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.
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