Maya Talmon-Chvaicer
Email: mtalmon@research.haifa.ac.il

Mandinga in the capoeira

Capoeira is a Brazilian martial dance termed a game (jogo de capoeira) by the participants, which is taught today in schools, universities, and private studios as a sport, and is considered Brazil’s national sport. At the turn of the nineteenth century the capoeiras (those who participated in the capoeira) were slaves from various African ethnic groups, from different regions, who spoke different languages. This is the reason most contemporary participants and scholars view slavery as the sole unifying denominator of the capoeiras, and therefore believe that capoeira was created in Brazil. Even though everyone recognizes the fact that the capoeira was developed by West Central African slaves, in the public’s and the scholars’ consciousness the connection with Africa seems to have been severed. They distinguish between the abstract and distant source, African slaves, and the still developing product, the Brazilian capoeira.
The aim of this paper is to show that the philosophy on which capoeira is based is clearly Bantu. I will show that in practice the memory of Bantu traditions has been preserved, but that Bantu-Kongo philosophy as a complex of interrelated components has been forgotten. Many scholars have noticed that there is, or at least there used to be, a kernel of witchcraft (mandinga) in the capoeira . Some think it has to do with the use of the musical instrument, the berimbau. Others pointed out that the ladainha, a song customarily sung before entering the circle, was perceived as an appeal to the gods, adding a touch of mysticism to the ritual. Many investigators perceive the movement of touching the ground as equivalent to drawing signs in the dust, and consider the practice of kissing the hands of the contestants, crossing oneself and praying as a reminder of long forgotten traditions, and evidence of Bantu traditions of asking for divine blessing or God’s help, and for increased fortitude during the battle. In present day capoeira a clear and consistent order of rituals is observed, starting with the arrival of the musicians, who call upon the participants to make a circle. The first two contestants kneel in front of the berimbau, the soloist sings the ladainha, which today is a song praising God or commemorating a highly-admired mestre. This is followed by an entrance song (canto de entrada), after which the master allows the players, using the berimbau, to begin the battle. Having prayed, the participants enter the circle in the customary tumbling stunt, the roll (au), and begin practicing. While current rituals prevalent among the capoeiras are identified with Bantu traditions, rituals have apparently lost the insight that they are part of a world view, which must constitute a whole in order to create the mystical aura that is currently missing.
Explanations and interpretations of these traditions seem to have been forgotten in the course of time and Brazilian national ideas are now used to explain the nature of the ritual. The “new” founding myths associate capoeira to slaves and slavery by using Catholic-Portuguese terms and ignoring Bantu traditions, thus they create new “memory” seemingly disassociated from the capoeira origin land --- Congo-Angola.

- The berimbau is one-string musical arc with resonance box. The most important musical instrument in the roda.
- The Bakongo believe that the combined force of drawing symbolic signs on the ground and singing ki-kongo words invoke God and the ancestors and will result in appearance of the other world ‘s power upon that signed ground.