by E DWA R D L . B RO U G H eluna@ele-mental.

org

LU N A

CA P O E I R A

A G A M E - DA N C E - F I G H T F O R L I F E
CAPOEIR A (kah-PWEH-dah) is an Afro-Brazilian art form that combines aspects of ritual,

Trara and Naj, playing the money game (Barraco do Mestre Waldemar, Bahia, 1954) Barraco Waldemar

dance, street ghting, acrobatics, music, cunning, and playfulness. The practice has been deeply inuenced by the African experience in Brazil, and dates back at least to the 18thcentury colonial era, perhaps far earlier. However, because it has largely been passed down from one practitioner to another, few outsiders have had access to the secrets of capoeira until relatively recently. As a result, its historyriddled with complexities and contradictionsis only just beginning to be unraveled. This article should therefore be read as a preliminary, and evolving effort to bring together the hard facts of historical research with the oraland bodilyhistory of capoeira, as learned through the authors own research and training in the form.F
AFRICAN O R I G I N S

BANTU REGION

The likely ancestor of capoeira is a little-known tradition of dance-ghting that is still found in some isolated Bantu-language communities of West Central Africa. In such traditional African societies, it is common for rites of passage, celebrations, and even military training to be weaved into community life through music, storytelling, and movement. In a remote corner of Southwestern Angola, one group of people (who do not have a name for themselves, but are sometimes referred to as the BangalaF) perform a kind of challenge dance called the engolo. Often cited by capoeira practitionersF as the closest cousin to capoeira, the engolo is still performed as part of formal initiation or marriage ceremonies.F It may have also been used in the training of warriors, or as an informal, playful way to keep the reexes sharp. Inspired by the the ghting style of zebras, the engolo (and similar forms throughout the area) consists mostly of kicks, sweeps, and headbutts meant to humiliate, but generally not disable, an opponent. The lack of hand strikes may partially be explained by a proverb in Kikongo (a nearby Congolese language) that says that hands are to build, feet are to destroy.F It is probably this kind of foot-ghting tradition, transplanted to the Americas along with many other African cultural practices, that became known in Brazil as the jogo de capoeira.F
THE BRA Z I L I A N C O N T E X T

The ngolo, or dance of the zebras (Neves e Souza, c. 1960s)

Upon the rather uneventful landing of a Portuguese eet on the Northeast coast of Brazil in 1500, the vast country (equal in size to the lower 48 United States) did not seem to offer the seafarers any obvious riches or civilzations to spoil. The local Tupi peoples, hunter-gatherers who engaged in constant warfare against their neighbors (including ritual cannibalism), did not possess gold or build impressive cities, such as those the Spanish would soon topple in Mexico and Peru. With their encyclopedic knowledge of the land, however, they did help the Portuguese harvest a marketable red dyewood called pau brazil, which would eventually give brazil the country its name. Even so, the Portuguese lacked the resources and desire to colonize the country, so they focused their efforts on continuing their growing monopoly over the African slave trade, and trading routes to the Far East.

Working on the sugar mill (Hercules Florence, Brazil, c. 1830s)

Slave quarters (detail from Rugendas, Brazil, c. 1830s)

With the introduction of other New World goods such as coffee and cocoa into Europe, the need to sweeten these bitter drinks led to an increased demand for sugar. By the mid 1500s, the Portuguese expanded their successful system of sugarcane plantations to Brazil. At rst, local peoples were rounded up to work the plantations, but they continuously resisted, ed to the interior, or succumbed to European diseases for which they had no resistance. As a result, the Portuguese began to depend more on African slaves, who had already proven their endurance under the difcult conditions of sugarcane production elsewhere.F Africans also practiced their own agricultural methods, as well as a complex (but often humane) form of bonded servitude. By the late 1500s, as the demand for sugar (and later, coffee) grew exponentially, the Portuguese, along with other opportunistic Europeans and Africans, had transformed this institution into a gruesome, wholesale trafc of human beings. Over the course of four centuries, as many as 5 million Africans were transported to Brazilnearly 40% of all the Africans taken to the Americas (in contrast, North America received only about 5%).F
AFRICAN S I N B R A Z I L

