Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

286 Pages·2005·13.3 MB·English

by  Matthias Rohrig Assuncao

Capoeira
First documented among African and Creole slaves in late colonial Brazil, the martial art capoeira spread,
despite periodic clampdowns by the police, to the free underclasses of Brazilian cities throughout the
nineteenth century. Capoeira is now a mainstream sport, taught in Brazilian fitness centres, schools and
universities, and practised by a range of people of different age, class, gender and ethnicity around the
world. Some practitioners now even seek Olympic recognition for capoeira.
The change in meaning and purposes of capoeira has led to conflicts between traditionalists, for whom
capoeira is part of an African cultural heritage, and reformers, who wish to see capoeira develop as an
international sport. There is consensus, however, that capoeira is a weapon to be used against social
injustice and racial exclusion.
Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art explores capoeira as a field of confrontation
where different struggles that divide Brazilian society are played out. It contains a first English language
scholarly account of capoeira’s early history and development to the present day.
Matthias Röhrig Assunção is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of History and the Centre for Latin
American Studies, University of Essex, England. His previous publications deal with slavery in Maranhão
(Northern Brazil), popular culture and the political history of the Brazilian Empire.
Sport in the global society
General Editor: J.A.Mangan
The interest in sports studies around the world is growing and will continue to do so. This unique series
combines aspects of the expanding study of sport in the global society, providing comprehensiveness and
comparison under one editorial umbrella. It is particularly timely, with studies in the cultural, economic,
ethnographic, geographical, political, social, anthropological, sociological and aesthetic elements of sport
proliferating in institutions of higher education.
Eric Hobsbawm once called sport one of the most significant practices of the late nineteenth century. Its
significance was even more marked in the late twentieth century and will continue to grow in importance
into the new millennium as the world develops into a ‘global village’ sharing the English language,
technology and sport.
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Edited by Stephen Wagg
Football, Europe and the Press
Liz Crolley and David Hand
The Future of Football
Challenges for the twenty-first century
Edited by Jon Garland, Dominic Malcolm and Michael Rowe
Football Culture
Local contests, global visions
Edited by Gerry P.T.Finn and Richard Giulianotti
France and the 1998 World Cup
The national impact of a world sporting event
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Arthur Wharton 1865–1930: An absence of memory
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Scoring for Britain
International football and international politics, 1900–1939
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Women, Sport and Society in Modern China
Holding up more than half the sky
Dong Jinxia
Sport in Latin American Society
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Edited by J.A.Mangan and Lamartine P.DaCosta
iii
Sport in Australasian Society
Past and present
Edited by J.A.Mangan and John Nauright
Sporting Nationalisms
Identity, Ethnicity, Immigration and Assimilation
Edited by Mike Cronin and David Mayall
The Commercialization of Sport
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Shaping the Superman
Fascist body as political icon: Aryan fascism
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Superman Supreme
Fascist body as political icon: Global fascism
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Making the Rugby World
Race, gender, commerce
Edited by Timothy J.L.Chandler and John Nauright
Rugby’s Great Split
Class, Culture and the Origins of Rugby League Football
Tony Collins
The Race Game
Sport and politics in South Africa
Douglas Booth
Cricket and England
A cultural and social history of the inter-war years
Jack Williams
The Games Ethic and Imperialism
Aspects of the diffusion of an ideal
J.A.Mangan

