VARIOUS MARTIAL ARTS RANGES

In Kali (A filipino Martial art), They usually break the basics ranges up into five ranges: Weapon range, Kicking range, Punching range, Trapping range and locking/grappling range. (locking is sometimes considered a different range from grappling and within the grappling arts they also have broken the ranges down even more). Most martial systems only specialise predominantly in two or three of these ranges. Capoeira for instance, could be argued to really only specialise in its kicking range, with only a few hand techniques, and throws that are either derived from Batuque or Judo/jiujitsu/greco-roman wrestling (non-african arts). However, there is a remote possibility that nubian wrestling played some kind of part in the development of capoeira.

THE MEANING OF NUBIAN

“Nubian” is a common term the Egyptians used to describe all brown- and black-skinned people living to the south.
According to oral tradition, the Nuba began wrestling in order to imitate monkeys. The Nuba wrestlers imitate certain animal and insect characteristics while wrestling.

Like a monkey, the Nuba will rub his hands on the ground; (to help his grip). (this is similar to moring/moringue of reunion which I will write about later). He also stamps his feet and shouts at his opponent. They flick their tongues like insects and dance within the ring, representing the spirit of their cattle herd or village.

Initiation

It is every Nubian boys dream to represent his village. From a young age, he competes with other village boys in his peer group. this is to prove intelligence, character and skill in order to be chosen to live in a cattle camp outside of town. While exceptional boys are taken to a camp at a young age, all the boys eventually go to the cattle camp by the time their thirteen. At the camp, the boys care for the herd. They are also trained daily in wrestling by the village champion. The village will provide food for them in order for them to become stronger. Whilst at the camp, they become almost a cultic fraternity. They spend time everyday to reflect and meditate. The wrestlers will take ash from burnt trees (which represents to them life’s essence) and they’ll dust their naked bodies with it, in order to give them power and cultic identity. (Similar to some of the womens traditions in the efundula). By wrestling, the young nubian men are initiated into manhood.

Wrestling Matches

Wrestling is more than just a sport to the Nubas—it is an important part of their culture. Each individual wrestles several randomly chosen matches at a tournament. Wrestlers are free to refuse to compete against someone if they wish. The athlete that is first to take his opponent to the ground will win the match. Some wrestlers wear gourds around their waist. An unbroken gourd will represent that a wrestler hasn’t lost a match. however, if they are taken down, it is both embarrassing to them and painful when the gourd breaks on their skin.

The overall winner recieves a twig, an animal hide or a fur tail. Every village has a famous wrestler who is experienced and consistently successful. Often the champion’s reputation spreads and girls compose songs about his success.

Wrestling tournaments are held between Nuba villages. The competition is conducted around sowing and harvest seasons. There are obvious fertility rites connected with the wrestling tournaments.

Religious Rites

The religious implications of Nuba wrestling are more complex, containing at least three interrelated ideas. First, wrestling is closely related to ancestral worship. Second, wrestling is closely connected with fertility rites. Finally, wrestling is the channel through which the participants dramatize their animistic beliefs. Wrestling has continued to unify an otherwise dislocated and isolated people.

This is a very interesting video that depicts some nuba culture. Here you can see some of the nubian wrestling. There is also some nubian dancing, which has movements very similar to some of the samba and axe dance steps.
Capoeiristas, in turn wear patuas ‘good luck charms’ that are meant to protect and give powers, much like the animal hide or fur tail that is wrapped around the legs of the nuba wrestler.

The nuba people also identify strongly with their wrestling style as a means to preserve their cultural heritage. I believe that it is not so much with the movements of nubian wrestling, but more so in the cultural similarities and belief systems, that capoeira can identify with and empathise with nuba wrestling. Even if it is on a very small level.

Information sources:

1. ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0302/feature3/index.html

2. wysinger.homestead.com/nubiansport.html

3. www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1988/JSH1502/jsh1502b.pdf

These are questions that have not really been fully answered, and may never be.