Under the harsh conditions of the slave ships, nicknamed tumbeiros (or tomb ships), some half of the Africans died on their way to Brazil. Those who survived the middle passage usually found themselves at the coastal slave centers of Pernambuco, Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro, to be processed and sold. While newly arrived Africans may have initially been relieved that the climate and terrain of Brazil was not too unlike their own,F the grueling difculty of slave life soon became an inescapable and hostile reality, making it a major task to keep African traditions and customs intact. Nevertheless, a wide range of African cultural formsexpressed in food, dress, religious practices, movement forms, words, and attitudeshave survived to the present day. Of these, a few (including, arguably, dance-ghting) have even been passed on with little alteration. At the same time, the African presence in Brazil has been greatly inuenced by the historical cycles of the slave trade. Whereas early trading concentrated on the extreme West African coast (in an area called Senegambia), by the 17th and 18th centuries, the majority of Africans that were taken and transported to Brazil came from West Central Africa, from the areas near todays Angola and the Congo (with a signicant population also drawn from Mozambique in East Africa). As the demand for slaves increased, moreover, slave raiding routes began to encroach upon the more isolated territories where dance-ghting was practiced. A last cylce of slaves were drawn primarily from the Yoruban peoples of the Bight of Benin (or present-day Nigeria and Benin), who brought their own martial arts (including stick-ghting and wrestling), and a complex religion of orix worship that would become Brazils candombl.F candombl
Portrait of Salvador (detail from Rugendas, c. 1820s)

It may be that just as certain groups were recognized by the Portuguese for their agricultural or artistic practices, the warriros of the engolo and other related forms were recognized for their athletic prowess. Evidence for the lasting presence of these warriors is implied by the existence of other dance-ghting practices throughout the Americas, including the ladja and danmy of Martinique, the broma of Venezuela, the man of Cuba, and the secretive knocking and kicking of the Southern US (all areas of high Bantu concentration).F Yet it has also been suggested that these forms may have also been spread throughout the Americasand even back to Africa itselflater on, by Brazilian ex-slaves who had bought their own freedom and returned to Africa, or by the surprisingly large numbers of African freemen also traveled widely as mariners throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. While many questions about the age and dissemination of African dance-ghting practices remain unresolved, it is clear that in todays Africa the tradition appears to be dying out, especially in the areas of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which have been ravaged by years of warfare and mass migration. Research is also complicated by the fact that,

The batuque (Debret, Brazil, c. 1830s)

throughout the 400-year span of the slavery in Brazil (c. 15501888), details about African culture were documented in a rather haphazard (and often Eurocentric) manner. The fact that Africans were brought to Brazil from different regions of Africa, at different times, also means that various African customs were undoubtedly creolized with older ones already present in (or adapted to) the Brazilian context, which would also include Amerindian and Portuguese inuences. Because of this complex picture, and the relative scarcity of cultural accounts on Brazilian slavery, it may be impossible to determine how a practice like the engolo became known as capoeira, or if a single moment marks the beginning of capoeira in Brazil. Regardless of this, capoeira could be described as a simple reframing of dance-ghting traditions under the repressive conditions of slavery in Brazil. A similar process occurred with the batuque, a generic name for a variety of competitive African circle dances performed in batuque Brazil (from which the famous samba later emerged). On the sugar plantations, the batuque was performed in the slave barracks (or senzalas) during rest days or celebration, with long senzalas sessions of all-night drumming, chanting, and dancing. Slave owners, eager to ensure the loyalty of their subjects, permitted these mysterious and pagan expressions of African culture to take place. Dance-ghting practitioners may have taken advantage of this, hiding their footghting arts as mere amusements embedded in the competitive atmosphere of the batuque. In batuque this context, dance-ghting was likely used as a mock style of combat that could allow slaves to resolve inter-tribal conicts through a game, while also commenting ironically on the master/slave relationship. This game also temporarily inverted the established order, and allowed Africans to assert their humanityfunctions that capoeira continues to serve today.
MORE UN R E S O LV E D QU E S T I O N S

Zumbi dos Palmares, as depicted in Quilombo (Diegues, 1984)

Jogo de capoeira, ou dance de la guerre (Rugendas, Rio de Janeiro, c. 1820s)

Taking lashes on the pelourinho, or whipping post (Debret, Brazil, c. 1820s)

