by E DWA R D L .

B RO U G H LU N A
eluna@ele-mental.org

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,

Traíra and Najé, playing the money game
(Barracão
Barracão do Mestre Waldemar
Waldemar, Bahia, 1954)
dance, street fighting, acrobatics, music, cunning, and playfulness. The practice has been
deeply influenced by the African experience in Brazil, and dates back at least to the 18th-
century 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 history—riddled with complexities and contradictions—is
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 oral—and
bodily—history of capoeira, as learned through the author’s own research and training in the
form.F

AFRICAN O R I G I N S
The likely ancestor of capoeira is a little-known tradition of “dance-fighting” 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,
BANTU but are sometimes referred to as the BangalaF) perform a kind of “challenge dance” called the
REGION 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 reflexes sharp.
Inspired by the the fighting 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-fighting tradition, transplanted to the Americas along with many
other African cultural practices, that became known in Brazil as the jogo de capoeira.F

The n’golo, or dance of the zebras
(Neves e Souza, c. 1960s)
THE BRA Z I L I A N C O N T E X T
Upon the rather uneventful landing of a Portuguese fleet 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
brazil, which would eventually give
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)
Portrait of Salvador
(detail from Rugendas, c. 1820s)
The batuque
(Debret, 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 first, local
peoples were rounded up to work the plantations, but they continuously resisted, fled 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 difficult 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 traffic of human beings. Over the course of four centuries, as many as
5 million Africans were transported to Brazil—nearly 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 difficulty 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 forms—expressed
in food, dress, religious practices, movement forms, words, and attitudes—have survived to
the present day. Of these, a few (including, arguably, dance-fighting) have even been passed on
with little alteration.
At the same time, the African presence in Brazil has been greatly influenced 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 today’s
Angola and the Congo (with a significant 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-fighting 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-fighting and wrestling), and a
complex religion of orixá worship that would become Brazil’s candomblé.
candomblé F
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-fighting practices throughout the Americas, including the ladja and
danmyé of Martinique, the broma of Venezuela, the maní 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 Americas—and even
back to Africa itself—later 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-fighting practices
remain unresolved, it is clear that in today’s 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,

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)
Salvador, Bahia - the former Brazilian capital
(c. 1850s)
throughout the 400-year span of the slavery in Brazil (c. 1550–1888), 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
influences. 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-fighting
traditions under the repressive conditions of slavery in Brazil. A similar process occurred with
the batuque
batuque, a generic name for a variety of competitive African circle dances performed in
Brazil (from which the famous samba later emerged). On the sugar plantations, the batuque
was performed in the slave barracks (or senzalas
senzalas) during rest days or celebration, with long
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-fighting practitioners may have taken advantage of this, hiding their foot-
fighting arts as mere amusements embedded in the competitive atmosphere of the batuquebatuque. In
this context, dance-fighting was likely used as a mock style of combat that could allow slaves
to resolve inter-tribal conflicts 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 humanity—functions that capoeira continues to serve today.
MORE UN R E S O LV E D QU E S T I O N S
Reflecting this image of slaves performing their dances on the senzalas,
senzalas capoeira is often
described in the oral history as a “fight hidden as a dance”—a 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 fights arranged by slave masters to publicly discipline unruly
slaves. Some form of dance-fighting may have also played a part in the runaway slave enclaves
called quilombos (which were modeled after the Angolan military communities, also called
kilombos), and in the numerous slave revolts that rocked Brazil throughout the slavery period.
kilombos
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-fighting 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 difficult to determine. The most popular
suggestion derives it from caâ-puera, a native Amerindian Tupí 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-fighting with cockfighting. A more
recent suggestion is the African Kikongo word kipura (among other Bantu derivatives) which
is likewise associated with the fluttering movements of roosters. Of the three main linguistic
influences on Brazilian Portuguese (native, Portuguese, and African), however, the African
contribution has—like capoeira and its origins in practices like the engolo engolo—been almost
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
The first written citations of capoeira as a movement form occur in the police records and
tourist accounts of Brazil’s 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

