CAPOEIRA HISTORY
カポエィラの歴史
A Body Culture of History and Resistance
Capoeira is not simply a culture that was “born” in Brazil.
It is the living result of countless African peoples who were brought to the continent — their cultures, dances, rituals, and embodied techniques blending, transforming, and surviving on Brazilian soil.
From the 16th century to the late 19th century, an estimated ten million Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic through the Portuguese slave trade. Under a colonial economy sustained by sugar, mining, and coffee production, they endured brutal labor, violence, and the systematic denial of their human dignity.
Yet what was inscribed in their bodies could not be taken away.
People of different ethnic backgrounds encountered one another across Brazil. Their dances, combat techniques, rhythms, and worldviews intersected and were reshaped. Capoeira emerged through this process of mixture and re-creation. It was not so much newly invented as it was the continuation of interrupted cultural memory, transformed in order to endure.
In a society where weapons were forbidden and surveillance was constant, people disguised their practice as “dance,” refining it as a method of self-defense and resistance. Capoeira became a bodily and cultural form of resistance against domination.
In its songs dwell the memories of ancestors; in its rhythms lives an African sense of time. The roda is not merely a circle — it is a space where fragmented people restore community.
Capoeira does not begin Black history with slavery. It remains connected to African civilizations and spiritual traditions that existed long before. It is a culture that mourns what was taken, and at the same time affirms what could never be taken.
The soul of Capoeira is the embodied memory of those who refused to surrender freedom.
And it remains, even today, an ongoing practice of cultural survival and resistance.
Fighting Black Men (1820–1824) / Negros lutando, Brasis: Augustus Earle
Roda de Capoeira: Johann Moritz Rugendas (1835)
Prohibition, Reorganization, and Continuity
In 1888, slavery was abolished in Brazil. However, just two years later, in 1890, Capoeira was criminalized under the new penal code, and its practice in public spaces was prohibited. In effect, this policy also targeted the dances, music, and religious practices of Afro-Brazilians. Even after emancipation, Black culture remained subject to repression.
A turning point came in the 1930s. Mestre Bimba systematized the practice in Bahia and created Luta Regional Baiana. Through this process, Capoeira was reorganized into a structured format and introduced to elite and white sectors of society. This is considered the origin of what is now known as Capoeira Regional.
In 1937, Capoeira was officially removed from the list of prohibited practices. It gradually came to be recognized as a Brazilian cultural expression, a national folk tradition, and eventually also as a sport and martial art. Standardized styles spread to major urban centers, including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, particularly between the 1950s and 1970s.
At the same time, in order to distinguish the older traditional practices — especially those maintained in Bahia — from the modernized and sport-oriented forms, the name “Angola” came to be used.
The symbolic figure who laid the foundations for the preservation and philosophical grounding of Capoeira Angola was Mestre Pastinha. Often referred to as the “father of Capoeira Angola,” he systematized and transmitted its philosophy, ethics, and understanding of the body. His teachings continue to be passed down by many mestres and groups today.
Our group, “Nzinga,” belongs to the Pastinha lineage of Capoeira Angola and continues to practice while honoring and preserving his teachings.
Of course, Angola encompasses many other lineages and mestres as well. Within each community, distinct traditions are maintained and transmitted to the next generation. It is precisely this diversity of continuity that expresses the richness of Capoeira.
Filme: Dança de Guerra / Jair Moura
Jogo de João Pequeno e João Grande. Mestre Noronha e Maré cantam. (1968)
National Expansion and Internationalization
After the prohibition was lifted in 1937, Capoeira rapidly spread throughout Brazil. In major cities such as São Paulo
and Rio de Janeiro, many groups were founded between the 1950s and 1970s, and Capoeira became firmly rooted as part of urban culture.
Within the framework of national cultural policies, Capoeira gradually came to be positioned as a “traditional Brazilian culture” and a “national symbol.” What had once been a prohibited Black bodily practice was redefined as a cultural expression representing the identity of the nation.
From the 1980s onward, Capoeira expanded beyond Brazil through mestres who emigrated abroad and practitioners from other countries who traveled to Brazil to learn. It spread to Europe, North America, and Asia, and today groups exist around the world, practicing within diverse languages and cultural contexts.
In 2014, the UNESCO inscribed the Roda de Capoeira on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, recognizing Capoeira’s cultural value not only within Brazil but globally.
However, this internationalization is not merely the spread of a sport. As a culture shaped by the history of diaspora, Capoeira continues to carry the memory of ancestors and the spirit of resistance. When people from different countries and cultures gather around the roda, it is also an act of sharing history and creating dialogue.
Thus, while Capoeira has expanded from Africa to Brazil and from Brazil to the world, it continues to inherit at its core the embodied memory of dignity and the pursuit of freedom.