Reecting this image of slaves performing their dances on the senzalas, capoeira is often senzalas described in the oral history as a ght hidden as a dancea martial art performed right under the noses of the slave owners. Yet the practice was also openly violent at times, and may have been used in prize ghts arranged by slave masters to publicly discipline unruly slaves. Some form of dance-ghting may have also played a part in the runaway slave enclaves called quilombos (which were modeled after the Angolan military communities, also called kilombos kilombos), and in the numerous slave revolts that rocked Brazil throughout the slavery period. Despite the more recent romanticiaztion of these cultures of African resistance (including Zumbi, legendary king of the enormous Quilombo dos Palmares in the 1600s) it is not known if or how dance-ghting was used for military training, or whether it was merely one of many strategies available to rebel communities. The origins of the very word capoeira are likewise difcult to determine. The most popular suggestion derives it from ca-puera, a native Amerindian Tup word that refers to a burnt scrubland where escaped slaves often took refuge. Another possibility is the Portuguese capoeira, meaning chicken cage or coop, connecting dance-ghting with cockghting. A more recent suggestion is the African Kikongo word kipura (among other Bantu derivatives) which is likewise associated with the uttering movements of roosters. Of the three main linguistic inuences on Brazilian Portuguese (native, Portuguese, and African), however, the African contribution haslike capoeira and its origins in practices like the engolobeen almost engolo completely neglected until recently. Further research is therefore likely to enrich this etymology with further African possibilites.
THE URB A N C O N T E X T & R E P R E S S I O N

Salvador, Bahia - the former Brazilian capital (c. 1850s)

The rst written citations of capoeira as a movement form occur in the police records and tourist accounts of Brazils main coastal cities of Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Recife in the early 1800s. On the narrow streets of these heavily urbanized areas, where newly arrived Africans, acculturated Afro-Brazilian creoles, and other mixed-race people (and later, even

poor Europeans) all mingled, the authorities recorded the arrests of hundreds of capoeiras capoeiras capoeira playerswho engaged in the bloody war dance known as capoeiragem, or the practice of capoeira. Later, especially in Rio, these streetwise rogues (or malandros) organized malandros themselves into vicious gangs (or maltas) that alternately terrorized and protected communities maltas and politicians. Many capoeiras also worked seasonally as shermen, stevedores, and sailors: occupations with many hours of downtime, during which capoeira came to be known by the ironic euphemism of vadiao (or doing nothing in particular). As has already been noted, in earlier days of the slave trade, Africans and Afro-Brazilians were often allowed to practice their own traditionsas long as they worked hard and paid their respects to Catholicism. However, by the early 1800s, the increased risk of slave rebellion, as well as a growing (and very racist) perception of African culture as being degraded, led to a harsh persecution of all things African. Capoeira, along with the secretive candombl (to which capoeira is intricately linked), was singled out as a particular threat to the peace, and was punishable by public whipping. When a number of local statutes failed to wipe out the form, capoeiragem was ofcially prohibited nationwide in 1890. Despite its harsh repression, capoeira maintained an uneasy relationship with the state throughout the prohibition period. Sometimes, to avoid punishment, practitioners were drafted to serve in the military. During the war with Paraguay in the 1860s, for example, many capoeiras (many from Bahia) distinguished themselves by their effectiveness as front-line warriors. At other times, the capoeiras were informally enlisted to help put down domestic disturbances. In popular culture, a whole literature romanticizing the dangerous lifestyle of the well-dressed malandro gure also arose, even as the real-life counterparts of these ctional scoundrels were being punished and imprisoned for practicing their art. By the early 1900s, the authorities nearly succeeded in eliminating capoeira altogether. In Rio, where capoeira had been heavily inuenced by the new underclass of poor Europeans (including the notorious Portuguese knife-wielding fadistas),F capoeira had also degenerated fadistas into all-out gang warfare (armed with machetes, razors, and clubs). Such violence gave the authorities an excuse to wipe out the maltas without mercy, and as a result, capoeira carioca was all but lost. It only survived as a streetwise ghting form in a few seedy favelas (shantytowns), and as a martial art taught in a few military academies with no ritual or music.F Meanwhile, in the far northern city of Recife, tough capoeiras such as the famous Nascimento Grande were known as moleques de banda (band brats) who performed, sometimes with colorful umbrellas as part of battling street processions. After the police began to repress these displays, some of its movements were recongured into a dance known as the passo. It was only in the old colonial capital of Salvador, Bahia (and the surrounding recncavo of the Bay of All Saints), that capoeira thrived on its own terms. Taking on the more deliberate appearance of a dance through the use of drums, tambourines, and an ancient Bantu bow instrument called the berimbau, Bahian capoeira managed to survive as a streetwise game-dance-ght that symbolized the subterfuge and resistance necessary for everyday survival, and was also perhaps the closest living representation of the African dance-ght tradition.

