Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

104 THE CAPOEIRA SCENE IN BAHIA
sponsored by a wealthier merchant house, and entailed a pilgrimage by water to one of the churches on the
waterfront, such as Bomfim or Monte Serrat. Playing capoeira intermingled with other recreational
activities carried out in a circle (roda) accompanied by Afro-Bahian music and dance: samba, batuque and
bate-coxa. 33
Two events followed in November where capoeira rodas also took place. On 1 November the marketers
of the Largo dos Tamarineiros in the Barra neighbourhood promoted the ‘Festa das Tabaroas’. 34 On the last
or penultimate Sunday of November the port workers celebrated their patron saint Nicodemus in the port
area. 35 The festival of Our Lady of the Conception of the Beach (N.S.da Conceição da Praia), on 8
December, is always remembered as the first major event where capoeiras from all over the city met.
Bomfim in January was the other main event for capoeira rodas. The celebrations were followed by the ‘Fat
Monday’ in the nearby Ribeira, a popular beach resort. It was here, that, according to Mestre Noronha, ‘all
the tough guys of the malandragem of all the neighbourhoods turned up to show their value’. 36 According
to the old mestres, after carnival capoeira became less visible in the city.
Capoeira featured prominently in all festivities, generally on the main square, in front of the church, in
the middle of the other celebrations. Usually one or several older players, recognized as mestres, hold
responsibility for the roda, or circle. These rodas were however open to anybody wanting to play, no special
garment being required. The role of the mestre(s) in charge consisted in assuring the standards (rhythms,
songs, and rituals) and to avoid the game degenerating into an open confrontation.
In neighbourhoods and festivals women were present, although in capoeira only as spectators. Gender
roles were clearly expressed or reinforced in Afro-Bahian manifestations. Capoeira was a male-centred
activity, whilst women dominated candomblé. Only women danced to fall in trance; only men played
capoeira. And both danced together in the samba de roda. 37 As always, there were exceptions to the rule, but
transgressors were subjected to doubts about their sexual orientation. That is why only very few—
exceptional—women played capoeira in early twentieth-century Bahia. Oral history remembers mainly
Palmeirona (or Palmeirão) and Maria Homem. 38 According to M.Pastinha, who liked to tell their exploits
during his own exhibitions, Maria Homem loved to drink at a bar on the Pelourinho Square. On one
occasion, a corporal tried to arrest her with two policemen because of her state of inebriation, but was thrown
to the ground, followed by other officers who tried the same. 39 Palmeirão was another ‘troublemaker’
women, based at the Modêlo Market Hall. M.Pastinha asserted that she clipped her skirt between her legs on
to her belt. After that she was ready to beat up police officers and throw them to the ground with head
butts. 40 The memory of different women using capoeira to challenge police officers seems to have become
somehow blurred, since the same story is also told by M.Canjiquinha for a character called Maria Doze
Homens, which he said defeated twelve police officers at the Baixa dos Sapateiros. 41 Liberac discovered a
court case of a fight between washerwomen in 1900. One was accused of having invaded a shop and stood
up against another woman ‘in gestures of who plays capoeira trying to beat her’. 42
The evidence is thin, but what is striking is that all episodes describe women who knew capoeira as
inevitably masculinized, as indeed the very name of Maria Homem (‘Mary Man’) suggests. They are
remembered as troublemakers, not as skilful players of the game in a roda. The subordinate role male
capoeiras assigned to ‘ordinary’ women is expressed in verses such as ‘She has golden teeth. I ordered her
to put them’. The reinforcement of traditional gender roles through capoeira explains why, later, women had
to struggle hard in order to be fully accepted in the roda.
The available descriptions make clear that capoeira was, above all, a recreational activity. Participants
referred to it as a game (jogo or brincadeira), or even as vagrancy, idleness ( vadiação ). 43 Playing capoeira
was also called vadiar, meaning to roam or to hang around in the streets, or to be idle. Identifying capoeira
with what elites condemned as anti-social behaviour reveals to what extent capoeira was, at its core, a