Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

THE CAPOEIRA SCENE IN BAHIA 109
Figure 4.8 Mestre Juvenal defending against a knife attack from a student. Photo by Pierre Verger, 1946–7. By kind
permission of the Pierre Verger Foundation.
games thus provided a framework for the different modalities of play. The Angola rhythm, for instance,
demanded a slow, ritualistic game, whereas the São Bento Grande required a faster and more antagonistic
game. The ‘Apanha laranja no chão, tico-tico’ (‘Pick up the orange from the ground, tico-tico’, also known
as Santa Maria) accompanied a game where capoeiras tried to pick up a banknote thrown into the roda by
the audience, without interrupting play. Games played with weapons (knives or razors) could be
accompanied by the Benguela toque (see Figure 4.8). Although there was a common ground regarding what
was acceptable and what could be considered good play, no strict consistency existed between the different
mestres regarding the modalities of games each of them taught, performed or allowed in the roda under
their supervision.
Mestre Noronha, for example, describes the games that accompanied the seven toques ‘necessary in
Capoeira Angola’ as follows:
• Jogo de Dentro: Game of great observation;
• São Bento Grande: Game to prepare kicks;
• São Bento Pequeno: [Game] to undo these kicks;
• Quebra mi com gente macaco: Game for a balão at the hem of the trouser (‘balão de boca de calça’);
• Samba de Angola: Game for sweeps and knee-kicks;
• Panha laranja no chão tico tico: High and low game;
• Este negro é o cão: Violent game to give and receive [kicks]. 56
Note that his list only partially coincides with contemporary capoeira Angola toques and games. ‘Quebra mi
com gente macaco’ and ‘Este negro é o cão’, for instance, are no longer used (albeit the latter is still an
often sung corrido). The huge range of variations regarding toques and games illustrates not only the
stylistic diversity but more than that a range of modalities of play, whose ultimate meaning was diverse.
Edison Carneiro, perceiving that multiplicity, even thought that they constituted ‘different sorts (especies)