Capoeira
The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art
Matthias Röhrig Assunção
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2005 by Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Taylor & Francis Inc
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
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go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2005 Matthias Röhrig Assunção
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the
accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal
responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the advice and information in this book is
true and accurate at the time of going to press. However, neither the publisher nor the
authors can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that
may be made. In the case of drug administration, any medical procedure or the use of
technical equipment mentioned within this book, you are strongly advised to consult
the manufacturer’s guidelines.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-49476-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-58260-8 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-714-65031-5 (hbk)
ISBN 0-714-68086-9 (pbk)
Contents
List of illustrations ix
Series editor’s foreword xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
1 The competing master narratives of capoeira history 5
Myths, fakes and facts 5
‘Extirpate the canker’: Eurocentric repression 9
In search of the ‘Brazilian race’: nationalism I 11
The search for a Brazilian gymnastics: nationalism II 14
The search for purity and survivals: ethnic perspectives 20
From ‘survivals’ to ‘extensions’: Afrocentric narratives 22
Regional, corporate and class discourses 27
2 Capoeira in the context of the Black Atlantic 31
African, slave and popular culture 31
Slave culture in Brazil 37
Combat games of the Black Atlantic 44
3 Capoeiragem in Rio de Janeiro, c.1800–1930 67
Rio, capital of a plantation empire 67
Slave capoeira, 1808–1850 71
The broadening of the social base, 1850–1890 79
Nagoas and Guaiamus: the capoeira gangs 83
The republican purge 89
4 Workers, vagrants and tough guys in Bahia, c.1860–1950 93
Imperial Bahia 93
viii
‘Vagrancy’ in Bahia, c.1890–1950 102
Capoeira as a weapon: troublemakers and tough guys 115
Conclusion 122
5 Mestre Bimba and the development of ‘Regional’ style 125
Martial arts and modernity 125
Mestre Bimba and capoeira in the ring 128
New movements and teaching methods 131
New rituals and a new constituency 134
The meaning of regional style 140
6 Mestre Pastinha and the codification of Angola style 147
The revaluation of Afro-Bahian culture 147
Vicente Ferreira Pastiña: his early life till 1941 149
The foundation of the Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola—CECA, 1940s–1950s 151
The codification of Angola style: Pastinha’s teachings 152
The struggle to establish the Angola style 158
The last years 163
Conclusion 163
7 Contemporary capoeira, 1950–2004 167
From regional to national: the spread throughout Brazil, 1950s–1970s 167
The rebirth of Angola 182
‘Go around the world!’ The globalization of capoeira, 1970s–1990s 185
Contemporary styles 192
Conclusion: the contemporary meanings of capoeira 205
Glossary 211
Notes 215
Bibliography 247
Index 259
Illustrations
1.1 A mulatto capoeira 17
2.1 African martial dance and instruments 40
2.2 An old African playing a berimbau 40
2.3 N’golo 48
2.4 Liveta, preliminary phase of n’golo 49
2.5 An Angolan berimbau player 50
2.6 Stick fighting in Dominica 58
2.7 Head-butt combat in Venezuela 61
3.1 ‘Jogar capoëra ou danse de la guerre’ 73
3.2 ‘Negros fighting, Brazil’ 74
3.3 ‘Negroes which will be flogged’ 74
3.4 Central section of Rio de Janeiro, c.1850 76
3.5 Capoeira ginga with sticks 82
3.6 Caricature of capoeiras recruited into the police force 82
3.7 Open-handed blow and a razor attack; kick to the chest; head butt 83
3.8 A Nagoa and a Guaiamú in typical outfits 85
3.9 Sweeping kick (‘Rasteira’) 88
4.1 Townships and parishes in the Bahian Recôncavo in the mid-nineteenth century 95
4.2 Old African porters at a canto, Bahia 97
4.3 Combat games in Salvador, Bahia 98
4.4 Jogo de dentro in the port area of Salvador 103
4.5 City centre of Salvador, 1894 105
4.6 Capoeira rodas in a neighbourhood, Salvador 105
4.7 Capoeira roda in the port area of Salvador 107
4.8 Mestre Juvenal defending against a knife attack from a student 109
4.9 Chamadas: Mestre Juvenal with students in the port area 112
4.10 Mestre Caiçara was one of the last capoeira ‘troublemakers’ in Bahia 121
5.1 Ginga as taught by Mestre Bimba 130
5.2 Acrobatic movements of capoeira Regional 132
5.3 Sequences of capoeira Regional movements 133
5.4 Mestre Bimba with two friends 137
5.5 M.Bimba teaching at the Forte do Barbalho, c.1938. 139
5.6 Mestre Bimba performing the ginga 145
6.1 Mestre Pastinha in 1965 147
6.2 Mestre Pastinha playing berimbau 149
6.3 Mestre Pastinha practising capoeira 151
6.4 Bateria de Capoeira in Pastinha’s academy 158