Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

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Mestre Pastinha and the codification of Angola style
Figure 6.1 Mestre Pastinha in 1965. Drawing by A.Neves e Souza, from…Da minha África e do Brasil que eu vi…
(Luanda: n.p., n.d.). Courtesy of the National Library, Lisbon.
The revaluation of Afro-Bahian culture
Mestre Pastinha’s outstanding contribution to the revitalization of traditional capoeira took place during a
time of wider cultural change in Bahia. The decades following emancipation in Salvador were characterized
by renewed attempts to eradicate the most visible and audible aspects of Afro-Bahian culture from the city
in the name of progress and hygiene (see Chapter 4). Yet despite police repression and measures of
hygienization, Afro-Bahian culture survived in the city. Even if some aspects still had to remain
underground, Salvador certainly was among the cities with the most vibrant African derived culture in the
Americas. During the 1930s the anti-African prejudices of the Bahian elites were openly challenged by the
alliance forged between an avant-garde of left-wing intellectuals such as Jorge Amado, Artur Ramos and
Edison Carneiro, and some of the most prominent leaders of Afro-Bahian religion, such as Martiniano
Bomfim, Eugênia dos Santos (better known as ‘Aninha’, head of the Opô Afonjá shrine) and João da Pedra
Preta (later known as Joãozinho da Goméia, head of the most famous Angola terreiro).
The second Afro-Brazilian Congress, in September 1937 constituted a key event for the public
rehabilitation of African heritage in Bahia. A first congress, organized by Gilberto Freyre in Recife, in
1934, had already succeeded in attracting the attention of the media. This is why Edison Carneiro, Aydano