Although capoeira developed in Brazil, it has unmistakably African roots. Have you ever wondered if anyone practices capoeira on the African continent today?
The answer is yes!
Check out this overview of some of the groups currently playing the brincadeira de angola in Morroco, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Mozambique, South Africa, Guinea, and Senegal.
From the Senzala Uganda website :
The Senzala Group in Kampala (Uganda), was started in 2005 by Andreas Salomonsen (Prof. Piriquito), a Capoeira student who was based there for 2 years while working for an international aid organisation.
During the first couple of months, Andreas taught Capoeira in a home for street children. Eventually he moved the venue to a local Youth Centre in order to expose Capoeira to more Ugandans. Over the next two years the group grew steadily and was joined by a Brazilian, Rogerio Mobilia, and Canadian, Adrienne MacDonald, who had done Capoeira in their respective homelands, and who assisted Andreas in teaching the group twice a week.
Within a relatively short time, Andreas and the group were invited to make several presentations and demonstration about Capoeira in such places as Kabira International School, Katch the Sun Restaurant, and Sharing Youth Centre’s Annual Youth Festival. A short programme about Capoeira in Kampala was also broadcasted on national television during that time. At the end of the two years, the group had grown to approximately 20 – 25 regular students.
When Andreas left Uganda in 2007, Adrienne took over the teaching of the group for a few months before her contract ended and she left the country as well. Since then the group has continued on its own with the responsibility of teaching handed over to a group of 4 dedicated, Ugandan students (Hedson, Charles, Samson and Godson).
From the Capoeira Folha Seca Zimbabwe website :
We caught up to founding member and instructor, Farai Q. Moyo who gave us his account of how Capoeira came to be in Harare, Zimbabwe.
“Once upon a time a Zimbabwean fellow called Bheku (“Manga”) went to the University of Cape Town, to study, and there discovered Capoeira. His experiences there are his to tell, but he found that returning to a Zimbabwe without Capoeira was a rather sad experience. His luck turned when he met two expatriates – Florence who was French and Elisenda who was Austrian – both of whom were passionate about Capoeira but had the same problem. Try as they might, they never did find more capoeiristas, though news about them did get around, somewhat…
…And so the Zimbabwe story begins in 2003 when the word reached a local lad (me) – who was not about to let pass an opportunity to learn (having learned to recognize Capoeira through its surprisingly numerous occurrences in film and video games since the rather bad movie “Only the Strong” which predominantly featured Capoeira) – sought [Bheku] out and asked if he could learn his art. After some time, an agreement was reached and my friends and I got together to receive instruction, first under Bheku whom all-too-soon had to leave Zimbabwe, but left us in the very capable hands of Elisenda and Florence. One thing led to another (hired venue, more people…) and before you could say a really long tongue twister, Zimbabwe had its first Capoeira club!
…Sadly, of the founding members, only two remain in the country. With people often leaving Zimbabwe for one reason or another, the group has changed faces many times over. Still our group continues to develop and hope that one day we will all meet again and have a huuge roda with so much axé that a Capoeira mestre will sense it from a distance and feel compelled to come and stay among us.”
From the FICA-DC blog :
“Mestre Jurandir has been traveling to Mozambique for the past four years to support a study group there. Surprisingly, there are not many Capoeira Angola groups in Africa. In Maputo we counted 2 groups, and in South Africa heard of no groups that played only capoeira angola. The group of boys who follow Mestre Jurandir in Maputo met him on his first visit there and in the classic way that angoleiros fall in love and leave all their other lovers they immediately decided that no matter what Mestre thought he was going to be their Mestre and they were going to train only angola.
The group is large for an angola group with 15-20 people, mostly young men under 20, and there were only 2 girls who had just started training when we got there. Their talent is amazing. Boys with less than a year, or a year and a half in capoeira playing so well, with so much mandinga. They have a wonderful group of kids.”
Casa da Capoeira is located in South Africa. From their website :
Lucas Mthenjane established capoeira in Gauteng when he formed Casa da Capoeira over 10 years ago. Since then the school has grown in leaps and bounds.
Currently under the guidance of Paulo Palinhos, Lucas Mthenjane, Salles Guambe and Hugo Soeiro, the school now has a strong presence in Gauteng and Cape Town and under the banner of Capoeira Sporting Federation of Rio de Janeiro (FCDRJ) has also cemented significant relationships with other legitimate capoeira schools around the country. In addition, the school co-founded AAFRICAP, an association of Capoeira academies in Africa, with Durban’s Capoeira na Praia.
Casa da Capoeira recently held its third official grading, which saw Paulo graded to Mestre and Lucas and Salles graded to Contramestre. Hugo was graded to Professor.
To date, Casa da Capoeira has been fortunate enough to be visited by great Mestres such as Mestre Bogado, Mestre Aldo, Mestre Gigante, Mestre Joãozinho and Mestre Jurandir. Being relatively isolated from capoeira world, each and every Mestre has been welcomed with open arms and their workshops have been met with gusto – we at Casa da Capoeira are thirsty for Capoeira knowledge.
The Capoeira in West Africa Project operates in Guinea since 2002 and Senegal since 2005, teaching the art to over 150 young people. The groups are supervised by Aruera and Adao, students of Ginga Nagô under Mestre Branco. In addition to capoeira classes, the project sponsors festivals and literacy programs.
Check out their gallery of videos - and if you want more, explore Aruera’s YouTube channel.
From Capoeira Na Praia’s MySpace profile :
Capoeira Na Praia is Durban’s first and foremost Capoeira Group and strives to promote the art and its Afro-Brazilian heritage within KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa. As well as offering public classes we are also affiliated to the University of KwaZulu Natal where classes are taught to UKZN students twice weekly.
The group runs several Outreach Projects. These include:
- The Mason Lincoln Special School for physically challenged learners – Weekly Lessons Taught (Since 2004)
- The Umthombo Street Team- Lessons taught weekly to the children of Durban’s streets.(Since 2006)
- Other projects include work with the Wentworth Arts and Cultural Organisation and the Life Check Youth Development Initiative.
Here is a short video of their roda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00nWCx7JovQ
Capoeira Terranossa is run by Amilcar Martins, also known as Descobridor (Discoverer). He writes: “I started Capoeira when I was 18 years of age with Mestre Luizinho Barravento of Zambiacongo Capoeira Group in Australia. With the advantage of being in a neutral group as Zambiacongo, I was able to train and meet other Schools and Mestres from around the world. I traveled extensively to Brazil, the United States of America, England, Spain, and Portugal to mention a few. Once Zambiacongo’s right-hand man to Mestre Luizinho on the Gold Coast, I bring plenty of experience to South Africa and the Terranossa Capoeira Group. Now a member of FCDRJ, and under the support of Mestre Evaldo Bogado de Almeida, I head the Terranossa Capoeira Group in South Africa.”
Capoeira Muzenza Morocco’s website is under construction, but they do have an online forum here (in French). This group is under the supervision of Mestre Burgues and Instrutor Mola.
The story of the beginning of the capoeira group at the University of Cape Town sounds like my own college club!
“UCT Capoeira initially started in Observatory, where some UCT students were training Capoeira. Other students expressed interest in starting a Club at UCT and thus classes were held once a week on a Saturday for those interested in learning. Through the years UCT Capoeira has grown tremendously and passionate students to the art form have helped promote its existence.”
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