physi-cal skill and ability to please tourists.

In his watercolor titled Uruncungo player, Debret depicts an

elderly blind Negro playing the urucungo, clearly a berimbau.

These African troubadours, possessed of fertileimagination and eloquence in telling tales oflove, always closed their candid stanzas with las-civious expressions illustrated by analogous ges-tures, which never failed to elicit whoops of joyfrom the entire Negro audience, their applauseaugmented by whistles, piercing screams, leap-ing and contortions – demonstrations which,happily, were short-lived, for they quickly fl edelsewhere to escape drubbings by military po-

licemen chasing after them with nightsticks.12

In support of our earlier conjecture, one may at leastsurmise, based on Rugendas’ engravings, that there was noassociation between capoeira and the berimbau, at leastnot before the third decade of the 19th century. This issurprising, given the closeness of the association betweenthe two as of the 1930s, if not earlier.

During this period from approximately 1770 through1830, capoeira may be envisioned from at least two differ-

ent viewpoints. The first of these we may call ethnographic,for lack of a better term, in which this Negro (and thereforeAfrican) outdoor entertainment was widespread enough tobe reproduced by foreign travelers. Yet from a sociological

standpoint, there is no escaping the fact that capoeira wasthe focus of intensive efforts at suppression on the part ofthe police. This was because its practitioners, who tendedto be slaves or freedmen, were pointed to as muggers andne’er-do-wells making use of capoeira for the commissionof crimes and to cause civil unrest.

2. THE MOB: “PROFESSIONALS” AND STRONG-ARM

POLITICS (CIRCA 1830-1890). Capoeira managed to sur-vive and, despite all suppression efforts, thrive in society dur-ing Brazil’s Regency Era (1831-40) and The Second Empire(1840-89). Changes occurred at some point, so that it was

no longer the exclusive domain of slaves or freedmen. Whileit is true that blacks and mulattos figure most prominentlyin the galleries of famous capoeiristas of a century ago; theywere not, however, the exclusive purveyors of the art.

In fact, it was due to the failure of repressive efforts todo away with capoeira (along with other manifestations ofNegro culture, such as candomblé or shamanism) that it

(12) See Debret, Viagem pitoresca e histórica ao Brasil, Itatiaia, Belo Horizonte, Edusp, São Paulo,1989, Book II, pp. 164-165.

O negro trovador Uruncungo player

J. B Debret, 1768 - 1848



(13) Lima Campos, “A Capoeira” , article published in Kosmos magazine, Rio de Janeiro, 1906, apud

Carlos Drummond de Andrade e Manuel Bandeira, Rio de Janeiro em prosa e verso , Livraria José Olympio Editora, Rio de Janeiro, 1965, pp. 191-194.

(14) On Rio de Janeiro’s urban growth in the mid-19th Century, see de Maurício de Abreu,Evoluçãourbana do Rio de Janeiro , IPLANRIO/ Zahar, Rio de Janeiro, 1988.

(15) See Festas e tradições populares do Brasil, Editora Itatiaia, Belo Horizonte, Edusp, São Paulo,

1979, pp. 257-263, apud Rego, op.cit., p. 280.

managed to spread to other levels of society during impe-rial times. It was precisely in the eye of this contradictorywhirlwind of criminalization and growing popularity that thecapoeira mob emerged. It was no accident that contem-porary journalists such as Lima Campos and Coelho Netoreferred to the reign of Dom Pedro II as the high point ofcapoeira: “During the Second Empire, capoeira reached its

peak; that was truly the era in which it predominated andattained its fullest development.” 13

The emergence of the mob is indeed related to urbangrowth in Rio de Janeiro during the latter part of the 19thcentury, much of which growth was driven by migration, pri-marily by the poorer freedmen as they flocked into the city.14 But the organization of the various mob outfits, in spite of allsuppression efforts, is largely explainable by their usefulnessin the rough-and-tumble of electoral politics. A remark byMelo Morais Filho on that point is especially telling: “(...) Sup-

ported on those swarthy shoulders, until just recently, werethe House and Senate, into which many who govern us were

guided by the light refl ected off of a straight razor.”

15

Judging by the reports from Lima Campos and MeloMorais Filho, the mob outfits in Rio de Janeiro had an in-ner discipline of sorts with their own power structure anda kind of “career ladder.” These outfits could form in termsof boroughs or neighborhoods (Glória, Lapa, Largo doMoura, Santa Luzia etc.) or guild-like, around occupations(Carpinteiros de São José, Conceição da Marinha).

At some point, according to Lima Campos, these variousand sundry mob outfits merged to form two large familiesor “nations”: the “guaiamus” and “nagôs.” Politicians had aninterest in preserving the mobs because of their usefulnessfor “electoral services”; hence the brazenness of the capoe-

iras – everywhere in evidence, for they enjoyed a certainimmunity by connivance with the authorities. Each of the“nations” had ties to one or the other of the political par-ties under the monarchy: the Liberals or the Conservatives.The services to be had included breaking up rallies, stealingor switching ballot boxes, coercing electors and vengefulattacks on rival party politicians. Thus, within this contextof fraudulent elections, mobsters – as service providers –were in a very real sense “professionals.” Admission intotheir ranks amounted, in the eyes of impoverished freed-men, to hopes for a livelihood, so that in a general way,recruiting efforts among the layabouts, vagrants and odd-

job men tended to fill the ranks of these outfits with thenecessary capoeira practitioners.

They were not, however, the only ones skilled in ca-poeira. Scions of good families became brawling toughs,

Thus, within this context of fraudulentelections, mobsters – as service providers– were in a very real sense “professionals.”Admission into their ranks amounted,in the eyes of impoverished freedmen, tohopes for a livelihood, so that in a generalway, recruiting efforts among the layabouts,vagrants and odd-job men tended to fill theranks of these outfits with the necessarycapoeira practitioners.



Detail Jogo de Capoeira, J. M. Rugendas




(16) Coelho Neto cites Juca Paranhos, the future Barão do Rio Branco, Minister of Foreign Relationsfrom 1902 to 1912, and a senior member of Brazil’s diplomatic corps, “who, in youth, was

quite the ‘charmer’ and in candid conversation let on that he was proud of it.” apud Magalhães Júnior, op.cit., p. 185.

(17) See. Rego, op.cit., p. 313-315; Magalhães Júnior , op.cit., v ol. 1, pp. 326-327, 341-342, 373-376;Vol. 2, 63-64, 183, 228.

(18) See Escravos Brasileiros do século XIX na fotografia de Christiano Jr., Paulo Cesar de Azevedoand Maurício Lissovsky (orgs.), Editora Ex Libris, São Paulo, 1987, Figure 71.

(19) Machado de Assis, Crônicas (1878-1888), W. M. Jackson Inc. Editores, 1938, Vol. IV, pp. 227-228,apud Rego, op.cit., pp.280-281.

thanks to the knowledge they acquired fraternizing withthe capoeiristas. Coelho Neto, admittedly fascinated bythe capoeira arts, mentions “eminent fi gures in politics, onfaculties, and in the Army and Navy” who supposedly learnthe secrets of capoeira by somehow becoming associatedwith the mobs.16

The abetting of capoeira mobs by the authorities came

to a head with the organization of the Black Guard, a se-cret society, the avowed purpose of which was to protectPrincess Isabel. It actually managed to obtain police fund-ing under the João Alfredo Ministry, and was thrown into

the balance as a paramilitary force to offset mobilizationsby the expanding republican movement. Carried forwardby an upsurge of sympathy in the wake of the abolition ofslavery, the Black Guard inducted members into its ranksfrom among the capoeiristas – themselves highly orga-nized and well-mobilized due to the structure of the mobsthemselves – and also from among the usual assortment

of delinquents and ne’er-do-well’s inhabiting the boundar-ies at which crime and civil order cross paths. The BlackGuard – co-founded by José do Patrocínio– undertook tobreak up a number of Republican rallies and meetings in alast-ditch attempt to save the Monarchy. During the eventsleading up to the Proclamation of the Republic, reports al-leging that the Black Guard had attacked the First CavalryRegiment were pretext enough to get military insubordina-tion under weigh.17

No coverage of capoeira during the Empire would becomplete without special reference to a photograph takenby Christiano Júnior between 1864 and 1866, as a studio

reproduction of a private capoeira lesson.18

In it, a blackyouth is instructing a swarthy boy in capoeira arts, teachingwhat appear to be the rudiments of the “ginga” steps. Thepicture suggests that even at that early date, the teachingof capoeira techniques involved training methods and mas-ter/apprentice arrangements. The hierarchical structure ofthe mob outfits could, if confirmed, make such conjecturemore persuasive.

We should mention at this point that capoeira practi-tioners were viewed in several different lights at the time.Even as they terrorized the populace with their brawlingand horseplay, they were admired for the way they stoodup to the symbols of established order and power. To fur-

ther this discussion, we reproduce here a fragment of achronicle penned by Machado de Assis:

(...) that I do not agree with my contemporaries, onthe subject of the motives which lead the capoei-ras to stick their knives in our bellies. They say it isfor the delight of evildoing, as a show of nimblenessand valor, a general opinion accepted as dogma.Nobody sees that it is simply absurd.19

Coelho Neto wrapped capoeira in nostalgia and romanti-cism, and praised its high moral dignity for declining to use

the straight razor (sic), for not kicking a man when he wasdown, and, when defending noble causes such as abolition,

Private capoeira lesson

Photo: Christiano Júnior

CapoeiraThe Metamorphoses of Capoeira: Toward a History of Capoeira



(20) See. chronicle by Coelho Neto, “O nosso jogo” , in Bazar, Livraria Chandron, de Lello e Irmãos

Ltda., Porto, 1928, apud Magalhães Júnior, op.cit., pp. 136-138.(21) Código Penal Brasileiro, by Doutor Manuel Clementino de Oliveira Escorel, Tipografia by Cia. Ind.

de São Paulo, 1893, apud Luiz Renato Vieira, Da vadiação à capoeira regional, Masters thesisfor the Department of Sociology at UnB, 1991.

for doing so out of idealism and not in a mercenary spirit (sic).While exalting the bravery of the capoeiras, Coelho Neto re-tells the terror they inspired in the police force itself.20

3. REPRESSION AND FORGOTTEN YEARS (CIRCA

1890-1930). Constant mention of capoeiras in police re-cords during the Empire’s waning decades led to specific

provisions of criminal legislation singling them out for spe-cial treatment. The 1890 Criminal Code of the Republic ofthe United States of Brazil provided, in its Chapter XIII.

Vagrants and Capoeiras / Article 402: Perform-ing in the streets and public parks exercisesof physical agility and dexterity known and re-ferred to as capoeiragem; running about carry-ing weapons or instruments capable of produc-ing physical wounds, causing tumult or disorder,making threats to persons known or unknown,or causing them to fear any harm: / Penalty: two

to six months’ confinement to a prison cell. / Stand-alone paragraph: Membership in a gang

or mob is considered an aggravating circum- stance. Kingpins or ringleaders are subject totwice the penalty (...) 21

Here before us, legally set in type, is the criminalizationof capoeira – capoeira intimately linked to fringe elements,and qualified as both a bodily fighting technique and oneinvolving the wielding of weapons such as straight razors,knives and clubs.

Even before the Criminal Code was legally enacted bydecree, capoeira was the target of concerted of ficial perse-

cution. In the atmosphere of political instability permeat-ing the early days of the Republic, Marechal Deodoro daFonseca appointed as chief of police one Doctor SampaioFerraz, an experienced district attorney who, as a journalist,had stood in violent opposition to Monarchy. In makingthe appointment, the President gave him full power to ridthe capital of all disorderly elements, beginning with the ca-poeira bands.

So began Sampaio Ferraz’ formidable campaign againstthe capoeira mobs. To really rid the city of those outfits, thepenalty applied was relocation. According to José Murilo deCarvalho, the practice began – as Imperial rule drew to a

close – with the transporting of capoeiras to Mato Grosso.Sampaio Ferraz reportedly arrested and exiled to Fernandode Noronha – without benefit of trial – some 600 capoeiras.This same author observes that “there were many whitesand even foreigners” among the capoeiras: Of 28 persons

Constant mention of capoeiras in policerecords during the Empire’s waning decadesled to specific provisions of criminallegislation singling them out for specialtreatment.



etail

go de CapoeiraM. Rugendas




(22) See José Murilo de Carvalho, Os bestializados/ O Rio de Janeiro e a República que não foi, Cia.

das Letras, São Paulo, 1987, p. 179, f. 25 and p. 155.(23) Carvalho, op.cit., pp. 156-160.

arrested in April of 1890 and charged with practicing ca-poeira, five were black, and seven of the 10 whites wereforeigners. “One commonly found Portuguese and Italiannationals among those arrested for capoeiragem. And thewhites involved were not always poor.”22

Indeed, in that very month of April of 1890 the Ministrywas brought to the brink of crisis because of the arrest of

a famous capoeira and brigand named Juca Reis, a youngman born of a wealthy Portuguese family that owned thenewspaper O Paiz, managed by Quintino Bocayuva – whoat the time was Minister of Foreign Relations. Faced withthe prospect of a prison sentence and deportation of thebourgeois “brawler,” Bocayuva threatened to hand in hisresignation in an ultimatum that called for freeing his formeremployer’s son – which meant dismissing Sampaio Ferraz– or he would resign from of fice. A compromise solutionwas finally reached whereby high society’s capoeira wouldbe allowed to embark voluntarily for a foreign country uponhis arrival at Fernando de Noronha.

The episode shows how deeply capoeira had perme-ated all levels of society. Capoeira practice actually made itpossible for different social classes to fraternize. Carvalhoargues that the blending of classes observed in capoeirawas a long-standing tradition in religious orders and benev-

olent societies. The occasions amounted to “self-recogni-tion” by the populace of Rio de Janeiro, living as they did atthe transition point between a typical slaveholding colonialtown and a modern capitalist metropolis. Numerous ex-amples can be cited of events betokening the creation ofspaces open to confraternization, such as the Penha festivi-ties, sightings of known politicians at candomblé centers,

the gradual social elevation of samba and the spread ofsoccer playing among the poorer classes. Citizenship waswanting at the political level, however, and led to cynicismand indifference which, in turn, gave rise to the carnivaliza-tion (or the subversion of the hierarchy) of power and socialrelations.23

These reflections shed a little light on the sluggishnesswith which capoeira was accepted by society. Its suppres-sion, as undertaken by Sampaio Ferraz, could be regardedas a success inasmuch as it resulted in the virtual disap-pearance of capoeira. According to one French travelerwho spent several months in Rio in 1883, compilations by

the police place the number of capoeiristas in that city atapproximately 20,000. Some 20 years later, in his preface


Jogo de Capoeira.

J.M. Rugendas, 1802-1858



to Japanese Physical Education, the author, Captain SantosPorto, asserted: “Among us, long ago, those agile practicesknown as capoeiragem cropped up even among the chil-dren of the most distinguished families.” Lima Campos in1906 again bemourned the passing of a perceived authen-tic spirit of capoeira, stating that the capoeiristas of that day“don’t make [the practice] into a real art, a profession, an in-

stitution. (...) plainly put, they are rather more like anarchists,razor and knife fighters, indeed, loudmouthed malcontents,rather than true, dedicated, professional and disciplined ca-poeiras.”24 Carvalho reports on a story told by the Chief ofPolice in 1904 about rounding up vagrants in the wake ofthe Vaccination Revolt25: of the more than 2000 arrested,only 73 were arrested for practicing capoeira. After all thecommotion and uproar raised by the mob, there followed adeafening silence on the subject of capoeira. Nevertheless,further research is still needed to give proper grounds forclaiming that capoeira practically disappeared during thelast decade of the 19th century.

Persecution and suppression in Bahia persisted into the1920s, with the famous incursions by police Chief Pedro deAzevedo Gordilho, nicknamed Pedrito, against candomblé parishioners and capoeiristas. Bear in mind that society inSalvador was much more radically stratified by the binarymaster/slave (or white/black) dichotomy than was the casein Rio de Janeiro.26 In any event, deeper studies must be con-ducted to determine the extent of the diffusion of capoeirathrough society throughout the 19th century in Bahia. Sofar, no mobs have been identified as present in Bahia in the19th century. Rego mentions the capoeira-strong-arm-manin the pay of the potentates, by which he probably meantmembers of mob outfits in Rio. Wetherell, Great Britain’s

vice-consul in Bahia from 1842 to 1857, describes a typicalfight in the Salvador’s waterfront Lower City in which “(...) [theblacks] are movement personified, leaping and moving theirarms and legs non-stop, like monkeys when they fight (...)”.27

4. “SCHOLASTICIZATION,” SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE

AND A NEW PROFESSIONALISM (CIRCA 1930- ). Beginning in the 1930s, there was a slow process wherebycapoeira gradually shed its connections with illegality andthe world of crime. Such process resulted into social ac-ceptance and elevation for capoeira. During the course ofthis third metamorphosis, capoeira was demonstrated at

of ficial receptions, recognized as an authentic manifesta-tion of Brazil’s popular culture and, above all, offered as

(24) See Santos Porto, preface to his Educação física japonesa, Cia. Topográfica Brasileira, Rio de

Janeiro, 1905; Lima Campos, apud Drummond and Bandeira, op.cit., p.193.(25) Editor’s Note: Revolta da Vacina (Vaccination Revolt) was a popular rebellion against the

federal government’s decree of compulsory vaccination of the population of Rio de Janeiro.The vaccination ignited the issue of people’s grievance at a series of impositions by the federal

government.

(26) See Rego, op.cit., p. 315.(27) See James Wetherell, Brasil: apontamentos sobre a Bahia 1842-1857, Ed. do Banco da Bahia.

The translator identifies capoeira in this description.

Beginning in the 1930s, there was a slowprocess whereby capoeira gradually shed itsconnections with illegality and the worldof crime. Such process resulted into socialacceptance and elevation for capoeira.



Detail Jogo de Capoeira, J. M. Rugendas




course material in specialized schools or “academies.”A necessary backdrop for the development of “academ-

ic” capoeira with a teaching methodology of its own was apolitical and ideological nexus in which the nation’s identityand the building up of a national culture stood in the lime-light of intellectual debate. Indeed, during the 1920s and1930s, intellectuals committed to diverse aesthetic and

political movements were preoccupied with bringing aboutan ideal “Brazilian-ness,” a reflection of “genuinely” nationalcultural values. Central to this debate was the quest fora middle ground between the need to modernize and, atthe same time, keep traditions intact. The conditions thatmade a resurgence of capoeira possible were molded fromthe very core of the political and social transformations as-sociated with the ongoing process of industrialization.

The Revolution of 193028 heralded the establishment ofnew relations between social classes and the political State.Populist in its methods and argot, the newly-entrenched pow-er elite sought to legitimize the State’s stewardship of society

and hammered out a “statist ideology,” on the blueprint forwhich a number of modernist intellectuals were put to workgenerating patriotic symbolism. The Armed Forces, steepedin the belief that their mission was the “purification” of politics,set their eyes upon education as an essential instrument ofsocial mobilization for the (re)construction of national feeling.Through it, they tried to fuse together mass education andmilitary principles of organizational structure and discipline. Toaccomplish this, the State – now the agent and promoter ofculture itself – appropriated manifestations of popular cultureas its own. A portentous sign of the times was the inclusion ofcapoeira in the new Special Police training curriculum in 1932,which simultaneously served two pragmatic purposes: as a

fighting technique, necessary to the training of police profes-sionals, and as a nation-af firming cultural value.29

Within this context there emerged a new form of ca-poeira, inculcating the notion of ef ficacy. It boasted, as itsfirst symbolic milestone, the creation, by Mestre Bimba in1932, of the pioneer Academy, named the Physical Cultureand Capoeira regional Center of Bahia. We must under-stand that before then – considerations raised by the pho-tography of Christiano Júnior notwithstanding – capoeirawas something learned and taught on the streets. Circleswere organized in public places and the training in tech-niques disparaged the notion of more formal preparation.

In other words, one learned by doing – and not by training,as is done today. When he made martial ef ficacy the touch-stone and cornerstone for his new “style,” Bimba was, ineffect, admitting that he considered capoeira, as it existedat the time, a weak contender from a martial arts stand-point. Taking that as a point of departure, he developed ateaching method which, by placing all emphasis on prepar-ing the capoeirista as a fighter, tended to deemphasize theentertainment component of the art. A process of “scho-lasticizing” was thereby placed in motion, at the expense

of its trappings as a “pastime” and marked by the gradualdisappearance of capoeira circles from the streets.

In addition to upgrading capoeira in its martial aspects,with refinements of technique and even the addition of movesdeveloped by other fighting styles, Bimba also sought to freeit of the stigma of the underworld. Vieira made the observa-tion that to qualify for admission in the Regional Academy, the

“student” (whence, the “scholasticization”) had to be enrolledin school or gainfully employed, so that idlers (or the unem-ployed?) were denied admission. To this screening Bimbaadded cultural formalities assimilated from polite society, andtherefore alien to the popular milieu: entrance exams, basictraining, graduation ceremonies and specialized training cur-ricula. Down these avenues, Bimba struggled to legitimize hiscapoeira style as an educational pursuit, even as he includedmilitary principles of organizational structure and discipline.

Bimba and his students participated in the of ficialSecond of July parade in 1936, and his school was of fi-cially chartered in 1937 (a de facto decriminalization of

capoeira). He taught classes at the Army Reserve Of ficersSchool in Salvador from 1939 to 1942, and put on a dem-

onstration for President Getúlio Vargas in 1953. Theseare milestone events which signally proclaim the socialregeneration and general acceptance of capoeira. As wit-ness, mestre Bimba did establish contact with groups ofuniversity students interested in learning capoeira. Fur-thermore, many of his students were from upper-crustfamilies in Salvador. We may surmise from all of this thatclaims to the effect that capoeira regional was tailored tothe requirements of the more privileged social strata arenot entirely without merit.30

One consequence of the emergence of the so-called

“capoeira regional” was a spurious distinction between two“styles”: “Angola,” understood to be the older and more tra-ditional, and “regional,” viewed by purists as an ersatz version.In point of fact, the whole idea of “capoeira Angola” arose inresponse to the advent of Bimba’s regional style, and emergedin 1941 when Mestre Pastinha (Vicente Ferreira) organizedhis Capoeira Angola Sports Center in Bahia. Confusion oftenarises between the berimbau “tone” known as the “toque deAngola” (that is, a playing rhythm that goes with a certain styleof practice) and a so-called “Angola style” of capoeira. It mustbe understood at the outset that there are different tones andrhythms that call for different forms of capoeira, and that their

variety of possible rhythms does not necessarily imply a crys-tallization into different “styles” or “schools” of capoeira.

One effect of the emergence of capoeira academieswas the severing, once and for all, of the ties associating

(28) Editor’s Note: The Revolution of 1930, aimed at moralizing political institutions, was organizedby regional social elites against the hegemony of traditional coffee oligarchies. As a result,

Getúlio Vargas rose to power and a new regime known as Estado Novo (1937-1945) was

installed.(29) See Vieira, op.cit., Chapter II.

(30) See Vieira, op.cit., p. 175.




capoeira practice with the underworld. The stigma that thiswas an activity for “idlers” or “underworld characters” gradu-

ally faded away, to be replaced by the context surroundingthe world of capoeira today. Furthermore, the rapid spreadof the art, now driven by the academies, was attended byan unchecked proliferation of “mestres” and the resultingcheapening or distortion of the original meaning of the title.In any case, capoeira became a means of livelihood, andwith the academies, professional standing for mestres (orteachers/instructors) acquired substance.

Mixed results also followed from the perpetuation ofteaching techniques over the years. Systematic trainingmethods, based on repetitive practice of movements, cou-pled with the continuous interchange among the various

groups in Brazil and overseas did, in fact, make for unimagi-nable athletic feats and technical development. The em-phasis on repetition, however, gave the movements a sortof “mechanical” or “rote” aspect, standardizing the forms ofplay and forcing personal styles into a Procrustean mold.

Another interesting sidelight of today’s capoeira has to dowith its spread across the globe. The Black Arts Festival heldin Dakar, Senegal in 1966 played host to Mestre Pastinha andhis group, and may have been the first of ficial demonstrationof capoeira outside of Brazil. Ever since the 1970s, and even

The Black Arts Festival held in Dakar,Senegal in 1966 played host to Mestre Pastinha and his group, and may havebeen the first official demonstration ofcapoeira outside of Brazil. Ever since the1970s, and even more so since the 1980s,an ever-increasing number of capoeiristashas traveled to Europe or the US, offeringcourses and even settling down toprotracted work overseas.

Lilia Menezes






more so since the 1980s, an ever-increasing number of ca-poeiristas has traveled to Europe or the US, offering courses

and even settling down to protracted work overseas.31 In a nutshell, capoeira evolved through different forms

over time, and outlasted bigotry and persecution. As a glo-balized world embarks on the 21st century, the very sugges-tion that, about a century ago, in the classical Gilded Age ofimperialism, its very existence had been endangered, seemsodd and out of place. Capoeira today is flourishing all overthe world. Still, its tradition and specific features merit consid-eration such that special attention ought to be given to thepreservation of the many traditional berimbau airs and tones,tones which, when all is said and done, are the strongest linkto the tradition as it stood once the days of the outfits and

underworld mobs had become a thing of the past.

Guilherme Frazão Conduru. Career diplomat and ca-poeirista, a student in Rio de Janeiro under Mestres Sorrisoand Garrincha, both of the Grupo Senzala, itself founded inRio in 1966.

Lilia Menezes

(31) A case in point is that of Mestre Acordeon, baiano, follower of Mestre Bimba, who established

his school in San Francisco, California, from whence he brought a large group of Americanstudents in 1983, to introduce them to capoeira in Brazil. Similar cases emerged, in steadily-

growing numbers.



The War on Capoeira

O N E H AS N O W AY O F K N O W I N G P R E C I S E L Y W H E N T H E S U P P R E S S I O N O F C AP O E I R A F I R S T C AM E

AB O U T . H E R E I AP P R O AC H T H E S U B J E C T F R O M T H E D AW N O F T H E 19 T H C E N T U R Y , W H E N C O N -

T R O L S O N N E G R O F E S T I V I T I E S W E R E T I G H T E N E D AS B R AZ I L ’ S S L AV E H O L D I N G S O C I E T Y B E C AM E

I N C R E AS I N G L Y V I G I L AN T .

Frederico José de Abreu



The War on Capoeira

36

Batuque was a generic term applied indiscriminately to

Negro gatherings which almost invariably blended percus-

sion instruments and dancing. Singing was also a feature

of get-togethers, both sacred and profane, which could be

held separately and apart from each other, or jointly. Hence,

samba, candomblé, capoeira and other predominantly black

dances and festivities, though distinct from one another,

were all lumped together under the common term batuque.Much of what we possess by way of historical observa-

tions of Brazil in the 1800s is due to the testimony and

impressions set down by foreign visitors. These visitors pro-

duced essential documents making it possible to identify

features and aspects of the black population’s customs and

lifestyle, be they slaves, born free or freedmen, whether Af-

rican by birth or native sons born in Brazil. It was common

among foreigners to make comparisons between Brazil

and Africa, especially as they looked out on cities such as

Salvador, Recife and Rio de Janeiro. All three busy urban

seaports, centers for the traf fic in slaves until its abolition in

1871, lay within the colonial provinces of Bahia, Pernambu-co and Rio de Janeiro. All three cities were predominantly

black, and the black population, indispensable to the work-

ings of everyday urban life, thronged their busy streets and

boulevards. Small wonder, then, that these cities were es-

pecially conducive to the drumbeat of Negro festivities.

Salvador, Recife and Rio de Janeiro – so far as historical

research has been able to discern – were the primary cen-

ters for the development and spread of capoeira to other

parts of Brazil from the 19th century through the middle of

the 20th century. This may have been due in part to the

domestic traf fic in slaves between provinces, and to migra-

tion inside national borders. Within these cities, capoeira

– a part of everyday life, everywhere evident in the work-place, wherever the police were summoned by civil unrest,

and at Negro festivities – was associated with the ways and

customs of the darker population. Word of all this, set forth

in the tales told by foreigners, is corroborated from other

sources such as oral tradition, newspapers of the time, po-

lice blotters and court records. A perusal of these reports

shows us that this repression was one of the most serious

threats ever faced by capoeira throughout its existence.

Early 19th century Brazil was a hotbed of sociopolitical con-

flict and insurgency, added to the struggle for independence,

all of which culminated, in 1822, in the loosening of Portugal’s

grip on the nation. Those events were interspersed with suchpopular revolts as the anti-conscription Sabinada (1831-1833)

in the province of Bahia, the grassroots Cabanagem uprising

(1835-1840), in the province of Grão-Pará, and the overlap-

ping Balaiada revolt (1838-1841) in the province of Maranhão.

The earlier Tailors’ Conspiracy, brought to a head by a 1798

rebel movement in Salvador in which the yearning for free-

dom of the downtrodden slaves swept them into the affray

in hopes of bringing about the abolition of slavery. Aggravat-

ing this picture of political instability were numerous uprisings

This may have been due in part to thedomestic traffic in slaves between provinces,and to migration inside national borders.Within these cities, capoeira – a part ofeveryday life, everywhere evident in theworkplace, wherever the police were

summoned by civil unrest, and at Negrofestivities – was associated with the waysand customs of the darker population.

Ministry of External Relations

Texts from Brazil



and slave revolts in the early part of the 19th century. Manyof these were in rural areas, but some broke out in the cities,

especially Salvador, between 1807 and 1835. This succession

of events in such a brief span, centered as they were about

the city of Salvador, suggested that the province of Bahia was

teeming with incipient slave revolts.

