Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art and game that includes elements of dance, acrobatics, music, and spirituality.
Capoeira has been practiced among Black Brazilians for centuries; scholars have identified roots in engolo, a traditional Bantu martial art practiced in Angola. Capoeira is first mentioned in an official document in 1789, as a criminal activity. In the 19th century, a street fighting style called capoeira carioca appeared; it was also criminalized. In the early 1930s, Mestre Bimba reformed traditional capoeira and developed the capoeira regional style, which established standardized teaching sequences. The government came to see capoeira as a socially acceptable sport, legalizing it in 1937 and promoting it as part of national culture. In 1941, Mestre Pastinha founded his school where he cultivated the traditional capoeira Angola, distinguishing it from reformed capoeira and the "national sport" approach. Both of these influential teachers came from the Bahia region of Brazil.
In the mid-20th century, capoeira became increasingly recognized outside Brazil. Women, who were previously marginalized in capoeira, began to participate much more often in the culture. Beginning in the 1960s, the Grupo Senzala, from Rio de Janeiro, became increasingly influential, practicing a particularly athleticized version of capoeira. In the late 1970s, trailblazers such as Jelon Vieira and Bira Almeida brought capoeira to the US and Europe, helping the art to become internationally recognized and practiced. In the 1980s, capoeira Angola received greater visibility, and capoeira culture began to place greater explicit emphasis on anti-racism. In 2014, capoeira was granted a special protected status as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. It is practiced all over the world, has appeared in commercial martial arts films, and has influenced the fighting styles of some practitioners of mixed martial arts.
Capoeira is played as a game in a roda, a ceremonial circle, along with musical accompaniment guided by a traditional bow called a berimbau. The fundamental movement of capoeira is the ginga, a rhythmic sidestep. Other moves include kicks, handstrikes, sweeps (rasteira) and cartwheels (aú). It includes acrobatic and complex manoeuvres, often involving hands on the ground and inverted kicks. It emphasizes flowing movements rather than fixed stances. Some practitioners and interpreters understand capoeira in terms of Afro-Brazilian culture or African philosophy.
History
Etymology In police documents, capoeira was known as capoeiragem, with a practitioner being called capoeira. Gradually, the art became known as capoeira, with a practitioner being called a capoeirista. In a narrower sense, capoeiragem meant a set of fighting skills. The term jogo de capoeira (capoeira game) is used to describe the art in the performative context. Although debated, the most widely accepted origin of the word capoeira comes from the Tupi words ka'a ("forest") paũ ("round"), referring to small forested areas in the Brazilian interior where fugitive slaves would hide.
18th century and prior: Origins in Angola and transmission to Brazil Capoeira first appeared among Africans in Brazil during the early colonial period. According to oral traditions preserved by old capoeira mestres and within the capoeira community, the art has historical connections to Angola. Although the exact origins of capoeira remain uncertain, some studies have suggested that engolo was one of the African traditions that may have influenced its development, with the Cunene region identified as one of the areas associated with the practice. Some authors argue that other African and Brazilian practices also contributed to the formation of capoeira, rather than a single ancestral tradition; Assunção identifies moraingy, a fighting style from Madagascar, as a possible precursor. Similarities between engolo and capoeira have been noted in movements such as crescent kicks, push kicks, sweeps, handstands, cartwheels, evasions, and techniques such as meia lua de compasso, scorpion kick, and cartwheel kick, although the extent of a direct historical connection remains debated. Some commentators, practitioners and historians emphasize the African origins of capoeira, while others draw attention to its development in the unique Brazilian context; capoeira did not develop independently in any African diasporic community outside Brazil. Capoeira was first mentioned in a judicial document under the name Capoeiragem in 1789, as "the gravest of crimes".
19th century Slavery was an institution in Brazil for centuries; there was a period of general tolerance of African cultural practices until 1814, but at that time there was a systematic repression of capoeira activities. Slavery was not abolished until 1888. The street capoeira practiced in late 19th-century Rio de Janeiro was often associated with violent confrontations. This street-fighting capoeiragem incorporated different fighting elements, including foot kicks, headbutts, hand blows, knife fighting and stick-fighting. The late 19th century street-fighting capoeiragem was a mixed martial art, combining five main fighting techniques: headbutts, foot kicks, open hand blows, blades, and stick techniques. The straight razor (navalha) was most common capoeira weapon, also used for assassinations. Blade techniques were a natural extension of unarmed capoeira; the razor was seamlessly integrated into the core art by gripping it between the toes, preserving the feet as the primary weapon while adding efficiency with the blade. Headbutts were the capoeiras' primary technique, as per police records. In one case, when a soldier attempted to arrest Celestino, a capoeirista from Salvador, he instead received a headbutt that "caused his death almost instantly". In other case, a police officer in Rio had been murdered with a headbutt, whose upper body "had been flattened as if the implement of death had been a mallet". This historical form of capoeira became known as capoeira carioca, referring to its association with Rio de Janeiro. Capoeira was listed as a crime in the Brazilian penal code of 1890.
