Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

86 CAPOEIRAGEM IN RIO DE JANEIRO
Guaiamus by the binary opposition of Africans versus creoles. In addition, the idea of an encompassing
African—as opposed to Brazilian—identity does not seem very likely in the face of what we know about
slaves and freed people living in Brazilian cities. As discussed in Chapter 2, slaves rather associated with
neo-colonial nations such as Nagô, Jeje or Angola, than assuming a ‘Pan-African’ identity. 87
Moreover, the composition of the gangs did not follow strict ethnic divisions. Most of them congregated
Africans and creoles, blacks, mestizos and whites, Brazilians and Europeans, although with significant
variations. In 1888, the police arrested 33 members of the gang Cadeira da Senhora (‘the Lady’s Chair’),
based in Campo de Santana. Blacks constituted the majority with 54.5 per cent, followed by mestizos
(pardos, 18 per cent) and whites (12 per cent). The relatively low percentage of whites—if compared to
overall figures of arrested capoeiras in these years—and the absence of any Portuguese can be explained by
the Nagoa affiliation of this gang. But as Soares rightly points out, if creoles were leaders of mainly African
maltas and elderly Africans taught capoeira to younger, lower-class whites, no simple dichotomy can
explain the boundaries between Nagoas and Guaiamus. 88 Even residential patterns were not that clear:
gangs recruited as much as half of their members outside the area they considered their territory.
Soares suggests religion as a further criterion for explaining the difference between Nagoa and Guaiamu.
According to him, the Guaiamus, ‘symbols of a mestizo culture, immersed in the signs of Christian
domination’, frequently adopted names that referred to Catholic traditions. The malta names Três Cachos
(‘Three Bunches’) and Flor da Uva (‘Flower of the Grape’) invoked the grapes associated with Saint Rita;
Ossos (‘Bones’) the bones representing martyrdom on the facade of the Bom Jesus do Calvário church, and
Lança (‘Lance’) almost certainly was an allusion to the weapon used by St George to slay the dragon. True
as this may be, it does not seem on the other side that the Nagoas were exempt from adopting Catholic
symbols. As Thomas Holloway has already argued, the Nagoa gang name the Lady’s Chair almost certainly
referred to St Anne, who is usually depicted seated. 89
If the impact of Catholic symbolism on gang culture is therefore undeniable, we still do not know enough
about the reasons why the encompassing Nagoa and Guaiamus affiliations and identities developed. I would
suggest that the history of confrontations between maltas might as well account for gang identity, but more
research needs to be done on this topic. We do know more on precise gang rituals and actions due to the late
testimonies of Plácido Abreu (1886) and Mello Moraes Filho (1888). A malta counted anything between
half a dozen and a hundred individuals. According to Abreu, himself a practitioner, ‘the parties [gangs] are
organized with a chief, adjutant, sergeants and rank and file soldiers’, suggesting that military principles
also had some influence in gang culture. 90 This should come as no surprise since many capoeiras served as
policemen, National Guards, or soldiers.
Initiation into capoeira started at a very early age. Boys as young as 10 or 12 started to train with more
experienced capoeiras. Among the 33 arrested capoeiras of the Cadeira da Senhora malta referred to
above, 18 per cent were under 15, and almost 60 per cent only between 15 and 20 years old. At the initial
stage boys were referred to as caxinguelés, sarandeje or carrapetas. Their function was to run ahead of the
gang spreading the message of its arrival, provoking its opponents, transmitting messages and carrying out
other services for adult gang members. 91 Capoeiras trained, according to circumstances, both in the open
(streets and squares) and in more discreet locations, such as backyards or the hills surrounding the city. The
Guaiamu, for instance, used to exercise their neophytes by a mango tree on the Livramento hill, whereas the
Nagoas used the Russel beach or the Pinto hill. ‘Training took place regularly on Sunday mornings and
included head [butt] and feet [kick] exercises, razor and knife blows.’ 92
Confrontations between gangs conformed to rituals of challenge that developed among urban, lower-class
males: