History

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Portugal shipped slaves into South America from western Africa. Brazil was the most common destination for African slaves with 42% of all slaves shipped across the Atlantic. Most commonly sold into Brazil were Yoruba, Dahomean, Islamised Guineans, Hausa, and Bantu (among them Kongos, Kimbundas and Kasanjes) from Angola, Congo and Mozambique.

The slaves brought their cultural traditions and religions with them to the New World. The homogenization of the African people under the oppression of slavery was the catalyst for capoeira. Capoeira was developed by the slaves of Brazil as a way to resist their oppressors, secretly practice their art, transmit their culture, and lift their spirits. Some historians believe that the indigenous peoples of Brazil also played an important role in the development of capoeira.

Batuque and Maculelê are other fight-dances also developed by slave populations that are closely connected to capoeira. There are also engravings and writings that describe a now-lost fighting dance in Cuba, the baile del maní, with two Bantu men moving to the yuka drums.

After slavery was abolished, the slaves moved to the cities of Brazil and with no employment to be found, many joined or formed criminal gangs. They continued to practice capoeira, and it became associated with anti-government or criminal activities. As a result, capoeira was outlawed in Brazil in 1890. The punishment for practicing it was extreme (practitioners would have the tendons on the backs of their feet cut), and the police were vicious in their attempt to stamp out the art. Capoeira continued to be practiced, but it moved further underground. Rodas were often held in areas with plenty of escape routes, and a special rhythm called cavalaria were added to the music to warn players that the police were coming. Capoeira practitioners (capoeiristas) also adopted apelidos or nicknames to make it more difficult for police to discover their true identities. To this day, when a person is baptized into capoeira at the batizado ceremony, they may be given an apelido.

Persecution of the art petered out eventually, and was entirely gone by 1918.

Mestre Bimba and Mestre Pastinha are generally seen as the fathers of modern capoeira Regional and capoeira Angola, respectively.

In 1937, Mestre Bimba was invited to demonstrate capoeira in front of president Getúlio Vargas. After this performance, he was given permission to open the first capoeira school in Brazil. Since that time, capoeira has been officially recognized as a national sport. Mestre Bimba's systematization and teaching of capoeira made a tremendous contribution to the capoeira community.

In 1942, Mestre Pastinha opened the first capoeira Angola school, the Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola, located in Bahia. He had his students wear black pants and yellow t-shirts, the same color of the Ypiranga Futebol Clube, Mestre Pastinha's favorite soccer team. Most Angola schools still use yellow capoeira t-shirts, although some clubs have begun to adopt other uniforms.

Capoeira continues to be widely practiced in Brazil, primarily among Afro-Brazilians, but no longer exclusively. It has also been taken up by some members of the middle and upper classes who take capoeira classes offered by fitness centres. A stylized version of capoeira has been developed for stage performance and has attracted many new adherents to the sport. Capoeira has also spread to many other parts of the world.