History of Capoeira

Capoeira is often referred to as a Brazilian martial art, but there is no clear answer as to whether it originated in Africa or Brazil. The lack of information is due to the fact that only a few documents from before the 19th century have survived, which mention capoeira.

Undoubtedly, the first event that led to the emergence of capoeira in Brazil was the importation of slaves from Africa. Therefore, the history of capoeira is usually told starting from the year 1500 when the Portuguese led by a conquistador named Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil. They went to India but deviated strongly to the west and ended up in new lands, which Portugal immediately declared colonial claims on. One of the primary tasks of the colonizers was to provide themselves with slave labor. For this, they tried to subjugate the Brazilian Indians. But such an idea turned out to be unsuccessful: local slaves were weak and quickly died or fled to their settlements.

As a result, the Portuguese had to bring slaves from other colonies located in Africa. Slaves brought with them their traditions and culture. This is where disagreements begin regarding the origin of capoeira: did slaves bring it as part of their culture from Africa? Or did capoeira originate in Brazil under the influence of African traditions? There is no clear answer to these questions. But there are several theories, often based not on facts but rather on legends than historical facts.

The most popular theory about the origin of capoeira claims that it originated in the legendary settlement of escaped slaves Quilombo dos Palmares. After the defeat of this settlement by the Portuguese, capoeira continued to develop among slaves. It had to be disguised as a dance to hide its true nature from slave owners. This theory is often criticized because not only capoeira, but also dances (like all manifestations of African culture) were often prohibited and persecuted. Therefore, disguising one forbidden phenomenon under another did not make sense.

The most plausible assumption is that in Brazil there was a synthesis of different types of martial arts, dances, music brought from different regions of Africa. Most likely, this happened in the 19th century in Salvador (the capital of Bahia state).

From 1814, all manifestations of Brazilian culture began to be repressed and persecuted. Before that, there was no clear position on them. Someone prohibited them, someone even encouraged them, because they saw them as a way to reduce internal tension in conditions of slavery or as a way to sow discord between different ethnic groups of Africans.

In 1888, the so-called "documented" stage in the history of capoeira began. In this year, the "Golden Law" was signed, which abolished slavery. Many slaves found themselves on the streets without work or means of survival and were completely unadapted to the new way of life. It is not surprising that many turned to crime. Capoeira became a weapon in the criminal world. The word "capoeirista" was associated with the words "hooligan" and "bandit". Therefore, four years later, in 1892, the first constitution of the Brazilian Republic banned capoeira. The police began to eradicate it. It is believed that in Bahia, where capoeira was more of a ritual dance-fight, it proved to be more viable. However, the ritual should not be understood as a "soft" style. There were also constant fights, knives were used, and there were bloodshed and killings.

Capoeira of that time was very different from today's capoeira. It did not have acrobatics, ground movements, or the familiar kicks used today. Even the berimbau was only used in the 20th century.

In 1930, a military coup took place in Brazil, and a nationalist-minded president, Getulio Vargas, came to power. With his arrival, persecution of capoeira weakened, and capoeiristas no longer had to hide. Moreover, Vargas actively helped develop capoeira as a Brazilian national sport.

As a result, in 1932 in Salvador, Mestre Bimba (real name Manoel dos Reis Machado) opened the first capoeira academy - Centro de Cultura Fisica Regional Baiano. The name of this academy gave rise to the name of the "regional" style. Mestre Bimba was the first to use colored belts to assess students' level. The style he taught was not traditional capoeira. Mestre Bimba slightly changed it, introducing certain borrowings from other martial arts.

The first school of traditional capoeira opened almost ten years later - in 1941, Mestre Pastinha (Vicente Ferreira Pastinha) opened the school "Capoeira Angola". Later, following the name of the school, traditional capoeira began to be called "angola". Mestre Pastinha was the first to introduce a form into capoeira angola. His students wore black pants and yellow shirts.

Mestre Bimba and Mestre Pastinha are key figures in the history of capoeira. It is thanks to them that capoeira became what we know it as today.

Group Senzala's history begins in 1963 in Rio de Janeiro. Paulo, Rafael and Gilberto Flores, three brothers, originally from Bahia (homeland of Capoeira) had moved to Rio de Janeiro. They began to study Capoeira, during their school vacations, back in Salvador, Bahia. They trained with two of the most famous masters that ever lived, namely Master Bimba and Master Pastinha. Capoeira had become an important part of their lives that they began to train on a regular basis. Paulo got in touch with other capoeira teachers in Rio de Janeiro and started to lead weekly training sessions in the terrace of their apartment building located at Laranjeiras neighbourhood, in the city of Rio de Janeiro.In 1963, the first of the now famous masters joined the three brothers in practising Capoeira. That master was Fernando C.C. Albuquerque, who was given the Capoeira name, Gato. Gato became friends with Paulo Flores on his return from Bahia, but did not know of Paulos knowledge of Capoeira. One night, whilst at a party, a fight broke out. Paulo become involved. His antagonist tried to front kick him, Paulo dodged the attack and retaliated with a reverse spinning kick, striking his opponent on the temple, knocking him out. After seeing this display, Gato badgered Paulo to train him, Paulo insisted that he was not a master, or even a teacher, "I am only a student so how can I teach you?". After days of persistent nagging Paulo agreed to show Gato a few of Capoeira's basic techniques. Gato began to train with Paulo, his two brothers, and some other teenagers at the Laranjeiras.

