Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art

82 CAPOEIRAGEM IN RIO DE JANEIRO
Figure 3.5 Capoeira ginga with sticks ‘A Peneiração’, Revista Kosmos, No. 3 (March 1906). Courtesy of Biblioteca
Nacional, Rio de Janeiro.
Rio possessed these skills. Furthermore, the Portuguese stick is large, usually reaching from the ground to
the armpit, whereas the sticks used by capoeiras were usually much smaller. According to Mello Moraes
they were attached to their wrist by a linen cord and did ‘never exceed fifty centimetres’ (see Figure 3.5). 74
According to other sources, however, capoeiras also used middle-sized clubs of the size of a walking stick,
exactly the format of sticks used for defensive purposes by nineteenth-century European gentlemen (see
Figure 3.6). The size of the weapon obviously determines the techniques that can be used, but many of them
can be applied with sticks of different sizes. Since we have no descriptions of the stick techniques employed
in Rio it is difficult to reach a conclusion regarding their ethnic origins. I believe that the widespread
practice of stick fighting in many African societies and in Portugal reinforced each other and that
techniques from different styles fused. The outcome is nevertheless clear: an urban, creole capoeira in
multi-ethnic Rio de Janeiro.
Figure 3.6 A caricature ridiculing the recruitment of capoeiras into the police force promoted by the Conservative
Party. Note the use of medium-sized sticks as integral part of capoeira outfits. ‘Types of murderers and petty thieves or
the finest of our actual police, chosen among the best of the capangada’. Revista Ilustrada, No. 422 (1885). Courtesy of
Biblioteca National, Rio de Janeiro.