Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

238 NOTES
107 Quoted in Abreu, ‘Bimba é bamba’, p. 34.
6
Mestre Pastinha and the codification of Angola style
1 W.Freitas Oliveira and V.da Costa Lima, Cartas de Edison Carneiro a Artur Ramos: de 4 de janeiro de 1936 a 6
de dezembro 1938 (São Paulo: Corrupio, 1987), p. 98.
2 Oliveira and Lima, Cartas, p. 93; A.L.C.Simões Pires, ‘Escritos sobre a cultura afro-brasileira. A formação
histórica da capoeira contemporânea, 1890–1950’ (PhD thesis, UNICAMP, Campinas, 2001), p. 195.
3 Letter of 12.12.1936 to Artur Ramos, in Oliveira and Lima, Cartas, p. 131.
4 See also Pires, ‘Escritos’, pp. 196–7. The newspaper A Tarde claimed in his edition from 23.3.1962 to have
organized a capoeira exhibition for his founder as early as 1927.
5 L.Bradley, Bass Culture. When Reggae Was King (London: Penguin, 2000), p. 65.
6 Correio da Bahia, 15.4.2001, p. 6. There is some confusion regarding the name of Pastinha’s mother. Liberac,
Escritos, p. 158, asserts that her name was Raimunda dos Santos, and reports that M.Alfinete (Gildo Lemos), a
student of M.Pastinha, affirms that the mestre’s real mother was Eugência Maricá de Carvalho.
7 See preface by J.B.Colmenero in M.Pastinha, Capoeira Angola (3rd edn, Salvador: Fundação Cultural do Estado
da Bahia, 1988); Tribuna da Bahia, Salvador, 14.11.1981.
8 K.Shaffer, O Berimbau-de-barriga e seus toques (Funarte, 1977), p. 37. In at least one interview Pastinha
suggested that he learned from several teachers: ‘Mestres I had many, the old Africans that taught me […]’.
O Estado de São Paulo, 16.11.1969.
9 This information is provided by Edward Powe who interviewed M.Pastinha in the 1960s. See Capoeira and
Congo (Madison, WI: Dan Aiki Publications, 2002), p. 30.
10 In an interview Pastinha suggested that Benedito was already ‘over 60’ when he met him, and that he only taught
him for four months. A Tarde, 22.02.1966.
11 Folha da Tarde, 21.8.1959; O Cruzeiro, 4.5.1963; A Tarde, 22.2.1966; Decânio, A herança, p. 45.
12 L.V.de Sousa Reis, O mundo de pernas para o ar. A capoeira no Brasil (São Paulo: Publishers Brasil, 1997),
p. 139.
13 Realidade, February 1967, p. 81.
14 Testimony reproduced on the CD Mestre Pastinha, re-issued by the magazine Praticando Capoeira, n.d., track 5.
15 Idem, tracks 3, 4; see also O Estado de São Paulo, 16.11.1969.
16 M.Bola Sete, A Capoeira Angola na Bahia (2nd edn, Rio de Janeiro: Pallas, 1997), p. 31.
17 See A.Decãnio, A herança de Pastinha. A metafísica da capoeira. Comentários de trechos selecionados do
mestre (Salvador: author’s edition, 1996), p. 44.
18 Reis, O mundo, p. 139; M.Bola Sete, Capoeira, p. 33; Carmen Vasconcelos, ‘Diário de um mestre’, Correio da
Bahia, 1.10.2000, p. 12.
19 Edison Carneiro wrote to Artur Ramos already in 1936: ‘Capoeira, here, is also called capoeira de Angola’
(Oliveira and Lima, Cartas, p. 89).
20 Coutinho, Manuscritos, p. 17; see also Pires, ‘Escritos’, p. 163.
21 Manuscritos e desenhos de Mestre Pastinha (A.Decânio, ed., Salvador, n.d.), pp. 3–4.
22 D.Coutinho, O Abc da Capoeira Angola: os manuscritos do mestre Noronha (Brasília: DEFER, 1993), p. 72.
23 Coutinho, O Abc, p. 32.
24 Interview with João Pequeno, Salvador, 7.2.1995.
25 Pastinha, V.Ferreira, Manuscritos (1996), p. 4b.
26 This was for instance the case of Bimba (Decânio, A herança, p. 45). But even angoleiros such as Cobrinha
Verde claimed they never heard of Pastinha before 1941 and cast doubt on Aberrê being his student. See M.dos
Santos, Capoeira e Mandingas: Cobrinha Verde (Salvador: A Rasteira, 1991), p. 18.
27 Pires, ‘Escritos’, p. 164.
28 Bola Sete, Capoeira Angola, p. 28; A.Félix, Bahia, prá começo de conversa (Salvador: author’s edition, 1982).