Naturally enough, this generalized apprehension over

slave conspiracies put the authorities and population of

Salvador – a city divided at every level along racial lines and

keenly alive to the ever-present animosity – in a state of

alarm. Part of the reaction to the slave revolts was an effort

to identify their causes, and Negro festivities were numbered

among them. It would be no simple matter to establish a banon those festivities and make it stick; a realization brought

home everywhere by the sound of illegal conga drums and

marimba music. Those instruments had been banned by city

ordinances passed as far back as 1716 in efforts to discipline,

by force of law, the black population in the city streets. Con-

ga drums and marimbas were the percussion instruments

providing the sounds and atmosphere for the gatherings.

The slaveholding society – dependent on slaves for its own

survival – was facing a moment of truth: how could such a

society keep the slaves from holding gatherings indispens-able to their very way of life, yet which aroused in that society

so much distress and apprehension?

Just what sort of distress and apprehension they were ex-

periencing is easily made out through the complaints in the

newspapers of the time: “huge crowds of Negroes, male and

female, of the many African nations were chatting, dancing

and singing their native songs to the sound of many hor-

rible conga drums”; “noisy entertainment”; “grating sounds

and voices”; “barbaric customs”; “heady and intoxicating

convulsions”; “fighting”; “indecent and immoral displays”; or

“awful dances...”. These complaints did not stop at disparag-

ing manifestations of black culture as uncivilized. They alsopointed to social disorder: to the extent that these drumbeat

parties were held “whenever and wherever the slaves wanted

them,” it meant that blacks held control – albeit tenuous and

fleeting – over those places during the course of the festivi-

ties. Already established by custom when permitted, upbeat

gatherings of blacks also hovered on the outskirts of street

festivals held on Catholic holy days. On those occasions, ac-

cording to the complainants, “the singing and drumming of

the Negroes drowned out all other sounds.”

Batuque

J.M Rugendas (1802-1858)



The War on Capoeira

38

Through the meanderings of these complaints one could

divine the deep-seated importance of these drumbeat festi-

vals to the lives of those slaves, and the sense of pride they

derived from them. This was something foreign visitors ob-

served and recorded. As chroniclers, they were fascinated by

the eagerness and excitement with which the slaves threw

themselves into the festivities after a grueling day at forced

labor. It was hard to believe these were slaves they werewatching. The eagerness of the slaves toward these joyous

festivities, as chronicled in the reports, suggest that they

may have been valuable aids in regenerating bodies worn

out by the strenuous effort required of slave labor. One of

these awestruck traveling chroniclers, Rugendas, reported

that “we can hardly believe these are slaves we have before

us.” From this we may surmise that these slave festivities

(capoeira, samba, candomblé and other festive gatherings)

provided occasions for slaves to restore a part of their hu-

manity crushed under the brutal heel of slavery.

Despite all, these festivities had their defenders among the

elite. Some clergymen understood them to be “honest andinnocent fun and games,” and held that the slaves were also

God’s children and were therefore entitled to relaxation and

enjoyment. Several slaveowners regarded these festivities as

an opportunity for the slaves to forget, at least momentarily,

their wretched lives, by drowning their sorrows in mirth.

Yet the moment of truth was at hand, with all of society

trapped between the horns of a dilemma – a serious dilem-

ma – given its historical context. Prompted by daily fears

of slave revolts, the dominant slaveholding system sought

to curb all activities which made it easy for black people

to congregate anywhere beyond the control and watchful

supervision of the slavemasters and the police. The activi-

ties in question included the drumbeat festivals, for they in-variably congregated multitudes and were therefore most

balefully viewed by the authorities as breeding grounds for

conspiracies and abettors of the many slave revolts taking

place in Bahia at the time.

Opinions about these festivities poured forth from gov-

ernment authorities, the clergy, policemen, slaveowners, pol-

iticians and ordinary people. Anybody could ponder, opine

or try to influence a decision as to whether these gatherings

ought to be allowed or suppressed. Deciding either way, giv-

en the gravity of the situation outlined in the numerous com-

plaints, and the association between those festivities and the

now-familiar slave risings, was the government’s prerogative.Indeed, since 1767, with the creation of the Calabouço – a

public place for punishment of slaves – slaveowners had no

more inducement to punish their slaves privately, so that

control of blacks on the streets was taken away from their

owners, and became a public utility provided by the State

and administered through its police.

City Hall, responsible for municipal ordinances (laws

regulating and disciplining the people and their trade on

city streets), was helpless to interfere with the drumbeat fes-

Despite all, these festivities had theirdefenders among the elite. Some clergymenunderstood them to be “honest and innocentfun and games,” and held that the slaveswere also God’s children and were thereforeentitled to relaxation and enjoyment.

Detail

Batuque, J.M. Rugendas


Texts from Brazil





The War on Capoeira

40

erings were indispensable to those slaves. The festivities

went on, uncontrolled and inevitable, as did the disgruntled

complaints against them. Neither the complaints published

in the newspapers nor the prohibitions passed by the mu-

nicipal authorities – whatever the damage done by police

in enforcement efforts – could divert the course of history

from the path down which it flowed with the incredible mo-

mentum of that which simply had to be, if we may para-phrase Brazilian composer and singer Caetano Veloso.

Returning now to that list of complaints, the oft-expressed

opinion that the gatherings were barbaric was a widely held

and popular prejudice among the ruling elites throughout the

entire 19th century and well into the 20th; a prejudice which,

to this day, has not yet died out. To these elites, capoeira,

samba and candomblé were blemishes on the face of the

civilization they sought to construct, for they did not fit in at

all with the customs and public procedures of the countries

they deemed most civilized (those of Europe). Many argu-

ments were formulated on behalf of these prejudices, some

to keep those gatherings out of the nicer neighborhoods,and others to ban them entirely. Yet they were pipe dreams,

couched in empty rhetoric propped up by progressive ide-

als, for the model civilization the elite were after refused to

materialize, blocked at every turn by deep-seated social and

economic facts. In true fact, it might be said that economic

development, modernization and urban transformation in

the major cities of Brazil were in line with anachronistic prac-

tices of labor organization: in the nineteenth century human

slavery was considered barbaric by foreign visitors, a fact that

would revert any expectations for presenting the country in

the light of an European model.

In our overview of the war on batuque festivities so far,

we have pointed out much of what guided the efforts tosuppress those Negro assemblies. Yet it must be said that

each of those particular assemblies had to deal with its own

specific context, and the efforts at resistance put up by par-

ticipants in every one of them were no less particular. Be-

cause of this, despite the large number of elements com-

mon to all of them, each has its own story to tell, as is very

much the case for capoeira. Word of that particular feature

being observed in Brazil dates back to before the 19th cen-

tury. Since that time there has also been word of efforts

at suppression directed against capoeiristas. This develop-

ment is so deeply embedded in the earliest origins of ca-

poeira that the history of those days must be researched,studied and told using as primary sources the chronicles

and police records of the time.

Care must be taken in analyzing these sources to elimi-

nate police jargon, prejudices contained in the narration,

and vitiated approaches, all of which could contaminate the

historical view of the capoeiras of yesteryear. With these

precautions and through these documents we may gain

some insights into these capoeiras’ longings, rites, social

behavior and habits, how they addressed each other, their

The war on capoeira went through severalstages, beginning with simple prohibition,followed by whippings under the knout,until it came to be regarded as a problemfor the government by the Republicans inpower. That administration made capoeiraa crime under the Criminal Code of theRepublic in 1890.

Detail



Texts from Brazil



argot, the urban geography they inhabited, the weapons

they used, biographical data, information on their skin color,

ethnic background, dress, occupations, professions, ritual

conflicts between them and the police, and their tactics, at

opportune moments, for expressing their art.

The war on capoeira went through several stages, begin-

ning with simple prohibition, followed by whippings under

the knout, until it came to be regarded as a problem for thegovernment by the Republicans in power. That administra-

tion made capoeira a crime under the Criminal Code of the

Republic in 1890. There were numerous conflicts between

capoeiristas and the police before things came to such a

pass. These conflicts were serious enough to warrant refer-

ring to that period (from the second half of the 19th century

through the first decades of the 20th) as marked by civil un-

rest – unrest occurring mainly in the cities of Rio de Janeiro,

Recife and Salvador, for the reasons already covered.

Capoeira traditions in those cities were similar, not only

in form and content, but also in the social behavior of the

practitioners themselves. Capoeiristas in those cities weregenerally street workers (porters, haulers, traveling salesmen,

market vendors and janitors) or worked at the docks (steve-

dores, warehouse help and oarsmen). One should note that

among the occupations engaged in by these capoeiras were

trades frequently associated with idlers and tramps, such as

fisherman, messenger boy, odd-job man, and the like. We

also know something of their predilection for open festivities.

Oddly enough, even to many folks apprehensive about the

presence of capoeiristas at street festivals, their participation

– along with that of the samba troupes – was considered es-

sential to liven up the more pagan aspects of the partying in

Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. It hardly mattered that they were

blamed for any fights that broke out at these gatherings.Common to all three cities was the prosecution of repres-

sion, albeit varying in degree from one place to another, with

the strictest suppression occurring in Rio de Janeiro. This re-

pression came about through prohibition of the practice of ca-

poeira in city ordinances, marked by persecution and arrests,

oftentimes arbitrary, by physical abuse and corporal punish-

ment, forced labor and relocation or exile. Conscription into

the Army and Navy was another instrument of repression,

one that harked back to colonial days when there were not

enough professionally-trained troops in Brazil, so that press

gangs prowled the streets for levies, focusing primarily on

those regarded as hepcats, idlers and criminals. The Army andNavy also did extra service in those days as reform schools

for juveniles – runaway slaves among them – who, under as-

sumed names, were admitted into the armed forces. Espe-

cially noteworthy was a campaign which the government had

on foot at the time to build up volunteer forces (Voluntários da

Pátria), and among their numbers were many capoeiristas who

fought for Brazil during the war with Paraguay (1864-1870).

The policy of suppressing capoeira, and its methods of

enforcement were in every case supported, it must be said,

by stereotypes circulated by the police and that depicted

capoeira practitioners as rowdies, brawlers, idlers and un-

derworld figures. The generalization was hardly valid for all

capoeiristas, and the tarbrush passed over the non-Negro

practitioners, some of whom were aristocrats, policemen,

society figures, students, etc. Also included among them

were young people rebelling against authority at school or

in the home. They preferred the freedom of the streets,and went in for capoeira as a form of entertainment as well

as a means of self-af firmation in their chosen environment.

It was among that very elite of capoeira practitioners

that the idea took shape that capoeira was both a healthy

form of exercise and an effective fighting style, and that the

perniciousness attributed to it actually traced its origins to

its marginalized practitioners (blacks, Bohemians, vagrants,

the lower classes, etc.).

Capoeiristas in Rio de Janeiro, Recife and Salvador re-

acted to government suppression by resorting to resis-

tance measures, relying on decoy tactics and dissimilation

to evade the police. They tended to practice in out-of-the-way places or in the city’s main boroughs, when and where

the police patrols were spread thinner. These strategies

were honed by the earlier capoeiras in Bahia, whose arsenal

of resistance tactics included negotiating with the police for

permission to idle (in other words, practice capoeira). There

was certainly no shortage of conflicts between capoeiristas

and the police during the course of all this resistance, and

the battle sometimes went to the former, who better knew

their way around and possessed superior skills in personal

combat. Tales of that repression also caught the imagina-

tion, with stories and legends clothing the capoeiristas with

supernatural powers, as men able to turn themselves into

logs, plants or animals if pursued.The desperate straits of capoeira, as told by historical re-

cords, were deeper and more prevalent in the city of Rio de

Janeiro. Capoeira practitioners had a greater influence on

day-to-day life in that city than anywhere else during the 19th

century. That much is clear from newspaper reports of the

time, with their blow-by-blow coverage of conflicts among rival

capoeira outfits (competing underworld groups) and between

these outfits and the police. By means of these battles they

carved out their own territories within the city, where they set

themselves up as parallel governments. These newspaper re-

ports included shrill denunciations of the widespread influence

of capoeira mobsters in city life, and in politics, with seriousinvolvement in events such as the Abolition of Slavery (1888),

and the Proclamation of the Republic (1889). Participation

by capoeira mobs in larger society in Rio de Janeiro provided

much of the justification for adding a ban on capoeira as part

of the Criminal Code of the early Republic.

To the criminalization of capoeira by law were added

other police measures given substance by the apprehen-

sion of the main capoeiristas in Rio and their forcible relo-

cation to the island of Fernando de Noronha, which at the

Capoeira

The War on Capoeira



The War on Capoeira

42

time served as a penal colony. It was largely due to these

forms of suppression that the capoeira tradition in Rio de

Janeiro became uncoordinated and practically disappeared.

A few practitioners who escaped the repression were able

to blend in with bon-vivant hepcats of samba and Carnaval

ways. In Pernambuco, for reasons which have eluded prop-

er study, capoeira withered away during that same period

and saved itself from extinction by setting a pattern for thevigorous steps of the frevo, a dance deeply rooted in the

culture of that state.

During all of this, the capoeira tradition in Bahia gained

strength. It had, true enough, gone through episodes of

repression over the course of the 19th-century, and the

works of some of its adepts were held up as a repeat of

things done in Rio de Janeiro. Historically speaking, how-

ever, the capoeiras in Bahia made a surprise move by work-

ing directly for the preservation and continued existence

of capoeira as a form of enjoyment, artistic practice, as

leisure and entertainment (harmless fun and games) with-

out, however, doing away with its potential as self-defense.They were thus able to establish friendly relations and put

the thing in a favorable light socially, which purpose they

achieved by joining in calendar feasts and celebrations in

Bahia, where capoeira exhibitions were put on as a form of

entertainment to delight the baiano public.

The credit for all of this work goes to a generation of

mestres that, though practically shrouded in anonymity,

shouldered the task, beginning in the 1930s, of becoming

masters of the civilizing arts. They went on to change the

ways and manners of capoeiristas, by refining their styles

and accentuating the positive social aspects of the form.

To these features, inherent in the art from the outset, and

which endured through trying times, were added social andeducational value, so that capoeira was placed on its feet as

a proud symbol of national identity. With that much accom-

plished, the necessary groundwork to show that the ban on

capoeira had no place in the Criminal Code was completed.

One name stands out as a beacon in this historic comeback

of capoeira, that of Mestre Bimba, the pioneer who took up

the style and made it his life’s work. He managed to secure,

through of ficial channels, the right to teach the form. This

was the forerunner of all the lessons that would enable ca-

poeira to make its historic turnaround, so that today it is

looked upon as a way of healing social ills – ills of which, in

former times, it was held to have been the cause.

Frederico José de Abreu. Economist and founding

member of the Academia de João Pequeno de Pastinha,

the Mestre Bimba Foundation and the Jair Moura Institute.

He is the author of several books: Bimba é Bamba: a capoe-

ira no ringue; O Barracão do Mestre Waldemar; Capoeiras:

Bahia século XIX.

One name stands out as a beacon in thishistoric comeback of capoeira, that ofMestre Bimba, the pioneer who tookup the style and made it his life’s work.He managed to secure, through officialchannels, the right to teach the form. This

was the forerunner of all the lessons thatwould enable capoeira to make its historicturnaround, so that today it is looked uponas a way of healing social ills – ills of which,in former times, it was held to have beenthe cause.

Detail



Texts from Brazil



O CAPOEIRA(Oswald de Andrade, 1890-1954)

– Qué apanhá sordado?– O quê?– Qué apanhá?Pernas e cabeças na calçada





The Black Guard:

Capoeira in the Rough-and-tumble of

Politics

O F A L L T H E P H E N O M E NA A T T E N D I N G T H E A B O L I T I O N O F S LA V E R Y I N B RA Z I L A T T H E C L O S E O F

T H E 1 9 T H C E N T U R Y, O N E O F T H E M O S T C O M M E N T E D O N – A N D L EA S T E XA M I N E D – HA S B E E N T H E

S O - CA L L E D B LA C K G UA R D. T H E E P I S O D E S U R V I V E S I N T H E M I N D ’ S E Y E A S T H E S T O R Y O F A G R O U P

O F F O R M E R S LA V E S W H O – G RA T E F U L F O R T H E I M P E R IA L D E C R E E S I G N E D B Y P R I N C E S S I SA B E L A S

A C T I N G R E G E N T, T HA T E N D E D S LA V E R Y I N B RA Z I L – S Q UA R E D O F F A GA I N S T T H E E N E M I E S O F T H E

T H R O N E, W H O M T H E Y A C C U S E D O F P L O T T I N G T O O V E R T H R O W T H E M O NA R C H Y I N R EA C T I O N T O

T H E G O L D E N LA W F R E E I N G T H E S LA V E S 1 .

Carlos Eugênio Líbano Soares

(1) The Golden Law (Lei Áurea) abolishing slavery in Brazil was signed onMay 13, 1888.



The Black Guard:

Capoeira in the Rough-and-tum-

ble of Politics

The subservient condition in which centuries of slaveryhad left those freedmen was such that they could not fullyapprehend that there had been opposition to Monarchylong before the Golden Law, nor that the republican move-ment had for many years built its strength on the perpetu-ation of slavery, a system instituted from the start by themonarchic system.

Trapped by feelings that were anachronistic, premod-ern, or primitive (as was said at the time) these freedmenwere also trapped by modern times. Their whole world dis-appeared when the Monarchy collapsed like a house of cardson November 15, 1889. That was the view generally held byBrazil’s intellectuals at the dawn of the 20th century.2

Another perspective can be seen in articles published inCidade do Rio, a newspaper managed by black journalist Josédo Patrocínio. A dedicated abolitionist, Patrocínio hailed theBlack Guard in its first few months of existence as the incar-nation of the political will of the newly-freed slaves. That en-tire population could now – for the first time, after centuries

of bondage – talk politics in the public square. The messagethey delivered was, quite naturally, supportive of the mea-sure that had freed them from the slaves’ quarters. Little didthey care, afire as they were with the radical heat of Abolition,for the burning resentment of hundreds of landowners andformer bastions of Empire deprived of their property with noindemnity. Nor did they appreciate the extent of Republicanoutrage over the sudden popularity the monarchy had at-tained, thanks to the image of “Isabel the Redeemer.”3

These polarized viewpoints were all buried under the po-litical avalanche caused by the Proclamation of NovemberFifteenth. The bells that rang in the founding of the Republicalso sounded the death knell of this fiery debate, now seen as

something from the dead past, best forgotten on the shelvesof museums and replaced by new issues, issues which theinsurgent administration considered important to its agenda:citizenship, political reform, emigration and federalism...

A rewritten history of Brazil, unveiled in the mid-1980sfor the centennial celebrations of the Abolition and the Re-public, ushered in novel themes and new types of evidencecompletely unknown to the of ficial history – and comingfrom unexpected directions.

The Black Guard was then and to this day remains oneof the subjects of this revisionist re-examination of Brazilianhistory. Gone was the brief phenomenon shoehorned into

the 18-month interval between May 13, 1888 and Novem-ber 15, 1889, to be replaced by the realization that the Guardhad much deeper roots in another familiar aspect of Brazilian

(2) For an overview of the sentiment in opposition to the Black Guard, widely subscribed by thewhite elite of the time, see the articles by Rui Barbosa in the newspaper Diário de Notíciasin 1889. BARBOSA, Rui. Campanhas Jornalísticas. Império (1869-1889. Obras Seletas, v. 6, Riode Janeiro: Casa de Rui Barbosa, 1956 (especially the article titled “A arvore da desordem”published August 18, 1889), pp. 189-192.

(3) For a better picture of the “Blonde mother of Brazil,” “see SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz. “Dos males dadádiva: sobre as ambigüidades no processo da Abolição brasileira” in GOMES, Flávio dos Santos& CUNHA, Olívia Maria Gomes da. Quase-cidadão: história e antropologias da pós-emancipaçãono Brasil, Rio de Janeiro: Ed. FGV, 2007.

Gone was the brief phenomenonshoehorned into the 18-month intervalbetween May 13, 1888 and November 15,1889, to be replaced by the realizationthat the Guard had much deeper roots inanother familiar aspect of Brazilian culture

– an aspect the details of which have onlyrecently begun to emerge from the shadowsof the past: capoeira.




culture – an aspect the details of which have only recentlybegun to emerge from the shadows of the past: capoeira.

Regarded for decades as an African custom, nurtured byslaves in their quarters in early colonial times, then transplant-ed to the runaway slave fastness – Quilombo dos Palmares– before becoming a full-fledged symbol of black culture, aslower, second reading showed capoeira to have emergedwithin the slave culture of Brazil, as something created in anurban environment by Africans and their native-born Creole

descendants, and put to work throughout the towns and cit-ies during the last century of Portuguese colonial rule. Oncea form of resistance directed against the slavemasters andthe slaveholding political State, in its expanded context it isperceived as an instrument for settling conflicts within theurban slave population itself. Once a sporting pastime (tom-foolery) pursued to get away from degrading, servile work, itis now focused on as an indispensable tool used by slavesand freedmen for empowerment within their own streetenvironment. Capoeira in effect became a parallel govern-

ment, under which Negro hawkers and market slaves (whosold goods and services in public places) controlled the un-derground market in colonial towns.

As a subject in history, capoeira has in recent yearsexperienced a metamorphosis of different meanings (onwhich there is no real consensus among researchers). Poli-tics is a new topic, only recently broached.

In what follows4 I will attempt to show how importantthe Paraguayan war was in the cultural transformation af-

fecting capoeira toward the end of the 19th century. Thiswas Brazil’s greatest war in the century before last; it lastedall of five years and paved the way for transformations whichwould wipe monarchy off of the map of South America.

That clash of arms made an impact on Brazil’s popularopinion, which was felt for decades. To the impoverishedblack and brown inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro, freedman

(4) SOARES, Carlos Eugênio Líbano. A negregada instituição: os capoeiras na Corte Imperial1850-1890, Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Access, 1994.



and slave alike – the main practitioners of capoeira in thosedays – the war arrived in the form of press gangs thatprowled the streets and raided the tenements, roundingup levies of “volunteers” for their country. Caged, tied andimpressed into uniform, black capoeira experts were trans-ferred en masse to the battlefields down south.

Once they’d fired their single shot, muzzleloading flint-

locks were not much use. Capoeira fighting techniques,learned on the streets of faraway Rio de Janeiro, were theweapon of choice for Brazil’s black and mulatto soldiers,whether from Rio, Recife or Salvador. In the thick of battle,capoeiras became legend.

Theirs was a triumphant homecoming. Off they had goneas conscripted vagrants forced to march to the colors in theranks of a discredited army, only to return as heroes. Somewere weighted down with medals, and many were set freefor their “sacrifice in blood” while serving in the Armed Forces(slaves were freed before enlistment). Once demobilized, theywere back on the streets and, in some cases, seeking to regain

“territory” given up when they were shipped off to the front.But the political elite had other plans. Awed by the nim-bleness of these capoeiras in battle, former commissionedof ficers, who afterward swelled the ranks of the political elitein the city of Rio de Janeiro, labored behind the scenes to usethose former combatants as muscle in peacetime struggles.

And so capoeira made its debut on the political stage.This was not the micropolitics of slave gatherings, endemicto the first half of the 19th century, but the politics of con-vention halls, of the Liberal and Conservative parties, thecorridors of Parliament, close elections and the logrollingmethods of Parliamentary rule.

These were the days of the Flor da Gente – a capoeira out-fit whose territory was the borough of Gloria in Rio de Janeiro,enlisted in the service of a powerful member of the Conser-vative party from a family steeped in politics – Duque-Estra-da Teixeira. On his behalf they pitched themselves into therough-and-tumble political battles of the campaign of 1872. Ina blur of razor slashes, sweeps, spinning kicks and head butts

those battle-scarred veterans of the Paraguayan War droveLiberal voters from the polling places and swept opposi-tion candidates off of their raised platforms.

Duque-Estrada’s victory in that Congressional raceled political reporters of the time to instill new mean-ing into Flor da Gente: The Flower of My Gentry. The

double meaning was coined when Duque-Estrada,questioned in Parliament as to who those gentrywere who had been ordered to attack opposition vot-ers and candidates on the streets. Duque-Estrada re-plied: “They were my gentry, the flower of my gentry.”

That phrase echoed in the halls of politics in Rio de Janeiro for the next 20 years.

These capoeiras did not always workfor pay, as depicted by the liberal press ofthe time. They were also motivated by

These were tfit whose territoryenlisted in the sevative party fromda Teixeira. Onrough-and-tumbla blur of razor sla

those battle-scLiberal voterstion candidat

Duque-Esled politicaling into Flo

double mquestionewere whoers and caplied: “The

That phr Ja

Once they’d fired their single shot,muzzleloading flintlocks were not muchuse. Capoeira fighting techniques, learnedon the streets of faraway Rio de Janeiro,were the weapon of choice for Brazil’s blackand mulatto soldiers, whether from Rio,

Recife or Salvador. In the thick of battle,capoeiras became legend.

The Black Guard:


ble of Politics




the slavery crisis worldwide. In the United States, civil warhad broken out after President-elect Lincoln removed alldoubt surrounding his plans for emancipation. The defeatof the Confederacy left Brazil’s elite as the Americas’ onlyremaining slavocracy.

The passage by Parliament of an 1871 law freeing thesons of slaves (Lei do Ventre Livre) – pushed through by the

Administration and the Conservative Party – strongly influ-enced public perceptions at the time. Its passage had beenresisted by a coalition of Liberals and Conservative factionsalarmed at the possibility of a shortage of slave labor for theirfarms. The Emperor’s daughter – who signed the decree intolaw as acting Regent while Dom Pedro II was ill – and theConservative Party leadership, gained enormous prestige inthe eyes of the black population of Rio de Janeiro.

The capoeira outfits revelled in the heady air of politicsin smoke-filled rooms, and were soon behaving like callousmonarchists. They were set at the throats of the oppositionby politicians in exchange for bribe money, complicity, and

protection from the white man’s courts and police. And sothe strange alliance was riveted together. In their daily rou-tine, capoeiristas dominated the streets, intimidated rivals,extorted protection money from vendors, harbored fugi-tive slaves and committed petty crimes. These underworldmob outfits defied the police from behind the protection oftheir political patrons and, if actually arrested through somecareless error, were promptly freed.

On election day they concentrated in the vicinity ofpolling places – invariably churches, back in those days –and some mugged opposition voters (this was before thesecret ballot), while others (repeaters, or fósforos) stuffedballot boxes by impersonating absent voters, which usually

lead to brawls. They also bribed voters and attacked thepolls in precincts the opposition was sure to carry.

Their political fame quickly carried them even farther.By about 1870 it was obvious that the production centerfor the coffee monoculture of the time had shifted south-ward to São Paulo, leaving the state of Rio de Janeiro toits played-out fields and ruined plantations. The nouveauriche however, sat on the sidelines of imperial politics,largely dominated by the traditional elites in southeasternand northeastern Brazil. Emancipation was a clear threatto their slaveholding plantations, powered by the traf fic inslaves from the north and northeast regions.

They were the heart and soul of the Republican Party.Organized in 1870, the party was an insignificant gathering,but many of its members were the cream of intellectual so-ciety. Its newspaper, A República, constantly attacked theconservative administration. This in turn sparked the firstconflict involving capoeiras and Republicans: the raiding andattempted “breaking up” of the newspaper A República.

It was February 28, 1873, in the wake of Duque-Estra-da’s congressional victory with the help of capoeira’s Flor gentry, followed by heated accusations of “promiscuous”

relations between politicians and capoeira outfits, that thenewspaper’s of fices were pounded by a hail of stones, im-precations, and battering at its doors; a brat clambered upon the nameplate and blacked it out with paint. This theadministration was promptly accused of having abetted.

Throughout the 1870s, collaborative agreements betweenmonarchist politicians and the outfits of the capoeira mob

dealt the Imperial Palace in Rio de Janeiro some very stronghands. When those classical liberals – ostracized for a decade– finally came to power in 1878, they ushered in the first policeefforts against what a hostile press referred to as the “capoeirapoliticians”; this police campaign led to nothing.

The political atmosphere that breathed life into theBlack Guard had been around for 15 years. Dom Pedro IIand his heir to the throne, Isabel, were regarded as sympa-thetic toward abolitionist causes. Politicians from São Pau-lo, who largely controlled the Republican Party, were seenas irascible slave owners, busily selling the native sons ofnortheastern Creole families down the river to stand whip-pings in the slave pens of the Paraíba Valley.

By the time the Black Guard was afoot, those impoli-tic images had faded considerably. The Guard’s defend-ers were embarrassed to be associated with movementsdescribed in the political press as authoritarian and criminal– as the Flor da Gente capoeiras of the 1870s were madeout. To their enemies, waving that bloody shirt divertedattention away from the emancipation law (Lei Áurea), andtherefore away from unhappy memories of the associationbetween certain “liberal” politicians and the slavocracy.

The shapers of public opinion on both sides were there-fore incapable of understanding the deeper causes whichgave rise to the Black Guard. The first affray in which it was

involved was an attack on a campaign rally featuring Silva Jardim, at the French Gymnastics Association. This attack oc-curred at Rua da Travessa da Barreira on December 31, 1888.Silva Jardim was on a nationwide speaking tour financed bythe Republicans, and was capitalizing on the Monarchy’s sud-den loss of popularity among the landed gentry over the for-feiture of their investments in chattel “property.”

