Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

90 CAPOEIRAGEM IN RIO DE JANEIRO
which consequently opposed the maltas. For the Republicans in Rio, therefore, the capoeiras came to
epitomize everything that was rotten in the political system of the Empire: violence, corruption, and
backwardness. Inspired by revolutionary Jacobin fervour, they decided to eradicate this scourge once and for
all. João Baptista Sampaio Ferraz—reputedly a practitioner of the art himself—became the key figure in
this purge. As a public attorney he learned how easy it was for many capoeiras to escape punishment during
the Empire, given their wide spun network of support. Ferraz was appointed police chief of the capital
immediately after the Republican coup of 15 November 1889. With the support of the Ministry of Justice
new, radical measures against the capoeiras were adopted in the city. In just one week, from 12–18 of
December, 111 individuals were arrested for allegedly being capoeiras. During the following months,
hundreds more were detained. The strategy consisted in getting hold of them at home, according to lists
drawn up by the police, rather than wait and capture them in flagrante. A substantial number of the arrested
were deported to the distant Atlantic island Fernando de Noronha. According to a monarchist writer
denouncing the Republican dictatorship, at least 162 individuals were being kept there for being
capoeiras. 104
No doubt only the dictatorial powers of the provisional Republican government, disregarding
fundamental citizen’s rights of trial and habeas corpus, provided Ferraz with the means to cut through the
web of solidarities and stamp out the gangs. By not establishing patron/client relationships with the
Republican party or the Jacobins in the armed forces, the hitherto powerful Guaiamus and Nagoas had
outmanoeuvred themselves, and they were to disappear together with the political structure and parties of
the Empire. 105
The Republican Criminal Code, issued by the Provisional Government in 1890, sought to maintain the
harsh repression against capoeiragem. To provide better means to that end, the code explicitly qualified
capoeira as a crime in its Chapter XIII, dedicated to vagrants and capoeiras. Articles 402–4 threatened with
two to six months of jail anybody found doing
[…] exercises of physical agility and dexterity, known by the denomination capoeiragem, in the
streets and public squares; to run amok, provoking disorder and mayhem, and threatening, frightening
or injuring specific or unspecified individuals. 106
Belonging to a gang was considered an aggravating circumstance; and twice the ordinary penalty was to be
imposed on gang leaders. Foreigners were to be deported once they had served their jail sentence.
For a long time historians have assumed that the end of the famous maltas resulted in the definitive
demise of capoeiragem in the city. As Liberac Pires has shown, however, Cariocan capoeira did survive the
Republican purge, even though weakened. Pires identified 300 court cases of the period 1893–1935 in
which accusations were made on the basis of the infamous articles 402–4, and reckons the list is far from
complete. 107 In most cases, capoeiras seem to have extorted money from merchants, those of Portuguese
origins in particular. The high proportion of acquittals (76 per cent) also suggest that authorities used the
incrimination of capoeiragem as an easy way to bring young, lower class males behind bars. Pires also
discovered evidence for the re-emergence of gangs, headed by individuals such as the famous Bexiga
(‘Smallpox’) or Peixe Frito (‘Fried Fish’). He further suggests that Ferraz’s frantic purge only served to
dismantle the gangs linked to the former imperial parties. But some republican politicians, such as the Baron
of Drumond—the inventor of the most popular illegal gambling, the Jogo do Bicho—mounted new webs of
political patronage using capoeiras. Many capoeiras also became bodyguards of Republican politicians. 108
Yet during the First Republic (1889–1930) capoeira definitively lost the public preeminence it had
enjoyed during the Empire. It seems that the link between the different modalities—from friendly to rough