However, I have found it interesting to research the POSSIBILITIES of various influences that Capoeira may have been subjected to.

Capoeira, like many other martial arts, has been constantly changing, to keep within a cultural and practical relevance to society. Whilst some practicioners struggle to maintain important traditions, others are constantly testing and experimenting with Capoeira. I find it important to adhere to both causes, in the aim to give back something to the art that we recieve so much from.

Over the coming weeks, I wish to provide some basic information on some other arts that have had similar histories, movement base, or could have maybe even influenced capoeira in its earlier stages. This is to give you a door to explore capoeira in a much wider context.

N’golo or Engolo

This is probably the most widely discussed African artform with Capoeira circles.
It is said to have been performed at a festival called Efundula which was traditionally a huge gathering of the community. It was a passing of rites ritual, where the girls would undergo tests and preparations to be accepted as women ready for marriage and procreation.

THE EFUNDULA CEREMONY

The efundula ceremony varied between communities and over time. This is just a brief overview of some of the things that were involved.

Firstly the girls would enter into a closed house called ondjuo. A ritual leader called the namunganga would feed them and they would wait until they were summoned. After the sacred initiation they would finish by crawling through the legs of the namunganga and step over a cleft stick. These were tests performed to see if the women was pregnant. If they stumbled when stepping over the stick this would be a sign they were pregnant and would be outcast and rejected by their community. They would then be given some beer mixed with a herbal brew. This was a second test. If they vomited, the woman would have deemed to be pregnant.

The next stage of the initiations would be more ‘endurance’ type tests, that were often tasks like pounding millet in mortars for hours. This would also be a process of weeding out those that may have been pregnant. Previously this process could last for days.

The next stage was called the oihanangolo where the initiates (ovafuka) would become boy-like (ovamati). They would cover themselves in white ash, dress in skirts and go around demanding food from other households and sometimes even beat up men who crossed their paths. The community would have to comply and subdue. They were even allowed to insult the men, make them prepare the food for them and beat them up if the man was caught sleeping with a women, even if it was their own wife! This process could last from days to weeks.

(from an essay: Efundula and History: Female Initiation in Pre-Colonial and Colonial Northern Namibia by Patricia Hayes)

The final stage was a public event. The men would drum and the girls would dance and sing. The men would approach the women and propose for their hand in marriage. The marriages were usually prearranged.

(note: this is a wedding ceremony from an ovambo tribe, It was all I could find, so it may not at all be similar to the efundula).

NOTE: Within my brief research of Efundula, I did not encounter any mention of n’golo being a part of this particular ritual or ceremony. So I am unsure to whether Capoeira researchers have linked N’golo with Efundula through presumptions or historical evidence…

(from an essay: Efundula and History: Female Initiation in Pre-Colonial and Colonial Northern Namibia by Patricia Hayes)

N’golo Origins

The name N’golo, (which they say mean the dance of the zebras), I believe originally came from Barama N’golo and Nia N’golo. They were two brothers who led an animist group called bambara, which later became a very powerful community. Barama was a great hunter and warrior.

The brothers introduced into their community a social conduct structure, consisting of various rituals. Among them was for work to be carried out by association and based on age-sets. All boys would be initiated by being circumcised at the same time, mainly to establish hierachy. I believe that it was within these traditions and probably the passage of rites to manhood, that N’golo as an artform may have been developed/performed/named. There is no evidence to support this claim, so further research is welcomed.

However, the current research is based on a couple of key figures. An angolan artist by the name of Albano de Neves e Souza went to Brazil in the 1960′s. He had claimed to have seen the N’golo being performed in southern Angola and believed it was very similar to Capoeira.

