Capoeira Angola
A style of capoeira associated with Mestre Pastinha, who registered the CECA school in Salvador in 1941. Slower rhythm, emphasis on music, training in shoes.
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About Capoeira Angola
Capoeira Angola is a style of capoeira that established itself as a school in Salvador, Bahia, in the 1940s. It is associated with Vicente Ferreira Pastinha, known as Mestre Pastinha (1889–1981), whom sources describe as the codifier of the traditional style, not its inventor. According to the Belo Horizonte city office, his Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola was the first Angola school in Brazil, and sources give the year of its founding differently. As a school it arose roughly ten years later than Regional and aims at a more traditional practice.
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Pastinha built on the slower rhythm of angola, and his school emphasised musicality and self-expression instead of fighting effectiveness and athleticism. The game is played in a circle accompanied by a bateria with three berimbau, two pandeiro, atabaque, agogô and ganzuá. Angoleiros train in shoes, and around 1950 Pastinha introduced the colours yellow and black, while some later mestres wear white. Angola has no system of coloured cords, but in his centre Pastinha introduced the roles of instructors, contramestres and mestres. Pastinha's main students include João Grande and João Pequeno, and in 1966 he travelled with a delegation to the festival of Black arts in Dakar. In the 1970s the style lost popularity and from 1985 it revived, and the revival includes Grupo Capoeira Angola Pelourinho, which Mestre Moraes founded in Rio in 1980 and moved to Salvador in 1982. The anthropologist Alejandro Frigerio describes Angola as an art and Regional as a sport, and Nestor Capoeira sees Angola's emphasis on authenticity as an invented tradition.
History
Capoeira Angola established itself as a school within capoeira in the 1940s, roughly ten years after Regional. The Brazilian government banned capoeira itself until the early 20th century, and in 2014 UNESCO inscribed the capoeira circle on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The style is associated with Vicente Ferreira Pastinha, known as Mestre Pastinha (5 April 1889 Salvador – 13 November 1981). Sources describe him as the codifier of the traditional style, not its inventor. In 1941 the older masters of Angola entrusted him with leading the centre in Liberdade. Sources give the founding year of the Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola (CECA) differently, 1941 or 1949, and the Belo Horizonte city office places its founding in Pelourinho in Salvador in 1952. In 1966 he travelled with the Brazilian delegation to the first international festival of Black arts in Dakar. His main students include João Grande and João Pequeno. In the 1970s the angoleiros resisted efforts to unify capoeira as a Brazilian national sport, many switched to Regional, and Angola lost popularity. From 1985 it revived with new students. The revival includes Pedro Moraes Trindade, Mestre Moraes, who founded Grupo Capoeira Angola Pelourinho (GCAP) in Rio de Janeiro in 1980 and moved its seat to Salvador in 1982.
How it differs
According to the dossier of Brazil's agency IPHAN, Mestre Bimba presented his Regional as a Brazilian martial art, whereas Angola masters stress African origin. According to Schimith, Pastinha named his style Angola to protect transmission from the ancestors and distinguish it from Bimba's changes, and forbade students to play barefoot or shirtless. Barreto of the Federal University of Bahia describes Regional as a faster, more combative, mostly upright game in which music plays a secondary role, whereas Angola has slower and faster phases, low play with hands on the ground, and music that sets the tempo. According to Ramos (2009), angoleiros train in shoes and ordinary clothing, in Regional barefoot. According to Lott, Grão Mestre Chico says Regional is merely faster and Bimba changed a single passage, where Regional goes forward and Angola retreats. The third current, capoeira contemporânea, mixes elements of Regional and Angola, according to Fonseca (2010). An example is the group Senzala, formed in Rio in 1964, which according to the IPHAN dossier combined Bimba's teaching with Angola's movements and instruments.
Technique
Britannica says capoeira in general avoids attacks by dodging and acrobatics instead of blocking, and that flexibility, speed and malícia, that is cunning, matter more than strength. Angola adds low play, jogo baixo. According to João da Mata it is played mainly near the ground, with hands and feet in constant contact with the floor. Wanessa Pires Lott describes low sweeps and defence with bent legs and a lowered torso. According to da Mata, mandinga is not magic but a strategy of cunning, improvisation and surprise. According to a study by Nonato and Palhares (2021), Pastinha taught that a strike should not be rushed and should land only when the chance of missing is smallest. At Mestre João Grande's academy they practise, among other things, rabo de arraia, chapa, cabeçada, a short aú, a low tesoura and rolê. A distinction is made between jogo de dentro, close, low and more cunning play, and jogo de fora in higher positions with escapes. From Pastinha's manuscripts, the historian Mauricio Acuña quotes a description of the ginga as a fluid and very flexible movement.