That night, members of the Guard tried to force theirway into the chamber in which Silva Jardim was making hisspeech. Members of his select audience promptly made



ready to fight off the “murderous mob.” Thus surrounded,they had no choice but to fight their way clear – and fightthey did. The police – whose precinct house was a fewyards away – never lifted a finger. Some were darkly suspi-cious that the trap had been set with the connivance ofhigh government of ficials. Almost nobody realized that thetrail of gunpowder had been ignited many months before.

A singular event was recorded in the annals of Rio de Janeiro’s police history on July 12, 1888, when an entire ca-poeira outfit, or malta, was arrested in one fell swoop. Norwas this any ordinary outfit – it was the Cadeira da Senhoramob whose territory was the Campo de Santana, a largeopen area in the heart of the city. They were named afterthe Lady in the Chair, an image of Santa Ana, Christ’s grand-mother, which decorated the main façade of the Igreja de

Santana church before it was torn down to build the DomPedro II train station (today the Central do Brasil).

The arrest of an entire capoeira outfit was a rare itemin a police report, given the immunity they got from well-

connected politicians of the Crown. They were all booked,and newspaper reports indicated they would be draftedinto the Army, much like their predecessors of the 1860s.Oddly enough, however, they were all released the follow-ing day. Their names appear on the entry logs for the Impe-rial House of Detention, the city’s great prison.

Those same names appeared in newsprint on January 1,1889, cited as confederates of the band that had surroundedthe French Association on that fateful December 31. (TheHouse of Detention records for 1/1/1889 are forever lost.)The two events are clearly related, just as the press gang leviesfor the Paraguayan War were related to the political entangle-ments of capoeira during the 1870s.

The two events were tied together by what the pressat the time called the Capoeira Party – more a reference toways of getting things done in politics than to any specificgroup. The term was aimed squarely at the alliance be-tween conservative politicians and capoeirista veteransof the Paraguayan War. The alliance was forged behindthe scenes, even though both parties had received con-siderable press coverage for nearly 20 years. The Ca-poeira Party had a clear racial identity and catered tothe specific needs of marginalized urban groups andworking-class people, while repudiating all politiciansbound up with the slaveholding system.

That is the added dimension of the Black Guard, a di-mension not yet worked out by modern scholars. TheGuard was the first institution to use the term black ina positive and self-referential sense, with its politicalmeaning intact. In other words, black or Negrohad for centuries been a strongly pejorativeword, indicative of slaves, weakness, lack offighting capacity, and submission. Africansand native sons in Brazil called each otherNegroes as an insult. In that sense it is

.ll released the follow-ntry logs for the Impe-at prison.ewsprint on January 1,d that had surroundedl December 31. (The1889 are forever lost.)s the press gang leviesthe political entangle-

er by what the press– more a reference tos than to any specificly at the alliance be-apoeirista veterans

was forged behind had received con-20 years. The Ca-ity and catered tourban groups andting all politiciansm.

Black Guard, a di-n scholars. The term black in its political Negroativek ofanser

The Capoeira Party had a clear racialidentity and catered to the specific needsof marginalized urban groups andworking-class people, while repudiating allpoliticians bound up with the slaveholdingsystem.

The Black Guard:


ble of Politics




related to the belittling sense of “nigger” which, in the UnitedStates, until fairly recently, was considered a swear word byAmerican Negro (sic) movement insiders.

It is no coincidence that a political meaning was addedto the term precisely at the moment in history at which thenative-born blacks became an absolute majority amongslaves and freedmen in Brazil, an outcome predicted back

in 1850, when the trans-Atlantic traf fic in African slaves wasabolished. These native sons developed new political feel-ings – different from the ethnic sentiments so pervasiveamong the Africans – feelings around which the notion of ablack race would crystallize.

The gauntlet the native sons of the Black Guard threwdown before white racism was a new meaning for Negro, published in newspaper articles in Cidade do Rio, especiallythose signed by Clarindo de Almeida, the Guard’s mysteri-ous leader. These broader meanings were lost on the writ-ers of the time, and must be weighed by today’s scholarsas diacritical marks for a new political language – a broad,

sweeping, racial language – that was suddenly hushed up.The second face-off between the Black Guard andRepublicans occurred in Rio on July 14, 1889, during theCentennial celebration of the Storming of the Bastille, ared letter day for Republicanism. A band of celebrating Re-publicans was making its way down a street named Rua

do Ouvidor at nightfall, and found their way barred bya detachment from the Black Guard. Fighting en-

sued, predictably enough, but this time the policestepped in and the records from the House of De-tention have survived intact.

Alfredo Emygidio Prestello, a Portuguese na-tional, age 18, cabinetmaker, residing at Rua

do Monte; Albino Loureiro de Carvalho,also Portuguese, from Vila Real, age 21,

domiciled at Travessa do Costa Velho;and Luiz Pinto Pereira, age 21, scriv-ener, birthplace Minas Gerais, resid-ing at Rua da Gamboa, all of themwhite, fought on the Republicanside. José Carlos Vieira, age 22, car-penter, olive-complexioned, residingat Rua Pedro de Alcântara, and JoséAntônio, black, age 20, birthplace Ba-hia, unemployed, are a sampling from

the opposing side.5 Headlines blared news of the

rumble all over the capital city.Middle-class cariocas grew moreand more uncomfortable. Inac-tion on the part of governmentand failure by the police to estab-

lish order were noted with uneasi-ness by military men. All indications

were that the João Alfredo Adminis-

tration’s Cabinet was somehow conniving in the situation,and the Republicans were transformed overnight, from fierceopposition critics to hapless victims of a conspiracy hatchedby the powers-that-be. The Black Guard, once the darlings ofmany intellectuals, outcasts to whom columns of newsprintwere dedicated (something unheard-of in Brazil in thosedays), were now stigmatized as brigands and rowdies in the

pay of the government, “roving gangs” of violent muggers.The accusations heaped upon the Flor da Gente capoeiras inearlier times were again dusted off and recited.

The political climate rekindled some very unkind stereo-typing of the “Negro race.” Ill-prepared to cope with the fullmeasure of political freedom thrust upon them as of May 13,1888, it was suggested they ought to be dealt with by the po-lice or again set to labor in the fields, under the watchful eyeof the political State. Those “May 13ths,” as the legally eman-cipated freedmen were called, who had barely tasted the airof freedom, now bowed under the weight of new restrictionsheaped upon them by “capitalist” bourgeois society.

The dark clouds of race warfare that had gathered inthe time of the Black Guard were doubtless uppermost inthe minds of Brazil’s high of ficials on the eve of the uprisingthat toppled the monarchy. But the toppling of the Guardhad begun even earlier. In July of 1889 – the month of thestreet rumble on Rua do Ouvidor – João Alfredo’s Cabinetcollapsed, and the Liberal Party rose to power in the personof the Visconde de Ouro Preto.

What at first appeared to be a new beginning soondragged the monarchy to its unhappy end. The Viscounthad a terrible reputation. He had been Treasury Ministryin 1880, when he had the unfortunate idea of levying anew tax on streetcar fares. The tax threatened to diminish

the already scant earnings of the urban population. Theresulting riot over that farthing, the Revolta do Vintém wasa rampage in which the population turned over streetcars,erected barricades around town and fought army troops.All of this brought whoops of joy from opposition journalists– namely, the Republicans and abolitionists. Over reportsof many casualties, the Minister resigned and the tax wasabolished. The Revolta do Vintém was the backdrop to bothabolitionists’ and Republicans’ street campaigns.

Just days after the proclamation of the Republic, Gener-alíssimo Deodoro da Fonseca named Sampaio Ferraz chiefof police for the Federal District. Sampaio promptly began

work on his own agenda.As a government prosecutor, Sampaio had for some

time followed the movements of the capoeira outfits. Heunderstood that the toppling of the regime would usher ina provisional government with dictatorial powers, the idealenvironment in which to put an end to the mobs – andwipe out the last traces of the Black Guard in the process.

(5) All of these records are recorded in the House of Detention records titled Livro de Matrículas daCasa de Detenção No. 4321, 15/07/1889, Public Archives of the State of Rio de Janeiro.

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CapoeiraThe Black Guard: capoeira in the rough-and-tumble of politics



In a matter of months, hundreds of capoeiristas, both activeand “retired” (too old for that kind of work) were arbitrarilyarrested. Initially held at the Santa Cruz prison, they wereherded into a steamer and shipped off to the federal gov-ernment’s prison on the island of Fernando de Noronha.

In less than a year Sampaio did away with the last tracesof the Capoeira Party, and the Black Guard to boot. Octo-

ber saw the publication of a new Criminal Code for the Re-public, making capoeira illegal, as most of its practitionerswasted away in their mid-Atlantic prison. What eventuallyhappened to them remains a mystery. Another centurywould go by before the Black Guard was again mentionedin the history books. In the meantime, theories propound-ing the “social uprooting” of Negroes as explaining their in-ability to cope with the “new” bourgeois order contributedlittle to the furtherance of historical research. We had towait until after the military regime of 1964 was done awaywith before we could review certain events in of ficial histori-cal records, and revisit the subject of the Black Guard.

Bibliography

BARBOSA, Rui. Campanhas Jornalísticas. Império(1869-1889), Obras Seletas, v. 6, Rio de Janeiro: Casa de RuiBarbosa, 1956.

BERGSTRESSER, Rebecca Baird. The Movement for the Abolition of Slavery in Rio de Janeiro, 1880-1889, StanfordUniversity Press, 1973.

DUQUE-ESTRADA, Osório. Abolição: esboço histórico. Rio

de Janeiro: Leite Ribeiro, 1908.GOMES, Flávio dos Santos & CUNHA, Olívia Maria Gomes da.Quase-cidadão: história e antropologias da pós-emancipa-ção no Brasil, Rio de Janeiro: Ed. FGV, 2007.

GOMES, Flávio dos Santos. “No meio das águas turvas (rac-ismo e cidadania no alvorecer da República; a Guarda Ne-gra na Corte, 1888-1889)” In Estudos Afro-Asiáticos, Rio de

Janeiro, v. 21, pp. 75-96, December of 1991.

MAGALHÃES JUNIOR, Raimundo. A vida turbulenta de Josédo Patrocínio. Rio de Janeiro: Sabiá, 1969.

ORICO, Osvaldo. O tigre da abolição. Rio de Janeiro: 2nd.ed. 1953.

SOARES, Carlos Eugênio Líbano. A negregada instituição: oscapoeiras na Corte Imperial 1850-1890 , Rio de Janeiro: Ed.Access, 1994.

TROCHIM, Michael. “The Brazilian Black Guard: racial conflict inpost-abolition in Brazil” In The Américas, v. XLIV, January, 1988.

Carlos Eugênio Líbano Soares. Earned his B.A. andlicenciature in History at UFRJ, and Master’s in History atUNICAMP. PhD., History, UNICAMP. Associate Professor ofHistory at UFBA

Another century would go by before theBlack Guard was again mentioned in thehistory books. In the meantime, theoriespropounding the “social uprooting” ofNegroes as explaining their inability tocope with the “new” bourgeois order

contributed little to the furtherance ofhistorical research.

The Black Guard:


ble of Politics




Capoeira is Defense, Attack, Handling

Oneself, and a Rascal’s Skills

W H I L E S T R

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Antonio Liberac Cardoso Simões Pires



Capoeira is Defense, Attack,

Handling Oneself, and a Rascal’s

Skills

It is always dif ficult to generalize about capoeira, forthroughout its history it has evolved into different forms orschools, and its practitioners come from all income levels andwalks of life. At root, it was something practiced by Africanslaves in Brazil, and grew out of cultural connections amongrepresentatives of the various African ethnic groups, capturedand transported to Brazil as slaves. Police records going back

to the 1820s tell of slaves arrested for practicing capoeira in Riode Janeiro, and describe a multiplicity of ethnic backgrounds,among them people from Angola – including Cassange – andfrom the Congo, Mozambique, and other nations.

In the 19th century, capoeira was very widespread andsystematically practiced primarily in Rio de Janeiro, wherepolice authorities sought to suppress it. Stories about itsadepts (capoeiras, or capoeiristas) go back to the late 18thcentury. A landmark figure was “Major Vidigal,” a police of-ficer famous for using capoeira in his confrontations withrunaway slaves, shamans and other capoeiras. But it is onlyafter the organization of civil and military police forces that

records of capoeiras begin turning up with any sort of regu-larity in historical sources. In the early 19th century capoei-ras were already a familiar sight in the city of Rio de Janeiro.From 1810 to 1821, out of the 4853 people arrested bythe police in that city, 438 (9%) were charged with practic-ing capoeira. It was during this period that the capoeirasorganized into outfits and got involved in power politics inthe capital city of Rio de Janeiro. They also took sides inrelations between the masters and the slaves, and amongthe slaves themselves.

Back in those days, capoeira practitioners were orga-nized into “capoeira mobs” called maltas (like the islandnear Sicily), claiming as their territory the various boroughs

into which the city was divided. This pattern of organiza-tion predominated throughout all of Brazil. In addition tostraight razors, they used hook knives, musical instrumentsand wooden clubs as weapons in their rumbles. By nomeans, however, did they only practice fighting techniques.They invented an elaborate tradition around capoeira,which included names and war cries for each group.

One of the greatest independent capoeiristas of thetime, Plácido de Abreu, explains that in the second half ofthe 19th century, Rio’s capoeiras were divided into two bigmobs, or nations, the “Nagoa” and the “Guaiamu.” In fact,each nation was made up of a number of different capoeira

outfits, generally organized by boroughs, so that a nationamounted to an alliance among various groups which mo-nopolized specific areas of the city. Historians have not yetarrived at a categorical definition of the terms that refer tothese two inner-city nations. But the information handeddown by Plácido de Abreu does outline many features ofthese groups, most importantly, the jargon or lingo theyspoke. From that vantage point, we gain an inside perspec-

(1) Capoeira practitioners who did not belong to any outfit or mob were called amadores (amateurs).

It is always difficult to generalize aboutcapoeira, for throughout its history it hasevolved into different forms or schools,and its practitioners come from all incomelevels and walks of life.






A practice common to all capoeiristas inBrazil was the acquisition of a nickname, acustom that has survived to this day.While capoeira practitioners in Rio de Janeiro worked on their version, closelybound up with martial arts, capoeiristas inBahia – largely overlooked by historiansreviewing the 19th century – came up withtwo separate capoeira styles of their own:capoeira angola and capoeira regional.Mestre Pastinha and Mestre Bimba werethe leading practitioners of these two stylesor schools of capoeira.

The field Zuma had in mind for training bouts was inthe shape of a circle, with a letter “Z” drawn inside it. Forall competitions, there would be a referee to mark time forthe bout and monitor the players’ movements. The durationof a single bout was not to exceed one hour, divided intothree-minute rounds, with two-minute rest periods. At everybreak, the two contenders were introduced in the center of

the ring, so that the referee could more easily monitor thecontest. In the event of a draw, an additional half-hour exten-sion would be granted, interspersed with longer rest periods.If the stalemate were to continue, the referee would then or-der a “last man standing” round in which the two combatantswould continue until one of them dropped (a TKO) with norest breaks. These bouts were to be held on soccer fields.

Despite intensive efforts aimed at suppressing capoeira,beginning in the early 19th century, and lasting through itsinclusion in the Criminal Code in 1890, the forces of resis-tance held their ground and the sport was reinvented be-ginning in the 1920s. Its adepts and practitioners elevated

its status as a national symbol, and identifi

ed it with sports,dance, music and, most importantly, martial arts.Unlike in Rio de Janeiro, no Draconian suppression tactics

were used against capoeira in Bahia during the 19th century.The police there did not prosecute anyone under Article 402of the 1890 Criminal Code. There were, however, numerousarrests of capoeiras in Bahia in the early 20th century. Theywere charged with assault, under Article 303 of the 1890 Crim-inal Code. Capoeiristas in Bahia’s capital also organized them-selves in ways reminiscent of the capoeira mobs and outfits inthe boroughs of Rio de Janeiro, then the nation’s capital.3

The capoeiras of Bahia’s capital became famous and aremore vividly remembered by today’s capoeiristas than their

cohorts in Rio de Janeiro. Prominent among those champi-ons of the times are Pedro Mineiro, Antônio Boca de Porco,Bemenol, Chico Três Pedaços, Feliciano Bigode de Sêda andBesouro Mangangá – the most famous of all. A practicecommon to all capoeiristas in Brazil was the acquisition of anickname, a custom that has survived to this day.

While capoeira practitioners in Rio de Janeiro worked ontheir version, closely bound up with martial arts, capoeiristasin Bahia – largely overlooked by historians reviewing the 19thcentury – came up with two separate capoeira styles of theirown: capoeira angola and capoeira regional. Mestre Pastinhaand Mestre Bimba were the leading practitioners of these two

styles or schools of capoeira. Both shared a common struc-ture, similar from its training through the ranks to the type ofclothing worn. The fundamental differences lay in the playingstyles and their accompanying musical repertoires.

Capoeira angola first appeared in Bahia in the 1920s,most prominently among a group organized by Querido deDeus, nickname of a capoeira who worked as a stevedore

(3) The city of Salvador is the capital of the State of Bahia. Carioca refers to the city of Rio de Janeiro.


Capoeira is Defense, Attack,

Handling Oneself, and a Rascal’s

Skills



at Bahia’s old Gold Quay. But the man who gave capoeiraangola its systematic structure and laid down its ritual rules,tempos, and beautiful rhythms – and provided uniforms,thereby lending a sporting aspect to this cultural demonstra-tion – was Mestre Pastinha. To him, capoeira angola was apart of Brazil’s national culture. Many indeed were the prac-titioners of capoeira angola, men like Mestre Valdemar da

Paixão, Mestre Noronha, Mestre Tibúrcio, Mestre Canjiquin-ha, Mestre Caiçara, Mestre João Pequeno and Mestre JoãoGrande, to name a few, each with his own personal touch.Mestre Bimba, on the other hand, increased the number oftechniques and rhythms, laying emphasis on the songs andformally establishing the basic musical instruments as simplytwo tambourines and one berimbau. His innovations havebecome predominant throughout all of Brazil.

Capoeira regional was quickly carried to all points in Brazilby its practitioners from Bahia. One can comb the Braziliannation from top to bottom and find hardly any isolated village

or hamlets without some sort of capoeira practice. Capoeiraangola practitioners followed in the wake of those capoeiraregional pioneers some decades later. When they arrived,however, they brought with them the seed crystal aroundwhich a global capoeira culture would soon form. Capoeirais currently practiced on every continent, and is increasinglyregarded as a cultural and national symbol of Brazil.

It is true that the jaundiced eye of prejudice and the law-enforcement machinery it controlled became less onerous astime went on. In 1937 capoeira was decriminalized, for it hadattained an entirely new social standing. Black culture increas-ingly became a more highly-valued component in the evolvingprocess of ethnic inclusion among Brazil’s national symbols, andBrazil was soon introducing capoeira to the world as one of itsmost precious treasures, the outcome of syncretism over theages in which the influx from many different African, Europeanand indigenous ethnicities developed into something with thatunique identity that is capoeira, with its peculiarly Brazilian traits.

Bibliography

ALGRANTI Leila Mezan . O feitor ausente: estudos sobre a

escravidão urbana no Rio de Janeiro. 1808-1822. Petrópo-lis, Vozes, 1988.

HOLLOWAY Thomas H. “O Saudável terror” Repressão policial aos

capoeiras e resistência dos escravos no Rio de Janeiro do século

XIX. Rio de Janeiro, Afro-Asian Studies Center Magazine, 16, 1989.

SOARES Carlos Eugênio Libano. A negregada Instituição. Os

capoeiras no Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, Ed. Secretaria

Municipal de Cultura, 1994. A capoeira Escrava no Rio de Janeiro 1808-1850.

Campinas, Doctoral thesis, Unicamp, 1998.

PIRES Antonio Liberac Cardoso Simões. A Capoeira no jogo das

cores. Criminalidade, cultura e racismo na cidade do Rio de Ja-

neiro (1890-1930). Campinas, Masters thesis, Unicamp. 1996.

ALMEIDA Manoel Antonio de. Memórias de um sargento de

milícias. Rio de Janeiro, Ed. Crítica, 1978.

AGPMERJ – Correspondence received – 16/11/1932.

ABREU Plácido de Abreu. Os capoeiras. Rio de Janeiro, Ti-pografia da escola de Serafin José Alves, no date.

DIAS Luiz Sérgio. Quem tem medo da capoeira? 1890-1906.Rio de Janeiro, Master’s thesis, History Department, UFRJ,1993, p.110.

SODRÉ Muniz. O terreiro e a cidade. Petrópolis, Vozes,1988, p.54.

Antonio Liberac Cardoso Simões Pires. Ph.D. SocialHistory, Unicamp Assistant Professor, Universidade Fed-eral do Recôncavo da Bahia.Published works: Bimba, Pastinha e Besouro de Mangangá,

Três Personagens da Capoeira Baiana. Tocantins/Goai-ania, UFT/Grafset, 2001. A capoeira na Bahia de Todos os

Santos. Tocantins, UFT/Grafset, 2004. (org). Sociabilidades

Negras, Belo Horizonte, Ministério da Educação, Daliana,2006

This article is based on the author’s original work titled:Movimentos da cultura afro-brasileira, Campinas, Doctoralthesis, Department of History, Unicamp, 2001.

MRE Collection

CapoeiraCapoeira is Defense, Attack, Handling Oneself, and a Rascal’s Skills



Capoeira Angola Ritual CirclePerformance

MA R T IA L DA N C E - F I G H T I N G, A R T, R E L I G I O U S E X P R E S S I O N, T H E RA P Y, C U L T U R E, E N T E R TA I N M E N T, R I -

T UA L, O R E V E N “A WA Y O F B E I N G, ” A R E A M O N G T H E H O S T O F D E F I N I T I O N S O R Q UA L I T I E S A T T R I B U -

T E D T O CA P O E I RA. T H

I S P H Y S I CA L P RA C T I C E I S B E C O M I N G I N C R EA S I N G L Y P O P U LA R T H R O U G H O U T

T H E W O R L D, A N D I T S M E S SA G E I S C O

U C H E D I N D I F F E R E N T VA L U E S, D E P E N D I N G O N T H E S T Y L E O F

CA P O E I RA A D O P T E D : A N G O LA, R E G I O NA L O R C O N T

E M P O RA R Y.

Rosa Maria Araújo Simões




Capoeira originated in Brazil during slavery, and sincethen has been tracking the development of our society inall its myriad ways. According to Lima (1991: 10-12) its his-torical development in Brazil can be traced through four ba-sic stages. In Imperial times, before the abolition of slavery,the main purpose of capoeira was self-defense. After Brazilbecame a Republic, capoeira gained added attractions as

a visible aspect of black culture, and here it was known asCapoeira Angola.1 Under the nationalist regime presided byGetúlio Vargas in the mid-1930s, capoeira was organized asa form of gymnastics, and was finally adopted as a sport bythe National Sports Council in 1972. The 1930s also saw thedevelopment of a new, regional style of capoeira created byManuel dos Reis Machado (Mestre Bimba) of Bahia, whichtoday is known as Capoeira Regional. More recently, a newterm was coined for innovative variations on Capoeira Re-gional by Mestre Camisa of the “ABADÁ Capoeira” group2,

namely, “Contemporary Capoeira,” the style now practicedby most capoeira enthusiasts. Paralleling these three differ-

ent styles of capoeira we have different types of capoeiracircles, and the different values which they impart.3 It is not my intention here to delve into those differ-

ences, for that would involve still another research paper.Our purpose is to illustrate the strict form underlying ritualperformance.4 To do so we will focus specifically on thestyle known as capoeira angola, and describe the capoeiracircles based on the Capoeira Angola Sports Center, whichis the Academy organized by João Pequeno de Pastinha(CECA – AJPP),5 and which serves as a touchstone for ca-poeira tradition. We mustn’t forget that Mestre João Peque-no de Pastinha (born December 27, 1917) is, at age 89, theliving history of capoeira. His school and style is a model

for practitioners and has been brought to the rest of theworld by his students, the most important among them be-ing Mestre Pé de Chumbo.

We generally observe, in the discourse and teachings ofangola Mestres (masters), some emphasis on the preservationof tradition and the fundamentals of Angola-style capoeira.Among these we would highlight, as examples, respect, justice,humility and patience. All of these virtues can be seen in fullbloom in the organization of the ritual (the capoeira circle, orroda), in which considerable pains are taken to reproduce the

(1) In 1922, the very cream of Bahia’s capoeira practitioners created the Conceição da Praia

Capoeira Angola Center (Mestre Bola Sete, 2001: 29).(2) Associação Brasileira de Apoio e Desenvolvimento da Arte – Capoeira. (Brazilian Capoeira Art

Support and Development Association)(3) Rodas are the ritual circle performances through which capoeira is practiced and given expression.(4) To Turner (1982: 13), “the anthropology of the performance is an essential part of the

anthropology of the experience” and furthermore, “every type of cultural performance,

including rituals, ceremonies, Carnaval, and theatre are explanations of life, as often set forth

by Dilthey.” And the expression, in turn, is in itself “a process which impels one to an expressionwhich perfects it.” To illustrate the claim, the author calls upon the etymology of the word“performance” which he claims, “has nothing to do with ‘form,’ but rather, is derived from theold French parfournir, “to complete” or “accomplish perform painstakingly/rigorously/totally.”

Hence, the completion is the purpose of an experience.” [Translations]. For more on the theoryand method, see the thesis titled “Da inversão à re-inversão do olhar: ritual e performance nacapoeira angola” (SIMÕES, 2006).

(5) The main of fice is at the Forte da Capoeira in Salvador (BA), but there are schools in SãoPaulo (Indaiatuba, Campinas, São Carlos, Presidente Prudente, Bauru, Sorocaba, Capital); MinasGerais and in other countries, such as Mexico, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, the UnitedStates etc.

All of these virtues can be seen in fullbloom in the organization of the ritual(the capoeira circle, or roda), in whichconsiderable pains are taken to reproducethe specific knowledge and languagecharacteristic of the Angola style of

capoeira. Let us now join the circle....




specific knowledge and language characteristic of the Angolastyle of capoeira. Let us now join the circle....

CAPOEIRA ANGOLA RITUAL PERFORMANCE, DE-

SCRIBED IN CONTEXT.

(...) practically every object, every gesture, songor prayer, or slice of space and time is acceptedon faith as something other than itself. It is morethan it appears to be, and often, quite a lot more.(Turner 1974: 29)

At the ritual performance one is struck by its polysemy/multivocality. Thus, the way the Academy is decorated –including spaces for hanging the berimbaus, rainbow wallpaintings (the CECA – AJPP logo), framed photographs offamous masters (in honor of the heritage, and retelling the

story of capoeira angola) – down to the uniforms, the bodymovements and musical style; all of these constitute thenumerous languages of capoeira angola.

Students arrive early to prepare the ritual space for thecircle or roda. They clean the floor and straighten out thebenches, while others tune the musical instruments andset up the three conga drums for the ritual performance.There are also spares, for if the steel wire on the berimbau(the bowstring)6 breaks during the ceremony, the berimbaumust be quickly replaced without interrupting practice.

Ritual performance in capoeira consists of the circle,which represents “this old world of God’s” (the universe).A complete description would necessarily cover the mu-sic, and embark upon themes of self, the hierarchy of rank,moral values, and so on. Then there are the innumerablepairs of opposition stances, contrasting resistance and sub-

mission moves, on your feet and on the floor, close in andoutside, joy and pain (sadness), sport and fun, combat andoppression, straightforwardness and indirection, hand ver-

sus foot,7 and so on. The circle is a fisheye lens which takesin the whole of capoeira’s symbolic universe.

Mestre Bola Sete claims there are many masters whobelieve that capoeira, created by Africans in Brazil, has itsorigins in ancient African rituals.

Câmara Cascudo (1967: 183) likewise draws parallelsbetween capoeira and African dances as he points to theN´Golo (Dance of the Zebras) as a Warriors’ dance pertain-ing to rites of passage, in which adolescent boys dance/

compete for the benefit of young female spectators.Prior to the 1930s, capoeira was not practiced indoors(in academies), so we would hardly be surprised if the ritualthen were different from that of today. Back then it was a

(6) Verga describes the wood that bends to produce the berimbau. A favorite type of wood formaking the berimbau is biriba, as mentioned in songs: “Biriba é pau, é pau/Oi biriba é pau parafazer berimbau...” (public domain).

(7) In an open corrido the leader (or puxador , generally the mestre, or someone else of similarrank) sings: “É a mão pelo pé” (hand for foot) and the chorus replies “O pé pela mão” (foot forhand); then the leader sings “É o pé pela mão” (foot for hand) and the chorus responds “A mãopelo pé” (hand for foot). These verses are repeated over and over.

Master Poloca in the roda

Nzinga Capoeira Angola Group




(8) In a formal statement, Mestre Pastinha, said: I give you two real mestres, not improvised

teachers, referring to Mestre João Pequeno and Mestre João Grande (the latter lives inNew York).

(9) Gunga is loosely used as a synonym for berimbau.(10) When the two capoeiristas are hunkered down (squatting) in front of the three berimbaus.

struggle for freedom and survival, and as recreation, capoe-ira was practiced at the sugarcane mills, on hillsides, streets,dockside, street markets and neighborhood squares. Inphotographs taken back then we note the difference in thenumber of berimbaus, the percussion setups, clothing, etc.

It is in the city of Salvador (Bahia) that the capoeira An-gola academies, which trace their lineage back to Mestre

Pastinha, try to keep up the tradition they had in the1930s. The capoeira angola groups scattered throughoutthe world also follow the pattern outlined by Mestre Past-inha, which is why my report on the ritual performance isbased on CECA – AJPP, for Mestre João Pequeno is con-sidered to be Mestre Pastinha’s main student, and respon-sible for handing down this art.8

A CAPOEIRA ANGOLA CIRCLE.

(...) it is one thing to watch people going throughthe stylized movements and singing the enig-matic songs that make up the ritual practice, butachieving a proper understanding of what thosemovements and words mean to them is some-thing else entirely. (Turner, 1974: 20)

People generally arrange themselves in a circle at theserodas, but they also sometimes form squares or rectangles.Every group will organize one of these inside its academyabout once a week, throughout the year. There is also aparty, the Capoeira Angola Event, which brings together thevarious groups, much like national and international meets.

These are typically sponsored or organized by a specificcapoeira Angola group, and a number of different Mestres and their students participate.

Early on at these rodas, a harmony is found among themusical instruments, the singing (ladainhas, quadras andcorridos), and especially the players, whose communicationis physical rather than verbal.

CAPOEIRA INSTRUMENTS AND RANK. The maininstrument in a capoeira Angola circle is the berimbau –which is the highest-ranked – and the tempo and style tobe played is settled at its foot, at the “ pé-do-berimbau.”9 The

instrument comes in three types: the berra-boi or gunga10 is the deepest bass, which generally “runs” the circle and isplayed by a Mestre or close associate. Next in rank (whichin capoeira signifies the player’s experience or wisdom) isthe midrange médio, followed by the tenor viola.

Early on at these rodas, a harmony isfound among the musical instruments,the singing ( ladainhas, quadras andcorridos ), and especially the players, whosecommunication is physical rather thanverbal.




For each berimbau there is a specific tune or har-mony. The three blend together to prompt body move-ments that are predominantly slow, but broader andswifter movements will also be called forth at appropri-ate times, depending on the rhythm established by theberimbaus.

The instrument section in capoeira is called a bateria,

ranked as follows: the three berimbaus ( gunga, médio,viola), one or two tambourines, agogô bells, a reco-reco

(scratcher gourd) and a conga drum or atabaque.

The figure below shows an example of the sequence ofinstruments in a bateria:

Mestre João Pequeno with his playing partner at thefoot of the berimbau. Mestre João Pequeno in the pictureis singing an original litany “When I arrived here” (Quandoeu aqui cheguei, fully transcribed below). Litanies are usu-ally sung at the foot of the berimbau when the mestre him-

self comes into play, so this one was not sung from themestre’s position on the gunga. Observe that only three

berimbaus and a tambourine are playing. Rank in the ba-teria is typically more strictly observed for the instruments

played during the litany. Here, Mestre Moraes is playing thebass or gunga, Mestre Ciro the midrange and Mestre Pé deChumbo the tenor viola. Playing the tambourine is Profes-

sor Topete; all of these musicians are important charactersin the world of capoeira..

Rosa Simões

CapoeiraCapoeira Angola Ritual Circle Performance




CAPOEIRA SONGS. Before the start of the first bout, theMestre, or whoever is at the gunga, or perhaps one of thepractitioners crouched before the musical bow, will sing alitany. As an illustration of how a roda is begun by Mestre

João Pequeno de Pastinha, transcribed and translated be-low is his original composition, Quando eu aqui cheguei.

When I arrived here

Iê11

01 - When I arrived here02 - When I arrived here03 - I came to praise everyone,04 - I came to praise the Lord first05 - and the people who live here06 - Now I sing

07 - I sing a song in praise08 - I am praising Jesus Christ09 - I am praising Jesus Christ10 - because he blessed us11 - I am praising and I’m praying12 - to the father who created us13 - blessed the city14 - bless the city15 - With all who live here16 - and in the capoeira circle17 - bless the players, my little friend18 - He has the power (L)12

19 - Yea, he has the power, friend (C)13

20 - Yo, he has the power (L)21 - Yea he has the power, friend (C)22 - Yo, he knows how to play (L)23 - Yea, he knows how to play, friend (C)24 - Yo he plays from here to there (L)25 - Yea, he plays yonder, friend (C)26 - Yo, he plays hither, friend (L)27 - Yea, play over here, friend (C)28 - Yo, the world did a turn (L)29 - Yea, what the world has given (C)30 - Yo, what the world gives (L)31 - Yea, what the world gives, friend (C)

(11) “Iê” (like yea), is often sung to begin the circle practice, or to begin a bout between mestres and/or to restart interrupted bouts, usually due to non-approved conduct during play.

(12) (L) for Leader (puxador, solista); (C) for Chorus(13) “Iê” is often sung to begin the circle practice, or to begin a bout between mestres and/or to

restart interrupted bouts, usually due to non-approved conduct during play.(14) Para dar suporte à análise, antecedendo cada verso, há um número correspondente a ele. E,

a partir da “chula”, há no final de cada verso a letra (P) que significa puxador e a letra (C), quesignifica coro.

(15) Mestre João Pequeno has traveled the world teaching capoeira Angola.

The ladainha litany (verses 1 to 17)14 is atype of song in which one may tell a story,say a prayer, sing praise, unburden oneself,issue a challenge, a warning, etc. It is sungsolo, that is, as a prompt by the leader.




The ladainha litany (verses 1 to 17)14 is a type of song inwhich one may tell a story, say a prayer, sing praise, unbur-den oneself, issue a challenge, a warning, etc. It is sung solo,that is, as a prompt by the leader. Mestre João Pequeno’slitany brings together a prayer and a song of praise, placingGod on a higher plane than the “residents” (whether of hishometown or somewhere he is passing through)15.

So he first praises God, petitioning for protection fromlife’s dangers, then praises the capoeiristas at the circle, tocharm his audience, put everyone at ease and curb un-necessary impetuousity. At this point, the two players arehunkered down at the foot of the berimbau, listening to themessage (with no acrobatics). Only the three berimbausand tambourine(s) accompany the litany.

Right after the litany/ladainha (usually after the word“camaradinha”, see verse 17 above) comes the chula (vers-es 18 to 31). Here, the singer or leader (usually the Mestre)sings a verse and the participants respond in chorus, re-peating the leader’s verse in song. The players also join in

the chorus and point to each other, then raise both handsto lend emphasis to the statement that “he has the power,knows how to play” etc.

The lyrics Oi volta que mundo deu (Yo, the world did aturn), tell the players they may begin practice. They makethe sign of the cross, and greet each other with a brotherlyhandshake.16

From that point forward the singing turns to corridos,which also feature chorus responses that, unlike the chula,are unchanging and specific to each corrido. At this stageeach player will typically perform, while facing each other,a fall on the kidneys (queda de rim) toward the berimbaus,as both a salute and a way of expressing respect for the rules

of the game, as orchestrated by the musicians/bateria; hereis an example:

Tem dendê

1 – Dendê spice, dendê is nice (P)2 - Angola practice adds dendê (P)3 - Dendê spice, dendê is nice (C)4 - Floor techniques will add dendê (P)5 - Dendê spice, dendê is nice (C)

If we realize that dendê palm oil is an important ingredi-ent in Bahia for spicing up food, we see that this corrido issung while the game is “savory,” looking good, well done...at a time when the players are elegantly communicatingthrough body language. To start up the corrido, the firsttwo verses are called out by the Mestre (or his substitute)as leader. After the fourth verse, the chorus alternates inresponse to each verse called out (over and over until thebout seems to need some other type of song, or the bateria signals another type of action).

Another corrido which may be sung to lay emphasison the body language (with the two players forming thedialogue) and/or bring to mind that there are moves andcountermoves during play (in the event of unmatched

moves), to wit:

Oi sim, sim, sim, oi, não, não, não

Oh yes, yes, yes (L)Oh no, no, no (L)Oh yes, yes, yes (C)Oh no, no, no (C)Oh yes, yes, yes, yes (L)Oh no, no, no, no (L)Oh yes, yes, yes (C)Oh no, no, no (C)

Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes (L)Oh no, no, no, no, no (L)Oh yes, yes, yes (C)Oh no, no, no (C)

Rita Barret

(6) Or “Iê dá volta ao mundo,” (Yea, go around the world).

MRE Collecti




Closing Remarks about Capoeira Practice. FParticipantsinclude the Mestres, students, and even the audience inthe case of an open circle. Anyone not participating in thebouts or playing an instrument pays attention of the gameand takes part in the chorus. Capoeira angola is a thought-ful, conscious sport in which the capoeirista attacks in self-defense, striving at all times to do the right thing (which

extends into everyday life outside the circle). Each mustobserve the other, and analyze their moves in order toknow what he is up against, to whom he or she is relating.One’s attention must encompass not only the game, butalso what is being sung, for the songs are the vehicle forteaching capoeira, inasmuch as they are the form of guid-ance for the nonverbal communication (body language)between the players.

Attack and defense moves, such as basic steps, feints,spinning kicks, mule kicks, falls, freezes, and other moveswhich make up capoeira angola are so executed as tocomprise a nonverbal dialogue between the two con-

testants. The main thing is not to attack, but rather, toknow how to defend oneself. Hence the emphasis onthe virtues of respect, patience, humility, balance – andtherefore justice – which are the primary values sought bythe practitioner of capoeira angola. Balance, for instance,is understood in its broadest meaning, that is, the ideaof balance carries forward into other aspects of life, sothat the capoeira angola practitioner, or angoleiro, worksconstantly toward a sense of inner balance, not only inpracticing the body movements specific to capoeira, butalso with regard to others in daily life.

One is therefore justified in saying that the practice ofcapoeira angola is itself an exercise in the control of vio-

lence, for everything must be done politely, in good fun (forsport) and respectfully. That’s “other” person, the adver-sary, is in fact your buddy (partner in practice) – someonewho makes it possible for you to go on learning.

Capoeira practitioners have no set time limits. Any givenbout can go on for five or 10 minutes, or half an hour. Butwhenever the berimbau “calls” with a specific rhythm, or istilted forward, that signals the end of the bout and sum-mons the players back before the berimbaus. The playersonce again proceed to the foot of the berimbau, pay hom-age to one another, like good companions, and make wayas the next two capoeiras enter the circle.

Astute reckoning goes into the movements of capoeiraAngola. The attitude with which a player approaches thecircle or faces life is one of challenge and struggle for social

justice. As we follow its ritual performance we observe thatit privileges neither left nor right, and favors neither the highnor humble station. Instead, it strikes a balance betweenopposing parties, whatever their number, in a continuousexercise of humility and patience.

The attitude with which a playerapproaches the circle or faces life is one ofchallenge and struggle for social justice. Aswe follow its ritual performance we observethat it privileges neither left nor right, andfavors neither the high nor humble station.

Instead, it strikes a balance betweenopposing parties, whatever their number,in a continuous exercise of humility andpatience.




Bibliography

BOLA SETE, Mestre. A capoeira angola na Bahia. 3rd editionRio de Janeiro: Pallas, 2001.

CASCUDO, L. C. Folclore do Brasil: pesquisa e notas. Portu-gal: Fundo de Cultura, 1967.

JOÃO PEQUENO,Mestre. Quando eu aqui cheguei. In: Mestre João Pequeno, Mestre João Grande. Programa Nacional deCapoeira (SEED/MEC): Capoeira Arte & Ofício (record) Sal-vador. Side B, track 1., 1989.

LIMA, L. A. N. Capoeira Angola: uma lição de vida na civiliza-ção brasileira. São Paulo: PUC. (Master’s Thesis), 1992.

PEIRANO, M. Rituais ontem e hoje. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Za-har Ed., 2003.

SIMÕES, Rosa Maria Araújo. Da inversão à re-inversão do ol-har: ritual e performance na capoeira angola. 2006. 193pp.doctoral thesis (Ph.D. in Social Sciences). UFSCar. Postgrad-uate Program in Social Sciences.

TURNER, Victor W. O processo ritual: estrutura e anties-trutura; translation by Nancy Campi de Castro. Petrópolis,Vozes, 1974.______ From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness ofPlay. New York City: Performing Arts Journal Publications,1982.

Rosa Maria Araújo Simões. Teaches the Anthropologyof Popular Culture, Performing Arts and Musical Expressionsportion of the Licenciature Curriculum in Art for the Depart-ment of Performing and Graphic Arts of the São Paulo StateUniversity (Bauru Campus) College of Architecture Art andCommunication. She is also Coordinator of the UniversityExtension Project titled “A capoeira angola de Mestre JoãoPequeno” (PROEX/UNESP); earned her Ph.D. in Social Sci-ences at the Federal University of São Carlos with a thesistitled “Da inversão à re-inversão do olhar: ritual e perfor-mance na capoeira angola”

CapoeiraCapoeira Angola Ritual Circle Performance



Mythical-Religious

Aspects of Capoeira

C AP O E I R A I S O N E O F T H E M O S T P O W E R F U L AN D M E AN I N G F U L E X P R E S S I O N S O F AF R O - B R A-

Z I L I AN C U L T U R E , AN E X P R E S S I O N S O M U L T I F AC E T E D T H AT I T I S U N D E R S T O O D AS A M AR T I AL

S T Y L E O R S T Y L E O F D AN C E , AS S P O R T O R P AS T I M E , W I T H E Q U AL P L AU S I B I L I T Y . H O W , T H E N ,

AR E W E T O D E F I N E S U C H A T H I N G ?

Pedro Rodolpho Jungers Abib



Mythical-Religious Aspects

of Capoeira

We might take a cue from the late Mestre Pastinha (Vi-cente Ferreira Pastinha, who lived in Bahia until his death in1980). He said that “capoeira is what you eat and what you

are!” These words – by one of the main guardians of this formof expression – illustrate the fluid multiplicity of capoeira, asit changes and adapts, rebels and finds its place, creates andreproduces. In its range of uses this expression has served

as self defense, even with lethal force. Today it finds its placein education, but it has always been a cry of freedom, reaf-

firming the culture of an oppressed people, a reflection of thesad legacy of four centuries of slavery in Brazil.

Among the myriad features of capoeira, none has givenrise to greater curiosity, more debates, opinions, storytelling

and handing down of legend through the oral tradition ofpopular culture than its mythical and religious side. This isone of the most important vehicles for the transmission ofknowledge and wisdom.

In the lore and legend of capoeira and its masters, byfar the most vivid and representative image is that of Be-souro Mangangá, whose given name was Manoel HenriquePereira. To this day many doubt he ever existed. Some –like the late Mestre Cobrinha Verde (Rafael França) – claimemphatically to have known and learned capoeira from Be-souro. Only recently has proof of his existence turned up inthe form of his death certificate, found at the Santa Casa de

Misericórdia de Santo Amaro da Purificação.The legend of Besouro lives on in the memory of the old-

est residents of the Bay Area around Salvador. Many are thetales and stories they tell of his cunning in confrontations withthe police, and of his courage and consummate fighting skills,which enabled him to take on and take down multiple oppo-nents. But most of all they marvel at his reputation for “invul-nerability” by dint of his initiation into the occult arts of Africanmagic – arts that enabled him to “turn into anything, a stump

or an animal, or even to take off fl ying if hard pressed.”

Mestre Pastinha

Among the myriad features of capoeira,none has given rise to greater curiosity,more debates, opinions, storytelling andhanding down of legend through theoral tradition of popular culture than itsmythical and religious side. This is one

of the most important vehicles for thetransmission of knowledge and wisdom.

M e s t r e B o l a S e t e C o l l e c t i o n




(1) Bimba, Pastinha e Besouro Mangangá. Antonio Liberac Pires. Tocantins: NEAB, 2002(2) Popular ditty in the public domain.

(3) Feijoada no paraíso: a saga de Besouro, o capoeira. Marco Carvalho. Rio de Janeiro: Record,

2002

(4) Capoeira angola: ensaio sócio-etnográfico. Waldeloir Rego. Salvador: Itapuã, 1968

Besouro Mangangá (literally, Atlas Beetle), or BesouroPreto, or even Besouro Cordão de Ouro, as his sporting bud-dies used to call him, is the link to 19th-century capoeira,the traditions of slavery and the struggle for freedom, warsagainst rival mobs, straight razor fights and electioneeringward-heelers. This, claims researcher Antonio Liberac Pires,1

was back in those carefree days of idle sport and legendary

feats in tussles with the police. To this day at capoeira circlesone can still hear Besouro praised in rhyme and legend. Hisbravery and perspicacity raised the bar for capoeiras eversince those bygone days. Admired throughout the land, andknown for such acquired qualities as his “mystical invulner-ability,” Besouro was a legend in his own time.

Zum, zum, zum, Besouro Mangangá

Slapping ‘round policemen with their military arms

Zum, zum, zum, Besouro Mangangá

Those who can’t handle manding

never have a lucky charm... 2 .

Mestre João Pequeno de Pastinha (João Pereira dos San-tos), Mestre Pastinha’s most important follower – still goingstrong at almost 90 – claims Besouro was a cousin to hisfather, and that ever since he was a boy he had heard storiesabout his exploits. That was why he wanted to learn capoeiraand be a tough guy like Besouro. To hear his father tell it,Besouro could hide no matter where he was, and folks wouldwalk right past and not see him. João is also certain that hisfather, was also “prepared” through prayer and shared certainqualities with Besouro, namely, the ability to vanish: “He’d be

walking along a path, and when he saw someone he didn’t

want to be seen by, they just didn’t see him.”

Off in the world of literature, a character named Besourotells his stories in a wonderful book by Marco Carvalho,3

“Feijoada no Paraíso.” He tells of having learned capoeirafrom Uncle (Tio) Alípio, who “...was already old when I met

him, but seemed to have been that way forever. He was

light on his feet, stepping softly like a cat.” Uncle Alípio wasa former slave who, as a young man, kindled considerableromantic interest on the part of the sugarcane mill-owner’swife – and considerable anger on the part of his boss, whoordered him killed. But that never happened, “because hisfaith had been shaped by the beliefs of the iorubá people.”The character Besouro, as conjured back by Carvalho. goes

on to say:

Uncle Alípio taught me a lot about everything. As

eternally calm as an ancient country doctor, he was

a black man, with eyes that could look deep into

the eyes of meanness and spot the only way to get

out of there alive. Capoeira is the art practiced by

those who own their body and maybe those of oth-

ers. Otherwise, the one that makes the first move,

the sneaky one, that isn’t and never was the bottle

foot, the dust devil, the unspoken, the despondent,

no. Capoeira belongs to God. The world and most

of its peoples have the power, the body has poetry,

birds have beaks. Capoeira has axé. My father and

my mestre taught me, and that is no small feat. But

honey knows no fl ower and recognizes no bees.

Those who taught me capoeira knew it.

Capoeira Practice - llustration property of the Instituto Jair Moura holdings.

This magical and mysterious feature, known in theworld of capoeira as manding, is crucial to a deeper un-derstanding of this expression. As a noun, “manding ” mayrefer, believes researcher Waldeloir Rego,4 to the Mandingregion of Western Africa, drained by the Niger, Senegal and

Gambia rivers. Africans brought to Brazil believed therewere many medicine men or shamans in that region. Tothe extent that capoeira’s tradition is intertwined with mag-ic, numerous powerful myths are still alive in its collectiveunconscious.

CapoeiraMythical-Religious Aspects of Capoeira



Mestre Valdemar da Liberdade, another great teacherwho is no longer with us, once told researcher Luiz RenatoVieira5 that the mestres of yesteryear “...were alive with

manding, and could turn into leaves or turn into creatures.

That was just the thing in case of trouble. Besouro was a

great capoeirista, but entirely reliant on prayer.”

Mestre João Pequeno relates a story about Besouro’s

death, in which his manding was broken:

There is Manding in capoeira, also a lucky charm

worn around the neck. Inside the charm there

are prayers, prayers to prepare your body,

prayers to turn aside the knife blade. But people

of unclean body, who have sexual relations, are

ill-prepared and vulnerable. That was how they

managed to kill Besouro. He spent the night

at a woman’s house, and on his way home the

following day, he ducked under a barbed wire

fence, and a barb cut his back, so he knew then

he was weak (...). That was the day they killedBesouro, with a knife hardened out of tucum,

which is a type of palm tree.

João Pequeno likewise recounts that he had his firstcapoeira lesson from a black teacher named Juvêncio, ablacksmith by trade. This was when he still lived in Matade São João, in the countryside of the state of Bahia. Ac-cording to João Pequeno, Juvêncio was a longtime friend ofBesouro’s, and so had lots of stories to tell.

Mestre Cobrinha Verde was one of the keenest admir-ers of “manding arts,” which he credited to teachings hereceived from Besouro and others initiated into this “secret

knowledge” in Santo Amaro da Purificação, in the Salvador,Bahia, Bay Area. He relates that these teachings helped himout of many tight spots in his wanderings and adventures,notably, when he traveled with armed bands, crisscrossingthe hinterlands of northeastern Brazil.

The scapular I wore had seven pages with

prayers to St. Agnes, to Saint Andrew, to Seven

Chapels. When I took it off, I placed it on a clean

plate, where it kept jumping, for it was alive. But

there was some problem, for it disappeared

and I never found it. There was something I

did wrong, and it left and disappeared. WhenI joined up with the Horácio de Matos out fit at

age 17, I already had that scapular. It got me out

of a lot of jams. It was given to me by an African

and, to this day, when I speak of him, it makes

my eyes well up with tears. He called himself

Uncle Pascoal.6

Mestre Cobrinha Verde was one of thekeenest admirers of “manding arts,” whichhe credited to teachings he received fromBesouro and others initiated into this“secret knowledge” in Santo Amaro daPurificação, in the Salvador, Bahia, Bay

Area.

(5) O jogo da capoeira: cultura popular no Brasil. Luiz Renato Vieira. Rio de Janeiro: Sprint, 1998.(6) Capoeiras e Mandingas. Cobrinha Verde/Marcelino dos Santos. Salvador: A Rasteira, 1991



of Capoeira



(7) Capoeiras e Mandingas. Cobrinha Verde/Marcelino dos Santos. Salvador: A Rasteira, 1991

Cobrinha Verde described himself as Catholic, but hedid not pass up African religious traditions to “make himselfinvulnerable” for protection from his enemies “in this worldand the next.” Here is one of the prayers he said:

Help me St. Sylvester

And the 27 Angels by the shirt you wear

Just as you tamed The hearts of three lions

Atop the hill, pierced through hand and foot

Tame them, forgotten below my foot

Tamer than white wax

If they have eyes, they will not see me

If they have mouths, they will not address me

If they pay for my head, they will not have me

If they carry a knife for me

It will bend as Our Lady bent the rainbow

A club aimed at me will be broken

As Our Lady broke twigs to boil milk

For her Blessed SonIf a firearm is pointed at me

Water will run out its barrel, blood off its trigger

Just as Our Lady

Shed tears for her Blessed Son

Amen.7

Statements by the earliest capoeiras show manding tobe one of the building blocks of the form. Within the con-text of capoeira, the term manding describes the practitio-ner’s savoir-faire, with his feints and fake moves to misleadhis adversary – but it also describes something sacred, aconnection between the capoeirista and the mysteries of

Afro-Brazilian religions.Some mestres see mandinga as one of the distinguish-

ing features that differentiate capoeira angola from capoeiraregional. They believe that capoeira regional has distanceditself from the mythical and religious aspects that, with fewexceptions, are part of African tradition. The result is thateach has its own aesthetics of style, its own symbolism, withgreater value placed on objectivity, technique, and directconfrontation, rather than subjectivity, sly strategy, and dis-sembling. These latter qualities more closely approximatethe mandinga in capoeira angola. This is not to say thatthese features are entirely absent among capoeira regional

practitioners, only that they are present to a lesser degree.Mestre Eletricista (Edílson Manoel de Jesus) says that

“mandinga is not something you are taught... but some-

thing you learn.” In this he was referring to the individualpath each capoeira student must traverse to develop the

“mandinga arts.” It is a quasi-religious initiation procedure,for which the reference is invariably “ancestors who handed

this down to us,” concludes Eletricista.Two capoeiristas hunker down at the foot of the ber-

imbau, ready to begin their bout. This is a very special mo-

ment in the capoeira angola circle, for according to the tra-dition of Mestre Pastinha, practice will begin and end withthe same two players. There is time for each player to sizeup his partner, to try to figure out his game, and to positionhimself carefully to “make his move” at just the right mo-ment. To be considered a mandingueiro the player has to“set up” the other, that is, watch and wait patiently for thatcareless moment in which to drive home a telling blow.

As the point of entry and exit in capoeira angola circlepractice, the foot of the berimbau is that sacred place – atwhich beginning and end, past and present, heaven andearth, good and evil, life and death – all come together.

Death is always a latent possibility. Every capoeirista feelsits presence as he squats at the foot of the berimbau. Theheart beats faster, breathing is deeper, and the eyes lock onto those of his opponent – possibly his executioner. Thatis why some capoeiristas cross themselves at the foot ofthe berimbau. There, mandinga often takes the form ofthe sign of the cross, other times it is in the “patterns” thecapoeira traces on the ground with his hands. The originsof this practice among the old “angoleiros” are lost in themists of time. It may even be a petition – through pur-poseful gestures with hands and body, to the saints or spiritorixás for protection – addressed even during the singing of

the litany. Ancestral sounds echo forth from the berimbau,asking our forebears for protection. The musical bow wasused in Africa to communicate with the dead. Only then dothe two shake hands... and the bout may now commence.

Another very characteristic feature of capoeira angola,and one which includes elements of mandinga, is the an-gola ritual break or “chamada.” This is an interruption inthe course of the bout. The chamada is a hiatus in the

João Pequeno and João Grande ready to begin a bout (1968) - Photo: Jair Mour






(8) Maior é a capoeira, pequeno sou eu. José Umberto. Revista da Bahia, No. 33 – Salvador:

Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia, 1999(9) O ABC da capoeira angola: manuscritos do mestre Noronha. Frederico Abreu. Brasília. DEFER,

1993 (original spirit imitated by translator).(10) Mestre Bimba: corpo de mandinga. Muniz Sodré Rio de Janeiro: Manati, 2002 (p.36)

You must be alert and on guard at all times, on the

lookout for all types of ambush, with the utmost

concentration. So go the teachings of manding ,whereby a savvy old monkey will never reach for

the bait inside a coconut trap. (...) The secret of

the stratagem lies inside the crafty device itself,

deep within its singular mystery. Just as there is

martyrdom in the seven wounds of Christ, so, myfriend, have abiding faith in what you possess, and

be leery even of your shadow... with sympathy,

discipline and light within your soul.8

Analyzing the mandinga in capoeira means much morethan identifying a few features of the circle ritual, or the styl-ized gestures and discourse of the participants. It means togo after a deeper understanding of patterns of behavior ad-opted by some of the angoleiros. These may be taken asteachings assimilated early in capoeira circle practice, teach-ings which, according to Mestre Moraes (Pedro Moraes),

grow afterward into the daily lives of these individuals, andfind their expression in the way they relate to the world.

There are ways of doing things, beliefs, superstitions andhabits observable primarily among capoeira angola practitio-ners living throughout the Bay Area around Salvador, Bahia.These are quite specific features peculiar to a certain typeof person who, in social interactions, is different precisely forhaving cultivated – through experience in capoeira angola – astyle of behavior based on another type of logic, distinct fromthe rationality prevalent in modern societies, and expressedin the way one relates to the reality in which one lives. Typi-cally, these are people who cultivate a kind of attention, asagacity, a spiritual presence or even a sixth sense – features,

in any case, quite different from what is considered standardbehavior in contemporary urban societies.

This “other logic” is related to the mythical and religiousaspects arising from Afro-Brazilian culture – aspects ex-pressed, since time immemorial, through capoeira, and in anumber of other ways.

The renowned Mestre Noronha (Daniel Coutinho), wholived through the early decades of the 20th century in thethick of Bahia’s capoeira and hepcat culture, bequeathed usa valuable legacy in his manuscripts, which bring to life manyfeatures of the capoeira culture of those days, and is a veryimportant reference for historians seeking to reconstruct

those raucous and tumultuous times. In one passage, faith-fully transcribed from the original, he says:

Me and my colleagues in the same art, capoeira,

which nowadays is in society and all over the

world because it is a very valuable self-defense,

that is, it’s treacherous mandinga to deal with

any kind of rough stuff that turns up, which is

suf ficient for now because if it isn’t, then quit

and let it go for another time, for there will al-

ways be another time because them that gets

beat up never forgets and them that wins don’t

ever remember, and therein lies the sly cunning

of the capoeirista (p. 18).9

Besouro Mangangá had so much mandinga that, accord-ing to Mestre Bimba (Manoel dos Reis Machado), the origina-

tor of capoeira regional, “he could jump into a back fl ip andland with his feet back in his sandals.” 10 Bezouro, along withother ancient capoeira artists such as Mestre Noronha, Past-inha, Cobrinha Verde and several others, were the legendary“mandingueiros” who still people the thoughts of residents ofSalvador and the surrounding Bay Area, and whose influenceon capoeira today goes way beyond the virtuous “qualities”they boasted in being tough guys and rowdies.

This magical atmosphere which surrounds the universeof capoeira, though it springs from the popular imagina-tion, does indeed express the enormity of the field of pos-sible meanings of this Afro-Brazilian expression as it relates

to what is “sacred,” and says a lot about other traditionsand expressions endemic to Brazil´s popular culture. To thesimple people of our country this sacred dimension has anespecially deep and profound meaning, which affects theirbeliefs, lifestyles, dreams and struggles, their victories andtheir defeats.




Today’s capoeiristas, whether they realize it or not, haveinherited all of this ancestral baggage that capoeira carries inits soul, and cannot keep aloof from the feelings and mean-ings bound up with the process of cultural identificationwhich every capoeira initiate goes through. These initiatesdevelop different attitudes and end up adopting other waysof relating to the world, of dealing with danger and adversity,

with the unknown or the unexpected.Capoeira, as practiced in recent years, has been re-

duced to a consumer product. Tourists gather around tomarvel at its backflips and enjoy a spectacle increasinglylike “show business,” and less and less recognizable for itsmore traditional features, its ritual content, and its ancestralmandinga heritage.