Mestre Bimba - showing his meia lua de frente (c. 1950s)

Mestre Pastinha - waiting for the next move (c. 1950s)

Capoeira postcard showing capoeira regional (Salvador, Bahia)

T WO MA S T E R S

Throughout the prohibition period, many informal, streetwise mestres (masters) of capoeira remained active in Bahia. Among these were two remarkable men who fought for the recognition of the form. Both were said to have been taught the tradition by Africans, and it is largely because of their efforts that the secret movements and mythologies of capoeira were nally revealed to the world. Mestre Bimba (c. 18991974), originally a much-feared mestre of traditional capoeira, decided to clean up what he saw as a folkloric and ineffective ghting form. By the early 30s, he had created his own, stripped-down version of capoeira, initially called luta regional baiana (or regional ght of Bahia) to avoid the illegal word, capoeira. Under the guidance and inuence of several of his students (including the doctor and jujitsu enthusiast Cisnando Lima), he eliminated many of the ritual functions of capoeira, brought the practice indoors, and introduced a number of pedagogical innovations: including formalized sequences of movements, uniforms, and specic rites of passage for his students (such as baptisms and graduations). In short, Bimba modernized capoeira. Thanks to his efforts, which included performances for government ofcials of the Getlio Vargas dictatorship, Bimbas capoeira (later known only as regional) came to be seen as a legitimate, and uniquely Brazilian cultural regional form worthy of preservation. This also placed it well within the nationalistic propoganda of Vargas Estado Novo, which proposed the rosy but ctitious notion of a raceless, egalitarian Brazil made up of equal parts European, Indian, and African cultures. Under Bimba, capoeira regional also became Brazils second national sport (after football soccer), appealing to lighterskinned and middle class Brazilians, and proving itself to be a devastating ghting form that could equal (and and often defeat) other martial arts in challenge matches. In the meantime, the traditional capoeira of all other mestres continued as an informal, streetsmart, and playful form deeply connected to Afro-Brazilian culture. To distinguish it from the growing style of regional, as well as to acknowledge its Bantu origins in practices such as the regional engolo, it became better known as capoeira angola. Among its many mestressuch as Daniel mestres Noronha, Mar, Waldemar, Cobrinha Verde, Joo de Bodeiro, and Canjiquinhathe gentle and philosophical Mestre Pastinha (18891981) was the best known. His academy, established in the 1940s as the Centro Esportiva de Capoeira Angola (CECA), was an important focal point for capoeira angola, and Bahian culture in general (world-renowned author Jorge Amado was a frequent visitor). It is largely thanks to the elder Pastinha, and the angoleiros who passed through his doors, that many of the traditions of the form were preserved and passed on. [Another important angoleiro was Mestre Waldemar (19161990), whose outdoor pavilion in the neighborhood of Liberdade hosted many legendary capoeira rodas (circles), and who provided the world with its rst painted berimbaus.]
THE CON T E M P O R A RY S C E N E

Eddy Gordo from Tekken 3 ghting game (Namco, 1996)

Mestres Joo Grande, Lua de Bob (Capoeira Encounter, Massachusetts, 2002)

Staging the ginga at Mestre Acordeons academy (Berkeley, CA, c, 1999)

In Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s, a group of young capoeira enthusiasts (many of them originally from Bahia) formed the Grupo Senzala, creating a highly stylized version of Mestre Bimbas luta regional that was inspired by Rios own underground tradition of capoeira, as well as other martial arts and gymnastic practices. Apart from the inuence of some of Mestre Bimbas most respected graduates in Bahia, such as Mestres Acordeon, Itapoan, and Dr. Angelo Decnio, the so-called Senzala style (and its offshoots, such as Abad-Capoeira and Omulu), has remained the primary force in the modernization, globalization, and homogenization of capoeira.F

ted stre a od, ver, the

This contemporary style, which introduced belt ranking systems and military-style training methods (echoing the move of Rios capoeira from the streets to military academies), is also the most public face of capoeira: as seen in Hollywood lms (such as Only the Strong and Oceans Twelve), commercials, dance performances (such as Jelon Vieiras famous DanceBrazil), Twelve and video game characters (such as Tekkens Eddy Gordo). Some argue that its extreme stylizationemphasizing fast games, ghting techniques, and powerful, airborne acrobatics has also sacriced the deeper Afro-Bahian roots of capoeira, where, by contrast, capoeira is still understood as a playful, ritualistic, and somewhat secretive pastime. Indeed, thanks to the rise of the Grupo Senzalas competitive style of demonstration capoeira, the older capoeira angola was nearly lost. The closing of Pastinhas academy in the early 1970s, as well as the informal teaching methods of many of the old mestres themselveswho taught only a handful of students at a time, without structured lessonswere also partially to blame. By the early 1980s, however, angola was slowly revived by Pastinhas students; rst, by Mestre Joo Pequeno, and later, Mestres Joo Grande, Boca Rica, Bola Sete, and Curi. Mestre Moraes, a follower of the two Joos, established the Grupo Capoeira Angola Pelourinho (GCAP) in 1980, teaching a more stylized and politicized form of capoeira angola that has become a meeting point for black consciousness and activism. At the same time, other mestres (including Bahias Mestre Neco, Mestre Lua de Bob, and the authors own Mestre Caboquinho) have followed or revived other traditions of capoeira angola that trace their heritage back to Bahias old street rodas, and far beyond. Even Mestre Bimbas luta regional baiana has been rescusitated, rodas uta by his son Nenl, who is among the very few to strictly adhere to its original teachings.
CAPOEIR A : A C O N T E S T E D A RT

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As this article has already made clear, capoeira has clearly been been adapted to local conditions clear throughout its history: in the slave quarters, the quilombos (perhaps), the rough favelas of Rio, the colorful parades of Recife, the cobblestone ladeiras of Salvador, and now a worldwide network of capoeira academies. The main distinctions between todays capoeira are between the more-or-less traditionalist angola, the historical luta regional, and the contemporary hybrid of regional (which has often tried to reintegrate movements from angola). There is angola also choreographed capoeira for show, tournament-style capoeira for sport, and the informal capoeira played on the beaches and streets (capoeira da rua); most of which is derived from the capoeira rua contemporary style. A few individuals, following Bimbas example, have even created their own style of capoeira (such as Mestre Suassunas capoeira miudinha). Given that these styles of Brazilian capoeira (not to mention the cognates found elsewhere in the Americas) may all represent a kind of reframing or reactivation of dance-ghting traditions in Africa, practitioners of these styles each tend to view themselves as upholders of an authentic tradition, manifested differently. Groups that emphasize the ghting aspect of capoeira may point to the effectiveness of Rios maltas or Bimbas prize-ghting days; Brazilian nationalists will insist on the forms origin in multicultural Brazil; Afro-centrists will emphasize its African roots; and so on. Capoeira is thus often framed to suit a particular point of view. To be sure, the traditions of capoeira have certainly been lost, rediscovered, and reinvented throughout the years, especially in the 20th century. Only the luta regional of Mestre Bimba the rst and only style to have split from the traditional capoeira of Bahiahas survived almost exactly as it was created, thanks to its streamlined teaching method, which provided followers with a clear template. Since the 1960s, however, the Grupo Senzalas stylizations of regional regional, and later, the bringing of angola into the academic setting have irrevocably changed the practice and appearance of capoeira.

