Mestre Val Boa Morte

Name: Edval Higino Boa Morte Santos

Capoeira Name: Val Boa Morte

Date of birth: 11 January 1967

Place of birth: Liberdade, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

“How a poor child from the suburb of Liberdade conquered Australia”

He took his first steps into Capoeira at the tender age of 11, after seeing a Capoeira Roda in Salvador City Park. He start practicing in the street he lived in with a group of friends and later started teaching his two younger brothers Nei and Jorginho. Mestre Val had a humble upbringing with his 10 brothers and sisters and out of the seven siblings who practiced Capoeira, only 4 continued.

Out of necessity to train with a Master of Capoeira, he began his formal training with Mestre Alfredo, a student of Mestre Elisio. Afterwards he continued to train and was graduated by Mestre Paulo dos Anjos (José Paulo dos Anjos 1936-1999). Mestre Alfredo taught at Duque de Caxias College (where Edval was studying at the time) and in Club do Zé in Liberdade. After being accepted into Mestre Alfredo’s group, he signed up both of his brothers before joining himself, as he did not have enough time to train while studying full-time.

Over the next few years Edval went on to become one time Brazil National Champion, four times Bahia Champion and won 2 nd place in a Bahia TV Itapoan Capoeira Open.

Apart from the great influence of his Master ‘Mestre Alfredo’, Edval also learnt a great deal from Mestre João de Barro as his protector on many occasions and Mestre Nô as his guide during many a Sunday Roda at Mestre João Pequeno’s Academy while still a teenager. Mestre Alabama also played a hand in influencing Edval as a young student when he had the opportunity to meet and share a little bit of his experience with him. For a short period after Mestre Alfredo left Salvador, the only Mestre who Mestre Val trained with was Mestre Alabama.

Mestre Val began teaching Capoeira in Bahia at the age of 15. He went on to teach in the main cities of Brazil, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro before moving to Argentina with his best friend, Mestre Marcos Gytauna and teaching in Buenos Aires from 1987-1989. It was here that they began to take teaching very seriously and worked together for the next 3 years.Mestre Gytauna is still in Argentina today with over 1,000 students while Mestre Val moved to Australia in November 1993.

Today Mestre Val is the leader of Filhos da Bahia Capoeira Group in partnership with his brothers Contra Mestre Nei (Aguia Negra), Contra Mestre Dinho and his Master, Mestre Alfredo.