Batuque
Batuque is, according to IPHAN, an old tradition of combat in which two players in a circle fight with sweeps and rasteiras. According to IPHAN, the father of Mestre Bimba also played it.
Quick Facts
BrazilCharacter & Origin
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Batuque
According to IPHAN (2007), batuque is an old tradition of rivalry and fighting in which two players gathered in a circle, the roda, face each other in a duel based on pernadas and rasteiras. Edison Carneiro (1936) writes that the term batuque here means a peculiar Black-fetishist fight of Bantu origin, which according to him still existed at that time in the Bahian Recôncavo. Green (2001) describes it as a rough game of kicks and trips with obvious fighting features. The word batuque also denotes Afro-Brazilian drum dances and the religion Batuque in Rio Grande do Sul, and Carneiro explicitly specifies that he means a peculiar fight here. We have not found the founder or the year of origin in the sources.
Read more
According to IPHAN, one of the players clamped both legs together and stood motionless, while the other tried to knock him off balance with blows. According to IPHAN, the accompaniment consisted of songs rhythmed by clapping, a drum and a pandeiro. According to IPHAN, many practitioners of Bahian street capoeira in the First Republic had ties to candomblé, samba and batuque. Souza (2023) states that the police persecuted batuque as they did capoeira. According to IPHAN, the father of Mestre Bimba was a practitioner of batuque, and Reis (2009) writes that Luiz Cândido Machado was a well-known batuqueiro. Souza (2023) cites Campos (2009), according to whom Bimba created Capoeira Regional from the capoeira of Mestre Bentinho and from batuque, in which his father was an outstanding fighter. Green (2001) likewise writes about influences of batuque on Bimba's system through his father.
History
Antônio Vianna, according to IPHAN (2007), gives one of the rare descriptions of batuque as a fight, in which its link with capoeira is visible, set in the port of Salvador, especially Cais Dourado, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Reis (2009), citing Dias (2006), states that at a festival by the steps of Cais Dourado the space for samba, batuque and capoeira was fenced off with a wooden railing against intruders. Porters, carters, dockworkers and bricklayers waiting at the street corner for work, according to Reis, spent their time with capoeira, batuque and jogo de búzios. Edison Carneiro (1936) classes batuque, together with capoeira and samba, among the Bantu folk pastimes of Bahia, and according to him the Bantu came mainly from Angola. The study on the Bantu in Bahia that he promises in that book he published as Negros bantus in 1937. On the Monday of the Senhor do Bonfim festival in Salvador, according to Carneiro, there were capoeiras, sambas and batucadas, and earlier also rodas de batuque. Souza (2023) states that batuque, like capoeira, was persecuted by the police.
How it differs
According to IPHAN (2007), Capoeira Regional was meant to emphasize combat effectiveness and mixed the movements of the old capoeira, known as capoeira angola, with batuque and above all with movements of other martial arts, for example jiu-jitsu. Souza (2023), citing Waldeloir Rego, writes that Bimba brought into Regional the strikes of batuque together with the choreographies of maculelê and other fights, so that together they made up 52 strikes. In Bahia, according to Carneiro (1977) as cited by Souza (2023), capoeira had features of batuque, whereas in Rio de Janeiro it was pernada, banda or batuque. IPHAN cites the claim that capoeira de angola gave rise not only to the passo but also to the Carioca pernada. English Wikipedia describes pernada as a counterpart of batuque, popular in Rio de Janeiro at about the same time.
Technique
According to IPHAN (2007), one of the players braced both legs firmly and stood motionless. The other tried to knock him off balance with blows, and the defender tried to hold his place, not fall and not leave his base. Souza (2023), citing Campos (2009), describes batuque as a fight played with the feet to bring the opponent down. The attacker, according to IPHAN, tried to unbalance the opponent with sweeps and rasteiras. According to English Wikipedia, citing Assunção (2005), the techniques rapa, baú, banda lisa and encruzilhada were used to unbalance the opponent. The same Wikipedia, citing Desch-Obi (2008), writes that the attacker made a single decisive attempt to bring the defender down with the hips and that the defender had his feet turned inward. According to IPHAN, the accompaniment was songs rhythmized by clapping, a drum and a pandeiro. The berimbau and a scraper as further instruments are given only by English Wikipedia, citing Carneiro via Desch-Obi.
Did you know
Reis (2009) cites a poem by Manuel Rozentino of Itaparica, who died in 1897, in which the Bahian capoeira player is called the terror of batuque and a troublemaker. Bimba's mother Maria Martina do Bonfim was also, according to Reis, a batuqueira from Cachoeira. According to the same author, she bet that she would give birth to a girl, and the midwife triumphantly cried that it was a boy, let them look at his bimba. According to English Wikipedia, which refers to Assunção (2005), batuque was a martial game of predominantly Angolan origin, and the champions of batuque in Brazil were Angolans. One of the most famous players was, according to the same Wikipedia, Angolinha. A great batuqueiro and one of the last who preserved this art was, according to Wikipedia, Mestre Tiburcinho.
Frequently asked questions
How was batuque played?
According to IPHAN (2007), two players faced each other in a circle, one clamped his legs together and stood motionless, and the other tried to knock him off balance with sweeps and rasteiras.
What connection does batuque have with Mestre Bimba?
Mestre Bimba's father was, according to IPHAN (2007), a practitioner of batuque, and according to Campos (2009), as cited by Souza (2023), Bimba drew on batuque when creating Capoeira Regional.
Is batuque the same as pernada?
According to Carneiro, as cited by Souza (2023), capoeira in Bahia had features of batuque, whereas in Rio de Janeiro it was pernada, banda or batuque.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.