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)
poor Europeans) all mingled, the authorities recorded the arrests of hundreds of capoeiras—
capoeiras
capoeira players—who engaged in the bloody “war dance” known as capoeiragem, or the
practice of capoeira. Later, especially in Rio, these streetwise rogues (or malandros
malandros) organized
themselves into vicious gangs (or maltas
maltas) that alternately terrorized and protected communities
and politicians. Many capoeiras also worked seasonally as fishermen, stevedores, and sailors:
occupations with many hours of downtime, during which capoeira came to be known by the
ironic euphemism of vadiação (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 traditions—as 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 candomblé (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 officially 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 figure also arose, even as the real-life counterparts of these fictional
“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 influenced by the new underclass of poor Europeans
(including the notorious Portuguese knife-wielding fadistas),
fadistas F capoeira had also degenerated
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 fighting 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 reconfigured into a dance known as the passo. It was only in
the old colonial capital of Salvador, Bahia (and the surrounding recôncavo 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-fight that
symbolized the subterfuge and resistance necessary for everyday survival, and was also perhaps
the closest living representation of the African dance-fight tradition.

“Eddy Gordo” from Tekken 3 fighting game
(Namco, 1996)
Mestres João Grande, Lua de Bobó
(Capoeira Encounter, Massachusetts, 2002)
Staging the ginga at Mestre Acordeon’s academy
(Berkeley, CA, c, 1999)
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
finally revealed to the world.
Mestre Bimba (c. 1899–1974), originally a much-feared mestre of traditional capoeira,
decided to “clean up” what he saw as a “folkloric” and ineffective fighting form. By the early
30s, he had created his own, stripped-down version of capoeira, initially called luta regional
baiana (or “regional fight of Bahia”) to avoid the illegal word, capoeira. Under the guidance
and influence 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 specific “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 officials of the Getúlio Vargas dictatorship, Bimba’s capoeira
(later known only as regional
regional) came to be seen as a legitimate, and uniquely Brazilian cultural
form worthy of preservation. This also placed it well within the nationalistic propoganda of
Vargas’ Estado Novo, which proposed the rosy but fictitious notion of a raceless, egalitarian
Brazil made up of equal parts European, Indian, and African cultures. Under Bimba, capoeira
regional also became Brazil’s second “national sport” (after football soccer), appealing to lighter-
skinned and middle class Brazilians, and proving itself to be a devastating fighting 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, street-
smart, and playful form deeply connected to Afro-Brazilian culture. To distinguish it from the
growing style of regional
regional, as well as to acknowledge its Bantu origins in practices such as the
engolo, it became better known as capoeira angola. Among its many mestres mestres—such as Daniel
Noronha, Maré, Waldemar, Cobrinha Verde, João de Bodeiro, and Canjiquinha—the gentle
and philosophical Mestre Pastinha (1889–1981) 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 (1916–1990), whose outdoor pavilion
in the neighborhood of Liberdade hosted many legendary capoeira rodas (“circles”), and who
provided the world with its first painted berimbaus.]
THE CON T E M P O R A RY S C E N E
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 Bimba’s
luta regional that was inspired by Rio’s own underground tradition of capoeira, as well as other
martial arts and gymnastic practices. Apart from the influence of some of Mestre Bimba’s most
respected graduates in Bahia, such as Mestres Acordeon, Itapoan, and Dr. Angelo Decânio, the
so-called “Senzala style” (and its offshoots, such as Abadá-Capoeira and Omulu), has remained
the primary force in the modernization, globalization, and homogenization of capoeira.F
 This “contemporary” style, which introduced belt ranking systems and military-style training
methods (echoing the move of Rio’s capoeira from the streets to military academies), is also
the most public “face” of capoeira: as seen in Hollywood films (such as Only the Strong and
ted Ocean’s Twelve
Twelve), commercials, dance performances (such as Jelon Vieira’s famous DanceBrazil),
stre and video game characters (such as Tekken’s “Eddy Gordo”). Some argue that its extreme
a— stylization—emphasizing fast games, fighting techniques, and powerful, airborne acrobatics—
od, has also sacrificed the deeper Afro-Bahian roots of capoeira, where, by contrast, capoeira is still
ver, understood as a playful, ritualistic, and somewhat secretive pastime.
the
Indeed, thanks to the rise of the Grupo Senzala’s competitive style of “demonstration” capoeira,
0 or the older capoeira angola was nearly lost. The closing of Pastinha’s academy in the early 1970s,
eira as well as the informal teaching methods of many of the old mestres themselves—who taught
and only a handful of students at a time, without structured lessons—were also partially to blame.
ary By the early 1980s, however, angola was slowly revived by Pastinha’s students; first, by Mestre
eira
João Pequeno, and later, Mestres João Grande, Boca Rica, Bola Sete, and Curió. Mestre Moraes,
ght
one a follower of the two Joãos, established the Grupo Capoeira Angola Pelourinho (GCAP) in
te” 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
Bahia’s Mestre Neco, Mestre Lua de Bobó, and the author’s own Mestre Caboquinho) have
are followed or revived other traditions of capoeira angola that trace their heritage back to Bahia’s
the
old street rodas
rodas, and far beyond. Even Mestre Bimba’s luta
uta regional baiana has been rescusitated,
the
ted by his son Nenél, who is among the very few to strictly adhere to its original teachings.
nd/
hat CAPOEIR A : A C O N T E S T E D A RT
ars, As this article has already made clear
clear, capoeira has clearly been been adapted to local conditions
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
rd,
mblé network of capoeira academies. The main distinctions between today’s capoeira are between
ble” the more-or-less traditionalist angola, the historical luta regional, and the “contemporary”
ed. hybrid of regional (which has often tried to reintegrate movements from angola angola). There is
ust also choreographed capoeira for show, tournament-style capoeira for sport, and the informal
ally capoeira played on the beaches and streets (capoeira
capoeira da rua
rua); most of which is derived from the
contemporary style. A few individuals, following Bimba’s example, have even created their own
ow style of capoeira (such as Mestre Suassuna’s “capoeira miudinha”).
ttle
of Given that these styles of Brazilian capoeira (not to mention the cognates found elsewhere
a— in the Americas) may all represent a kind of “reframing” or “reactivation” of dance-fighting
ba’s traditions in Africa, practitioners of these styles each tend to view themselves as upholders of
so
an “authentic” tradition, manifested differently. Groups that emphasize the fighting aspect of
the
er,” capoeira may point to the effectiveness of Rio’s maltas or Bimba’s prize-fighting days; Brazilian
nationalists will insist on the form’s 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.
me
of To be sure, the traditions of capoeira have certainly been lost, rediscovered, and reinvented
m of
throughout the years, especially in the 20th century. Only the luta regional of Mestre Bimba—
the first and only style to have split from the traditional capoeira of Bahia—has survived
ion almost exactly as it was created, thanks to its streamlined teaching method, which provided
for followers with a clear template. Since the 1960s, however, the Grupo Senzala’s stylizations of
ros
ros, regional, and later, the bringing of angola into the academic setting have irrevocably changed
regional
ete the practice and appearance of capoeira.
ces

