What is Capoeira?

Capoeira is a holistic and multifaceted contemporary practice with a significant historical, social and political tradition. A simplified description would define Capoeira as fitness training for survival and resistance disguised as a dance. African slaves used it to their advantage. However, the authorities soon realised its potential. Despite many attempts from the Brazilian government to ban, redirect or use it, Capoeira remains today a strong autonomous practice in Brazil and across all continents.

One speaks of Capoeira as a game or a play. It is fun and a way of forgetting the hardship of every day life. Capoeira can be described as a sport. It is an activity that involves physical prowess, dexterity, strategy, patterns, chance and has elements of competition and violence -usually hinted at rather than expressed (Blanchard, 1995). Capoeira is a music that is hypnotic and seductive. It is a song or a lament that spreads knowledge and talks about the heroes and history of Capoeira. Capoeira is also a performance and an art form. It includes elements of theatre and showmanship. It is a display of skills and beauty. It is sensuous. Capoeira is magic, mandingueiro (rote or charner) It is a way of communicating with the dead. It is about seeing the other side of life or looking upside down (Lewis, 1992 and Dossar, 1992). Capoeira is an attitude, a set of values and rituals and a way of life. Capoeira is political. It is a form of protest, a way of defusing or channelling the violence and aggression built up against the colonial master or boss.

Capoeira includes many styles and approaches to the game. However, most capoeiristas acknowledge 2 broad forms of Capoeira: Angola and Regional. Capoeira Angola is thought of as the traditional form of Capoeira. This game is slow and close to the ground. It often requires the players to balance on their hands and head. It is a mischievous and agile game. Capoeira regional is the 'modern' version of Capoeira. It is a game that is high and fast and requires great fitness and strategy. Lewis describes a 3rd form which he calls atual or contemporary or even post-modern. This is a form where players borrow elements from both forms, the traditional and the post-modern (Lewis, 1992).

The game of Capoeira happens to the sound of music in a circle called a Roda. Capoeiristas, musicians and onlookers form a circle around the Roda. Music is crucial to Capoeira as it leads the game. It is played by an orchestra of berimbaus (a metal string attached to a long piece of wood, hit with a stick and stone which resonates through a gourd), pandeiros (tambourine), atabaque (drum) and agogo (cow bell). Two players enter the roda where they interact and improvise with each other according to specific rules and using attacking, defensive and acrobatic moves. They end their game with the entrance of another 1 or 2 players or by order of the master.

The object of the game is for the capoeiristas to use finesse, guile and technique to maneuver one another into a defenseless position rendering them open to a blow, kick or sweep (Dossar, 1992, p. 7).

Capoeira is a group activity. There is a constant exchange or dialogue happening between the 2 players, the musicians and other capoeiristas. The players act according to their chosen style, the music played, the song sang and the support of the crowd. Also, the players in the roda react to each other's game. Other players can comprar (buy) the game, which means enter the roda and replace one of the players and continue the game with the other one. The capoeirista/musician playing the main berimbau or berimbau viola, is usually the master of the game. He plays a toque or style of music which dictates the form of capoeira to be played. The songs energise or moderate the game. They are improvised or traditional. They call on protection, recount stories of capoeira, provide comments on the game or are an outlet for feelings of pain, anger or love. The songs call for a response or chorus and clapping from the other capoeiristas standing or sitting around the roda.

Capoeira requires disciplined training in classes or with peers. It is an experiential and collective learning. It is often said -in songs and capoeira masters memoirs- that to master capoeira is a lifelong learning process through playing the game and dialoguing with other capoeiristas. Capoeiristas learn from their peers. They relate and communicate with each other and share information and tricks. The practice of peer education creates strong ties, develops loyalty to the group and a sense of belonging. Capoeira is unifying. It creates a sense of identity and community.

After your batizado (christening into the world of capoeira) you are continually tested for your knowledge and ability. The learning opportunities in capoeira are numerous. Initially, as a child or beginner, you learn about the moves, rules, music and rituals of the game. You learn to play with economy of movements, in a relaxed and alert state of mind, to prevail strategy above speed and force and finally to disguise your full potential behind playfulness and dance like movements. You learn to flow without resistance and to adapt to your surroundings. You learn to play with or against the other capoeiristas. You learn emotional and physical control (Almeida, 1986). You learn about survival strategies in fight and defence. Later, you learn to be critical about your game, experiment and redefine the boundaries with your peers. You learn about society, history and politics.

Capoeira reclaims an African culture and heritage by relating or embodying episodes of slave history or racial discrimination, as for example through songs of Zumbi the son of the King of Palmares, a quilombo or town built in the forest of northern Brazil by runaway slaves, based on a traditional form of African Bantu kingdom/republic and barter economy, who died fighting the Portuguese soldiers in the late 1600s (Bastide, 1978).

Capoeira works within a state of oppression, which it tries to rectify or readjust through dialogue, group and magical protection, self-development, strength, etc. The knowledge generated comes from within the community of capoeiristas. The game of capoeira is expected to generate resistance and improve the capoeirista's being. This requires a group effort. It is essential that capoeiristas co-operate and interact with each other. Furthermore, there is no capoeira without participation or voice. It is fundamental that people express their opinions in general and be critical of their condition in particular. The roda, which creates a circle of protection, is the place where fear, pain, conflict, violence, and anger are expressed and played out. Capoeira can therefore be seen as a creative group problem-solving technique of the oppressed. This practice is geared towards increasing awareness, and critical thinking amongst a community, with a view to encouraging the formation of a political conscience.

Moreover, Capoeira appeared as a collective and spontaneous response to exclusion and as a way of producing and disseminating knowledge. It is a mean of social interaction, a way for people excluded from the main or official organs of participation to communicate and participate in their own lives. Capoeira has a clear ultimate goal, a common understanding or culture, defined spaces and time of formal education, strong sense of membership and is a great social identifier. Capoeiristas organised and proposed new values and attitudes counter to the hegemony of their time. However, it has no peak body as such. It is made of many groupings that get together when necessary. Still, capoeira is a form of protest. It creates solidarity, complicity and alliances. But also uses consensus and conflict to create learning experiences. It is a socialising and identity forming activity. It is a collective and political activity. Capoeira is a movement of the labour class based on a struggle against the oppressor. Each game is a negotiation of power relations.