Capoiera

Capoeira is the common name for the group of African martial arts that came out of west Africa and were modified and mixed in Brazil. These original styles included weapons, grappling and striking as well as animal forms that became incorporated into different components and sub styles of the art. In 1500's the Portuguese, led by explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral, arrived in Brazil. One of the first measures taken by the new arrivals was the conquering of the local population, the Brazilian Indians, in order to allow the Portuguese slave labor (for sugarcane and cotton). The experience with the Indians was a failure. The Indians quickly died in captivity or fled to their nearby homes. The Portuguese then began to import slave labor from Africa. On the other side of the Atlantic, free men and women were captured, loaded onto slave ships and sent on nightmare voyages that would end in bondage. The Africans first arrived by the hundreds and later by the thousands (approximately four million in total). Three major African groups contributed in large numbers to the slave population in Brazil, the Sudanese group, composed largely of Yoruba and Dahomean peoples, the Mohammedanized Guinea-Sudanese groups of Malesian and Hausa peoples, and the "Bantu" groups (among them Kongos, Kimbundas, and Kasanjes) from Angola, Congo and Mozambique. The Bantu groups are believed to have been the foundation for the birth of capoeira. They brought with them their culture; a culture that was not stored in books and museums but in the body, mind, heart and soul. A culture that was transmitted from father to son, throughout generations.