Ié! Ié!
Capoeira é uma arte, Capoeira is an art,
Capoeira é uma arte, Capoeira is an art,
Que o negrou inventou. which the negro invented.
Foi na briga de duas zebras In the brawl between two zebras
que N’Golo se criou. the N’Golo did evolve.
Chegando aqui no Brasil As it arrived here in Brazil
Capoeira se chamou. it was called Capoeira.
Ginga e danca que era arte The Ginga and the dance, which were an art,
em arme se transformou did transform into a weapon
Para libertar o negro to liberate the negro
da senzala do senhor. from the Senzala of the lord (slave owner).
Hoje aprendo essa cultura Today I learn this culture
para me conscientizar. to increase my awareness
Agracedo ao Pai Ogum, Praise to Father Ogum,
A forca dos Orixás, the power of the Orixás,
Camará! Comrade!
(Ladainha from Grupo Capoeira Angola Pelourinho*)
Starting aound 1550 the Portuguese started to import millions of Africans into Brazil. Over three hundred years, Black men and women were robbed and bought in Africa, treated like animals, transported over the Atlantic under unhuman conditions and had to work hard for essentially nothing. They were slaves.
Regarding those slaves who were imported there is one quote I read somewhere (I really dont know anymore where) and that is: “Those slaves might have come empty handed, but they did not come empty headed.” What came with them is their complete belief systems, music, rituals, world view, traditions, knowledge, language, arts, willpower and so on. And one thing which came with them is a form of dance/fight combining different concepts like beauty and strength, acrobatics and music, dance and violence.
Today’s Capoeira Angola does have a lot to do with awareness. Being aware of Capoeira’s roots, being aware that the African element in this art is of utterly high importance. Without it’s Africanity, Capoeira would degenerate into a fancy but soulless martial art. Capoeira, and especially Capoeira Angola, does live from its rituals, it game, its music and its history. In a discussion** I read and participated in on the Blog Mandingueira I realized that this awareness has to be maintained and increased in the present Capoeira Community.
But: Writing about Africanity in Capoeira is a mammoth task. Actually you could write a book about it and still would not have described everything there is to describe. 400 years of Capoeira practice mainly by Africans and Afrobrazilians did lead to the situation that every facette of Capoeira does have major African influences (admittedly there are European influences, too, since Portuguese lower class and sailors did start playing Capoeira in the 19th century and since Mestre Bimba started teaching white students). This is the reason why I will start the first cohesive series of posts on this Blog: African Roots. I hope that I will at least be able to give an overview about Africanity in Capoeira and I hope that there are people out there willing to add to the upcoming posts their knowledge about this topic, thus making these posts a richer source for people who make their first steps in exploring the roots of Capoeira.
Have an eye on this blog in the next few days. Cause then the first posts of the African Roots series will be published.
*if there are mistakes in the translation it is because of my lack of Portuguese. Corrections are welcome!
**special thanks to Kimbandeira for starting that discussion on Mandingueira
5 Comments
July 29, 2008 at 2:30 am
I am looking forward to this series. Thank you so much for taking this difficult and time consuming task on- I am providing a link to several of my classmates.. Good luck!
July 29, 2008 at 7:34 am
thanks soldado! It IS difficult and time-consuming task. On the other side I love it: there is so many fascinating things I learned during the last few days while researching for the first post. And I am not even finished with the first post yet!
July 29, 2008 at 8:33 am
You decided to do it! *claps and cheers* I couldn’t think of anybody else better suited for this project
July 29, 2008 at 8:37 am
(Actually wait, I think Shayna would be equal to it as well. But you’re the one with the blog…so…uhm…yeah…
)
July 29, 2008 at 8:53 am
yup there you are right. Shayna would even have an advantage cause her Portuguese is muuuucch better than mine which means she’d have other sources to rely upon, too. And I believe that there are other people out there too who are able to do it, but yeah, somebody has to do it, right? and I like to do it, it is a challenge and it’s fun!
So everybody please tell me if you think there are missing topics I did not write about or if you think I wrote something wrong/not clear enough/too short and so on.
And thanks for the support