ere
ins
From this point of view, today’s capoeira is quite different
ifferent from the capoeira of say, 50 or
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, unified capoeira (“a capoeira é uma só,” 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 tendencies—which dominate the worldwide practice of capoeira—are based

on assumptions that are refuted by traditionalists. Angoleiros
ngoleiros can point to the continuity of a
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 superficial aspects have evolved and/or changed (such as the more recent
emphasis on the berimbau)
berimbau , angoleiros believe that their tradition represents a core of practices
that has survived for hundreds of years, relatively intact.

Indeed, the passage of secrets in candomblé could be cited as a parallel in this regard, as the
orixá tradition is stronger in Bahia than in Africa itself. And just as candomblé 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
rodas, or physical self-defense, but is really more about the quiet, hidden games
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 Pé 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 difficult to properly execute capoeira movements in the flowing white dresses
of the baianas
baianas). On the other hand, women have always dominated the highest positions as
priestesses in the religion of candomblé
candomblé, and most self-respecting Brazilians make offerings to
the sea goddess Iemanjá, one of the most powerful orixás in the candomblé 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
angoleiras, Mestra Jararaca (graduated by Curió) is the foremost of these, along with
her sister Professora Ritinha (of João Pequeno). In the U.S., angoleiro Mestre Caboquinho
has graduated two contra (or “half ”) mestres
mestres, named Biriba and Rapidinha. In San Francisco,
Mestre Acordeon has graduated the first non-Brazilian mestra, a former modern dancer named
Suelly, while Abadá’s famous Mestre Camisa (formerly of Senzala) has graduated the Brazilian-
born 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
art—is 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 life’s dilemmas and contradictions with a smile on
the face. And so, with this diversity of voices—contemporary, traditional, competitive, and
streetwise—capoeira is poised to survive for centuries to come.

NOTES
-. Robert A. Voeks (1997, p. 8–32) 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 officers was published in 1906.
-. See Nestor Capoeira (2002, pp. 212–219) for an excellent account of the Grupo Senzala, mostly from within.

FURTHER R E A D I N G