N’golo, the Zebra Dance, is possibly the origin of the Capoeira, the fighting dance of Brazil. It is danced at the time of the ‘Mufico”, a puberty rite for the girls of the Mucope and Mulondo regions. The object of the dance is to hit your opponent’s face with your foot. A rhythm for the dance is beaten by clapping hands, and anyone who attempts a [b]low while outside the marked arena is disqualified. The ‘Angolan Capoeira’ in Brazil also has its special rhythm, which is one more reason to believe that it originates with the N’golo. N’golo means ‘zebra’, and to a certain extent the dance originates from the leaps and battles of the zebra: the blow with the feet while the hands are touching the ground is certainly reminiscent of the zebra’s kick.

(Neves e Souza, Da minha Africa do Brazil que eu vi, p.57)

It is interesting to note that in 1964 Mestre Pastinha wrote a book on Capoeira Angola but does not mention N’golo as being the main ancestor of Capoeira.

There is no doubt that capoeira came to Brazil with the African slaves. It was a form of fighting presenting its own characteristics, maintained up to our days… The name “Capoeira Angola” comes from the fact that it was the Angolan slaves in Bahia who mostly distinguished themselves in its practice.

(Mestre Pastinha, Capoeira Angola, p. 26-27)

If Mestre Pastinha had known about the theory of N’golo before the publication of his book I would have presumed that he would surely have mentioned it.

Whilst Neves e Souza was visiting Brazil, he made friends with a Brazilian folklorist named Camara Cascudo. They maintained contact and eventually Cascudo published some of his notes in 1967. It is believed that Mestre Pastinha either had contact with Neves e Souza or Cascudo and used their theory to link Capoeira with N’golo, or one of Pastinha’s students found the published letters and showed Mestre Pastinha.

In any case, the most likely theory is that the first link between Capoeira and N’golo came from Neves e Souza’s accounts alone.

The slaves of the Southern tribes who went there [to Brazil] through the trading post of Benguela took along their tradition to fight with the feet. With time, what was initially a tribal tradition was transformed into a weapon of attack and defence, which helped them to survive in a hostile environment. [This is the] reason for its continuity in the urban context. The worst bandits of Benguela are generally Muxilengues, which, in the cities, use the N’golo steps as a weapon. In Luanda, these steps, possibly brought from the South, are called Bassula. Even in the name there is something suggesting that the fight originated among the pastoral people of the South. Ba-ssula, those from the South.

(Camara Cascudo, Folklore, p. 186)

It is interesting to note that when Camara Cascudo went to Angola he was unable to find n’golo or bassula.

T.J. Desch-Obi is the only other person I have found that has seen and written accounts of the n’golo practice. He describes his experience as follows:

The music begins with clapping and a rhythmic humming that can take the place of a response in the call-and-response songs that someone will begin to sing. Soon after the mantra-like song and humming has fully formed, with a shout a practitioner will enter the circle dancing and often shouting again to accentuate the techniques he begins to demonstrate. When a contender joins the challenger in the circle the two will continue to dance to the music as they square off and one adept will launch a kick or sweep at the other. This attack will be defended by dodging or ‘blending’ in such a way that will then allow the defender to launch a smooth counter-attack. The two will continue in a cycle of attacks, defenses, and counter-attacks in a smooth continuous flow.

(T.J. Desch Obi, ‘Engolo’ p.56)

Because of these accounts by T.J. Desch Obi and Neves e Souza, and the presumed links between Capoeira and N’golo, Capoeira today uses these accounts to concrete Capoeira’s African ancestry. Many Capoeira Angola groups will use N’golo as a certain proof that Capoeira was created in Africa and refined in Brazil. However, to me this may be, unfortunately, an over-simplification.

Conclusion

I believe that Capoeira was influenced by many different African martial arts, rituals and tribes. I also believe that Capoeira was formed in brazil by many ethnic groups that influenced society at the time and who were also influenced by society and its situation. There existed a huge number of African tribes over the centuries, each with their own traditions, languages, rituals and beliefs. They all developed different ceremonies that sometimes lasted and were passed down through the years, faded away, or over time, moulded into completely new traditions. There is still a huge amount of research to be done and I believe the search for answers and links, although seemingly sparse, is not yet over.

