The World of Capoeira at Your finger tips!

Hundreds of years ago in Brazil , African slaves fighting against oppression gave rise to a new kind of martial art.  This martial art came to be called capoeira (sometimes misspelled capoeria).  Today, capoeira enjoys widespread and growing popularity across the globe from people of all nations.  The sport also has a bright future with talks of it going to the Olympics.  However, capoeira’s rich history tells of the years of persecution and hard work that it took for the art to reach its present level.  Anyone wishing to study capoeira needs to first dive into its historical foundation. 

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Portugal shipped thousands of African slaves into their colony.  In fact, Brazil was the most common destination for slaves being shipped across the Atlantic .  The Portuguese sought to oppress the slaves’ culture, and this oppression was a trigger to the birth of capoeira.  The fight-dance style gave slaves the opportunity to practice their resistance in secret and to preserve their culture.  After slavery was abolished, the freed slaves moved into Brazilian cities only to find there was no work to be found.  The high poverty level drove many of the capoeiristas to join or form gangs.  Capoeira then began to be associated with criminal activity which led to an attempt from the government to stamp it out.  The martial art was outlawed in Brazil in 1890.  Persecution became so severe that practitioners would have their Achilles tendon cut as punishment.  It was at this time that apelidos (nicknames) came into use.  They prevented police from learning people’s true identities.  To this day, when a person is baptized into Capoeira at the batizado ceremony, they are often given an apelido.  Fortunately, persecution of the art died out by 1918. 

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