Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

BIMBA AND ‘REGIONAL’ STYLE 129
this man. Some mention his extraordinary dexterity, being able to do a somersault from a tenuous onion
box. 20 For a number of years Bimba practised the traditional capoeira or vadiação, and his ability as an
angoleiro has always been recognized, even by those who later criticized the new style he developed. Bimba
claimed to have taught capoeira since 1918 in his neighbourhood, and, according to M.Itapoan, already at this
stage gave his group of about 30 male students the ironic name ‘Club united in trouble’. 21
It seems that Bimba grew increasingly unsatisfied with capoeira as it was usually practised at the time.
For Bimba, exhibitions during Catholic festivals on public squares put too much emphasis on pantomime,
and kicks were not efficient enough to face more serious challengers, especially those trained in the new
martial arts coming from abroad. He despised in particular the practice of picking up a banknote with the
mouth, thrown into the roda by spectators, in the middle of a game. According to his declaration to the
press in 1936, ‘the capoeira de Angola is only suitable for rhythmic demonstrations and not for fight’. He
therefore started to develop a new capoeira style, the famous Regional. At that time he claimed to have
substracted two and added 15 new kicks to the ones commonly used in the existing capoeira of Bahia. 22 In
later interviews he gave more details, explaining that he had used movements from batuque and maculêlê
(see Chapter 2), and some other Afro-Brazilian folguedos, and furthermore from Greco-Roman wrestling,
ju-jitsu, judo and French savate, adding to a total of 52 kicks (golpes). 23
The importance of each contributing art is still a controversial issue. Bimba himself apparently saw no
problem in introducing kicks from any other martial art into his Regional, as long as it was effective and
done within the basic movement of capoeira, the ginga (see Figure 5.1). Initially, as M.Acordeon asserts,
Bimba might have done so to ‘bring the prestige of foreign arts to capoeira in order to attract more
students.’ 24 But nationalists and traditionalists did not fail to stigmatize the introduction of movements from
European or oriental martial arts as a loss of authenticity and proof of Regional’s ‘Westernization’ (in fact
‘Easternization’ would be a more appropriate term). In return, some of Bimba’s students such as Mestre
Itapoan and Jair Moura started to insist more on the paramount contribution of batuque and to de-emphasize
the input of non-Brazilian movements. 25 Since batuque was a ‘sister’ Afro-Bahian expression, its
incorporation into capoeira Regional obviously enjoyed greater legitimacy—within both the nationalist and
Afrocentric discourses—than the introduction of ‘alien’ elements from the ‘West’ or the ‘East’. Itapoan and
Jair Moura questioned whether Bimba had any knowledge at all of ju-jitsu or savate when he developed his
style or claimed he only used some of their attacks to teach his students how to defend themselves. 26 André
Lacé has demonstrated that those arguments are difficult to maintain, given the contrary evidence, and
concludes that they reflect a romanticized view of Regional’s history. 27 The queixada, introduced by Bimba
in his Regional style, corresponds exactly to the movement already described by Burlamaqui, in 1928 (and
which the latter claimed to have invented). Burlamaqui’s influence on Bimba therefore might have been
more important than previously thought. Again, it is clear that the development of Regional was closely
linked to the challenge posed to capoeira by other martial traditions rapidly spreading throughout Brazil.
To prove the superiority of his new style, Bimba started to challenge other fighters, whether practitioners
of capoeira or of other martial arts. He proposed to confront them in a ring, in accordance with the already
established pattern of a match with a judge and a paying audience. Frede Abreu, author of the most
thorough study of the ‘capoeira in the ring’, has identified 13 fights that, with the exception of the first, all
took place in Salvador’s Parque Odeon between October 1935 and December 1936. 28 The first contest
opposed a ‘capoeira champion’ from Rio and a Bahian ju-jitsu student of Gracie. At this stage, Bimba and his
students merely demonstrated their art to the public in a preliminary show. After that contest Bimba went to
a daily newspaper to defy all capoeiristas from Bahia. He mentioned some of the most celebrated fighters
by name, hoping that they would take up his challenge. In February 1936, Bimba faced Henrique Bahia, and