There are, in reality, only a certain amount of ways the human body can move. We are only born with two arms and two legs. If we were born with maybe three arms, movement possibilities could maybe be different but we weren’t. When there is similarities in social oppression, similarities in environment and culture, I believe there is also similarities within fighting systems. But we will touch upon this in the upcoming articles.

References:

1.Nestor Capoeira, Capoeira: Roots of the dance-fight-game
2.Mattias Rohrig assuncao, Capoeira, the history of an afro-brazilian martial art
3.Patricia Hayes, Efundula and History: Female Initiation in Pre-Colonial and Colonial Northern Namibia

http://www.gwsafrica.org/knowledge/patricia/efprint.htm

4.Mestre Pastinha, Capoeira Angola
5.T.J Desch Obi, Engolo
6.Neves e Souza, Da minha Africa e do brasil que eu vi
7.L. da Camara Cascudo, Folklore do Brasil
8.Waldeloir Rego, Capoeira Angola
9. Ousmane Sako, The Heart of the Ngoni By Harold Courlander
10. T.J. Desch Obi, Fighting for honor

When the Portuguese arrived in brazil on April the 22nd, 1500, they could not possibly have dreamt the magnitude of what they had found. From that day, triggered the beginning of a country and a moulding of a culture. Originally calling Brazil Terra de vera cruz, the land of the true cross, it was favoured for its rich natural resources. 

From wood to sugar cane to eventually mining and coffee plantations Brazil, was an absolute gold mine for the Portuguese. The Portuguese began by negotiating with the native Indians of brazil by trading muskets, clothing and material and tools for information of fresh water rivers, good forests and general mapping of the area. After a while they began taking the natives by force, and used them as slaves. Due to the amount of money to be made from exporting brazil’s natural resources more slaves were needed. The native Indians were not used to the work ethic of the Portuguese slave drivers. They were also very susceptible to the european foreign diseases brought over by the portuguese, thus not being able to meet the work demand and many dying. The Portuguese thus looked elsewhere for slave labour and decided to go to Africa for slaves. In Africa they proceeded to travel around raiding communities, capturing them and shipping them back to Brazil. They would also negotiate with certain African tribes to help them locate and sometimes even capture other tribes.

Up to 50,000 slaves a year were being shipped over to brazil to work. An estimated 4 million slaves were transported to brazil from the early 1500’s up until 1888 when the golden law, the abolition of slavery was finally ruled. In 1549 Brazil appointed its first governor, Tome de Sousa, who chose Sao Salvador da Bahia as the capital city. Many of the slaves that were transported over to Brazil would be sold in slave markets and put to work with usually very little food and water and poor living conditions. Many of these African slaves came from different parts of Africa. They would all have different languages, customs and would sometimes have tribal enemies within the same plantation.

Regardless, they would all have to find a way to work together under the same suppression.The first record of Capoeira was in 1818 in a police report from Rio De Janeiro. Many believe that Capoeira was created in the 1700’s. However some believe their may be records as early as 1624, where the African slaves were put to war against the dutch when they occupied north-eastern Brazil. Some others believe, (there is no supporting documentation) that King Zumbi, the leader of the Quilombo dos Palmares, was the first Capoeirista. The Quilombo dos Palmares was a renegade slave community situated in the state of Lagoas. It survived for nearly 100 years before falling. King Zambi was the first leader of the Quilombo, and actually negotiated peace between the Quilombo dos Palmares and the Brazilian government which lasted until he passed away and his successor King Zumbi broke the peace agreement, and led the Quilombo to its demise.The word Capoeira literally translates to: tall grass. Most people believe that when the slaves would escape from their senzalas (slave owners plantations), they would hide in the ‘tall grass’ or in the trees and forests. Some of them would then look for a quilombo, some would walk through dense forest over 3,000km away to the Quilombo dos Palmares, in Lagoas. They would also practice Capoeira in their quilombo, paralleling the game of Capoeira to the grass. Short grass parallelling with Capoeira Jogo de dentro, (the Capoeira close game), Tall grass, to Capoeira Alta, Capoeira played upright.

