Pictures from Mestre Pitts

Works Cited

Capoeira.com.au. http://www.capoeira.com.au/cbau

CapoeiraSulDaBahiacom http://www.capoeirasantabarbara.com/instruments.html

Green, A Thomas. 2000, Martial Arts of the World. ABC-Clio, inc.               

Legend of Besouro

      There is a legend of a capoeirista named Besouro.  Besouro lived in Brazilin and was of African descent, his parents were shipped to the Americas as slaves.  Besouro got in a confrontation one night with another man and to defend himself the struggle resulted with Besouro killing the other man.  The police were soon after Besouro and knew that he was a capoerista; at that time it was illegal for anyone to practice capoeira in Brazil.  As the legend goes three armed policemen find Besouro but Besouro was a powerful capoeirista who knew magic, he vanished like a whiff of smoke and left the clumsy police men confused.  The police were tracking Besoura for weeks before they found him again.  This time one police officer managed 

Candomble

Candomble is a Brazilian religion, which has its roots in Africa.  The result of this hybrid of cultures created a tradition, which fuses Yoruba (and probably other African religions) with catholicism, which was brought to the Americas by the Spaniards.  The gods of Yoruba become catholic saints in Candomble.  Some capoeiristas are said to have gods or saints who aid them and give them powers when fighting; music, which is such a major aspect of Capoeira allows some fighters to contact the gods and access their some of their power.   

Fighting "Style"

The fighters constantly move and change positions, which is illustrated by the fact that there is no “fighting stance” (or stances) that dominate a fighter’s strategy as there are in many martial arts, instead there is a ginga, which is a series of movements where the fighter constantly steps forward and backward as he or she changes positions, swaying his or her arms and upper body to accompany the footwork.  The fighters are always dancing and never still.  Fighters use their hands to strike, their feet to kick and sweep, and their head to butt, generally.

Music

What makes Capoeira distinct from most martial arts is that it is accompanied by music.  The music is considered by many to be the spirit of Capoeira.  Music is played while fighters or practitioners fight or train and the music dictates the speed, intensity, and energy of the fight.  Fighters in the circle move to the rhythm of the music and allow it to guide them in their fight or dance, this is why music is such and important and necessary component of capoeira.  The instrument most associated with capoeira is the berimbau.  The berimbau is like a wooden bow with a steel string.  Near the end of one side of the instrument is a gourd (cabaca), which helps resonate the sound, which is produced by striking a wooden stick (baqueta) or metal object such as a coin against the steel string (arame). The person playing the berimbau generally plays a rattle type instrument (caxixi) with the hand that holds the baqueta.  Drums are also played; there are two types of drums most commonly associated with capoeira: the Atabaque and the Paneiro.  The Atabaque is the larger of the two and the Pandeiro is smaller.  The Pandeiro is basically a tambourine and generally plays a similar rhythm to the atabaque.  Then there is the agogo, which consists of two different bells, one plays a high pitch and the other is low.  The instrument is played by hitting the bells with a wooden stick (Green, 62) and (Capoeira Sul de Bahia).    

Origins and development

Capoeira has its roots in a dance from Angola, which was brought from Africa to Brazil by slaves during the slave trade.  The dance was altered to include fighting and self defense techniques.  Over time the fighting aspect of the dance evolved into the martial art, Capoeira.  The slaves developed the form of fighting to defend themselves from their oppressors, slave owners, and each other.  Obviously the white slave owners did not want their slaves learning how to fight so the slaves had to learn, practice and teach each other in secret.  Slaves accomplished this by disguising their fighting style as a dance.  The fluidity of the movements of capoeira are a result of it ultimately being a dance.  Capoeira developed as a fighting art that uses the body as a weapon opposed to using external weapons because slaves were not allowed to have weapons and if they tried to create weapons or practice with objects that could be used as weapons their oppressors would surly understand the meaning of their “dance”.  Fighters use their hands to strike, their feet to kick and sweep, and their head to butt, generally.