Training
Before the nineteen-thirties and nineteen-forties, according to Goulart (2018), students learned by observing and taking part in rodas without a fixed method, and Pastinha introduced organised training with set times and places at CECA. His student João Pequeno became an instructor (treinel) around 1945 and proposed a ten-part set of basic movements and conditioning exercises which he says prepares a person for the roda in about three months. In his academy, training days alternated with roda days. According to the American endowment NEA, Mestre João Grande includes half an hour of music training in every class, and students must learn to play all the instruments. After training comes a seated music part where students sing and play the rhythms São Bento Grande, Angola and Jogo de Dentro. According to research from 2010 to 2020, the GCAP group had two to three training sessions and one roda a week, and learns orally and face to face.
Ranks and progression
Angola has no system of coloured cords. According to Ramos (2009), it has no formally recognised hierarchy and a mestre earns his community's respect, whereas Regional uses grades with coloured cordões. However, according to Schimith, Pastinha introduced in his centre the roles of instructors (trenel), orchestra members, contramestres and mestres. Coloured cords began to be used in groups in the second half of the 20th century, partly through efforts to have capoeira recognised as a sport, and in 1972 capoeira was recognised as a sport under the Brazilian Boxing Confederation. According to UNESCO, the title of mestre is a matter of recognition: knowledge is passed on by masters trained in the tradition, whom their peers recognise as masters. Mestre João Grande received a diploma from Pastinha's academy in 1968.
Gear
Around 1950 Pastinha introduced yellow-and-black colors as the emblem of his Angola, the colors of his favorite club Ypiranga. Some later mestres switched to pure white clothing. Angoleiros train in shoes, unlike many other groups that play barefoot. The music ensemble called the bateria typically has in Angola today three berimbau, two pandeiro, one atabaque, one agogô and one ganzuá. In the older lineup, which settled apparently in the sixties of the 20th century, a reco-reco stood in place of the ganzuá.
Today
Angola was established as a school roughly ten years later than Regional and strives for a more traditional practice. Pastinha built on the slower angola rhythm, while Mestre Bimba preferred São Bento Grande. Pastinha’s Angola adopted an Afrocentric approach focused on musicality and self-expression instead of an emphasis on fighting effectiveness and athleticism, and Pastinha rejected Bimba’s innovations. Angoleiros perceive the martelo kick as adopted from other martial arts. The anthropologist Alejandro Frigerio describes Angola as an art and Regional as a sport. Nestor Capoeira sees Angola’s emphasis on authenticity as an invented tradition. Sandra Pelegrini in the journal História (2008) states that Pastinha claimed an African origin of capoeira, whereas Bimba a Brazilian one.
Did you know
Pastinha was born on 5 April 1889 in Salvador, the son of a Spanish merchant and a former slave woman. According to the Belo Horizonte city office, he learned capoeira from childhood from the freed African Benedito, in 1902 he entered the naval apprentice school, where he took up fencing and guitar playing, and at 21 he began teaching capoeira, although the penal code prohibited it. The book Capoeira Angola was published in 1964, according to another source 1965, with a cover by Carybé and text by Jorge Amado. Pastinha's manuscripts were published in 1997 as A Herança de Pastinha, and the CECA enrolment book with more than three hundred members is now in the Afro-Brazilian Museum of Bahia. In 2001 Mestre João Grande received the American award NEA National Heritage Fellowship, and he has taught in New York since 1990. According to the IPHAN dossier, Mestre Waldemar's painted berimbau became a symbol of Bahian identity in the nineteen-fifties. According to UNESCO, capoeira is practised in more than 150 countries.
Frequently asked questions
What is capoeira angola?
Capoeira Angola is the traditional style of capoeira associated with Mestre Pastinha of Salvador, Bahia. The American NEA describes it as a blend of music, dance, martial art, ritual and belief, played by two players in a circle of musicians with the berimbau. The game is at times low, close to the ground, and according to experts the music sets its tempo.
What is the difference between capoeira angola and regional?
Regional was created by Mestre Bimba as a faster, more combative, mostly upright game with colored cords and barefoot training. According to scholarly texts, Angola is a low game with the music in the center and an emphasis on cunning (malícia), practiced in shoes and without a cord system.
Who was Mestre Pastinha?
Vicente Ferreira Pastinha (1889–1981) was a Bahian mestre who led the Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola in Salvador, according to the Belo Horizonte city office the first Angola school in Brazil. In 1966 he led the Angola group at the first World Festival of Black Arts in Dakar. Sources call him the codifier of the traditional style.
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