THE MEANING OF CAPOEIRA 

Some also believe Capoeira means chicken coop, derived from slaves imitated the cock fights on the docks of Bahia, Brazil. Whilst others believe it was the name of a certain bird in brazil. When the slaves were hiding in the trees they would use the sound of this bird to communicate to their companions. Whatever the case, Capoeira the word has undertaken in today’s literary terms, a more complex and layered meaning.Throughout the 1800’s Capoeira would appear more and more in documented history.

Also due to increasing pressure from foreign countries competing with more efficient sugar cane plantations, Rio de Janeiro changed its crops to coffee and became the capitalof not only brazil but of the Portuguese empire. Shifting the power, money, slaves and most probably capoeira to Rio De Janeiro 1888 Princess Isabel signed the abolition of slavery law, whilst the emperor is out of the country. Almost overnight the slaves run free throughout the countryside, causing disruptions to many parts of brazil. These slaves did not have any ‘real world’ skills, and many would resort to stealing as a means of survival. As a result Capoeira along with all cultural manifestations were banned in 1889.

In 1892, due to social and economic pressure most of Brazil’s historical government documents were burnt. Many rich landlords lost huge amounts of labour, money and businesses because of the abolition of slavery. Princess Isabel was offered protection by some of Brazil’s best Capoeira practitioners who named themselves the ‘velha guarda’ the old guard.

Capoeira was nearly wiped out due to the ban and many police officers cracking down hard on anyone who may have an association with capoeira. Many revolted however, and one of these renegades became a famous almost mythical Capoeira character. His name was ‘Besouro de Manganga’. Much of his story is hazy, but there were police records of him in certain incidents. One of the legends was that besouro used to get chased by the police, and lead them into a back alley where he would beat them up and steal their weapons. The next day he would go to the police station and return them.He also apparently had a ‘corpo fechado’ which translates to ‘closed body’, a candomble ritual that can be performed which protects you from harm.

It was believed that he was protected from bullets, and weapons, everything except for a special knife made of Ticum, a type of hard wood. Many believe he died in an ambush and was stabbed with a knife made of ticum.The tension eased by the 1920’s when capoeira could be played only in authorised spaces under police watch. Many capoeira people would play in front of bars and clubs, but it was considered to be a very low class activity to participate in. It was in 1918 that Mestre Bimba first began teaching Capoeira.

Mestre Bimba learnt Capoeiragem from an African named Bentinho at the age of 12. He learnt Batuque from his father, an African martial art involving the participants to form a circle, playing a berimbau and pandeiro etc whilst two people in the middle would try and hit and trip each others legs to off balance them. Capoeira Regional, originally called ‘Luta Regional Bahiana’ The regional fight of Bahia was created in 1932. by 1936 Capoeira became legalized which was the beginning of capoeira becoming popularised. Mestre Bimba was a strong undefeated fighter who would post open challenges in the newspaper to anyone willing to fight him.He instantly gained fame in the world of Capoeira, and because of this much controversy over certain historical issues are debated regularly.

One of the major issues that comes up frequently is how he is criticised for the ‘whitening’ of capoeira. Mestre Bimba placed rules in his academy, one of them was that you either had to have a job or had to be studying to be accepted into his school. Since the majority of people who had jobs or were studying were Caucasian, he was criticised for westernising capoeira not only in racial terms but in philosophy, meaning, interpretation and movement. Mestre Bimba at the time of making such rules was most probably trying to create a system that would help capoeira and its reputation progress, rather than risk it from being banned again.

Without Mestre Bimba, his pedagogical systemisation and more importantly his vision, capoeira could have been quite possibly eradicated forever.Capoeira Angola was formally introduced into Brazilian society through the formation of a group called the centro esportivo de capoeira Angola. It was formed by mestres such as Daniel Coutinho, Noronha, Livino, Mare, Amouzinho, Chapeleiro, Bigode de ceida, Cara queimada, Onca preta, Olho de pumbo and Pastinha amongst others.

