'Capoeira' history

Capoeira is thought to have originated in Africa and was brought to Brazil from Angola by the first group of Africans captured to supply the thriving slave trade of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Prohibited from displaying any form of resistance or of aggression, and helpless against the weapons of their masters, the slaves developed a style of self-defense combined with ritualistic dance and percussive music from their homelands in order to disguise its combative element.

The ginga was developed as a basic step so that two capoeirista practicing would appear to be dancing. The misleading appearance of capoeira also helped establish its martial arts philosophy, to overcome an opponent not by force or by violence, but rather through cunning and redirection.

Eventually, the slaves used this self-defense technique to escape their masters, and hid as fugitives in wild grass known as capoeira in a native Brazilian-Indian dialect. In 1888, all slaves were emancipated and some took to the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Lacking jobs and social status, they formed violent criminal gangs.

As a result of the terror spread by the gangs, the government outlawed capoeira in 1892, and it was only legalized in 1937 by then president Getulio Vargas, who wanted to promote it as a national sport.

Capoeira evolved into its current form, known as "Capoeira Regional", in the 1930s through the efforts of Mestre (master) Bimba, who combined the acrobatic movements and speed of street- capoeira with the ancestral "Capoeira Angola".

The complete history of capoeira and its origins is somewhat sketchy and may never be fully known, as in 1890, it was decreed that all traces of slavery be erased from the history of Brazil.

Today, capoeira is recognized as a Brazilian national sport, and is fast growing in popularity throughout the globe as a sport, a dance and a game, while still retaining its original expression of freedom from oppression.

-- Sources