Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

THE CONTEXT OF THE BLACK ATLANTIC 51
and traditions related to capoeira. Desch-Obi attempts to link the twentieth-century customs of a people of
southwestern Angola, commonly referred to as Nyaneka-Nkumbi, to the military culture of the seventeenthcentury
Imbangala groups. For that purpose he renames the former ‘Bangala’, although this can lead to
confusion with the actual Imbangala of Kassanje and will probably raise concerns among anthropologists
and historians of Angola.
The origins of the warrior bands that called themselves Imbangala are uncertain and disputed among
specialists. Described by colonial chroniclers as Jagas (this term refers to the title of their leader and by
extension to the groups) the Imbangala played a crucial role in the wars that devastated Angola in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They took advantage of the growing weakness of the Mani Kongo and
the struggle between the Portuguese and the Ndongo kingdom. The Imbangala systematically raided
surrounding populations and moved on when there was nothing left to loot and for that reason are regarded
as bandits by some historians. 94 Relations with colonizers were ambiguous and sometimes conflictual, but
they often allied with the Portuguese and sold them slaves, or served in their armies. A number of historians
see them therefore as instruments of Portuguese colonialism, rather than heroes of African resistance. 95 The
Imbangala bands lived in military camps known as quilombos. What held a band together was not kinship
relations, but initiatory rituals that allowed the Imbangala to recruit new members from different,
surrounding ethnic groups. Warriors had to abide by rules known as kixila laws, which included symbolic
and possibly concrete forms of cannibalism and infanticide. Desch-Obi points out that the Imbangala did
not have access to superior weapons, but used similar arms as their enemies: bows, knives, swords and war
clubs. The Imbangala’s military success was thus due to their ‘martial culture that included disciplined
military training’ and their adherence to these ‘brutal codes of behaviour’. 96
After having caused destruction some Jaga chiefs eventually settled down and founded states, and the
Imbangala warriors merged with surrounding populations. The most important were the kingdoms of
Kasanje in the east, which played an important role in providing slaves to the Portuguese, and the kingdoms
of Bie, Wambu and Bailundu in the central highlands. Further south the soba Kanina established the
kingdom of Humbe Inene. Although some Imbangala customs were transmitted and eventually survived
into later periods, southwestern Angola underwent many further changes during subsequent times that
resulted in major cultural transformations and a substantial redefinition of existing ethnic groups. During the
so-called Nano Wars in the nineteenth century, for example, the area of Quilengues was frequently
plundered by bandits that stuck to the predatory behaviour of the Jagas. Yet the Nano bandits used firearms,
which undoubtedly contributed to their military superiority over other groups in the area. 97 At least from that
moment on, older fighting techniques and the games that supposedly developed these skills must have lost
their efficacy and attraction.
Desch-Obi ignores all these changes in his overall characterisation of ‘Bangala social systems’ for which
no chronological framework is given. His account relies heavily on the work of Carlos Estermann, an
Alsatian missionary who spent many years in the area and provided the most detailed insights into the
customs of the Nyaneka-Nkumbi group, but only in the 1950s. 98 In what constitutes one of the most
innovative parts of his work, Desch-Obi then describes ‘Engolo in Bangala Society’, which merges the wellknown
account by Neves e Souza with ground-breaking new information gathered during his fieldwork in
Quilengues in the 1990s. He explains that the preliminary open-hand combat game kaneka (which Neves e
Sousa called liveta) still of ten precedes contemporary engolo matches, and that kandeka often uses engolo
songs to urge on its combatants. 99 He explains that kandeka takes place in a circle of boys and adult men,
and that the music consists ‘of a steady clapped rhythm while individual fighters take turns leading call and
response songs’ which ‘serve to encourage the fighters and ridicule those who do not show bravery in
kandeka’.