Capoeira Angola was created because many believed Capoeira regional was going the wrong way. Each of the ‘angola’ masters were all very proficient in their style of capoeira, many of them undefeated and famous in their own areas.However, Mestre Bimba’s style became the most popular, and overshadowed other groups. One of the main differences between Capoeira Regional and capoeira angola is the belief that capoeira came from Africa. Capoeira Regional always believed capoeira was created in brazil by mainly African slaves, whereas Capoeira Angola practitioners generally believe that capoeira was originally created in Africa and brought over to Brazil.

Because of these beliefs, and no way to prove either claim, the whole meaning of the game is widely interpretive. Mestre Pastinha was probably the most famous Capoeira Angola practitioner in history. This was mainly due to his profound philosophies and powerful presence. Sayings such as ‘Capoeira is whatever the mouth eats’ and ‘in the roda of capoeira both great and small am I’ have given people the urge to delve further into living capoeira in mind body and spirit. Capoeira Angola was never hugely popular, until its resurgence in the 1980’s, where it began to spread to other countries and Capoeira as a whole was becoming a part of popular culture. 

By the early 1970’s Mestre Bimba was not getting the support from the government that he needed. The area in where his academy was situated became dangerous and run down. Many of the people he once taught, who had started their own schools and became famous would now rarely visit him and hardly offer any support. His academy was going to have to close down, until he received an option to go and teach capoeira and make a music record in Goiania. Mestre Bimba chose one of his long standing students, Vermelho 27 to take care of the academy. Vermelho 27 helped Mestre Bimba through his financial difficulty as he had a good job working for petrobras. Mestre Bimba died in Goiania, and the legacy of Capoeira Regional was passed into the hands of Mestre Vermelho 27.

Mestre Vermelho 27 was an enigmatic spontaneous and gifted capoeirista. Daring and sometimes reckless he would sometimes randomly walk out of the academy and disappear for a month. No one would know where he had gone or what he had been doing. Mestre Vermelho 27 would roam the streets going in every street roda he could find. Being a funny looking Caucasian capoeirista in a dark alley challenging random street capoeiristas was definitely not common, and he would often be jeered at until they played him. He got his nickname ‘red 27’ because he liked to gamble.

His teaching methods were irrational and prolific, but nonetheless made a huge impact.Mestre Bamba once told me that he was once put to the test when Vermelho drove up to the academy and told him to get in the car with him. So he and a friend went in vermelho’s car and vermelho told them they were not allowed to ask where they were going. Vermelho drove them out to the country side six hours away to a little farm shed, that had no electricity or running water. There was a pot of old meat that stunk as if it had been sitting there for months.

They were so hungry, thirsty and tired, and they stayed there overnight in the rain, without saying a word. The next day they asked when they were going home and Vermelho 27 told them that they had failed the test and drove them home. Vermelho 27 was loved and respected by everyone in Salvador, until his death in 1997.From the early 1980’s however, Rubens Costa Silva, or Mestre Bamba was already destined to take responsibility of Mestre Bimba’s academy and legacy.Mestre Bamba started capoeira at the age of 12, by the time he was 14 he was already considered ready to teach and often helped out in the academy. One of the main reasons why Mestre Vermelho wanted to pass the academy onto Mestre Bamba was because he was the only one who would treat the academy as if it was his own home.

Mestre Vermelho 27 always new that the academy would be in good hands if it was left with Mestre Bamba.Throughout the years Mestre Bamba has always pushed to keep the original space of Mestre Bimba maintained, and constantly strives to educate and demonstrate Capoeira as a whole complete artform. Whilst still teaching traditional Capoeira Regional, he also endeavours to help capoeira as a unified body to progress and prosper. His ability and knowledge surpass his age, and I consider him one of the most amazing individuals I have ever met. He has always given me the motivation and vision to always overcome, whatever the obstacle.