Yet by no means are these trends without offsets andopposition. Even now, all over the world, big changes aretaking place, all of them clearly af firming the historical legacyof capoeira, with reverence for its early development and tra-ditional forms. All of this is raising up and adding value to the

form while clothing in new dignity this expression born of thecreativity, beliefs, joy and suffering of an entire population.

Pedro Rodolpho Jungers Abib. Associate Professor inthe College of Education, Federal University of BahiaAuthor of: “Capoeira angola: cultura popular e o jogo dos sa-beres na roda” (Edufba/CMU-Unicamp,2005)Capoeirista taught by Mestre João Pequeno de Pastinha

To the simple people of our country thissacred dimension has an especially deepand profound meaning, which affects theirbeliefs, lifestyles, dreams and struggles, theirvictories and their defeats.



of Capoeira





Capoeira: Metaphors in Motion

. . . T O WIN Y OU

R L O VE I TRIED

M ANDING A

LE ARNING C A

P OEIR A GING A

TILL I S WEP T Y O

U OFF Y OUR

FEE T

AND F A S TER

SE T Y OUR HE

AR T T O BE A T . .

.

( AF TER VERD A

DE : B Y NEL S O

N RUFIN O & C ARLINH

O S S AN T AN A )

T H E W O R D S GIN

G A A N D R A S TE

IR A C O N J U R E U P I MA G E S O F CA P O E I RA. T H E Y A R E T H E BA S I C PA T T E R N

A N D M O S T FA M I L IA R M O V E I D E N T I F I E D E V E R Y W H E R E W I T H T H I S F O R M, E V E N I N H I T - PA RA D E S O N G S,

L I K E VERD ADE, S U N G B Y Z E CA PA G O D I N H O. GING A I S T HA T R H Y T H M I C M O T I O N F R O M W H I C H CA P O E I RA

P RA C T I T I O N E R S MA K E T H E I R A T TA C K A N D D E F E N S E M O V E S, W H E R EA S A S W E E P (R A S TE

IR A ) I S A

TA K E D O W N M O V E I N W H I C H Y O U R F E E T A R E S W E P T F R O M U N D E R Y O U.

Eliane Dantas dos Anjos



Capoeira:

Metaphors in Motion

The full repertoire of capoeira, however, is much moreextensive, varied and creative. Cartwheels, push kicks, spin-ning kicks, crescent-kicks, frog-hopping, flying hook-kicks,resistances and fakes are equivalent names of some of themoves. There is no limit to the number of names, since itincreases with the skill and creativity of the practitioners.Capoeiristas themselves make up new names as they de-

velop new moves or variants, which is where the metaphoris most easily appreciated.

To understand the nomenclature, that is, capoeiraterminology, it helps to understand its origins and direc-tion. Before the late 19th century there were no writingsor depictions of capoeira, a martial style said to have beendeveloped by Negro slaves who used it in self-defense inthe struggle for freedom. Jean-Baptiste Debret, a Frenchartist brought to Brazil on assignment in 1816 by requestof Emperor D. João VI, making reference to “cavorting negrotumblers doing numerous backflips and other somersaultsto liven up the scene.” German painter and sketch artist

Johann Rugendas, who visited Brazil in 1821, wrote one ofthe earliest definitions of capoeira in which he described itas a Negro “warrior sport,” in which they rush toward oneanother in an effort to butt their heads against the chest ofthe adversary and defend themselves with skillful feints andfakes to either side. The artist drew a comparison betweenthe competitors and goats because of the head-to-headcollisions that occurred during these bouts.

Plácido de Abreu, in his book titled Os Capoeiras, intro-duced such expressions as pompadour to sniff and antlerblow (topete a cheirar e chifrada), for head-butts. Theseexpressions once livened up the vocabulary of the capoei-ras, themselves a persecuted lot in the late 19th century.

After capoeira was legally banned (1890), it lived on inmilitary circles, where the first manuals were produceddescribing this national sport. 1907 brought the publica-tion of the Guide to Capoeira or Brazilian Gymnastics, by

an unknown military author. Afterward, National Gymnas-

tics (Capoeira) Rules and Method, by Annibal Bularmaqui,was published in 1928, and explained the moves and rulesfor capoeira practice.

20th-century Bahia was a veritable cornucopia of ca-poeira practitioners, and its claim to fame in Brazil andworldwide was staked out by the determination and leader-ship of two men: Manuel dos Reis Machado, Mestre Bimba,

and Vicente Ferreira Pastinha, Mestre Pastinha.Bimba began teaching capoeira at age 18, and orga-

nized his school, Clube União em Apuros, in Salvador, in theborough of Engenho Velho de Brotas. At the time there wasonly one capoeira, with no distinction between regional andangola, for Bimba had not yet developed the regional style.Mestre Bimba claims to have created capoeira regional in1928, after incorporating several moves from batuque ( anAfrican dance for men), developing new techniques andperfecting old ones. The influence of mixed martial arts can

To understand the nomenclature, thatis, capoeira terminology, it helps tounderstand its origins and direction. Beforethe late 19th century there were no writingsor depictions of capoeira, a martial stylesaid to have been developed by Negro

slaves who used it in self-defense in thestruggle for freedom.




be seen, for instance, in techniques such as the neck holdand cintura desprezada, a sequence of partner-assistedthrows and flips.

Contact between mestre Bimba’s students and authori-

ties in Bahia helped legitimize capoeira and remove it fromthe criminal code in the 1940s. As soon as Bimba’s regionalbaiano style achieved recognition, traditional capoeira, astaught by Mestre Pastinha – promptly renamed capoeiraangola – also gained in popularity.

The naming system for capoeira moves and strikeswas created based on the development of the regionaland angola schools, and several capoeira holdouts in Riode Janeiro. As capoeira’s popularity increased in the in-terior of Brazil and spread to other countries, variationson the basic moves were added and several new onesincluded in the repertoire, all of which affected the lingo.The splitting apart of capoeira also affected the moves,

which may vary significantly from school to school. Theangola stingray sting (rabo-de-arraia) , for instance, iswhat capoeira regional calls a meia-lua de compasso, aspinning heel kick in which the striking foot does a hori-zontal roundhouse, only with one hand brushing ratherthan planted on the ground. In Rio de Janeiro’s cariocastyle, the move is similar, except that the foot travels ina vertical plane.

A compilation of capoeira terms was organized byEliane Anjos in 2003, based on writings about capoeirapublished since 1960 by mestres Bimba and Pastinha andtheir students, and also drawing on capoeira books widely

sold throughout Brazil. The result was her Illustrated Ter-minological Glossary of Capoeira Moves and Techniques, inPortuguese. This research effort uncovered the preponder-ance of metaphor (name transfer by figure of speech) andmetonymy (name transfer from a related concept) amongthe move-naming devices in this sport.

Among the associations which regularly crop up in theargot of capoeira, one expects to find several relating to ani-mals, edged weapons, blunt instruments, circular shapes,graphic depictions and commonplace objects.

Animals are a recurring theme, which in translationyields mule kicks, stingray stings, frog hops, monkeysprings and bat flights. A box on the ear is called a ga-

lopante because of the clopping sound, like hoofbeats. In

its indigenous word origins, capoeira (ka’a puera) relatedto jungle; it meant a clearing where brush had once stood.We say, then, that capoeira, as it originated among Africanslaves, is closely bound up with nature, hence the use ofso many animal names to signify new concepts. Move-ment is the essence of capoeira, as it is for any martial orbodily art, and many names come from observing or evenimitating animals.

Relating words to animal movements makes thenames more vivid to the mind’s eye, and therefore easierto memorize. Once a name is associated with a visualconcept, as we hear the animal’s name, or the name ofa movement characteristically associated with that crea-

ture, we can picture the move or some reasonable ap-proximation. Rugendas, in his description, compared ca-poeiristas to goats because of the preponderance of headbutts. Indeed, the Portuguese word marrada, meaninghead butts by rams or goats, was used by mestre Bimbain a recorded statement on a CD titled Regional Capoeira

Course in Portuguese. Even so, the conventional term forhead butt is cabeçada.

Capoeira terminology is also sprinkled with the namesof implements which can be used as makeshift weapons.Moves with names we’d render as a whip, harpoon, quirtor knout, forked stick, hammer-kick and scissors, show that

capoeira may be understood as a physical weapon, andthat its movements, judged by their names, may causeharm. Movements like the whiplash and quirt call to mindthe instruments of punishment and torture inflicted on Ne-gro slaves. The relationship of form between a weapon anda technique is a form of association, of metaphor, in whichcapoeira – once a weapon and nowadays considered asport – was an original martial art.

Another type of association is the relating of moves toletters of the alphabet. The cartwheel or aú – the origins of

Aú



Capoeira:

Metaphors in Motion

which are controversial, the word itself being listed in the

Aurélio dictionary (1999 Edition) as an Africanism) bringsto mind a comparison between the letter A (both legsplanted) and the letter U (legs turned upward). A sidewayswalkover in capoeira is a double-S, the curves of which, ina sense, illustrate that movement. Several versions of thecrescent kick and spinning heel kick (meia-lua, compasso,

and meia-lua de compasso) conjure up circular images, asdoes the roll (rolê).

Tapping a partner’s head with your shoe, is a leather hat(chapéu-de-couro), a neck hold is a necktie and a leque (fan),describes something similar to a pike; just as the words forflank throw, mule kick, cross (a tipping move) and ear-box aresynonyms for balloon, flat plate, and telephone (for the ringingin your ears). This is because people tend to relate new cre-ations to something familiar, and pick some common feature– a shape or function – as in our examples.

Wry humor comes out in several names, such as blessing(bênção). This is a far cry from a petition for religious protec-

Among the associations which regularlycrop up in the argot of capoeira, oneexpects to find several relating to animals,edged weapons, blunt instruments,circular shapes, graphic depictions andcommonplace objects.

Tesoura de frente or Scissoirs take-down

S dobrado or Double S




tion, in which the priest places a hand on the suppliant. In ca-poeira it signifies a push with a foot planted on your buddy’schest – playful roughhousing. The same sort of irreverencecolors terms like mouthwash and suicide (bochecho, suicídio)for a double cheek-punch and a forward toe-touch in midair.The first can make your spit red and the other can also hurtplenty if done incorrectly.

Most metaphors arise from a similarity in form betweenthe move and some object, animal, or letter of the alphabet.Yet similarities in function give rise to terms like açoite (whip),boosted throw or flip (balão), bênção (blessing), bochecho (mouthwash), chibata (quirt) and martelo (“hammer” kick),where the similarity derives from actual motion, rather thanoutward appearances.

Metonymic names refer to the outcomes of techniques,like nose-stop, hand-break and neck-break (asfi xiante, quebra-

mão and quebra-pescoço). The association with movement isclear in these examples, for the effect produced is what namesthe technique.

Another recurring metonymic association is one in whichthe part stands for the whole. Examples are terms like banda (flank throw), which indicates the type of (sideways) step-inused for that move, cintura desprezada (a series of partner-boosted throws and flips), where the midriff (cintura) plays afunctionalrole, boca-de-calça (pant-cuffs takedown), describeswhere the technique is applied. Other expressions, like yourpalm, and the toes used in a front snap kick ( palma and pon-

teira) reveal the main body parts employed – often the onesthat strike the adversary.

Terms such as negativa, vingativa and resistência, (nega-tive, avenger and resistance) describe the technique in sub-

jective, abstract terms; terms that show the player’s strategy

and the combative nature of the game. Negation, that is,resistance against slavery, and vengeance for its oppression– these underlie the names given to those moves.

Irony, humor and resistance are all inherent to the life-styles of capoeira practitioners. This was especially truewhen the sport was still the target of persecution. Anotherexample of tongue-in-cheek irony is the expression godeme,synonymous with the English-style punch, and drawing onthe British penchant for shouting “God damn it!” At leastthat’s the way they were perceived by construction workersin the northeastern part of Brazil.

According to anthropologist Letícia Reis, whose 1993

paper was titled Negros e brancos no jogo da capoeira: rein-venção da tradição, capoeira constructs a topsy-turvy worldwith its floor-crawling, bottom-up movements, its subversivelaughter, inverted meanings for terms like bênção/blessing –and for the resistance running deep within the culture. Heremphasis is on the resistance capoeira puts up – resistancetransmitted through its body language, its tricky invertedmovements, and its made-up names.

As for the possibility that African languages influenced ca-poeira terminology, leaving aside the controversial etymology

of terms like aú and gingar , this last ascribed by Nei Lopes tothe Quimbundo jangala (to wobble), in the Dicionário Banto

do Brasil (1995), there is no evidence that the African rootsof this style have given it any kind of linguistic heritage. Thisobservation lends support to the opinion that capoeira devel-oped in Brazil, rather than through the importation of somepre-existing African martial style.

The naming conventions adopted in capoeira reflect itsmartial features, its resistance to the oppression of slaveryand prejudice, the circular nature of its bouts, the communionbetween man and nature and, above all, the way it expressesBrazilian culture.

Bibliography

ABREU, Plácido. Os capoeiras. Rio de Janeiro: J. Alves,[1886?]

BURLAMAQUI, Annibal (Zuma). Gymnastica nacional (capoeiragem) methodizada e regrada. Rio de Janeiro, 1928.

FERREIRA, Aurélio B. de H. Novo Aurélio Século XXI: o di-

cionário da língua portuguesa. 3rd Ed. totalmente revisadae ampliada. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1999.

GUIA DO CAPOEIRA OU GYMNASTICA BRAZILEIRA. 2. ed.Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Nacional, 1907.

LOPES, Nei. Dicionário banto do Brasil . Rio de Janeiro: Secre-taria Municipal da Cultura, Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro, 1995.

REIS, Letícia V. de S. Negros e brancos no jogo da capoeira:reinvenção da tradição. Dissertation (Master’s in Sociology)– College of Philosophy, Fine Arts and Humanities of theUniversity of São Paulo, São Paulo, 1993.

ANJOS, Eliane D. Glossário Terminológico Ilustrado de Movi-

mentos e Golpes da Capoeira: um estudo término-lingüís-

tico. Dissertation (M.A. in Fine Arts, Philology and Portu-guese) – College of Philosophy, Fine Arts and Humanities ofthe University of São Paulo, São Paulo, 2003.

RUGENDAS, Johann M. (1802-1858). Viagem pitoresca

através do Brasil . Translation by Sérgio Milliet. São Paulo: Mar-tins Editora & Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, 1972.

Illustrations: Reinaldo Uezima.

Eliane Dantas dos Anjos. M.A. in Fine Arts, Philology andPortuguese – College of Philosophy, Fine Arts and Humani-ties of the University of São Paulo.

CapoeiraCapoeira: Metaphors in Motion



Music in Bahia’s Capoeira Angola

C AP O E I R A I S M O R E T H AN J U S T A S P O R T T O W H I C H M U S I C I S I N D I S P E N S AB L E . I T I S AL S O A P H I -

L O S O P H Y O F L I F E , R O O T E D I N F U N D AM E N T AL S T H AT S P E AK O F F R E E D O M AN D K N O W I N G O N E -

S E L F . C AP O E I R I S T AS ( P R AC T I T I O N E R S ) AR E AL S O M U S I C I AN S , F O R T H E Y S I N G AN D P L AY T H E B E R -

I M B AU ( M U S I C AL B O W ) , W O V E N R AT T L E ( C A X I X I ) , T AM B O U R I N E , M U S I C AL B E L L S , C O N G A D R U M AN D

S C R AT C H E R ( R E C O - R E C O ) . T H E M E L O D I E S C AN B E R H Y M I N G P R O S E , O R S O N G S W I T H O R W I T H O U T

R E F R AI N S . C O L O R F U L N AM E S L I K E S AM B A- D E - R O D A1 , C O R R I D O 2 , L AD AI N H A , C H U L A3 , O R AÇ Õ E S

AN D B E N D I Ç Õ E S , D E S C R I B E T H E I N T E R P L AY O F V O I C E S T H AT G O W I T H T H E I N T E R P L AY O F M O V E -

M E N T 4 B Y P AR T I C I P AN T S I N A C AP O E I R A C I R C L E B O U T AN D C E R E M O N Y .

Ricardo Pamfilio de Sousa

(1) Editor’s Note: The samba-de-roda is the samba originated in Bahia.(2) Editor’s Note: The corrido is a short song with overlapping call and answer, sung in capoeira

rodas.(3) Editor’s Note: The chula is a song form based on the quadra and had its origin in Portugal.(4) The alternation, interplay or physical dialog between participants in a bout, negacear , is what

happens when one comes in and the other moves back, the alternation between attacking anddefensive moves. “Capoeira is defense, attack, handling yourself, and a rascal’s skills.”



Music in Bahia’s Capoeira

Angola

(5) The underlined lyrics are the replies the chorus sings out to the leader.

The instrumental sounds of the bateria (which is whatthe band is called) reflect the types of instruments used:the berimbau is a twanged cordophone, the tambourineand conga drums membranophones, and agogô bells,scratcher and caxixi are all idiophones. Some academiesor associations even use a whistle (i.e. an aerophone orblowophone).

The music is played specifically for capoeira circleceremonies. It serves to teach and guide the contes-tants, and follows an order of rank created by capoeiris-tas. Added to the various rhythms and melodies are thelyrics of the songs. The litany (ladainha), epic or other-wise, is always the opening song, and the bout cannotbegin until it is over. Angola players (angoleiros) hunkerdown before the berimbau and await the lead-in song,or chula, with its calls and responses between leaderand chorus. The players exchange greetings whenever acorrido or quatrain begins. The music played alternatesbetween a part A and a part B, leader and chorus. It

is during these capoeira ditties that angoleiros performtheir interplay of movements, typically in pairs. Trainingand practice leads up to this, but there is always roomfor improvisation in the movements. The music is alsoopen to variations inspired by the current bout. The lyr-ics of these songs often express basic fundamentals ofthe capoeira arts.

The berimbau is usually in the “master” position. Theplayer summons the contestants to the foot of the berimbau,and gives instructions on the basics of the art. A num-ber of songs have been created or re-created recently,but the traditional songs are also always played, as theywere introduced by mestres such as Pastinha, Noronha

and Bimba. The most striking instrument in a capoeiraband is the berimbau, in its three types, bass, midrangeand tenor ( gunga, médio and viola), also called berra boi,contra-gunga and viola and other names. The fascinatingthing is how these instruments harmonize in rhythm andmelody, alternating and varying their sounds, much likethe techniques in a capoeira bout.

Many different corridos can be played during thesebouts, depending on the skill of the lead singer. Someof them have a special meaning; for instance, some areintended to step up the pace – Ai ai ai ai, São Bento is call-ing me.5 Others encourage a wider range of techniques:

Oi, you’re scared, take heart , or O a o aí gonna make mymove wanna see him fall. Some songs urge the playersto slow the pace: Slower slower, slow and easy, or suggestfloor techniques: O Bujão, o Bujão, o Bujão Capoeira de

Angola rolls on the ground (a bujão is a propane bottle,easier to roll than lift). Still others urge nicer style: Ai aiaidê, let me see some skillful play , and so on. Lively cor-ridos are the only songs played during capoeira Angola

The music is played specifically forcapoeira circle ceremonies. It servesto teach and guide the contestants,and follows an order of rank createdby capoeiristas. Added to the variousrhythms and melodies are the lyrics of

the songs.




(6) In Capoeira Angola, to go “around the world” is to stroll in a circle within the circle. Players mayhold hands – which can be risky, for it leaves you vulnerable to attack moves, including beingpulled by the hand.

bouts. No one competes during the ladainha or chula.The dance-fighting consists of moves and countermoves,each player dodging one blow then aiming another.

There is a passage called a chamada, where one playerbeckons the other close. This could be an act of recogni-tion or a demonstration of grasp, a way of getting out ofa tight spot or simply a break, to catch your breath. Theangoleiro so summoned reports to the spot at the foot ofthe berimbau, where the bout began, then moves towardthe one initiating the chamada. What follows resembles astriding dance, almost like a tango, sometimes close, oth-er times at arm’s-length and stepping lightly. The initiatorends the chamada with a gesture inviting the partner toresume the bout. Techniques for this are very individual,with limits established during the bout. Another such pas-

sage is the circle “around the world,”6 also a chance for asly trick or to show grasp, or simply to catch your breath.

Angoleiros, however, will resort to trickery, cunning anddeceit to trip up a distracted partner.

The music played by the berimbaus during a circle cer-emony increases tempo to a maximum, cuts back, thenagain increases to the finish. Toward the end of a bout,the lyrics foreshadow a halt, or that a player will be re-placed. Even the berimbau player can use the song tobow out. Now and again a mestre or advanced student

will shout out Yea, at the start of a ladainha or severaltimes during a chula, during corridos, or to interrupt orend a bout.

Even today, most capoeiristas are men and boys, thoughangoleiros place no restrictions on women – quite the con-trary – women come up often in the lyrics to the songs.

Adeus Corina dam damDam daram daramDam dam

Just a half-hour Half an hour

Iaiá let’s goOne time around

I am leavingI am leaving I am headed for Angola

Leaving now cutieI’m going away now I’m leaving now cutieThe time has come

Goodbye goodbye

Bon voyage –

Luiz Renato Collection




Angola

(7) This fourth item may be done third, or be skipped altogether.(8) Mandinga in this case is expressed by the angoleiro’s gestures, such as when playing the

berimbau, or making, for instance, the sign of the cross or star of Solomon

A capoeira circle ceremony generally lasts an hour or

two. Events at most of these circles may be summed up

as follows:

1st - Berimbaus are strung and tuned, and all instru-ments brought to where the band is going toplay.

2nd - The roda starts to take shape, with the first play-ers flanking the instrument section, and the lastplayers facing the musicians on the oppositeside of the circle.

3rd - At this stage (especially when no demonstrationis staged for the public), some capoeira funda-mentals are gone over.

4th - Check tuning and harmony among musicians.7

5th - The music begins. Typically the gunga startsplaying Angola, followed by the médio with SãoBento Grande and the viola joins in with oneor the other (those being names for traditionalrhythms played for capoeira angola).

6th - The tambourines start to play.7th - Two angoleiros, alive with mandinga,8 squat be-

fore the berimbau.8th - Singing begins with the ladainha.9th - The next song is the chula, with chorus replies,

and other instruments, the atabaque, agogô andreco-reco join in.

10th - The entering song begins, followed by the firstcorrido, which is the signal to begin the bout.The alto viola begins jamming (improv), andplaying lead rather than rhythm. Rhythm isplayed mainly on the gunga, while the médioplays counterpoint to the gunga or follows its

Capoeira is for boys, men and women

Yeah, yeah for men and women

Nhêco, nhêco Salomé

Everyone escorts you

for your name is Salomé Salomé, Salomé

Dona Maria do Cambuotá At the market she says what to doDona Maria do CambuotáEnters the circle, playing too

Eh ê ê SaloméWomen do defeat the men

Adão, Adão, where’s Salomé AdãoWhere’s Salomé Adão

She took a trip to the island

How do you doDona Maria how do you doHow have you been, how are you




rhythm. Both are free to improvise on the tunesduring play.

11th - At the foot of the berimbau, the two contestantsshake hands, then make their first move into thecircle, usually a fall on the kidneys (queda de rim).

Toe-to-toe combat then begins, never touching,with a great many moves such as dodging “neg-ativas” and spinning “rabo-de-arraias”

12th - Throughout all of this, under the watchful eyeof the mestre, corrections and suggestions aremade by changing the song lyrics, or through achamada by the berimbau player, calling a con-testant up close for advice.

13th - The bout switches players whenever the mestredoes a chamada, or when a contestant bowsout of the match. After clasping hands beforethe berimbau, the bout is then resumed and the

player who was replaced rejoins the chorus ortakes up an instrument.

14th - During a roda there are always at least two la-dainhas, and no more than six.

15th - To wind things up they sing: Adeus, adeus, boaviagem. The musicians stand, keep singing, turnright, and stroll in a circle counterclockwise backto their starting point (volta ao mundo).

16th - After about two minutes of that goodbye song,a mestre or one of the berimbau players mightholler Yea, thus ending the capoeira Angolaroda. During circle practice a player will “cut in”(comprar) the bout, thereby relieving one of the

two contestants while lighting into the other.

Artist and capoeirista Carybé, who still practices it,described the capoeira music played in Bahia in 1951as follows:

Bahia made a lot of contributions to the music,by adding the tambourine, caxixi and reco-recoto replace clapping hands, along with the steel-

string belly berimbau, an instrument with better

Antonio Carlos Canhada




Angola

range and more versatile features than a Jew’sharp. Bahia came up with songs and providedrules for play, beginning with the basic chulaswritten by the master himself: Sinhazinha quevende aí?/ Vendo arroz do Maranhão./ Meu Sin-hô mandô vendê./ Na terra de Salomão./ thechorus answers: ê, ê Aruandê Camarado/ Galo

cantô/ ê, ê galo cantô Camarado/ Cocôrocô/ ê,ê cocôrocô Camarado/ Goma de engomá/ ê, ê

goma de engomá Camarado/ Ferro de matá/ ê,ê ferro de matá Camarado/ É faca de ponta/ ê,ê faca de ponta Camarado/ Vamos embora/ ê,ê vamos embora Camarado/ Pro mundo afóra/ê, ê pro mundo afora Camarado/ Dá volta aomundo/ ê, ê dá volta ao mundo Camarado. Theones going into the fi ght squat there in frontof the berimbau and listen to these homespun

songs, maybe saying their “strong prayers” toturn aside bullets, ambushes or knives; they

roll their bodies into the circle over elbows andhands, and start the basic ginga movement,which is both a defense and a dance step allrolled into one.

What Carybé calls the chula de fundamento or basicchula, most people in capoeira angola call a “ladainha,”while some other angoleiros and most regional capoeiraplayers think of it as a “quadra.” The part that comes after

Toward the end of a bout, the lyricsforeshadow a halt, or that a player will bereplaced. Even the berimbau player canuse the song to bow out.




a chula always features the chorus response, that is, theentering song. Carybé leaves out the lead singer’s call, andthe chorus goes straight to the response. The word “ca-marado,” as spelled in the quote, probably has more to dowith the way they pronounced “câmara.” His writings makeno reference to corridos. There are other sources that citemusical repertoires with their corresponding definitions

and meanings.Regional capoeira, created by Mestre Bimba, had – es-

pecially back then – more points in common with than dif-ferences from capoeira Angola. That much is clear in this1940s report by Ramagem Badaró (1980: 47-50):

”What shall we play? São Bento Grande Repica-do, Santa Maria, Ave Maria, Banguela, Cavalaria,Calambolô, Tira-de-lá-bota-cá, Idalina or Con-ceição da Praia?” Bimba thought for a minuteand said: “Play Amazonas, then Banguela.” Theberimbaus start to play and a native son comesup to Mestre Bimba and clasps his hand. Every-

one clapped hands in tune with the twanging ofthe berimbaus, as Bimba, rocking back and forth,

sang: “No dia que eu amanheço, Dentro de Ita-baianinha, Homem não monta cavalo, Nem mul-her deita galinha, As freiras que estão rezando,

Se esquecem da ladainha.” And his companionchimed in, moving in time with the music, and

sang: “A iúna é mandingueira, Quando está nobebedor, Foi sabida e é ligeira, Mas capoeira ma-tou.” His improvised lyrics met with applause.But Bimba, never one to quit easily, came backwith: “Oração de braço forte, Oração de São Ma-

teus, P’ro Cemitério vão os ossos, Os seus ossos não os meus.” The chorus applauded, thenchanted the capoeira refrain: “Zum, zum, zum,Capoeira mata um, Zum, zum, zum, No terreirofica um.” And the native son, not to let matters

stand, responded to Mestre Bimba: “E eu nascino sábado, No domingo me criei, E na segunda-feira, A capoeira joguei.” The crowd cheered andapplauded the two contestants in the middle ofthe circle. A dusky-skinned woman comment-ed: “Good boy! If he can fi ght as well as he sings,he’ll be a match for Bimba. [...]” That won him thematch. The crowd swarmed into the circle and

applauded the king of capoeira. Bimba huggedhis adversary, and the native son sang a manlyverse: “Santo Antônio pequenino, Amansadorde burro brabo, Amansai-me em capoeira, Com

setenta mil diabos.” Bimba, pleased by the complement, sang back: “Eu conheci um camarada,Que quando nós andarmos juntos, Não vai havercemitérios, Pra caber tantos defuntos.”

These “musical duels,” though falling out of practice,once stood as a “label or even code of conduct for capoei-ra,” with its “singing adversaries.” They show the closeness

of this art to other manifest expressions of Brazilian popularculture, such as musical duels, challenges among singersand participatory folksinger events known as cururus.

As a rule, capoeira angola groups claim to follow theteachings of Mestre Pastinha, in that they refer to the in-strument section as the bateria. As we’ve seen, the threeberimbaus start up, one at a time, followed by the tambou-rine, scratcher, agogô bells and conga drum at the close ofthe ladainha.

Delfim Martins/Pulsar Imagens

CapoeiraMusic in Bahia’s Capoeira Angola




Angola

Capoeira is generally practiced to the tune of theberimbau. The rhythms and melodies produced by thisinstrument are called toques, and basically consist of rhyth-mic combinations and tonal variations on the instrument’sdistinctive sounds: 1 – The higher tones are made bystretching the berimbau string with a coin pressed againstit while striking this cord with a stick. 2 – Midrange tones

are produced with the coin touching the wire with little orno pressure. 3 – The bass tones are made by striking theberimbau cord with no additional tension applied.