You learn a few moves and then a few more and then try to use what you had just learned, in the roda. Mestre Gato recalls the games he played as very physical and with lots of contact so that you learnt to defend yourself quickly. Soon, another joined the group by the name of Claudio Jose Queiroz, followed by his friends Peixinho and Itamar. Two 8 years boys from favela Santa Marta, used to see and train as well, called Garrincha and Sorriso. After a while Gato brought his younger brother Gil to take part of the sessions. The group was growing. Among the people who joined were, Mosquito, Borracha, Sanfona, Bigode, Jimmy, William and Antero. Gato started to get in touch with other capoeira players in Rio de Janeiro, like Mestre Artur Emidio the main capoeira mestre of Rio de Janeiro at that time. He had some training sessions with some capoeira de Sinhô students and with a formado of Mestre Bimba´s academy called Grande. In 1965 a folk show called Vem Camara performed at Teatro Jovem, Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro. The show was directed by Bira Almeida, called Acordeon, a legend in the world of capoeira and one of the best Mestre Bimba's students at his time. Acordeon brought in his group some extraordinary capoeiras players like Camisa Roxa, Sacy, Cabeludo, and a young formado from Mestre Bimba´s called Preguica. Paulo and Rafael Flores knew Acordeon from their training at Bimba´s academy and brought their friends to see the show and all became astonished with such good capoeira. Later Acordeon visited the terrace and taught some movements to that young capoeira thirsty group. When Acordeon left Rio de Janeiro he lost one of his comrades who decided to stay in Rio, the young Preguica who joined that young group.

In late 1966 the group was asked to leave the apartment building due to the increase in noise generated by the group. They manage to crack one of the walls where bencaos were practised, plus the neighbours couldn't take anymore the noise and shakings on Saturdays evenings... Finding new premises for the group would cost money. The group set about trying to raise funds by performing at shows. Finally, they were able to rent premises for the group, which now consisted of around 15 core members and about 20 people training occasionally. The group moved into the Largo de Machado in 1966. During 1966, whilst at a demonstration at a German Club, the group introduced themselves as Grupo Senzala. The group became known, and with new premises, new people joined. In the late 60's there were very few competitions open to Capoeiristas. In 1964 a tournament called Berimbau de Prata happened at Santa Teresa and few groups took part of it. The Academia Santana, leaded by Mestre Valdo Santana, asked Paulo Flores and Gato to represent the academy and they did. With surprise as young capoeiristas they were they featured the third place after Bonfim and Mestre Artur Emidio groups.

In 1967 another capoeira group competition was organized supported by an entity called Amigos do Folclore (Friends of Folklore), the Berimbau de Ouro. Each group should perform a group demonstration and present a pair of capoeiristas playing during five minutes. The performances were judged by a committee of masters and folklore experts and the pair performance had a bigger weight in the judgement. With the help of other capoeiristas like Tabosa and Fritz, both from Brasilia and friends of Claudio Danadinho, the group entered the competition. On the first attempt at the tournament the team featuring Gato and Preguica won, and did so again the following year, helping establish Group Senzala. On the third attempt Gato and Preguica were stopped from taking part by the event organization. They were told that the competition were not open to the masters, only students. Gato and Preguica protested that they were students, not masters. The association then replied, saying that their record over the past two years has had them recognised as master grades. As Gato and Preguica were unable to enter the Berimbau de Ouro they began to train another team from the Group Senzala to enter into the tournament. This new team featured Mosquito and Barracha, which won; third year in succession. News of this spread throughout Brazilian Capoeira. Many people travelled to see, train and try out this new group of capoeiristas.

Due to the groups growing reputation and memberships they had to relocate again. A student of the group offered the use of a large barn, situated on his property, to the group, which they gratefully accepted and moved into Cosme Velho. During 1968 and 1971 many masters and students travelled to Cosme Veiho and Master Gato recalls it was a "place of great energy".

That location became the meeting point for many years to come where most of that generation of capoeiristas took part in the famous rodas on Saturday evenings. It was there where Senzala group was forged. It was there where new members of the group got their red cords and became part of the group like Baiano Anzol, another formado from Mestre Bimba´s, Lua, from Salvador street capoeira, Nestor Capoeira and Bermuda, both got their capoeira initialization with Mestre Leopoldina, many years before they left the group following their own ways. Capoeira at the early sixties was still quite underground, badly seen by society. In their search the south zone kids had to go to the suburbs where at the rodas they had to prove their selves, earn the respect and after go for a beer. Although tough the Capoeira environment always had a strong sense of friendship. Originally the group trained according to the teaching's of Master Bimba but soon began to incorporate influences from Rio de Janeiro but mainly from Bahia. By this time the group was the premier Capoeira group in Rio de Janeiro and one of the most widely known in the whole of Brazil. In the following years the group grew in size and influenced many other groups in various states. The 12 initial members went in different directions, new mestres were graduated and Capoeira started spreading to the USA and Europe in early eighties.