Community... the deadly moves of capoeira were hidden in dance and the steady rhythms of the batuk drums. It was born as a hope of survival, giving the means for an escaped slave to survive in a hostile environment, pursued by slave hunters and colonial soldiers.
Capoeira: From lethal combat to cultural heritage By Lena Strang
The word 'capoeira' derives from the African Tupi words ka'a meaning 'jungle' and e pûer signifying 'it was', referring to the low vegetation in the interior of the country where fugitive slaves would hide.
Capoeira in action
“It's the best way to transmit the Portuguese language and cultural heritage throughout the world,” Felisberto Cabral, better known as his capoeira name Mestre Betāo tells me. He is talking about capoeira – an art form that combines fight, dance, music and acrobatic movements. Created almost 500 years ago in Brazil by slaves brought from Africa by the Portuguese conquistadors, it is now practised in all corners of the world. And whether you are in Bristol, Bonn or Beijing, the language used is Portuguese. Betāo, born in Lisbon of Cape Verdean heritage, has been teaching capoeira in the Algarve for over 20 years. We are in the premises of a dance school in Lagos where he teaches students from the age of six to adults. Tall, muscular and lithe, I can tell regular practice has kept him in good shape. He confirms that capoeira is immensely
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popular in Portugal with a following of both young and old. Recently Betāo enthralled audiences in a contemporary dance performance in Lagos. Whenever I have seen it practised in various outdoor venues, I have been impressed by the complex, sometimes gravity-defying movements to captivating music. How on earth are they able to do it? But first I want to find out about the history of capoeira. Betāo is keen to tell the story. “In the 16th century Portugal had colonised Brazil but needed people to work on the sugar cane farms so slaves from Africa, mainly Angola, were brought over,” he explains. “Using traditional music and dance as disguise, they started developing fighting techniques that came in very handy for runaway slaves evading capture.” As learning martial arts openly would result in severe punishment,
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Betāo goes on to tell me about the quilombos, the settlements that emerged in the most inaccessible places to accommodate escaped slaves. One of the biggest ones, Quilombo dos Palmares consisted of several villages and lasted for more than a century. The first King of Palmares named 'Zumbi' achieved mythical status and ensured that the quest for freedom was maintained. Capoeira now developed as unarmed warfare. Holes were often dug in the ground and when soldiers approached on horseback, escaped slaves jumped out to attack; giving sustenance to the legend that Negroes simply appeared from the sky! The technique called 'salto mortal' (mortal jump) is still used today but with less devastating consequences. The resistance was so effective that the provincial governor at the time declared: “It is harder to defeat a quilombo than the Dutch invaders.” There is little doubt that capoeira played its part in the abolition of slavery. In the face of the army’s inability to deal with escapees and the increasing raids by quilombo militias on slave plantations, Princess Isabel of Portugal signed the law abolishing slavery in 1888. The former slaves faced mass unemployment and poverty with little hope