From the 16th-19th centuries, Portugal shipped slaves into South America from western Africa. The South American country of Brazil was the most common destination for African captives with 42% of all enslaved peoples shipped across the Atlantic.
Most commonly sold into Brazil were Akan, Igbo, Yoruba, Dahomean, Muslim Guineans, Hausa, and Bantu (among them Kongos, Kimbundas and Kasanjes) from Angola, Congo and
Mozambique. These Africans brought their cultural traditions and religions with them to the New World.
One theory suggests that capoeira originated from a fern courtship dance in Angola used by suitors of young women, however, capoeira's origins are often disputed. Originally, capoeira referred to a completely different game than today, wherein two competitors attempted to score against each other by means of headbutts to the chest.
There is contention as to whether it arrived with enslaved Africans or whether Africans refined it once they reached Brazil. One catalyst for capoeira was the homogenization of African people under the oppression of slavery.
Capoeira emerged as a way to resist oppression, secretly practice art, transmit culture, and lift 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 African-descended 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 in 1888, the freed people 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 and 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 was 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.
Legal persecution of the art faded eventually. Mestre Bimba made a major contribution to the preservation of the art by opening the first academy for instruction in capoeira. This was a significant development because it eventually led to the legalization of the art in Brazil, and allowed capoeira to gain popularity at a time when the art could possibly have died out.
A notable example of the influence of Mestre Bimba's system of formal instruction took place in 1937, when he was invited to perform with his students at an event at which Getulio Vargas, the president of Brazil at that time, was present. Vargas was so impressed with the discipline and devotion of Mestre Bimba's students he declared capoeira the national sport of Brazil.
Mestre Bimba also had a major impact on the practice and method of instruction of the art, and introduced changes that affect the practice of the art to this day. Because of these changes Mestre Bimba remains a controversial figure. Prior to the legalization of the art, the public associated the art of capoeira with the poor underclass, criminal activity, and negative stereotypical elements of the afro-Brazilian population. In order to alter the image of the art in the eye of the public, Mestre Bimba removed many of the rituals and traditions of the art of capoeira for practice in his academy.
Because of the negative stereotypes associated with capoeira, he called his capoeira Uma Luta Regional de Bahia (A regional fight from Bahia). Mestre Bimba's capoeira is now called capoeira regional, and subsequently many modern forms of capoeira not directly derived from Bimba's teaching are also called regional. Mestre Bimba's capoeira continued to gain popularity, but eventually an effort was made to prevent the art from losing its traditions and rituals.
In 1942, Mestre Pastinha opened the first formal academy for instruction in the traditional form of the art, known as capoeira Angola. Mestre Pastinha's efforts prevented capoeira Angola from being lost as newer, modernized forms of the art gained popularity.
This era was a milestone of a dramatic change in the mode of instruction of the art of capoeira. Previously, capoeira was passed on in secret, usually from a relative such as one's father or uncle, or in a small group setting where several young people in a particular community would receive guidance from elder practitioners from that community. During this era, the academy system became the predominant form of participation in the art. Presently, there are capoeira academies on almost every continent of the world.
Another significant change that occurred due to the proliferation of capoeira 'schools' is the participation of middle and upper class members of the population. Presently, some Mestres participate in seminars where they discuss the need to make the art available to poor blacks who can not afford the cost of training in an academy. This is an issue of concern to practitioners who recognize the importance of making the art available to people who come from the culture that invented the art in the first place.
