In Brazil, hundreds of years ago, African slaves fighting against oppression developed a new kind of martial art capoeira (sometimes misspelled capoeria). Today, capoeira’s legacy can be found across the globe and in many nations. Capoeira’s oral history tells of the years of persecution and hard work that made the art what it is today. Anyone wishing to study capoeira needs to first learn about into its rich historical foundation.

Portugal shipped thousands of African slaves into their colony from the 16th to the 19th centuries. In fact, Brazil was the most common destination for slaves being shipped across the Atlantic ocean . The Portuguese sought to further oppress the slaves’ culture and spirit which gave rise to the birth capoeira. This fight-dance style gave slaves a perfect opportunity to practice their resistance in secret while preserving their culture. After slavery was finally abolished, the freed slaves moved into Brazilian cities only to find there was no available work. This extremely high poverty level drove many of the capoeiristas to join or form street gangs. Capoeira was then associated with criminal activity which led to an attempt from the government to destroy anything about it. In 1890, the martial art was outlawed in Brazil. Persecution became so severe that renegade capoeiristas would have their Achilles tendon cut as punishment. It was at this time that apelidos (nicknames) came into use. They prevented police from learning people’s true identities. To this day, when anyone is baptized into Capoeira at the batizado ceremony, they are often given an apelido. By 1918, persecution of the art had died out.

Today, capoeira is divided into two styles, Capoeira Angola and Capoeira Regional. They can be traced back to two mestres (masters), Mestre Pastinha and Mestre Bimba, respectively. In 1937,Mestre Bimba made the art a national sport when he was allowed to open the first capoeira school in Brazil. Mestre Pastinha followed suit in 1942 by opening the first capoeira Angola school. His students even wore black pants and yellow t-shirts after Mestre Pastinha’s favorite soccer team, and to this day many practitioners of Angola still wear that color combination. From these humble beginnings, capoeira has grown in popularity and practitioners around the world. This martial art born in the underground has grown into the mainstream and can be seen from Hollywood to local schools.