The berimbau brings together these three basic sounds,with variations on volume and tone made by alternativelyleaving the hole in the sounding gourd open or muf fling itagainst the player’s belly, and by changing the force andspeed with which the stick strikes the string.

All of the teachings of capoeira angola are handeddown by oral tradition and learned by observation, trial anderror, correction and repeated demonstration by mestresteaching their pupils. Individual development is at all times

respected, but the mestre will nevertheless urge and guidehis students, primarily through improvised song lyrics whensinging solo, for instance: “The conga drum broke rhythm,”(played too fast or too slow); “I want to hear the reco-reco,”(or some other instrument being played too softly or slop-pily); “I want you to start singing,” (to everyone in the ca-poeira chorus).

The mestre usually decides who will occupy the musi-cians’ benches and what instruments they are to play dur-ing a roda. Spontaneous change is still permitted, however,by invitation or if the mestre is away, and based on a player’sskill. Players may pass their instruments to someone else,depending on the dif ficulty of the tune being played.

Beginners learn the easier instruments first, and play thescratcher, agogô bells, tambourine or conga drums, and fi-nally the berimbau. Some students only play the reco-recoand agogô. Others have mastered the berimbau, but notthe conga drums. A few play the congas and other bateriainstruments, but seldom the berimbau. An angoleiro, onceconversant with all of the instruments, chooses which oneto play and is not pressured to play more than one. This istrue for both capoeiras angola and regional, and quite a fewcapoeiristas only play the berimbau. Carybé, for example,only played the tambourine. Observation is the best studytechnique for becoming an angoleiro.

Everyone in capoeira learns the techniques, how to playthe instruments and how to sing, even though they maylater develop specific skills and preferences among thoseinstruments. Singers good at improvising and deliveringlyrics for ladainhas are recognized and appreciated.

The musical repertoire for capoeira runs the gamutfrom samba-de-roda to work songs. It also borrows fromthe traditional repertoire of Candomblé de Caboclo, or evensongs from Candomblé de Orixás.

The berimbau brings together these threebasic sounds, with variations on volumeand tone made by alternatively leavingthe hole in the sounding gourd open ormuffling it against the player’s belly, and bychanging the force and speed with whichthe stick strikes the string.




Capoeira is helping to spread the Portuguese language,especially as spoken in Bahia. This bracing and invigoratingcultural expression, with its wealth of physical movement, isholistic in its approach to integration, and Brazilian through-and-through. Its strength and creativity is most strongly feltthrough the music.

Bibliography:

BADARÓ, Ramagem. “Os negros lutam suas lutas misterio-sas: Bimba é o grande rei negro do misterioso rito africa-no”. In Capoeiragem - Arte e Malandragem. Jair Moura, ed.Cadernos de Cultura 2. Salvador: Secretaria Municipal deEducação e Cultura, Departamento de Assuntos Culturais,Divisão de Folclore. 43-55, 1944.

CARNEIRO, Edison. A Linguagem Popular da Bahia. Rio de Janeiro: Published by the State Museum, 1951.

–––––––– Capoeira. 2 ed. Cadernos de Folclore 1. Rio de Janeiro: FUNARTE, 1977.–––––––– Folguedos Tradicionais. Rio de Janeiro: FU-NARTE/INF, 1982.

CARYBÉ, Hector Julio Páride Bernabó. O Jogo da Capoeira.Coleção Recôncavo, 3. Salvador: Tipografia Beneditina,1951.

CASCUDO, Luís da Câmara. Antologia do Folclore Brasile-iro: Séculos XVI-XVII-XVIII-XIX-XX. Os cronistas coloniais. Osestudiosos do Brasil. Bibliografia e notas. São Paulo: Martins,1956.

–––––––– Dicionário do Folclore Brasileiro. 5ª Ed. rev. andexpanded. São Paulo: Melhoramentos. S.v. “Capoeira” 193-4. S.v. “Berimbau-de-Barriga” 120-1, 1981.

DEBRET, Jean-Batiste. Voyage pittoresque et historique auBrésil, ou Séjour d’un artiste français au Brésil, depuis 1816

jusqu’en 1831 inclusivament. Edição Comemorativa do IVCentenário da Cidade de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro,1965. Rio de Janeiro: Distribuidora Record; New York: Con-tinental News. Fac-simile da edição original de Firmin DidotFrères, Paris: 1834.–––––––– Viagem Pitoresca e Histórica no Brasil. Biblioteca

Histórica Brasileira, direção de Rubens Borba de Moraes. 2ed. tomo 1. 2 v. Translation and notes by Sergio Milliet. SãoPaulo: Martins, 1949.–––––––– “L’Aveugle chanteur.” In Mercedes Reis Pequeno(org.). Três Séculos de Iconografia da Música no Brasil 80.Rio de Janeiro: Biblioteca Nacional, 1974KOSTER, Henry. Travels in Brasil. 2 ed. 2 v. London: Long-man, Hurst, rees, orne, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, 1817.–––––––– Viagem ao Nordeste do Brasil. Translation andnotes by Luiz da Câmara Cascudo. Biblioteca Pedagógica

Brasileira, série 5, v. 221. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Na-cional, 1942.RUGENDAS, Johann Moritz. Malerisch Reise in Brasilien.Engelmann & Cie. In Paris, Cité Berger No. 1 in Mülhausen,Ober-Rheinisches Dept, 1835.–––––––– Viagem Pitoresca e Histórica no Brasil . BibliotecaHistórica Brasileira, direção de Rubens Borba de Moraes. 4

ed. tomo 1. v. 1 e 2. Translation and notes by Sergio Milliet.São Paulo: Martins, 1949.

WETHERELL, James. S.d.Brasil: Apontamentos sobre a Bahia.1842-1857. Introduction and translation by Miguel P. doRio-Branco. Salvador, Banco da Bahia. [1972].

Ricardo Pamfilio de Sousa. Masters in Ethnomusicol-ogy, UFBA, 1997 “A música na capoeira angola.” A memberof the Fundação Pierre Verger, in charge of digital culturefor the Ponto de Cultura Pierre Verger project at the Afro-Brazilian Cultural Center.

CapoeiraMusic in Bahia’s Capoeira Angola

Rit





Women in Capoeira

Lilia Benvenuti de Menezes

A search through historical symbols of feminine strength, gumption, courage and self-confi-

dence takes us back to the 1940s, and some startling nicknames – “Maria 12 Homens”, “CalçaRala”, “Satanás”, “Nega Didi” and “Maria Pára o Bonde” – given those women who doubled as men

to fit in with the rakes and hepcats then dominating capoeira circles. Rosa Palmeirão, a legendary

capoeirista who inspired Jorge Amado while writing his novel Sea of Death (Mar Morto), is another

example. Feared and respected as the most “dauntless” woman to ever shake up the male-dom-

inated tableau, Maria 12 Homens was an expert capoeira, and frequented rodas at the Bahia’s old

Gold Quay and Mercado Modelo. Maria’s surname is as yet undocumented in Salvador, but legend

holds that she earned the nickname besting 12 men by a knockout. These women skillfully made

their way and very capably wrote their names into history. They came out ahead in their struggle

for freedom and left the facts on record for posterity.

Many are the myths involving women who fought for their honor in life-and-death struggles and

stood as examples of courage and determination. Legend has it that Aqualtune, a Princess of the

Congo, led an army of 10,000 men to repel an invasion of their territory by the Jagas. Her defense

of the kingdom ended in defeat, and she was sold as breeding stock aboard a slaver ship, forcibly

impregnated by another slave, and arrived in Recife in that

condition. Before giving birth, however, she organized other slaves

into escaping to a fastness named Palmares.

Women nowadays – symbols of pride and victory – are

constantly improving their standing in politics and themarketplace, getting better jobs and holding of fice in im-

portant functions. Women in sports are racking up more

medals, trophies and titles, and naturally, participating in

growing numbers in capoeira – to the great benefit of this

cultural style. Women sing and play, practice, give lessons

and take part in roundtable discussions with the best-known

mestres of the art. Wherever they may be, Maria 12 Homens, Calça

Rala, Satanás, Nega Didi, Maria Pára o Bonde and Rosa Palmeirão

have every reason to be filled with pride.

Lilia Benvenuti de Menezes. Teaches Physical Education, is a Capoeira

Instructor for the Grupo Muzenza and has twice won the world cham-

pionship hosted by Super Liga Brasileira de Capoeira. She is the au-

thor of Benefícios Psicofi siológicos da Capoeira.

organized other slaves

.

d victory – are

tics and theof fice in im-

ing up more

rticipating in

enefit of this

e, give lessons

h the best-known

ria 12 Homens, Calça

e and Rosa Palmeirão

ucation, is a Capoeira

the world cham-

She is the au-

Marc Ferrez



Interview:Mrs. Rosângela C. Araújo( Mestra Janja)

TB: Many specialists point to capoeira as one of the

most authentically Brazilian cultural manifesta-

tions. Just what features of capoeira, in your opin-

ion, reveal this Brazilian idiosyncrasy?

Janja: For starters, I would like to approach capoeira as an

Afro-Brazilian cultural manifestation. This is very important

to me, for deep down, I don’t really believe we should go

on thinking of Brazil without its “African-ness.” That said,I believe that capoeira as an art reveals Brazilians’ way of

being, their creative ways of relating to contexts that are

often quite violent.

That is how our “gingar,” entered the language as more

than a specific capoeira movement; it means the ability

to live with and face adversity through a mimetic blend of

dance and fighting, and to transform negative stereotypes

into communal joy.

TB: You have dedicated over 20 years to this world

of capoeira. What were the most important chang-

es, with regard to capoeira, that you noticed duringthat time?

Janja: Yes I have been involved with capoeira for about the

past 25 years and, fortunately, was in a position to become

familiar with part of its development in many Brazilian states,

as well as a number of other countries. What impressed me

most were the changes in the way many of the groups got

along, and especially the mestres. It was this possibility of

being able to work together, and engage many different au-

diences in dialogue, including government entities – all of

which may not eliminate traditional distrust, but it does show

us some new ways of getting along. The increasing number

of women as participants is another important phenomenonto be examined and discussed.

TB: Women have achieved considerable indepen-

dence and freedom that they did not have, in many

areas of life, until the mid-20th century. What signs

of progress do you consider important with regard

to the question of women participating in capoeira

circles, or rodas.

Janja: I should begin by pointing out that even before show-

ing up at capoeira circles, women also face a different set

of hurdles on the way to becoming capoeiristas and beingrecognized as such.

That capoeira is no longer something specifically for men –

assuming it ever was – is not news to anyone. Today we

have capoeira organizations founded and led by women, and

even groups, especially overseas, in which women form the

majority. The playing field is not at all level or representa-

tive, however, when we look at the small number of women

promoted by the graduation system. We have seen groups,

based on “traditions” they themselves made up, claim that

women can’t play the conga drums or be lead singers for the

Rosângela Costa Araújo, known as Mestra Janja, is

one of the most recognizable figures in the world

of capoeira. With a degree in History at the Fed-

eral University of Bahia (UFBA) and a doctorate inEducation at the University of São Paulo (USP), she

has dedicated over twenty years of her life to ca-

poeira, whether in its academic strand or in its daily

practice. In this interview, given to the Texts from

Brazil magazine, Mestra Janja shares her opinions

on the inclusion of women in the world of capoeira,

the changes that affected this world in the past few

years, and the challenges and directions that ca-

poeira will face in the future



ladainha, even though these very things

are required of them daily in the course

of their training and studies in capoeira.

The capoeira circle is where the

groups put their identity, strength and

competence on display. Instead of in-

dependence, what women go through

are a host of different types of oppres-

sion and violence, both actual and

symbolic. This has led to the organiza-

tion of a number of groups, in differ-

ent countries, working to bring these

issues into open debate and put-ting together separate solidarity and

teaching networks. So in that sense,

we have to understand capoeira as

something in constant dialogue with

the society around it, as the “smaller

circle” inside of the “larger circle,” and

that all the struggles faced by women

in society as a whole are gone through

in the world of capoeira as well.

TB: What are the obstacles to be

overcome by women in capoeira?

Janja: This may be a good time to

stand that question on its head, and

ask what obstacles capoeira must

overcome in order to properly and re-

spectfully bring women into its circle.

That way we can bring a couple of rel-

evant issues into the context, namely:

diversity and the right to equal treat-

ment. This is a challenge capoeira

ought to take up, given that the

feminine presence extends from the

development of the core knowledge

defining such specific requirements

as movements, rhythms, songs, and

the history and philosophy of capoe-

ira, and so forth, through the unques-

tioned ability to organize and manage

groups as cultural, educational andpolitical organizations both within ca-

poeira and in the larger social context.

Yet if we are to make any progress,

we must understand that capoeira has

to incorporate new viewpoints into its

aesthetic diversity. Just as in groups

traditionally run by men there is a lot

of emphasis on aesthetic diversity, to

define and give each group and each

mestre a sense of identity, by the same

token women want to be valued, to

put together their own backdrops, andnot necessarily mimic – down to the

physical details – concepts that are

not representative of feminine codes.

TB: We quite often hear that a

capoeira student’s education

ought to be holistic, that is, to go

beyond its technical and physi-

cal elements and also include

moral and ethical training. What

are the values that capoeira is

able to foster in its adepts?

Janja: People who want to be initi-

ated in the practice of capoeira ought

to first receive an introduction to the

practice of capoeira. This is because,

since capoeira is a community prac-

tice (I’m speaking of capoeira Angola),

its historical and philosophical aspects

are bound up in shaping the identity

of the group. In other words, a good

place to begin is to situate both the

group and the person within the same

network of belonging.From that point forward, such values

as rank, heritage, cooperation, respect

for differences, etc., are grasped as

values that situate the person within

that individual’s own community.

Here I’d like to restate the character-

building aspect of capoeira. To be a

capoeirista is something that brings

together more than physical ability or

musical talent, but also conduct that

reflects the teachings and guidance

of one’s group.

TB: Capoeira has proven itself a

useful vehicle for inclusion and

social cohesion. What features

of capoeira make these aspects

possible? What would you say

are currently the most impor-tant initiatives in that direction.

Janja: Yes, capoeira has played an im-

portant role in bonding together cultural

communities, especially among children

and youngsters living on the outskirts

of the urban centers. In addition to the

various levels of attraction and involve-

ment it provides, capoeira has benefited

immensely from the dedication and ini-

tiative of the people involved in its pres-

ervation and expansion.We are fortunate today in that the

government, beginning with initia-

tives at the federal level, has increas-

ingly recognized the social impor-

tance of capoeira through programs,

announcements and statements on

the record, so that groups and asso-

ciations far from the dominant cultural

centers are able to have the larger

capoeira community take notice of

their work. Among these initiatives we

might point up the of ficial recognition

of capoeira as part of our intangiblecultural heritage, under the guidance

of Brazil’s National Historic and Artis-

tic Heritage Institute (IPHAN), and the

Living Culture, Points of Culture, Living

Capoeira and similar programs under

the auspices of the Ministry of Culture

(MinC) – this is in addition to public

policies at the municipal level in sev-

eral cities. Overseas, in addition to the

Ministry of Culture’s proposed Global

Capoeira Program, much work has

been done by mestres and groups, inmany different countries, to work more

closely with teaching establishments

and dedicated cultural initiatives.

TB: What virtues do you believe

a good capoeirista ought to

possess?

Janja: Rhythm, and the ability to also

be flexible within that “larger circle.”

Mestra Janja



Openness, to keep his or her skills cur-

rent. Responsibility in one’s choice of

teachings, never losing sight of that

well-rounded education as capoeiristas.

Unwavering exercise of tolerance and

friendliness. Respect for differences.

TB: Your doctoral thesis, in 2004,

was on the subject of capoeira. Un-til fairly recently, however, many

capoeiristas looked askance at

academic research, for they be-

lieved that the world of capoeira

and that of academia held dispa-

rate value systems. What is the

current status of those relations?

Janja: I hardly believe that those sort

of misgivings are at all specific to ca-

poeiristas. Note that initiates in other

traditions having African roots, suchas candomblé, only become accept-

ing of academic studies once they

themselves have been included in that

milieu. Thus, we find today, in many

capoeira groups in Brazil and abroad,

academic and non-academic research-

ers carrying out and publishing studies

seminal to capoeira. Bear in mind, too,

that groups organized by capoeira re-

searchers are also part of that profile:

the Capoeira Studies Group (GECA), na-

tional in scope, brings together the bulk

of all capoeiristas, some of them doinggraduate work, with others involved in

teaching at universities. Then there

is the Mestre Noronha Study Group,

a Project of the Jair Moura Institute in

Salvador.

TB: There are many wings and

factions in this universe of ca-

poeira. Do you believe all this

diversity could be taken as in-

dicative of capoeira’s cultural

complexity, and hence, of thecomplexity of Brazilian culture?

Janja: Unquestionably, and that may

be its greatest asset today. Many dif-

ferent frames of reference must be

brought together to account for the

myriad possibilities and approaches

open to capoeira.

Even so, we have to be concerned over

certain hybrids that amount to a disfig-

urement of capoeira. Instead of busy-

ing ourselves about making up names

for new brands and registering those

trademarks, we could better devote

our efforts to uncovering, among the

complex folds of capoeira itself, infinite

possibilities for working in combina-

tion with others in related areas (the

arts, health, education, law, etc.).

TB: Capoeira has been rapidly

gaining popularity all over the

world. What do you think lies at

the bottom of all this success?

What is your take on this global-

ization of capoeira?

Janja: I believe capoeira keeps the

soul of youth alive within us. It is fer-

tile ground for individual and group

forms of expression, very attractivefor their versatility, musical nature and

other cohesive aspects. That much is

seen in the extent to which children,

youngsters and adults from different

origins, cultures, and social strata, de-

vote themselves entirely to its teach-

ings, seeking familiarity with its net-

works of belonging – all of which lead

back to Brazil – and together forming

a fantastic human mosaic able to bring

together people who would otherwise

be separated by the very inequalities

and conflict through which these dif-ferences are dealt with inside the glob-

al political context.

Furthermore, I think it’s important for

these new capoeiristas to reflect on

and understand the historic and political

meaning of capoeira, so that it does not

get papered over with additional layers

of folkloric attributions, or be re-inter-

preted, by oversimplification, into sport-

ing events. After all, there is no majority

among capoeiristas in favor of turning

it into an Olympic sport. By the sametoken, capoeira should keep close to its

roots as a means of preserving it among

the fighting styles of the black people of

Brazil, in their struggle for freedom.

TB: What are the stereotypes

that capoeira and capoeiristas

still have to cope with?

Janja: I believe there are stereotypes

that ought to be faced by society as

much as by the government. Brazilian

society must recognize and stand up

for its African-ness as something cen-

tral to the establishment of its national

identity. Governments, meanwhile,

ought to determine the procedures

needed to bring about that recogni-

tion, whether by revising the contentof textbooks and all other literary

works, or by providing incentives – or

even taking the initiative to see that

the work needed to teach those les-

sons is properly done.

TB: What are the challenges that

capoeira faces today?

Janja: To divest itself of nationalistic

and cultural feelings, and other types

of intolerance that feed racism, sex-ism and xenophobia. We must keep

capoeira from being contaminated by

the very political violence we seek to

eliminate from the “larger circle.” Ca-

poeira must make its way by fostering

freedom and equality, and, despite its

international insertion, weigh current

trends in the direction of mass-culture

and mass-marketing.



The Relationship between Capoeira and

Physical Education Over the Course of

the 20th Century

T H E A P P R OA C H I W I L L F O L

L O W H E R E I S PA T T E R N E D A F T E R

A CA P O E I RA C I R C L E

, W H E R E S P E C TA -

T O R S O B S E R V E T H E T E C H N

I Q U E S, F U N A N D GA M E S A N D P R E S E N TA T I O N S

– A L O N G W I T H T H E T E N -

S I O N P E R M EA T I N G T H E B O U T I T S E L F

. I HA V E T R I E D T O CA L L A T T E N T I O

N T O O B S E R VA T I O N S

MA D E

D U R I N G MA N Y T U R N S “

A R O U N D T H E W O R L D ”

1 A T CA P O E I RA C I R C L

E C E R E M O N I E S A N D A S A R E -

S EA R C H E R I N P H Y S I C

A L E D U CA T I O N. 2 T H I S I S

A L O O K A T T H E 2 0 T H C E N T U R Y T H R O U

G H T H E E Y E S

O F A R E S EA R C H E R/ CA P O E I R

I S TA.

Paula Cristina da Costa Silva

(1) Volta do mundo (around the world) is a verse sung in the opening litany (ladainha) at a capoeirabout. It is a signal to begin the contest, and also stands for the many possible techniques thatcan come into play during capoeira circle bouts. Several writers, including Letícia V. S. Reis(1997) draw parallels between the capoeira circle and events in our daily lives, so that theexpression may also refer to what people do as they go through life.

(2) Here I will capitalize Physical Education to denote the field of study, and use lowercase,physical education, to refer to the pedagogical discipline responsible for the teaching approachemployed in subjects involving physical development.





(5) Black and working-class refer to the way capoeira is practiced and thought of as an offshoot ofAfrican traditions in Brazil, this is dif ficult to pigeonhole. White and cultured serves to describeit from the standpoint of its inclusion as a Brazilian gymnastics form, national martial art orlegitimate Brazilian sport. For a more thorough discussion of how these expressions werecoined and debated, see Letícia V. S. Reis, in her 1997 book O mundo de pernas para o ar: a

capoeira no Brasil.

(6) A capoeira mestre is the person responsible for teaching this method and safeguarding its

traditions.

(7) ABREU, Frederico José de. Bimba é bamba: a capoeira no ringue. Salvador: Instituto Jair Moura,

1999.

(8) PIRES, Antônio Liberac Cardoso Simões. Movimentos da cultura afro-brasileira: a formação

histórica da capoeira contemporânea (1890 – 1950). 2001. (Doctoral thesis in History) -

Philosophy and Social Science Institute (IFCH), Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas.

The proposition was couched in nationalistic discourse,hewing closely to the health and hygiene policies very fash-ionable in the opening years of the 20th century, and, in ef-fect, called for the practice of a capoeira stripped of its black

and working-class heritage.5 In this, one can still make outan opportunity for rapprochement between two very dif-ferent social strata, the “haves,” which included those sameauthors, and the “have-nots,” made up largely of freedmenand workmen. This came about because talk of the “disci-plining” of capoeira served, to an extent, to rekindle interestin the sport among members of the subject classes. Afterall, the practice of capoeira in public places had been out-lawed by Brazil’s 1890 Criminal Code.

It was within this context that arguments in favor oflegitimizing capoeira were put forth by both sides, yet pro-ponents were in complete disagreement as to how this

legitimacy would be exercised. The more genteel arguedfor the organization of capoeira along the lines of theZuma Method, that is, as a sport – overall, much like box-ing. The working class parried this by endorsing venuestraditional to the black population, such as backyard par-ties and street festivals. No relationship between physi-cal education and capoeira, however, had yet surfaced, atleast not clearly and unequivocally.

Not until 1945 were the first steps taken toward ap-propriating and finding new meaning for capoeira through

physical education. The process began with efforts by Pro-fessor Inezil Penna Marinho to develop a methodology fortraining in capoeira, based on the Zuma Method. Interest-ingly enough, this coincided with the decriminalization of

this type of cultural exhibition during the Getúlio VargasAdministration, in the 1930s. Here again we see a strugglebetween disparate social classes over who will appropri-ate capoeira. The proposal placed on the table by capoeiramestres6 and practitioners, couched in terms compatiblewith its black and working-class origins – particularly by therepresentatives of the lower classes of Salvador (Bahia) –gained acceptance, to the discomfiture of Professor Inezil’sbackers. Nevertheless, there is no denying the influence ofphysical education and sports in the overarching frame-work adopted for capoeira, a framework based on the ideasof the baiano mestres. A perusal of the writings of Fred-

erico José de Abreu7 and Antônio Liberac C. S. Pires8 shows

Ricardo Azoury/Pulsar Imagens



(9) Vicente Ferreira Pastinha, Mestre Pastinha, and Manoel dos Reis Machado, Mestre Bimba, werelegendary pioneers of capoeira in Bahia, successful in getting capoeira removed from the1890 criminal code, and who managed to secure its acceptance by Brazilian society at largebeginning in the 1930s.

(10) FILHO, 1997 apud PIRES, 2001, op. cit., p. 282(11) ABREU, 1999, op. cit., p. 30.(12) Mestre Pastinha and some of his contemporaries used to sing a little ditty that ran: “Capoeira is

for men, women and children. Only those who don’t want in remain outside.”

(13) The expression pedagogia popular was suggested by Letícia Vidor de Souza Reis (1997) inorder to point up the differences between the grassroots method of teaching used by thecapoeira mestres, and the so-called cultured method derived from the discipline of PhysicalEducation, and which reflected the predominant social influence of that era.

We see then that the first substantivegive-and-take between capoeira andPhysical Education occurred whencapoeira practitioners appropriated theprestige enjoyed at the time by PhysicalEducation, in order to give shape to their

ideas concerning this expression of culturalidentity.

that it was precisely from a sporting approach that capoeiramestres and adepts first demonstrated the possibility ofthis particular style holding its own as a sport, through theadmission of capoeira into ring fights. After that, trainingand classes were organized throughout the 1930s underthe aegis of physical education, a strategy that would laterbring capoeira to the forefront, in the lead role, as Brazilian

Physical Education.We see then that the first substantive give-and-take

between capoeira and Physical Education occurred whencapoeira practitioners appropriated the prestige enjoyedat the time by Physical Education, in order to give shapeto their ideas concerning this expression of cultural iden-tity. Interestingly enough, the mestres in Salvador were theones who put forward their own interpretations on the in-terrelationship between Physical Education and sports, andrelated those ideas to the practice of capoeira. That muchis plain from the words of Mestre Pastinha:9 “ [...] frankly, the

time is ripe to press for the sport.10 My intention was not to

make myself out as better than my comrades, but rather,to elevate the sport.” Mestre Bimba advocated his methodin similar terms: “I have hanging on my wall a permit from

the Board of Education. I’m a physical education teacher.

Nobody can lay a hand on me.” 11 As a result of this in-terplay with government interests, all the while defendingthe practice of capoeira on populist grounds,12 we note theemergence in the 1940s of a grassroots teaching style13 forthis expression of cultural form.

Even as the mestres were making sport of the preten-sions of polite society – represented here by the propo-nents of sports and physical education – they gave capoe-ira a makeover more in tune with their own interests. The

mestres were thus able to reinvent their tradition and putthe discourse around capoeira on track as a legitimate con-tribution by black people in Bahia toward building a nationalculture. As these arguments moved to the forefront, theestimation of capoeira as a broad-based cultural expres-sion increased proportionately, without prejudice to its Af-rican origins, and with no restrictions placed on its sportingnature or value as a means of personal defense. Observethat the mestres in Bahia extracted their full measure fromthe ambiguous nature of capoeira, and consequently of itspractice, for they by no means denied its value as a sport,but throughout their entire discourse, kept it from being

pinned down by alternately describing it as a martial art, a

The Relationship between

Capoeira and Physical Education

Over the Course of the 20th

Century




(14) Although Mestre Pastinha and Mestre Bimba both struggled to have capoeira removedfrom the list of activities banned by the Criminal Code, the two differed in their formulationof approaches to its practice. Mestre Bimba went forward with what he called a regionalcapoeira style, known as Capoeira regional, based on adaptations from a number of culturaltechniques such as batuque, and capoeira as it was then practiced, and mixing in techniquesfrom other sports and martial arts. Mestre Pastinha adopted an ethnocentric approach, knownas Capoeira angola, based on capoeira as it had been practiced up to that time, with very fewchanges.

dance, a musical performance, a style of personal defense,a philosophy for living, etc.

So, although in the thefi

rst round of the contest, grass-roots capoeira teaching techniques prevailed over PhysicalEducation, it wasn’t long before new proposals cropped up,arguing for its inclusion among the various sports, as well asin the category of martial arts.

One of these proposals sprang from a partnershipbetween physical education and the Armed Forces, apartnership by no means unusual throughout the entire20th century. In the 1960s First Lt. Lamartine Pereira daCosta became the second person connected to Physi-cal Education to recommend the addition of capoeirafor personal defense, the first having been Fernandode Azevedo, in his book on physical education, Physical

Education: what it is, what it has been, and what it oughtto be (followed by Antinous). Lamartine Pereira da Costasuggested in his proposal that capoeira be included aspart of military training in combatives for the Navy. Aspart of this initiative he penned Capoeira sem mestre, aself-study course in the art. In it he made clear his desireto enter opon the jurisdiction of the established capoeira

mestres. These ideas, however, amounted to no morethan another failed attempt on the part of physical edu-cation to appropriate capoeira.

The 1960s and 70s were years of tumultuous changein Brazil, beginning with the coup that established military

rule in 1964. Among the events of the times was the in-creased appeal of physical education as a means of lettingoff steam generated by possible “transgressions” in gov-ernment, mainly through the uplifting of pro-sport move-ments. The process is discussed in a revealing book onphysical education written by Lino Castellani Filho, Physical

Education in Brazil: the untold story. It tells of the renewedcommingling of physical education and capoeira arisingfrom a pro-sports attitude shift within capoeira, tracking thechanges then taking place in physical education.

