Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

hamlet Rio Vermelho on 2 February, dedicated to Sant’Ana (or the orixá Iemanjá), the patron saint of
fishermen, represented the last of the major religious festivals. Carnival then closed the annual cycle of
celebrations in the city of Bahia.
In the towns of the Recôncavo the festivals dedicated to patron saints provided a similar framework for
the annual cycle of celebrations for both the slave and the free population. In Santo Amaro in the sugar belt,
for instance, 2 February was dedicated to the town’s patron Our Lady of the Purification which constituted
the culminating point of the nine days of celebrations.
Nineteenth-century capoeira
THE CAPOEIRA SCENE IN BAHIA 97
Figure 4.2 Old African porters at a canto, Bahia. An important, and often-neglected, social context for the development
of modern capoeira. Postcard by an unknown photographer, from Arthur Ramos, O folclore negro do Brasil:
Demopsycholgia e psychanalyse (2nd edn, Rio de Janeiro: Caso do Estudante do Brasil, 1954).
In contrast to Rio de Janeiro, documentary evidence for the practice of capoeira in Bahia during the
Brazilian Empire (1822–1889) is scarce. Prior to the 1860s, only a couple of paintings might have some
connection with the later practice of capoeira. For instance, two early nineteenth-century water colours, of
unknown authorship, offer different views of the city of Salvador, with buildings, and squares featuring
inhabitants pursuing different occupations. Among them some characters, most likely blacks, are
performing movements in the streets. They could be executing a dance but eventually this might also be an
allusion to some more martial game. 8 Yet, in my opinion, these paintings do not allow any further
conclusions regarding the existence of capoeira in Salvador.
A far more significant iconographic source is Rugendas’ engraving of Salvador (see Figure 4.3). The
scene is set in a clearing surrounded by tropical vegetation and palm trees, corresponding precisely to the space
called capoeira in Brazil. Four of the nine characters—all black or mulattos—are performing movements,
three of which can be identified as some kind of martial game or dance. Two are facing each other in what
resembles the ginga (the twentieth-century basic step in capoeira); a third man is assuming a low position,
quite similar to the capoeira defence movement called negativa (‘negation’). The five other characters are
watching, talking to each other or cuddling. As many commentators have noted, the setting corresponds
exactly to what slaves would do when not watched by their master. Furthermore, the association between
martial games and capoeira, in its native Brazilian meaning of a forest clearing, is undeniable. Rugendas,
however, does not make any comment about this scene in the text of his work. In contemporary capoeira