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What is Capoeira

Capoeira is a Mar­tial Sci­ence that was devel­oped in Brasil by African Slaves over 500yrs ago to fight oppres­sion. It is believed that the Slaves des­guised this art as a dance to pre­vent the Slave-masters from dis­cov­er­ing that the slaves could in fact phys­i­cally defend themselves.

Capoeira was so well des­guised with the instru­ments and music, the dance ele­ment and other assets that to this day it is still arguable whether Capoeira is a mar­tial Art. The funny thing is the con­fu­sion is not only between non-Capoeira prac­ti­tion­ers but Capoeristas(Capoeira practitioners)as well.

The history

Capoeira is a Mar­tial art ini­tially devel­oped by African slaves in Brazil dur­ing the colo­nial period. Around 1500, Por­tu­gal shipped slaves into south Amer­ica from West­ern Africa. Brazil was the largest con­trib­u­tor to slave migra­tion with at least 42% of all... read more

The quilombos

With the dis­cov­ery of gold in the state of Minas Gerais in 1763, the colo­nial cap­i­tal of Brazil was trans­ferred from Bahia to Rio de Janeiro and was renamed the Cap­i­tal do Vice — Reino do Brazil, or the vice king­dom of Brazil’s Cap­i­tal. Dur­ing this time, man... read more

The timeline

1500: Pedro Alves Cabral, a Por­tuguese explorer, claims the land that became Brasil for the Por­tuguese crown. The Por­tuguese rapidly start trans­port­ing enslaved African peo­ple to the new colony. 1500 Pedro Alves Cabral, a Por­tuguese explorer, clai... read more