¶ … Capoeira brazillian dance martial art originally Angola. All sources MUST BE McFarlin Tulsa City/County Library. I updated a file guide line understand I . In spite of the fact that many are familiar with it, Capoeira remains a mysterious concept in the contemporary society. The masses are likely to associate it with a dance or with a fighting style, but very little people are likely to pinpoint exactly what it entails or to describe how it developed. Its name leads people to think it is Brazilian and it actually seems it was developed in the second part of the twentieth century, this largely being owed to the fact that it became more popular around the world during this period.

One of the first reasons why people generally have a wrong understanding of capoeira is the fact that they attempt to associate it with a particular activity. Some call it a dance while others believe it is a fighting style, but the reality is that it is as unique as either of these arts. It has a strong culture behind it and it was no initially designed to have the function I currently has. Most individuals watching capoeira being performed today are probably to consider that it is little more than a form of entertainment. However, it was initially meant to help people survive both through using it as a means to inflict harm on their oppressors and to hold them together as a community.

The concept's background is one of the reasons why its history is so controversial. Many consider that it emerged in the twentieth century in slave communities in Brazil. However, it is likely that it goes back at least two centuries with Africans taking by the Portuguese developing it as a means to cope and in order to preserve some of their cultural values. People practicing it were well-acquainted with the danger they were in as a result of being slaves trying to promote their cultural values and were thus very secretive about it.

Capoeira's Angolan past

Capoeira can be described as a martial act that brings together fighting and playfulness -- this influencing some people to believe that it is a dance form. "Created by slaves in Brazil during the nineteenth Century in the cities of Salvador (indistinctly called also Bahia, the name of the state) and Rio de Janeiro (Soares 1999), Capoeira has been in the middle of an endless academic and discursive debate about its African origins and its development throughout the Twentieth Century." (Varela 350) Brazilians themselves have a limited understanding of capoeira because of the secrecy surrounding the concept.

Edison Carneiro was the first Brazilian intellectual who studied the martial art and attempted to provide society with a more complex understanding of its background. From his point-of-view, the fact that the art was rapidly spreading through urban environments also meant that people would gradually lose touch with its origins. He considered that it was best for society to look at capoeira in two distinct practices: Capoeira Regional and Capoeira Angola. The second name was intended to honor the art's African legacy.

Even with the fact that it is especially difficult to demonstrate that capoeira has African roots, it is impossible for someone not to notice the numerous African references in the martial art. "Capoeira Angola belongs to this socio-cultural context where an evocation to Africa is part of the daily discourses that practitioners consider as "cultural resistance against their oppressors." (Varela 351)

It is probable that the origins of capoeira go back to West Central Africa, where particular communities speaking Bantu language. In a far region of Angola, a group of individuals engage in a type of dance that is meant to challenge their opponents. "Often cited by capoeira practitioners as the closest cousin to capoeira, the engolo is still performed as part of formal initiation or marriage ceremonies." (Brough Luna) Although the two practices are believed by many to be similar purely as a result of a coincidence, it is likely that capoeira can be traced back to this challenge dance. Warriors in these Angolan communities are trained to perform this dance in order to improve their fighting abilities. Even with this, normal individuals also enjoy practicing it and it is largely an informal concept in their tribes. "Inspired by the fighting style of zebras, the engolo (and similar forms throughout the area) (and similar forms throughout the area) consists mostly of kicks, sweeps, and headbutts meant to humiliate, but generally not disable, an opponent." (Brough Luna)

Similar to capoeira, engolo usually lacks hand strikes, this likely being owed to the philosophy...

This made it increasingly difficult for them to preserve their cultural values -- a concept that was essential in making them cope with the lifestyles they needed to lead. The fact that the Portuguese wanted to dominate the slave trade industry meant that they needed to expand their influence over Africa and that they needed to go further into isolated communities in order to procure their workers. This made it possible for them to interact with Angolan tribes and to get slaves from there that would later express interest in preserving their cultural values in every way that they could.
While great deals of people point to engolo as being the martial arts practice that came to be known as capoeira, the reality is that it would be difficult and almost impossible to prove this. What is very probable, though, is the fact that capoeira came to exist as a consequence of a multitude of African cultures coming together with other cultures in Portuguese-occupied territories on the American continent.

Many Portuguese slave-owners considered that all types of dancing and rituals that their slaves performed were pagan in character and thus needed to be outlawed. Even with this, some believed that this would make their slaves loyal and that it was in their best interest to allow them to perform it. Many of these dances involved fighting practices that were not especially obvious and that slave-owners could not detect as being a threat. "In this context, dance fighting was likely used as a mock style of combat that could allow slaves to resolve inter-tribal conflicts through a "game," while also commenting ironically on the master/slave relationship." (Brough Luna) Slave-owners were typically unaware of such expressions and did not observe the order that they created in slave communities. Slaves actually became accustomed to establish their position in their groups through these dances and could break free from the dehumanizing character of slavery by doing so.

Slaves practically trained in fighting techniques by pretending to be dancing, thus training under the eyes of their masters without letting them observe this. This does not mean that slave-owners did not see the fact that dances could be used with the purpose to perform violent actions. Many masters actually encouraged their slaves to fight using such strategies and organized contests meant to entertain them.

Numerous slave communities were obsessed with preserving their cultural values and with being able to express themselves through fighting in particular. This meant that they needed to devise diverse ways to fight and in some cases they considered that by disguising fighting as a game they would be able to establish their position in the communities they were living in. "They stopped fighting when the overseers made inspections in the sugar cane plantations and instead, they simulated a game based on kicks and head-butts" (Varela 353) While this solved part of the problem, slaves were still unable to express themselves through traditional fighting games properly as a consequence of their masters only allowing such behavior in their presence. Joao Pequeno, a noted teacher in Bahia, emphasizes the fact that the term capoeira is owed to the fact that many slaves hid in bushes while using fighting techniques similar to contemporary capoeira. "From the mestres' point-of-view, these bushes or type of grass was called Kapueira." (Varela 353)

Slaves were not only inclined to use capoeria-like techniques against each-other. As previously mentioned, these fighting strategies were often used with the purpose to humiliate an opponent. Numerous slaves thus were unhesitant about using them against their master with the purpose to put across their criticism with regard to the institution of slavery. Free slaves organized themselves in towns that came to be known as Quilombos. The central character in the revolution of Palmares, Zumbi, is largely believed to have encouraged his followers to use capoeira with the purpose to defend themselves, especially considering that the majority of the people living in his Quilombo are believed to have been well-acquainted with the fighting technique. In order to get a better understanding of the degree to which capoeira, Angolan philosophies, and slaves in Portuguese-occupied territories are related, one…