The history of Capoeira, Brazil's deadly and beautiful dance. (Part 1)

Capoeira is one of the most unique and mysterious physical forms in history, a blend of martial art, acrobatics, and musical dance that transcends even fighting or entertainment. It’s also a cultural portal into Brazil’s past, a historical archive of the dark origins of slavery, and a world ambassador.

The art form Capoeira grew out of the necessity of oppression during the 16^th century in Brazil, South America’s largest country.  At the time, Brazil was a Portuguese colony, providing a robust sugar cane trade for its colonizer. With vast jungle territories and riches to be had, the Portuguese were huge importers of slaves to do the necessary work. In fact, Brazil received 40% of all slaves sent across the Atlantic Ocean, and slavers and plantation owners from the small European country were considered to be the harshest and most brutal in their treatment.

Soon vastly outnumbered by the slave and local populace, the Portuguese viciously cracked down on any seeds of unity or rebellion among their slaves. The West African slaves were outlawed from practicing their cultural practices, rites, and rituals, and of course any military readiness or combat training was strictly forbidden. So the slaves devised an ingenious way to bypass those laws right under the noses of their masters and overseers. They began an elaborate dance that accompanied music that actually disguised their new martial art. What looked like a spirited and acrobatic dance was instead a well-choreographed rehearsal of strikes, kicks, and defensive maneuvers to train the slaves to defend themselves in case of an uprising.

Thanks to the organization, physical training, and spirited recalcitrance that capoeira provided, many of the slaves did violently revolt to overthrow their masters and escape. Groups of escaped slaves would make haste for the lush jungle, and that is where the etymology of the word capoeira was thought to emerge. The literal translation in the Tupis language is ka'a ("jungle") and e pûer ("it was"), referring to the areas of jungle in the interior where fugitive slaves hid.

Soon, whole communities of escaped slaves would form, called Quilombos, sometimes up to 10,000 strong. These communities further practiced capoeira as a means to defend themselves from invading Portuguese armies and bounty hunters – the feared capitães-do-mato on horseback who hunted escaped slaves - this time without having to hide their intentions. They became so strong that the biggest, Palmares with over 10,000 residents and many villages, repelled at least 24 attacks and 18 colonial invasions during the era of slavery.

There are few written records from the time, but some evidence of the prevalence of capoeira, and its condemnation among slavers, does exist. Logs of prisoners at the infamous Calabouço jail between 1857 and 1858 show that of the 288 slaves arrested, 31% were arrested and detained for practicing capoeira, and 10% for running away. In all Rio di Janeiro jails, nearly 10% of prisoners were facing charges involving the banned dance form.

As communities grew to thriving cities during the 18^th centuries, capoeira spread on dual wings – not only as a martial art and method of cultural preservation, but as the sheer musical and dancing entertainment that it originally portrayed to be. For this reason the ruling class didn’t know what to make of capoeira, always perceived as a mysterious and threatening dark art practiced among the poorest of society.

When slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, there were millions of desperately poor, unskilled, and uneducated former slaves with nowhere to go and no possibilities for income. Many of them turned to crime and gangs just to feed themselves and survive, and capoeira experts were hired as thugs or hit men to mob bosses. Their knowledge of Capoeira was an aid to their criminal activity and they commonly added barbers razors or other knives to their war dance, further cementing its reputation as a dark and violent threat to society.

It was officially outlawed by the newly formed Republic of Brazil in 1890, with brutal consequences for those who were caught practicing it, like having their Achilles severed, subjected to torture, and even death.

***

Subscribe to this blog or check back with uTunes.fm for part 2 of this series.