Capoeira History

 

Capoeira’s History is linked with slavery in Brazil.

The first days of Capoeira are mystery and noone can actually tell the exact real story. Others say that it was all brought straight from Africa and some others that it is a mix of different cultures and backgrounds that was afterwards developed during slavery in Brazil. An interesting approach is written by Nestor Capoeira in his book The Little Capoeira Book .

In 1500,the Portuguese arrived in Brazil and local population started to die in captivity. Thus, they imported men and women from Africa, who started arriving first in hundreds and then in thousands. These people, along with their body and physical ability, came along with all the elements of their culture.

Capoeira was practiced during slavery and offered a lot to its practitioners:

  • remained their nationality
  • remained physical ability, becoming good fighters
  • socializing and created groups
  • entertaining themselves

Starting around 1814 and for the same reasons, Capoeira was prohibited as Portuguese started to afraid the power of the mass.

In 1888 the Golden Law was signed and slavery was abolished. Capoeira as an expression, martial art, ritual, dance or whatever described was free. However, Capoeiristas with their physical ability, turned to criminality.

In 1932, Mestre Bimba a strong Capoeira fighter, founded the first ever Capoeira school in Salvador and created the very well known style, CAPOEIRA REGIONAL. His puprose was to structure the mix of elements and provide a systematic training method and promote Capoeira as a sport.

In 1941, Mestre Pastinha opened his Angola school, the until today known style, CAPOEIRA ANGOLA and Capoeira started to be taught openly.

Thus, 2 major Capoeira Schools we born:

Capoeira Angola

determines the style of capoeira based on tradiotion and the way old mestres played capoeira.

Capoeira Regional

determines the style of capoeira based on a structured form, promoting the “sport” element.

Based on these schools, others emerged in the more recent years, that combined elements or improvised and created more up-to-date and fresh styles. The most well known that mixes elements is,

Capoeira Contemporanea

 

Want to learn more? Check more in relevant books below.