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From this point of view, todays capoeira is quite different from the capoeira of say, 50 or ifferent 200 years ago. Many of the practitioners of the contemporary style of capoeira are keen to emphasize this very point, while centering their teachings on the Brazilian origins and innovations of capoeira rather than their African antecedents. Many contemporary practitioners also speak of a single, unied capoeira (a capoeira uma s, or capoeira is only one), in the belief that the traditional and the modern ought to be brought together into one style. Contemporary practitioners thus often train in both styles, one played low and slow, the other fast and furious, in order to master a complete art. However, these tendencieswhich dominate the worldwide practice of capoeiraare based on assumptions that are refuted by traditionalists. Angoleiros can point to the continuity of a ngoleiros tradition that, in many cases, can be directly traced to Bahia in the late 1800s, and indirectly traced hundreds of years earlier, to the engolo and related traditions. While few would argue that some of its supercial aspects have evolved and/or changed (such as the more recent emphasis on the berimbau), angoleiros believe that their tradition represents a core of practices berimbau that has survived for hundreds of years, relatively intact. Indeed, the passage of secrets in candombl could be cited as a parallel in this regard, as the orix tradition is stronger in Bahia than in Africa itself. And just as candombl has houses that are welcoming to tourists and journalists, capoeira angola has visible aspects open to outsiders, and secret aspects which are only accessible to the initiated. Angola, upheld as a precious, living tradition, can therefore be used for show (just like the contemporary style), unruly street rodas, or physical self-defense, but is really more about the quiet, hidden games rodas of everyday life. Practitioners of the contemporary style who have not given themselves fully to the traditions of capoeira angola therefore often mistake their hybrid capoeira, which often integrates the low and slow movements and rituals of angola, as the best of both worlds, without understanding that they have in fact moved further away from the secretive aspects of capoeira.
THE ROL E O F WO M E N I N C A P O E I R A

Although a few women are mentioned in the laundry lists of old capoeira mestres (including Palmeirona, Maria Cachoeira, and Maria P no MatoF), little is known about the historical role of women in this traditionally male art. The participation of women may have simply been limited by the clearer distinction between gender roles in Brazilian society, or by issues of fashion (as it is difcult to properly execute capoeira movements in the owing white dresses of the baianas). On the other hand, women have always dominated the highest positions as baianas priestesses in the religion of candombl, and most self-respecting Brazilians make offerings to candombl the sea goddess Iemanj, one of the most powerful orixs in the candombl pantheon. Yet even as there remains a stigma against capoeira in Brazilian culture itself, women have recently become more and more involved in the practice (especially outside of Brazil). Several remarkable women have even gained higher titles in both angola and the newer styles. Among Bahian angoleiras, Mestra Jararaca (graduated by Curi) is the foremost of these, along with angoleiras her sister Professora Ritinha (of Joo Pequeno). In the U.S., angoleiro Mestre Caboquinho has graduated two contra (or half ) mestres, named Biriba and Rapidinha. In San Francisco, mestres Mestre Acordeon has graduated the rst non-Brazilian mestra, a former modern dancer named Suelly, while Abads famous Mestre Camisa (formerly of Senzala) has graduated the Brazilianborn mestrandas Edna Lima (New York City) and Cigarra (San Francisco).

CONCLU S I O N

Regardless of its external appearances (such as gender or race), the future practice of capoeira as a cunning game, a ritualized combat, a show for tourists, or a tournament-style martial artis now in the hands of Brazilians and non-Brazilians, traditionalists and modernists, women and men alike. At its best, capoeira will likely remain a deeply ambivalent game that allows its practitioners to play through lifes dilemmas and contradictions with a smile on the face. And so, with this diversity of voicescontemporary, traditional, competitive, and streetwisecapoeira is poised to survive for centuries to come.
NOTES
-. Robert A. Voeks (1997, p. 832) has done a vivid analysis and comparison between the African and Brazilian coastlines. -. Pierre Verger. On the passage of side-hold wrestling to the Americas, see Desch-Obi (2000) -. Of these forms, only ladja has been well documented (Dunham). Desch-Obi (2000) has discussed, but not documented knocking and kicking somewhat thoroughly. The others are either extinct, sketchy, or remain part of folk traditions yet to be researched. -. On the Portuguese contributions to capoeira in the late 1800s, see Soares (1994). -. A manual written anonymously by one of these ofcers was published in 1906. -. See Nestor Capoeira (2002, pp. 212219) for an excellent account of the Grupo Senzala, mostly from within.

FURTHER R E A D I N G