The 1970s ushered in the clearest and most visible signof the pro-sports shift in capoeira with its inclusion as asport within the Brazilian Boxing Confederation, and the or-ganization of capoeiristas into groups. The capoeira mestreremained the central figure within the hierarchy of thesegroups, but new rules were written for capoeira, similar tothose in place for other types of sports.

The historical record does show, however, that the pro-sports faction within capoeira gained the upper hand. Thisthrew the gates open to the influence of physical educa-tion, itself closely bound up with the trend toward sports.This first victory of physical education over capoeira was byno means, however, a definitive rout. There was anythingbut wholesale consensus among the various organizedcapoeira groups that to march single-file into the BrazilianBoxing Confederation was to be a good sport. This, then,is considered the crucial moment at which key events un-folded, events that enable us to understand the changeswhich then occurred within this cultural form. The dis-

agreements among the various groups paved the way forinnovative proposals which, years later, would cause schol-ars from many fields to reconsider capoeira in our society.An example of the backlash came in the form of Capoeira

Esporte, which breathed new life into the ideas of mestrePastinha and his capoeira Angola style.14

This backlash on the part of the various and sundrycapoeira groups and organizations, amounting to openrevolt against the rules set forth by the Brazilian BoxingConfederation, made it clear that relations between physi-cal education and capoeira would have to be differentiatedrather than monolithic. Nor may we lose sight of the factthat these relations, over the years, were to become even

more complex, for even as this new perspective weighed inthe balance, other capoeira groups began to endorse theidea that the practice ought to be standardized as a typeof sport. To this were added even more points of conten-tion during the 1980s, with the resurgence of the earlierideas, propounded by advocates of gymnastics, for linkingcapoeira to physical education.

A number of different situations were here folded to-gether within a single context. The by-now-familiar profes-sor Inezil Penna Marinho was back again in 1982 pressingfor the inclusion of capoeira as part of Brazilian gymnastics.The capoeira-as-sport lobby wanted to keep the practice

listed among the sports. And there was a concurrent move-ment, having ties to Physical Education and headed up bysome of its intellectuals, who were bent on reworking ca-

Paula Cristina

CapoeiraThe Relationship between Capoeira and Physical Education Over the Course of the 20th Century



(15) I may cite FALCÃO, José Luiz. A escolarização da capoeira. Brasília : ASEFE Royal Court, 1996;REIS, André Luiz Teixeira. Brincando de Capoeira: recreação e lazer na escola. Brasília: Valcy,1997 and de ROCHA, Maria Angélica. Capoeira uma proposta para a educação física escolar.

1990. Monograph (Majoring in Physical Education Teaching) - College of Physical Education,Universidade Estadual de Campinas.

We note in passing that capoeira has cometo be valued by exponents of PhysicalEducation as a visible marker of Brazilianculture. This stems from the development,beginning in 1980, of new paradigms in thestudy of Physical Education.

poeira’s role in society. And if this were not enough, tuckedin among these disparate paths were capoeira groups whowanted the practice to remain a cultural art, free from therules and regulations of legal institutions.

The Gordian knot began loosening up in some direc-tions while others remained unchanged. There are stillpeople, with connections to capoeira organizations, who

support the idea of preserving capoeira as a cultural exhibi-tion with no ties to government agencies, but they are inthe minority. For one thing their champions do not presenttheir arguments clearly, then there is the obvious dif ficultyin keeping this a tenable position with no institutional sup-port, whether by sports agencies or industries having tiesto art, schools, etc. Furthermore, cultural exhibitions thatare part of the makeup of the Brazilian people are alreadyensured legal protection under Brazil’s current Constitution.Capoeira, regarded as a cultural manifestation, is thereforealready institutionally protected.

We note in passing that capoeira has come to be val-

ued by exponents of Physical Education as a visible markerof Brazilian culture. This stems from the development, be-ginning in 1980, of new paradigms in the study of Physi-cal Education. One can make out new viewpoints withinthis movement, some of whose champions recommendthat physical education in schools ought to take it up as“Brazilian Physical Development,” in accordance with the1993 Methodology for Teaching Physical Education. Thisproposal appears to be the most consistent put forth fromwithin Physical Education circles because it preserves thehistorical and social context associated with capoeira, andputs proper emphasis on its practice and study.

Having before us this newfound emphasis on capoeira

within the scope of physical education, one might label as progressive those physical education teachers who believemore effort and attention should be devoted to that style.In published works of the 1990s15 we see a strengtheningof mutual ties in agendas for situations in which, on the onehand the capoeira master is valued for knowledge of theform, and on the other, physical education teachers gainadded prestige for working to include capoeira as part oftheir curricula This way of doing things is by no means thenorm for either side, but rather, something restricted to afew professionals willing to tread that path. Still, in all, thismay be one of the most fertile and rewarding approaches

for working capoeira into physical education classes.We would point out in closing that the most rewardinginterrelationship, both in terms of cultural benefits to ca-poeira and the ways the field of Physical Education standsto benefit from capoeira, is the teaching of a practice en-

The Relationship between

Capoeira and Physical Education

Over the Course of the 20th

Century




lightened by the awareness of its having built itself out ofthe story of a people who, although brought over in chainsto Brazil, still had the dignity and the cultural strength to en-rich our heritage with a legacy of fighting with a smile, danc-ing through struggles, telling their story in songs and recall-ing their ancestors in a corporal style we call capoeira.

Bibliography

ABREU, Frederico José de. Bimba é bamba: a capoeira no

ringue. Salvador: Instituto Jair Moura, 1999.

AZEVEDO, Fernando de. Da Educação Física: o que ela é,

o que tem sido e o que deveria ser (seguido de Antinoüs). São Paulo: Melhoramentos, 1960. Complete works.

BRACHT, Valter. Educação Física: a busca da autonomia

pedagógica. Revista da Fundação de Esporte e Turismo, V.

1 (2), pp. 12-19, 1989.

CASTELLANI FILHO, L. Pelos meandros da educação físi-

ca. Revista Brasileira de Ciências do Esporte, V. 14, No. 3,maio/1993.____ Educação Física no Brasil: a história que não se conta. 5th ed., Campinas: Papirus, 2000.

COSTA, Lamartine Pereira da. Capoeira sem mestre. Rio de Janeiro: Edições de Ouro, 1962.

FALCÃO, José Luiz. A escolarização da capoeira. Brasília:ASEFE Royal Court, 1996.

MARINHO, Inezil Penna. A ginástica brasileira (Resumo do

projeto geral), Brasília, 1982.______ Subsídios para o estudo da metodologia do treinamen-

to da capoeiragem. Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, 1945.

PIRES, Antônio Liberac Cardoso Simões. Movimentos da

cultura afro-brasileira: a formação histórica da capoeira

contemporânea (1890 – 1950). 2001. Thesis (Doctoratein History) - Philosophy and Social Science Institute (IFCH),State University of Campinas, Campinas.

REIS, André Luiz Teixeira. Brincando de Capoeira: recreaçãoe lazer na escola. Brasília: Valcy, 1997.

REIS, Letícia Vidor de Sousa. O mundo de pernas para o ar: a

Capoeira no Brasil. São Paulo: Publisher Brasil, 1997.

ROCHA, Maria Angélica. Capoeira uma proposta para a edu-

cação física escolar . 1990. Monograph (Majoring in Physi-cal Education for Schools) - College of Physical Education,State University of Campinas.

SILVA, Paula Cristina da Costa. A Educação Física na roda de

capoeira – entre a tradição e a globalização . Dissertation(Masters in Physical Education), College of Physical Educa-tion, State University of Campinas, 2002.______ O mestre de capoeira face à regulamentação da

profi ssão de Educação Física. In: CONGRESSO BRASILEIRODE CIÊNCIAS DO ESPORTE, 12. 2001, Caxambu. Anais...,

Caxambu: CBCE, 2001a.______ Capoeira e Educação Física - uma história que dá

jogo... early notes on their interrelations. Revista Brasileirade Ciências do Esporte, Campinas, V. 23, No. 1, pp. 131-145,set./2001b.

SOARES, Carmem Lúcia. Educação Física: raízes européias

e Brasil. Campinas: Autores Associados, 1994.

SOARES ET ALLI. Metodologia do ensino da educação física.

São Paulo: Cortez, 1992.

Paula Cristina da Costa Silva. Doctoral Candidate atthe College of Education, State University of Campinas,Unicamp/SP, capoeirista in the “Saci Pererê” CapoeiraSchool and researcher in the Study and Research Group onPhysical Education in Schools (GEPEFE) and in the CapoeiraStudies Group (GECA).

CapoeiraThe Relationship between Capoeira and Physical Education Over the Course of the 20th Century



Benefits of Capoeira

Philosophical: Making members of the group aware of

the fundamentals of capoeira.

Social: Bringing home to the group as a whole the rights,

responsibilities and duties of its members.

Physical: Mastery of the bodily movements involved in

capoeira, within physical limits compatible with each practi-

tioner’s age and experience.

Artistic: Esthetic aspects of capoeira music, its songs,

the playing and rhythms of its instruments, the berimbau,

conga drums, tambourine and agogô bells, and its related

dance and circle ceremony performance rituals.

Educational Benefits

Ricardo Pamfílio de Souza

There is no single standard or recipe for teaching capoeira,

but rather, a number of different approaches, customized by

different mestres. These mestres have empowerment within

their academies or groups, but are nevertheless bound by tra-

ditions handed down by the individual mestres under whom

they trained. All efforts involving the cognitive and affective

processes involved in learning capoeira converge on a teach-

ing system in which everybody learns. An example of this

learning experience can be seen in the rodas, circle ceremo-

nies in which the students make up new moves or improvisenew songs as variations on a common theme aligned with

capoeira’s collective unconscious. This is teaching quite dis-

connected from any formal educational system, and bound

up instead with a culture, the culture of capoeira Angola.

Ricardo Pamfílio de Souza. M.A. in Ethnomusicology, UFBA, 1997.



Capoeira is a physical activity involving performance exer-

cises, for it requires continuous and rhythmic bodily motion en-

gaging many groups of muscles. As muscular exercise, it is both

isotonic and isometric, and demands intense physical effort.

Capoeira, like any other form of exercise, has cardiovas-

cular, pulmonary and muscular physiological effects. We

should recognize that many factors besides age and sex

influence responses to exercise, factors such as posture,

muscle mass involved in the effort, the exercise environ-

ment, proper hydration and individualfitness.The physical qualities which capoeira develops are

flexibility, strength, endurance, speed, balance, agility and

coordination.

Practicing capoeira is an excellent way of acquiring flex-

ibility. This is because the extra effort required of muscles

and joints for effective performance, that is, to maximize

the movements involved, reward the capoeirista with el-

egance of movement.

Physical and Psychological Benefits

Lilia Benvenuti de Menezes

Capoeira is also a satisfactory means of achieving

muscular strength. The entire weight of the body must

be supported in various positions by the neck and limbs.

Because it is a martial style, it incorporates attack and

counterattack moves, leaping and dodging, and using

one’s own endurance against the adversary. Strength

is also developed by practicing leaps and hops, freezes

balancing on the hands, and constant motion, whether in

ground or upright techniques.

Capoeira builds up endurance in circle bouts andthrough regular training. Training develops specific endur-

ance, that is, good command of technical skills, with intense

movement during sports practice. In the circle or roda, a

practitioner must also have overall endurance, which takes

account of physical conditioning and coordination. Endur-

ance is an essential requirement for a capoeirista to be able

to keep up the continuous motion necessary to demon-

strate mastery of the techniques.

Capoeira often demands a certain speed or quickness

of movement, of the body, arms or legs (strikes, attacks),

or reaction (counterattacks, fending or dodging), in which

reflexes and nimble cunning are developed. These are

noncyclical, non-uniform movements, with varying ratesof acceleration.

Another physical quality this sport develops is balance.

During a capoeira bout a participant is often required to

balance awhile on one foot, on the hands, or even a single

hand – often with both feet in the air. Balance is intensely

cultivated in movements such as the aú1 (cartwheel) or

bananeira2 (handstand), to give but two examples; or such

striking techniques as the martelo3 (roundhouse kick), ben-

ção4 (front push kick) and ponteira5 (front snap kick).

Capoeira is tightly bound up with agility. In actual con-

test a practitioner must take into account the unpredict-

ability of blows, and be agile enough to defend, attack,dodge, feint and move in tempo with dexterous quickness.

Being quick on your feet enables you to apply techniques

(1) A cartwheel, in which the capoeirista moves from a position resembling the letter “A” a figure

formed by standing with legs apart, to a letter “U” with both legs in the air before completing

the movement, back on the feet.

(2) An upright handstand, with all weight resting on the arms, body upside down.

(3) A roundhouse kick with the top of the foot striking the adversary’s body or face.

(4) A front push kick, in which the capoeirista raises a leg and pushes forward, causing the adversary

to lose balance.

(5) A front snap kick, striking the adversary with the ball of the foot.

Lília Menezes



as opportunities emerge, and dodge an adversary’s blowsquickly enough to escape. Fast play, determined by the

speed and rhythm of playing on the musical bow or berim-

bau, demands of the players fast combinations of succes-

sive moves executed in several directions with considerable

quickness. All of this requires a high degree of coordina-

tion, and develops agility, dexterity and speed all at once.

Last but not least, the development of coordination

is also very important to anyone practicing capoeira. In-

asmuch as it is characterized by style, lightness, ease of

motion and performance, coordination is cultivated and

improved with practice. Capoeira adepts rely on dexterity

and creativity, rather than choreographed patterns, all of

which demands highly developed reflexes and coordinationof movements.

Capoeira and Psychological Development.That ex-

ercise brings psychological and emotional benefits is com-

mon knowledge, for it relaxes the body and stimulates the

mind, betters the mood and increases self-esteem, reduces

tension and anxiety, and lessens the risk of depression and

stress.

The psychophysiology of capoeira is, on the other hand,

less familiar to the lay public.

Psychology may be described as the science that stud-

ies behavior and emotions, and physiology the study of how

muscles produce movement. Hence, psychophysiology

concerns itself with the emotional and behavioral changesan individual experiences when engaging in physical activ-

ity. The focus here is on the interaction between motor

activity and emotions.

Taking the basic step of the ‘ginga’ as an example, let’s

apply this same concept to the world of capoeira. Shifting

the weight from leg to leg in rhythm makes the practitioner

feel loosened up and flexible. These are positive feelings

that help to improve one’s behavior in day-to-day activities,

in relating to friends, in decisionmaking at work, school, etc.

Exercise brings people face-to-face with the limitations of

their body, making them more aware not only of the physi-

cal self, but the inner self as well – which improves one’sability to perform.

We see, then, why any type of exercise, not just ca-

poeira, may improve quality of life or cure certain ailments

such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, fibromyalgia,

and stress, for the energy used in producing the movement

causes the brain to release neurotransmitters such as en-

dorphin, adrenaline and nor-adrenaline into the body; these

are chemicals that produce a sense of well-being.

Capoeira, in common with other martial arts, does more

than just strengthen muscles. It makes a person feel men-

tally and emotionally stronger. One thing that sets capoeira

apart from other martial styles is its inclusion of movements

that resemble dance movements, complete with rhythmand music – all of which makes the individual feel freer and

more secure. There are no rigid movements involved, but

rather, sweeping movements, some of them ludic or play-

ful, giving people an opportunity to work out things that

bother them while reinforcing the positive – the realization

that they are capable of daily improvement.

Lilia Benvenuti de Menezes. Physical Education Teach-

er, Instructor for Grupo Muzenza and Two-Time World Cham-

pion at the Super Liga Brasileira de Capoeira. She is author of

the book Benefícios Psicofi siológicos da Capoeira.

Lília Menezes



Capoeira and Social Inclusion

C AP O E I R A W AS B O R N O F AN O P P R E S S E D P E O P L E ’ S S T R U G G L E F O R F R E E D O M . I N C L U S I O N I S AT T H E

V E R Y C O R E O F C AP O E I R A , S I N C E I T O R I G I N AT E D AM O N G S O C I AL L Y E X C L U D E D G R O U P S . T H R O U -

G H O U T I T S H I S T O R Y , C AP O E I R A H AS AL W AY S B E E N AS S O C I AT E D W I T H P E O P L E E X C L U D E D F R O M

T H E M AI N S T R E AM , Y E T W H O N E V E R C E AS E D T H E I R S T R U G G L E T O AF F I R M T H E I R I D E N T I T Y , R I G H T S

AN D C U L T U R AL V AL U E S . F O R T H I S R E AS O N , C AP O E I R A H AS E N O R M O U S P O T E N T I AL F O R I N C L U -

S I O N . M E N AN D W O M E N O F AL L O R I G I N S , AG E S , F AI T H S , I N C O M E S AN D C U L T U R AL L E V E L S AR E

B R O U G H T T O G E T H E R B Y T H E C AP O E I R A C I R C L E C E R E M O N Y , O R R O D A. T O T H E B E AT O F T H E M U -

S I C AL B O W , T H E Y AR E AL L C I T I Z E N S O F T H E W O R L D S T R I V I N G T O I M P R O V E T H E I R Q U AL I T Y O F L I F E

AN D B R I N G AB O U T S O C I AL J U S T I C E .

Gladson de Oliveira Silva

Vinicius Heine



Capoeira plays a crucial role in fostering inclusion, equa-lity and citizenship. Social distinctions and contradictionsare everywhere: in living conditions, employment and edu-cational opportunities, and in access to such basic servicesas housing, health, safety, transportation, sports, leisure andculture. Throughout all of history, these distinctions andcontradictions have reiterated that inequality.

Itself a product of popular culture, capoeira can andshould contribute to turn this situation around and bringpeople closer together - to be appreciated for what theyare in essence, rather than for their material advanta-ges. It also helps build democratic spaces, within whicheveryone has equal rights and opportunities. These in-clude opportunities to understand the relations betweenpast, present and future, and above all, to foster politicalawakening, the responsibilities of citizenship, and funda-mental human rights.

THE ROLE OF THE MESTRE . The prime movers in capoeiraare teachers and masters, or mestres. They are the oneswho foster and teach the basics to the younger generations.It is they who exemplify the principles, the standards, the va-lues and the philosophy to guide their actions and influencethe learning and behavior of their students. Students largelyreflect the example and role model provided by their mes-

tre, hence the responsibility of these social actors, who labordirectly for the complete education of their students. Thepattern for teaching in capoeira is distinct from the tradi-tional pattern of education in schools. This is because therelationship between master and student goes beyond theclassroom and extends into many aspects of the student’sown life.

A great mestre does not merely educate for the capo-eira circle, but rather, for life in its many dimensions. Onehas to know and care for each student as deeply as possible,


CEPEUSP Capoeira Clinic: Integration among Groups

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A great mestre does not merely educate forthe capoeira circle, but rather, for life in itsmany dimensions.






One of the primary purposes of this type of work is to fosterthe development of truly civic-minded community leaders,able to transform their immediate surroundings and thecountry as a whole – citizens able to make decisions thatbring about social justice and promote the welfare of thesociety in which they live.

“Capoeira is for Men, Women and Children”1

Gradually over time, capoeira has been working towardthe inclusion of people who, until just recently, kept aloof andapart from the sport. It was no common thing to see womenpracticing capoeira. Indeed, they were few and far between.The hardy few who ventured into the capoeira circle soonfound themselves with reputations. The ingrained prejudicewas that capoeira was a guy thing, “how can any woman eventhink of hanging out in such an environment.” Attitudes havechanged a lot in recent years and, in some groups, women arethe majority in classes and at roda practice. There are evenwomen’s capoeira meets, at which discussion runs to suchtopics as af firming and valuing women in and through capoei-

ra. There is no difference between a women’s capoeira circleand a men’s circle. There are equal opportunities for men andwomen, and they practice, sing and play as equals, with inte-gration and respect.

CAPOEIRA FOR YOUNG AND OLD ALIKE. Two-year oldchildren have begun capoeira practice at schools in Braziland abroad. The full potential of capoeira as an instrument


CEPEUSP Event: Interaction with Parents

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Gradually over time, capoeira has beenworking toward the inclusion of peoplewho, until just recently, kept aloof andapart from the sport.

(1) A verse from a well-known capoeira song.




for developing whole human beings has been recognizedat many educational centers. More recently, importantwork has been done with the elderly, which has shown thatthe sport is a great help in improving their quality of life.Each one practices to the extent of his or her ability andwithin their limits – limits that are often much farther thanone would imagine. Even people who doubt that they have

the ability are surprised at the possibilities capoeira offers interms of movement and opportunities for socializing.

Aside from the sport itself, with its attack, defense andacrobatic moves, the attraction capoeira has for the elderlyis its entertaining, artistic and sociable side. Happy, spon-taneous and pleasant movement is essential. To belong toa group, to be among friends, to relate to and interact withothers... these are all basic requirements for healthy, happyhuman beings of all ages, especially in their senior years.

SPECIAL CAPOEIRA. No discourse on the subject of

inclusion would be complete if it left out those who havespecial needs. Foremost among these special needs isthe ability to believe in life and to overcome limitations, tomake that turnaround, develop one’s potential and achie-ve one’s goals. To these challenged individuals capoeirahas been a wonderful tool for biological, psychological andsocial development. People with special needs are able toparticipate in capoeira practice, whether through its mo-vements, by singing or playing an instrument. A host ofnew methods have been developed for teaching capoeirato this population. Capoeira’s capacity for inclusion is incre-asing constantly. Workgroups have been organized exclu-sively for people with special needs, and there are mixed

groups sharing a common space, with remarkable results.People are special for many different reasons, but mainlyfor having an unusual level of sensitivity. What would at firstseem a limitation, in practice turns out to be a challengewhich, once overcome, brings them happiness and a senseof personal achievement.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT. Another elementthat is essential within this process of inclusion through ca-poeira is the need to provide its representatives (mestres,assistant mestres, instructors and monitors) training and

qualifications, and offer knowledge and methods that willenable these professionals to work more effectively. Thereare some very creative, inventive and willful people amongthe capoeiristas. These are highly capable go-getters who,despite their lack of material resources, do extraordinarywork that truly merits praise, recognition and, above all,greater incentives.

The Brazilian government clearly recognizes capoeira’spotential for fostering citizenship, and has been backingprograms which include this sport. The sheer size of the

field of capoeira, together with its potential, indicate thatthese efforts have a long way to go. A more consistentapproach is needed, one that will generate knowledge anda continuous, systematic approach to the work at hand –along with providing its teachers with training and qualifica-tions. What we see out there are isolated initiatives, limitedto a few groups. There is not much coordination and ex-

change of information. Much of what is being accompli-shed flows from the creativity and individual effort of a fewcapoeira mestres and teachers. Priority should be given tocoordinated action involving the government, universitiesand the capoeira community.

CAPOEIRA EN FAMILLE . The family’s presence and par-ticipation is very important to this process of education andinclusion through capoeira. Parents, brothers, uncles, gran-dparents, cousins and offspring are the references most fa-miliar to the student. It is within the family that the student

gains those earliest of life’s experiences. What the individualgoes through in the family home will greatly influence thatperson’s character, feelings, behavior and attitude.

We are aware, however, that the environment for manyfamilies nowadays is dysfunctional and conflict-ridden.Conflicts between parents have an enormous effect onchildren, and can result in bad behavior and poor socialskills. Aggressiveness, trouble concentrating, attention di-sorder, rebelliousness, the inability to get along in groupsand to accept rules, low self-esteem and hostility towardolder people may sometimes be observed in children fromdysfunctional families or broken homes.

CEPEUSP Event: the entertainment value of Capoeira

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CapoeiraCapoeira and Social Inclusion



Dif ficulty in the home environment, however, neednot burden children with problems. A child’s self-esteemand sense of worth reawaken after finding and getting toknow another environment, in which there is love, res-pect, dialogue, discipline and understanding. Their beha-vior and social skills improve, and they begin behaving inan ethical and balanced manner in both their family and

community relations.This is precisely where capoeira can play a decisive role

in the lives of younger people, and contribute toward theirsocial inclusion by providing a space for rebuilding their li-ves. To accomplish this, however, there must be trust anddialogue between mestre and students, and among thestudents themselves.

GLOBAL INCLUSION. Capoeira has become internationalin scope. Everywhere in the world, in hundreds of countries,one hears the twang of the berimbau. Russia, Japan, Ger-

many, South Africa, Peru and the United States have longsince stepped into the capoeira ring. In Brazil, capoeira hasshown its ample capacity for inclusion. Exchanges and in-terchanges among capoeiristas of different nationalities arecommonplace. Every year, people from all over travel toother countries to benefit from each others’ experience withcapoeira. Brazil plays host to large numbers of practitionersseeking to gain new knowledge and expand their wisdom.

THE “OPEN DOOR” PROJECT: A SUCCESS STORY.

On the southern fringe of Greater São Paulo, in the districtof Capão Redondo, the Open Door Project – organized

primarily around capoeira – threw open its doors in Ja-nuary of 2001. the project had its start as a partnershipbetween the City of São Paulo Health Department, thePalas Athena Association of Brazil and Projete Liberdade

Capoeira, and its goal was to foster self-esteem amongchildren and youngsters while reducing violent crime wi-thin the Capão community. “Open Door” is just one exam-ple of the many social projects currently gaining ground inBrazil – proof of our society’s positive approach in findingsolutions to social problems. The struggles of capoeirahave inspired millions of Brazilians in their own personalstruggles, to do for themselves and for their communities.

The main goal of the project is transformation throughparticipation in cultural activities. Out of it come honestand sensitive citizens, eager to pitch in.Capão Redondo is a shining example of the power to getsociety moving. Its levels of crime and violence have fal-len consistently in recent years, replaced by peace andrespect for life. “Open Door,” albeit a drop in the bucket,certainly made a big difference. If at least one of theyoungsters participating in the project felt their heart sof-tened and a greater awareness of dignity and the good, its


120

The struggles of capoeira have inspiredmillions of Brazilians in their own personalstruggles, to do for themselves and for theircommunities. The main goal of the projectis transformation through participation incultural activities. Out of it come honest

and sensitive citizens, eager to pitch in.




purpose will have been achieved. Over the course of itsseven-year existence, the project has had its ups and do-wns and gone through some restructuring. Many exam-ples of positive, personal, living transformation have beenobserved among its students.Civil society has its work cut out for it in making a posi-tive difference in Brazil. Capoeira groups are organized

civil institutions that have an important influence on theirmembers. Capoeira mestres are leaders and opinion mol-ders, and can make a definite contribution toward a moretolerant, conscious and brotherly society. The transfor-mation is already underway, and well on its way, fosteringgreater inclusion, more justice and brotherhood amongmen and among nations. Yea... around the world, friend!The Open Door Project: Capoeira and Social Inclusion

CapoeiraCapoeira and Social Inclusion

Bibliography

SILVA, Gladson de Oliveira. Capoeira: do Engenho à Univer-

sidade. 3rd Ed. São Paulo, 2003._______________________. Revista de Capoeira. EditoraTrês. São Paulo, 1983.

SILVA, Gladson de Oliveira & Heine Vinicius. Capoeira um

Instrumento Psicomotor para a Cidadania. São Paulo, 2007(publication pending).

LAMA, Dalai. O Caminho da Tranqüilidade. São Paulo: Sex-tant, 2000.

Gladson de Oliveira Silva. Professor of Physical Educa-

tion and capoeira mestre for the University of São PauloSports Center (CEPEUSP) and for the São Paulo State De-partment of Sports, Leisure and Tourism Conjunto Despor-tivo Baby BarioniCoordinating Professor for the Open Door Project – workingwith needy and disabled children and youngsters in the SãoPaulo district of Capão Redondo.

Director, Projete Liberdade Capoeira – a capoeira schoolwith working facilities in São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Ar-gentina, Peru and Spain.He has taught in many states in Brazil, and at universitiesand educational centers abroad.

Vinicius Heine. Professor of Physical Education and Ca-poeira for the University of São Paulo Sports Center (CE-PEUSP).Coordinating Professor for the Open Door Project.

He has taught and given many presentations on capoeira inmany states in Brazil, and in other countries.Coordinator for the Center for Capoeira Studies and Rese-arch (CEPECAP).





The Globalization ofCapoeira

(1) To distinguish the representatives of capoeira (adepts, mestres, teachers, militants, etc.) we areusing the term capoeira instead of capoeirista. This is because we believe the former have a

broader scope of action within the culture, whereas capoeirista suggests to us a more specificor specialized sphere.

(2) A reference to an old ditty by Mestre Toni Vargas.(3) According to Rego (1968), capoeira was for a long time seen as a problem to be dealt with by

the police, “who spent every waking moment in pursuit of the capoeiras” (p. 43). Some of themore consistent studies on the history of capoeira were carried out based on documentationcontained in Brazilian police files. See Pires (1996) and Soares (1994 and 2001).

(4) Mestre Pastinha (1889-1981) is the primary figure in Capoeira Angola, who in 1941 foundedthe Capoeira de Angola Sports and Cultural Center in Salvador, Bahia, in 1941. He went to hisgrave blind and forgotten. Mestre Bimba (1899 – 1974) started Brazil’s first capoeira Academyand was creator of Capoeira Regional, an internationally recognized capoeira style. He died inpoverty, always struggling for better living conditions, in Goiânia, Goiás. Mestre Waldemar da

Liberdade managed a capoeira circle every Sunday during the 1940s and 50s, which becamethe most important meeting place for capoeiras in Salvador. This is where Brazilian writer JorgeAmado and photographer Pierre Verger “drew cultural sustenance” (ABREU, 2003, p. 43). Hedied in poverty in 1990, like so many other celebrated capoeiras.

In recent years, many capoeiras1 have leftBrazil in search of recognition and a betterlife. Through this diaspora they have notonly been instrumental in popularizingthis martial arts style, but have also helpedcarry Brazilian culture abroad through talks

and presentations describing capoeiraas something “exotic, tropical, and veryBrazilian.