1900s and 1910s
Main proponents of the fighting-oriented capoeira of Rio de Janeiro were Mestre Sinhozinho and Mestre Zuma. In this period, capoeiristas usually carried knives and bladed weapons with them, or hid blades in unusual places such as umbrellas or the berimbau (a traditional musical instrument). When street capoeira was illegal in Brazil, capoeiristas and other outlawed groups like female prostitutes, street vendors, and Candomblé priestesses would benefit each other by setting up their rodas (capoeira circles) and stands near each other. The capoeiristas would bring business by buying food from the street vendors, while the women would keep a lookout for police, concealing the weapons of capoeira fighters. Although very few women took part in capoeira in this period, there is documented evidence that a small number of women were trained in it.
In 1909, capoeirista Ciríaco Francisco da Silva defeated Japanese jujutsu fighter Sada Miyako in one of the first documented examples of vale tudo (early mixed martial arts). Besouro Mangangá (1895-1924) was a legendary capoeira fighter of the early 20th century; while there is only one historical record of his existence, his exploits are recounted in various songs and tales, such as his ability to transform into a beetle. The Rio variation of capoeira was repressed and slowly disappeared, leaving Bahia as the center of capoeira practice.
1920s and 1930s Nestor Capoeira argues that capoeira as we know it is concentrated in the Bahia region, because Bahia synthesized capoeira's fighting method with ritual culture; in contrast, the capoeira of Rio de Janeiro was primarily a fighting style. In the 1920s, capoeira in Bahia faced repression from the cavalry squadron of police chief Pedro de Azevedo Gordilho; this led to a more harmless dance version of the art form. Partly as a response to this domestication, capoeira regional began to take form in the 1920s, when Mestre Bimba (1899-1974) met his future student, José Cisnando Lima. Both believed that capoeira was losing its martial side and concluded there was a need to re-strengthen and structure it. Bimba created his sequências de ensino (teaching combinations) and created capoeira's first teaching method. Advised by Cisnando, Bimba decided to call his style Luta Regional Baiana, as capoeira was still illegal at that time.
Almeida contends that modern-day capoeira begins with Mestre Bimba's practice in the early 1930s. State repression of capoeira decreased after the military coup of Gétulio Vargas, who advocated a strategy of cultural populism. Mestre Bimba established a formal school in 1932, when the Bahia local government agreed to allow it; he developed capoeira regional, a reformed style including aspects of batuque, which he learned from his father, and instituting training sequences. There is controversy regarding the question of whether Mestre Bimba also borrowed from non-Brazilian styles, such as jujutsu and boxing. Mestre Bimba took part in many street fights and public matches, sometimes to establish his skills and sometimes for practical reasons; a news report of 1936 recounts that Mestre Bimba applied capoeira to defend himself and a young boy from police. Capoeira regional has a formal means of instruction and emphasizes fighting skills. Training focuses mainly on attack, dodging and counter-attack, giving high importance to precision and discipline. Use of jumps or aerial acrobatics stay to a minimum, since one of its foundations is always keeping at least one hand or foot firmly attached to the ground. Mestre Bimba included in his teachings a curso de especialização or "specialization course", in which the pupils would be taught defenses against knives and guns, as well as the use of bladed weapons. Capoeira was legalized and promoted by the Brazilian state beginning in 1937, and became an official national sport under Vargas' government.
1940s Modern capoeira is strongly associated with Bahia; in this region, there emerged a distinction between two traditions of practice, in the 1940s. Mestre Pastinha (1889-1981) established his capoeira Angola style in 1941, distinguishing it from the "national sport" approach. The ideal of capoeira Angola is to maintain capoeira as close to its roots as possible. While Mestre Bimba considered capoeira to be formed by circumstances in Bahia, Brazil, Mestre Pastinha argued that it was essentially African. Although Mestre Pastinha strove to preserve the original Angolan art, he nevertheless introduced significant changes to capoeira practice of his time. Unlike Mestre Bimba, he forbade weapons; like Mestre Bimba, he moved training away from the street into a school and started to teach women. Capoeira Angola is characterized by strategy, with sneaking movements executed standing or near the floor depending on the situation; it values the traditions of malícia, malandragem and the unpredictability of the original capoeira. The anthropologist Alejandro Frigerio defines capoeira Angola as art, versus capoeira Regional as sport; he identifies defining characteristics as capoeira Angola as cunning, complementarity of the two players" movements, a low game, the absence of violence, beautiful movements (according to a "Black aesthetic"), slow music and the importance of ritual and theatricality. Unlike many other capoeira groups that play barefoot, angoleiros always train with shoes.