In recent years, many capoeiras1 have left Brazil in searchof recognition and a better life. Through this diaspora theyhave not only been instrumental in popularizing this mar-tial arts style, but have also helped carry Brazilian cultureabroad through talks and presentations describing capoeiraas something “exotic, tropical, and very Brazilian.”

Back in the days of slavery in Brazil, blood flowed from

the overseer’s quill2 – as the saying went – a reference tothe shrill denunciations of capoeira circulated in print byslaveholder interests.3 Today the martial style is treatedvery differently by the political state. That much is evidentin a number of initiatives recognizing and elevating this im-portant symbol of Brazilian culture.

Just as the times then were different from what they arenow, capoeira practitioners of those days pursued the prac-tice with many different agendas. Even today, they are byno means a monolithic bloc. Capoeira in Rio de Janeiro wasclosely bound up with the organized mobs, street fightingand ward politics of the Second Empire (1840-1889). In Sal-

vador, capoeiristas cultivated friendly relations with tavernowner, greengrocers and food stand operators delighted tosell to the crowds attracted by acrobatic displays.

In olden days, warehousemen, cartage operators, ste-vedores, haulers, traveling salesmen and even the unem-ployed gathered around bars, parks and open boulevardsto gossip, drink and gamble. To them capoeira was both asource of entertainment and a way of protecting their turf.Nowadays we see professionals from many areas engagedin capoeira as a form of recreation. To many it is a job, aprofession, a means of livelihood. A large number of otheryoung people hope to find in capoeira opportunities foremployment they cannot find at conventional institutions

and companies.With impressive creativity, they find in this form of cul-

tural demonstration a source, albeit sketchy, of income.They overlook no possibilities in efforts to escape the fateof those pioneers – considered by many the grand mastersof capoeira – who died in absolute poverty; mestres suchas Pastinha, Bimba, and Valdemar da Liberdade, to namea few,4 who “stood at the crossroads of fame and famine.”(ABREU, 2003, p. 14) Although in the 20th century they






(6) Large capoeira groups conduct international meets every year, and attract mestres andadepts from many countries. One of these is the Brazilian Association for the Support andDevelopment of the Art of Capoeira, (Abada-Capoeira), an organization that brings togetherover 30,000 capoeiras from 26 countries.

An entirely different set of incentivesbrings large numbers of foreign capoeirasthrough the gates of Brazilian airportsto compete in championships organizedby groups headquartered in Brazil andhaving affi liates in other countries.6

Despite frequently-aired criticisms of thisway of doing things, these championshipshave contributed greatly toward thepopularization of capoeira overseas.

tries.6 Despite frequently-aired criticisms of this way of do-ing things, these championships have contributed greatlytoward the popularization of capoeira overseas.

We should bear in mind that this interest among for-eigners to learn more about capoeira also kindles in themthe desire to get to know Brazil and learn Portuguese.Many mestres and teachers giving classes overseas make

a point of conducting their training in Portuguese to addthe appeal of “tradition.” In their zeal for an identity basedon Afro-Brazilian traditions, many instructors go so far asto ban translations of the names of techniques, song lyr-ics and even the names of capoeira instruments. SpeakingPortuguese at capoeira classes is a requirement that actsas a kind of “seal of approval.” This, surprisingly enough,has opened up unexpected job opportunities. Hunter Col-lege, one of New York’s most traditional schools, now offersregular courses in Portuguese in response to the demandgenerated by capoeira. (NUNES, 2001, p. 3).

By way of contrast we have Mestre João Grande, a for-

mer gas station attendant who settled in New York over 10years ago and was granted a doctorate Honoris Causa fromUpsala College of New Jersey in 1996. He teaches his class-es at an Academy in the West Village in authentic baiano

Portuguese. Then again, many workshops are translatedinto foreign languages (mainly English) right here in Brazil.This is the case with “Capoeirando,” a summer event strate-gically organized by famous mestres near tourist hotspotsin Brazil. It attracts a large number of foreigners in searchof “authentic” Brazilian capoeira.

In this complex give-and-take of globalization, capoeirahas been gaining adherents in the most remote of outerreaches. Movies and the Internet have contributed to this

process. The first of these was The Given Word (O Paga-dor de Promessas), winner of several international awards.But American productions such as Only the Strong Survive

and Roof Tops, really made the difference when it came topopularizing the martial form.

The worldwide expansion of capoeira is most easily seenin the United States and Europe. Aside from isolated at-tempts to “give back” this fighting style in Africa, most effortsare currently targeting the so-called developed countries.

The fact of the matter is that capoeira has conqueredthe world and become one of the most important expo-nents of Brazilian culture abroad; it is exuberant propagan-

da for Brazil. By 2003 there were capoeira schools in all 50states – 15 in New York alone. What is more surprising isthat demand for capoeira lessons stateside is concentratedprimarily in public schools. This martial arts form has estab-lished a reputation for helping to build up self-esteem andtrust in youngsters who have learning disabilities or poor





social skills. It is therefore a “reentry gate” for young peoplevictimized by violence or troubled by drug or alcohol prob-lems. (NUNES, 2001). The movie, Only the Strong Survive,

examines those possibilities.Public schools, however, are not the only venue in which

capoeira has been successful with Americans. It is alsoused as training, to prepare actors and actresses for roles in

action films. That was the case with Halle Berry, who playedthe lead role in Catwoman. The director felt that capoeiramoves were not only impressive, but also had that swing.“Americans are very attracted to capoeira, for it can be [...]a form of personal defense, and also a good workout. It isexotic, and people who practice it convey a certain charm.”(BERGAMO, 2004, p. 58). Other Hollywood movies haveincluded capoeira scenes, among them, Meet the Fockers (2004), Ocean’s Twelve (2004), The Rundown, The Quest,

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Batman.

Video games such as Tekken 3, 4 & 5, Eternal Champi-

ons, Dark Resurrection, Street Fighter III, Fatal Fury, Rage of

the Dragons, World of Warcraft, Bust a Groove, PokémonHitmontop, The Matrix, WWE Smackdown! and Here Comes

the Pain, have also contributed to the popularizing of ca-poeira worldwide.

As a result of this process, certain “colors” held highand stoutly defended in the past, such as oral tradition,improvisation, sly “mandinga” strategies and the culture ofresistance, have all been deemphasized in favor of othercategories more “in tune” with the moment, such as “ethnicmerchandising,” “free-spiritedness,” “working out,” “extrava-ganzas,” and so forth. (VASSALLO, 2003b).

Significant Examples of Capoeira Abroad. Important

research and teaching institutions, especially Colleges ofPhysical Education, see capoeira as an extracurricular activ-ity. There are, at some of them, systematic capoeira pro-grams organized as extension projects, at which Brazilianteachers are hired for a specific period to teach interestedparties. That is the pattern for the Estádio Universitário atthe University of Lisbon, the University of Warsaw, Univer-sity of Oslo, University of Bristol and the Technical Univer-sity of Lisbon.

Capoeira events international in scope are held at manyplaces worldwide. These events allow for quite a bit of in-terchange and give-and-take among the various approach-

es to the presentation of capoeira.Although capoeira experts from Brazil have put on ex-

travaganzas in different parts of Europe since 1951, thesystematic teaching of capoeira in the Old World was firsttaken up in 1971 by the well-known Mestre Nestor Ca-poeira,7 at the London School of Contemporary Dance, inLondon, England.

The capoeira movement in Europe has gained consid-erable momentum over the past 30 years, so that it is nowfairly well-developed. At the outset, however, the most seri-

ous obstacle was lack of information as to what this mixtureof martial dance-fighting was all about.

After having spent 14 years in Portugal, Mestre Umoi re-called that at first he had to conduct classes on the streetsto interest youngsters in capoeira. He told them he wasgoing to teach them to “do some kicks.” He claims he hadto resort to this dodge to get the “wee ones” interested inthese “leg kicks from Brazil.”

When I arrived here, in August of 1990, there

was no capoeira – at least not in the Greater Lis-

bon area, which is where I lived. Nobody knew

what capoeira was, and my whole purpose in

coming over here was to teach capoeira. So I

began by approaching some of the academies

over here and their immediate reaction was totell me they had no use for chicken coops –

and here in Portugal, capoeira means of sort of

chicken coop. That made it a lot harder to get

started working here. (Mestre Umoi, personal

correspondence, June 27, 2003).8

The dedicated work and commitment of manymestres and instructors made it possible to build on theinitiative of Nestor Capoeira, so that this particular stylecould gain traction, diversity, a place in the sun and pres-tige in Old World society.

The traction it gained in Europe came from the fab-ulous cultural heritage that forms the core of its songs,movements and background. These are the features that

A capoeira workshop in Oslo, Norway – 08/16/03 (J.L.C. Falcão)

(7) Nestor Capoeira was a student of Mestre Leopoldina, and a red-rope graduate of GrupoSenzala in 1969. He has written many books and articles on capoeira. He took his master’sand doctorate in Communications and Culture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Heplayed the lead role in the Embrafilme-produced movie titled “Cordão de Ouro,” (now availablein video from Globovídeo). The movie was directed by A. C. Fontoura, in 1978.

(8) This testimonial and others in this article were taken during the author’s Doctoral Internship,in Europe, from April through August of 2003. They were used as source material for writingChapter 4 of the Doctoral thesis titled: O Jogo da Capoeira em Jogo e a Construção da Práxis

Capoeirana (FALCÃO, 2004). .

CapoeiraThe Globalization of Capoeira



Capoeira, true enough, has growntremendously, bringing with it this“stamp” of Brazil inherent in its songsand movements. It is currently a way ofbringing together people from everywhereon Earth, thereby acquiring a supranational

identity.

combine to erect a veritable edifice of Brazilian identityatop a foundation of baiano origins; an edifice somewhatidealized, to the extent that it glosses over cultural andeconomic differences clearly present in Brazil. The factremains that this mobility, this movement of capoeiraexperts – from cities all over Brazil to the Old Worldand North America – helps familiarize people with the

style, the cultural marks of which amount to a stampedimpression of Brazilian national origin. One Norwegianinstructor asserts that: “nowadays, people are quite fa-miliar with what capoeira is, and it is capoeira they want(...). Folks in search of capoeira already have an idea thatit is something Brazilian, and that’s what they’re after!”(Professor Torcha, personal correspndence, Oslo, Nor-way, October 18, 2003).

Capoeira, true enough, has grown tremendously, bring-ing with it this “stamp” of Brazil inherent in its songs andmovements. It is currently a way of bringing together peo-ple from everywhere on Earth, thereby acquiring a suprana-

tional identity. Mestre Umoi also says:

Capoeira is transposing the oceanic barrier that

separates Brazil, Africa, Europe and North Amer-

ica. Capoeira belongs to capoeiristas, and we

have quite a number of good capoeiristas here

in Europe. You’ll find a lot of Germans playing

capoeira Angola as well as – or even better than

– many capoeiristas who have never been out-

side of Salvador, or never left Brazil. So what will

you say to that? Is it because they’re German?

No. It’s because they are capoeiristas. (Mestre

Umoi, personal correspondence, Amsterdam,

August 18, 2003).

Brazilian Capoeira Teachers: Their Experiences

in Europe. Most of the capoeira mestres and instructorsworking in Europe are from the northeastern part of Brazil,especially the cities of Recife and Salvador. But there areother instructors as well, from practically every state inBrazil, teaching this style in the Old World.

Capoeiras from many groups in Brazil have been mov-ing to Paris since the early 1970s. Úrsula, who settledin France over a dozen years ago, claims that when shearrived there, very few people knew about capoeira. Now-

adays, in spite of a few poorly-trained individuals claim-ing to be mestres without having gone to any academy,capoeira is very popular. It is not at all uncommon for“women to outnumber the men in classes.” (CARVALHO,2002, p. 17).

This occupation of teaching capoeira abroad, whichengages many Brazilians with or without proper papers,is very different indeed from conventional employmentwith regular hours – the sort of thing that, until recently,we thought of as working at a job.





Yet these are the very real opportunities that turn up,and young capoeira professionals “fight tooth and nail” forthose positions, regarded as great adventures. Unsteadyas they may seem, these type of job opportunities oftenwork out. They not only provide a livelihood for most ofthese far-flung, expatriate “professionals,” but also help toserve up capoeira seasoned with healthy doses of ran-

domness and improvisation.The struggle to survive and the desire for the recog-

nition to be gained from new experience, those are theprimary reasons so many capoeira instructors leave Brazilfor the uncertain promise of a “good life” abroad. Whatthey often find, however, are scattered and unpredictablework opportunities. They typically work as freelancers, asan alternative way to “make a living.”

The arrival of capoeira instructors in Europe is usuallyfull of surprises. What follows is a statement by MestreMatias, of Minas Gerais, who moved to Switzerland in 1989and currently works in many cities in that country. His ex-

perience echoes that of many other mestres and instruc-tors, outward bound in search of better opportunities.

My arrival in Switzerland was really tough, I

scraped for a living, played berimbau in the

snow, at train stations, you see, because none of

the capoeiristas there would form a street circle.

I went to the street by myself, sometimes play-

ing my berimbau. I would do some leaps, some

nutty stuff, it was also a way of getting myself

free. The berimbau was my companion. It was

a way to escape the anguish, the homesickness,

wishing to be back in Brazil, among my students

and colleagues. That is one cold country. It isa rude awakening when you arrive and don’t

know anyone, not even the language. So I went

through some very tough times, but, thank the

Lord, I overcame all that, and today I’m not going

to tell you I speak perfect German, but I speak

it well enough. (Mestre Matias, personal corre-

spondence, Madrid, Spain, June 29, 2003).

The bottom line is that although desperate situations,and even deportations, are not uncommon, some capoeirateachers perceive a possibility of earning overseas the sta-

tus and recognition they would not easily obtain in Brazil.“I’m a bird,” “nobody can stop me,” “I feel like I’m alreadythere,” were heady sayings, often tossed off in Portugal by astrong-willed teacher from Recife. He has been living a lifeof high adventure, with many ups and downs, often cloudedby uncertainty, but artfully, and with infectious good cheer.

The hurdles in the way of finding a steady job with ben-efits lead many capoeira instructors in Europe – burdenedwith uncomfortable immigrant status – to “get by” workingodd hours at dangerous and dirty jobs until such time as

they are able to obtain legitimate, legal and formal employ-

ment. And so it is, infi

ts and starts, that they work alongtortuous and unpredictable career paths in a struggle forupward mobility and social acceptance.

Their dreams and yearnings constantly entwined withfear and worry, these instructors have been opening upnew horizons in the field of informal education – educationthat is growing ever more popular with society at large, es-pecially among those lacking in purchasing power. MestreUmoi, speaking from experience, brings this home:

The idea of social work is one that stirs me deep-

ly. I’ve always worked on the fringes, around the

borough of Sobradinho, in Brasilia, and it was

no different here. (...) I began as an intern ata reform school in Caxias, off the Cascais Rail-

road Line, a correction center. It is much like a

prison for minors. It was tough work, with lots

of African students and lots of Portuguese stu-

dents – and there were even racial rivalries. I ap-

proached the institution with my proposal for an

internship. Fortunately the director had spent

20 years in Brazil. As a result, she knew about

capoeira and, when she read my proposal, knew

it had nothing to do with chickens or chicken

coops – which was a real good thing. She hired

me as an intern. After the internship I was givena job, and at the close of the classes I was giving,

was hired by the Ministry of Justice, where I work

to this day. (Mestre Umoi, personal communica-

tion, Lisbon, Portugal, June 27, 2003).

We must bear in mind that capoeira instructors who leftBrazil to work in Europe were in a much less uncomfortablesituation than other immigrants, since they were not com-peting with the “natives” for jobs. In the end, they gained

A capoeira roda in a public square - Oslo, Norway – 08/16/03 (J.L.C. Falcão)




“You’ll find a lot of Germans playingcapoeira Angola as well as – or even betterthan – many capoeiristas who have neverbeen outside of Salvador, or never leftBrazil. So what will you say to that? Is itbecause they’re German? No. It’s because

they are capoeiristas.” (Mestre Umoi, personal correspondence, Amsterdam,

August 18, 2003).

prestige and recognition to the extent that they possessedcertain skills, had command of a specialty that was made

in Brazil , which amounted to a seal of approval very muchsought after by young Europeans. These instructors there-fore have “exotic” and “cultural” knowledge, the likes ofwhich, in a way, challenges traditional thinking about enter-ing into a job market – to the extent of redefining the word

job, currently fraught with turbulence and instability.In the struggle for survival, these young instructors put

their improvisational skills to work coming up with atypicalsources of income. Many of them establish intricate mutualsupport networks, through their many contacts acquired atevents, workshops, parties or even paying visits to wheretheir fellow immigrant-capoeiras are performing their own“work.” Groups seen as rivals or competitors in Brazil tendto minimize or work around their rivalries, the better tocope with the travails all immigrants from Brazil must face.

These alternative ways of working with capoeira mayinclude presentations at theaters, putting on workshops at

schools or colleges, or providing guidance to at-risk young-sters. To a capoeira professional in Europe, opportunities towork are often haphazard and fleeting. Occasional sales ofcapoeira gear and supplies help boost the budgets of theseimpecunious pioneers.

Nevertheless, the great majority of these Brazilian in-structors derive a sense of personal worth from workingwith capoeira in foreign countries. After all, these fearlessadventurers are well aware that they are the legitimate pur-veyors of a culture deemed “exotic,” and an endless sourceof fascination to foreigners.

Many of these teachers manage to acquire some se-curity through agreements with established public and pri-

vate sector institutions. One mestre working in Portugalexplained that, during an event in Norway, he felt very ap-preciated as a “capoeira teacher” at a public institution.

Another common thread in the experiences of manyBrazilian capoeiras in Europe has to do with the way these

Street vendor of capoeira, instruments and apparel – Event in Madrid, Spain. June (J.L.C. Falcão)





cultural demonstrations – through their competitive events– bring together people from all social strata under a singleroof. Generally speaking, a mestre or teacher will alternatebetween performing in nice surroundings and doing “socialwork.” During weekends, or at these events, the peoplewho call these various workplaces their own get togetherto enjoy lively capoeira rodas.

Mestre Barão’s capoeira classes take him into starklycontrasting neighborhoods in the City of Porto, in northernPortugal.

I teach in the borough of Lagarteiro, a neighbor-

hood with a lot of problems. It is a tenement

section the people around there call Hell. I also

teach Gypsies in another tenement neighbor-

hood in Porto... it is social work. After I leave

these slums, I go to a gymnasium where only

wealthy businessmen go to train. (Mestre Barão,

personal correspondence, June 8, 2003).

This art of living – oftentimes of surviving as an immi-grant by and for capoeira – doesn’t always lead to successstories. It does, however, call attention to productive teach-ing experiences in the field of informal education, experi-ences that intersect with, and often complement the for-mal education process.

As part of the current of globalization, capoeira, athoroughgoing cultural manifestation, is steadily holdingits own, while mestres and instructors “teach” the “funda-mentals” to people of vastly different cultures and origins,thereby helping to do away with taboos and stereotypesbuilt up during its own historical rise. If capoeira were “Bra-

zilian,” and “in our blood,” how is it taught to people withno Brazilian blood in their veins? Travassos (1999, p. 266)asks: “How could you teach something written in the blood,minds and bodies of some, but not others?”

There are many capoeira adepts in Europe who – be-sides exhaustively dedicating themselves to the style – de-velop an interest in other arts and forms found within Bra-zil’s “cultural holdings,” such as the frevo, samba, maculelêand maracatu, and fall in love with Brazil. This is clear in astatement by an instructor teaching in Lisbon: “Many Euro-peans are more intensely dedicated to capoeira than a lotof Brazilians, and really have Brazil in their hearts.” (Profes-

sor Marco Antônio, personal correspondence, Lisbon, Por-tugal, August 13, 2003).

As countless non-Brazilian instructors complete theirtraining, capoeira encounters and incorporates new ele-ments into its “fundamentals.” In this evolving process,those fundamentals are constantly rewritten in bouts andcompetitions in which economics, culture and subjectivefactors play their parts.

Mestre Borracha, who has been in Europe since 1985,told us in an interview about the first European capoeira

master, Mestre Coruja. After dedicating 20 years to hisart, this Italian mestre completed his training under Mestre

Canela, of Rio de Janeiro’s Grupo Mangagá. This points tothe need to peer deeper into this unfolding context, onethat is sure to contribute immensely toward a rethinking ofthe entire capoeira phenomenon from a broader and sub-tler perspective.

We do know that there’s a certain amount of discount-ing on the part of Brazilian mestres and instructors – andeven practitioners – with regard to non-Brazilian instruc-tors; so these instructors feel a sort of additional responsi-bility to better their grasp of the fundamentals of capoeira.The dilemma is amply illustrated in a statement by an in-structor who teaches at the University of Lisbon’s Collegeof Human Movement:

Simply because I am not Brazilian, I feel I have to

prove something extra. Before they see me prac-

tice or sing, people expect I’m going to swallow all

my vowels, or perform a mediocre capoeira. I’ve

been to many places where they didn’t deign to

introduce me as an instructor, but simply as Ar-

roz Doce, from Portugal. As to the way I stack up

against others, however, I see that once the circle

gets moving, they forget all about that. Brazilian

or European, capoeira is capoeira, and a roda is a

roda. I resonate with it, so to speak, more than a lot

of Brazilians. This is a very important part of my life.(Professor Arroz Doce, personal correspondence,

Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, November 26, 2003).

Our analysis of this intricate and involved movement

toward the globalization of capoeira leads us to jot downthree basic observations: A) Over the past 10 years capoei-ra has solidly established itself and gained visibility and sym-bolism to the point where it is now one of Brazil’s foremostpicture postcards abroad. B) The emotions shared and sig-

A capoeira workshop in Warsaw University, Polond. May 2003 (J.L.C. Falcão)




Capoeira may very well be “our own”Brazilian thing, but to the extent that itcan also be taught, practiced, transmitted,constructed, shared, imparted andmultiplied, it also belongs to the world.

nificance learned through its practice are closely bound upwith the intensity of the practice and the exuberance of theexperience. Capoeira glitters, multifaceted, teaching ethi-

cal, cultural, political, historical and economic aspects of lifein human society. Finally, C) Capoeira is subject to the samesort of division into social strata as a society with its classes,yet expresses itself in many different ways, much like theclasses within the stratified society in which it is practiced.

Closing Remarks. Our survey of the systemic as-pects of capoeira abroad have moved us to reflect on thepossibilities that this symbol of Brazilian-ness – that is en-chanting foreigners in rapidly mounting numbers – opensup for us. It is clear from our observations that capoeira hasconsolidated itself as an trans-ethnic phenomenon. Fur-thermore, its rapid global expansion since the 1970s has

not crowded political actors out of the field of culture, butrather, issued them new challenges.

Much of the experience gained with capoeira overseashas confirmed and even emphasized those transnational fea-tures that so contributed to its development. As a corollary, ithas rattled to their foundations all arguments urging that thisis a practice better suited to certain layers of the populace,and associated with easily identifiable ethnic groups.

The complex and dynamic nature of capoeira revealsitself in its accelerating process of globalization. It is ex-panding horizontally, down the pathways and folkways ofcapoeiras throughout the world, and vertically, through its

demonstrated capacity to permeate different social strata.Although we still hear it repeated that this is somethingof “our own,” which, if true, would make Brazilians the ex-clusive purveyors of its “mandinga,” the experience we’vedocumented here shows that this line of reasoning is mosteasily couched in terms of conflict and ambiguity. Capoeiramay very well be “our own” Brazilian thing, but to the ex-tent that it can also be taught, practiced, transmitted, con-structed, shared, imparted and multiplied, it also belongs tothe world.

Street roda – Carmingnando de Brenta, Italy. July 2003 (J.L.C. Falcão)





Capoeira can be interpreted according to social moresand values. As a social construct, and as a cultural manifes-tation constantly building upon itself, capoeira is influencedby the historical context that surrounds it. Still, it is also builton the interests and actions of the people who make use ofit for doing and getting things done in society.

Although quite a number of its adepts treat capoeira

as an ethnic symbol (capoeira is Brazilian! African! Afro-Brazilian!), its increasing globalization leads us to think of itas something clothed in the cultural heritage of mankind.From that standpoint it would have no country, thoughloaded down with symbols of its unquestionable Brazilianorigins.

Bibliography

ABREU, F. J. O Barracão do Mestre Waldemar . Salvador: Or-

ganização Zarabatana, 2003.

BERGAMO, G. Roda de gringo. Veja. 1839 Ed., Ano 37, No. 5,p. 58, 4 Feb. 2004.

CARVALHO, L. C. Na roda com a mulher. Revista Praticando

Capoeira. São Paulo, Ano II, No. 17, 2002.

FALCAO, J. L. C. O jogo da capoeira em jogo e a construção

da práxis capoeirana. Thesis (Doctorate in Education). Sal-vador, Bahia. Universidade Federal da Bahia. Faculdade deEducação, 2004.

NUNES, V. Capoeira made in NYC. Correio Braziliense. Brasí-lia-DF, Caderno Coisas da Vida, pp. 1 & 3, 13 Mar. 2001.

PIRES, A. L. C. S. A capoeira no jogo das cores: criminalidade,

cultura e racismo na cidade do Rio de Janeiro (1890-1937).Dissertation (Master’s in History). Campinas, São Paulo, In-stituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Departamento deHistória, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 1996.

REGO, W. Capoeira Angola: um ensaio sócio-etnográfico.Salvador: Itapuã, 1968.

SANTANA, J. Velhos mestres. Correio da Bahia. Salvador:Caderno Correio Repórter, pp. 1-7, 15 Apr. 2001.

SOARES, C. E. L. A negregada instituição: os capoeiras no

Rio de Janeiro, 1850-1890. Rio de Janeiro: Secretaria Mu-nicipal de Cultura, 1994.

SOARES, C. E. L. A capoeira escrava e outras tradições re-

beldes no Rio de Janeiro (1808 – 1850). Campinas-SP: Edi-tora da Unicamp, 2001.

TRAVASSOS, S. D. Negros de todas as cores: capoeira e mo-

bilidade social. In: BACELAR, J. & CAROSO, C. (Orgs.). Brasil:um país de negros? Rio de Janeiro: Pallas; Salvador, Bahia:CEAO, pp. 261-271, 1999.

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José Luiz Cirqueira Falcão. Teaches at the Sports Cen-ter, the Federal University of Santa Catarina Ph.D. in Educa-tion, Federal University of Bahia.




Carybé

His given name at birth, in Lanús, Argentina, on Feb-

ruary 7th, 1911, was Hector Julio Páride Bernabó, but he

was known to everyone as Carybé until his passing on

October 2nd , 1997, in Salvador, Bahia. His claim to famewas figurative Brazilian art, especially depicting Bahia,

with its sultry washerwomen, fishermen and capoeiris-

tas, in a style that often bordered on the abstract. Born

in Argentina, having spent his early childhood in Italy,

Carybé moved to Brazil in 1919, and became a resident.

His artistic education he obtained at the National School

of Fine Arts from 1927 to 1929.

He first experienced Bahia in 1938, sent there on as-

signment by the newspaper Prégon to write a story on the

infamous Lampião. After the newspaper went under, he ex-

tended his stay on the northern coast of Brazil, where he

was inspired to produce drawings for hisfirst exhibition inBuenos Aires, in 1939. His ties to Brazil were strengthened

in the 1940s, when he translated Mário de Andrade’s Macu-

naíma into Spanish. By invitation of Secretary of Education

Anísio Teixeira, Carybé moved to Bahia where he helped

bring about a renewal of the visual arts. He was voted

best sketch artist at the III Bienal in São Paulo in 1955, and

in 1961 was given an exclusive room in which to display

his work. Carybé became a naturalized Brazilian in 1957,thereby consolidating his status as a revered symbol of

Bahia. His work, after all, was aimed primarily at depicting

Bahia’s popular culture in all its sumptuousness.

Carybé produced over 5000 pieces – paintings, draw-

ings, sculptures and sketches – including illustrations for

the works of such a famous writers as Jorge Amado, Rubem

Braga, Mário de Andrade and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His

murals, revealing the influence of Picasso and Rivera, grace

the cities of Salvador, London and New York. Foremost

among his prints are Iconografia dos Deuses Africanos no

Candomblé da Bahia, the result of 30 years’ research, As

Sete Portas da Bahia, a collection of drawings of baiano cul-ture, Olha o Boi and Bahia, Boa Terra Bahia, these last two

in partnership with Jorge Amado. This famous baiano writer

and good friend describes in lovely verse the relationship

Carybé had with baiano culture:

“[...] the scenery, the poetryand the mystery of Bahia,ê, ê camarado,whose is it?

It belongs to Carybé,Ê camarado, ê. [...]”







ple closest to Verger during the final years of his life now

figure among its employees, directors and curators.

The Foundation’s primary goals are:• To preserve, disseminate and research the work of its

founder, Pierre Edouard Leopold Verger;• To study and prepare publications relating, in general,

to the mutual influence between Brazil and Africa,and especially between Bahia and the Gulf of Benin;

• To offer opportunities for interdisciplinary coopera-tion in such fields as the arts, anthropology, botany,music and history;

• To function as a center for research and information;• To establish and maintain relations with international

cultural organizations interested in African culture

and the problems which beset the African Diasporainto the New World. Services:• To authorize publication and sales, under copyright, of

photographs by Pierre Verger; and• To make the holdings available to researchers.

Source: Fundação Pierre Vergerhttp://www.pierreverger.org/br/index.htm

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