Month: September 2025

Reflexões de Salvador: Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Forte da Capoeira
Tuesday’s theme turned out to be Capoeira and began with a visit to the Forte da Capoeira/Forte Santo Antônio.This site is an old fort that has been repurposed into a training space for various Capoeira academies, as well as the location of an exhibit that honors the legacies of Mestres Joao Pequeno and Joao Grande. The exhibit features classic photographs of the two masters playing Capoeira against one another. It also showed several instances of them wielding knives during a certain type of game in Capoeira.

The fort also features a magnificent representation of Ogun that one sees upon entering. Further, it contains a shrine dedicated to him where various visitors left coins as offerings.

Several mestres had spaces in the forte including Mestres Boca Rica, Bola Sete, Curió, Moraes, and Nenel. While there I visited the academies of Mestres Boca Rica and Mestre Curió (the only two open at the time). Each of these mestres’ academies were like museums. The walls of the Mestre Boca Rica’s academy were covered with posters, articles, awards, pictures, and other symbols of his many years in Capoeira. The walls Mestre Curió’s academy featured various representations of Afro-Brazilian religious traditions, Capoeira, and his decades long presence in the art, in addition to two shrines.

I spent a great deal of time visiting with Mestre Boca Rica, as he shared a great deal with me about his life in Capoeira including his travels, awards, various published works featuring him, and the masters that he’s produced. He took great pride in having produced many masters, considering them as a part of his legacy. He expressed his concern about the distortion of Capoeira’s history–particularly among Capoeiristas in the United States–with people denying its African origins. Further, he expressed his commitment to the maintenance of the art’s tradition and authenticity.

He and I also played some Capoeira music and sang songs together. I was so impressed by his generosity with his knowledge and his skill with the instruments, that I asked if I could return the next day to train with him on the various instruments one-on-one. To which he agreed.

Fundação Mestre Bimba
The final activity of the day was a visit to the academy of Mestre Nenel, son of Mestre Bimba and founder of the Função Mestre Bimba and the group Filhos de Bimba. His academy is located in Pelourinha in a small, but dynamic training space.

I arrived to find Mestre Nenel working on making instruments. I greeted him while I waited for class to start. I was soon joined by over a dozen other visitors, most of whom were from other Capoeira groups in the US, who had also come for class.

Class was taught by two of the mestre’s professors, who, due to the size of the group, divided the class into two groups and taught each group one at a time, with one group taking the floor after another. Their method of teaching was exceedingly efficient and made very effective use of the limited space. The highlight of the class however were the two-person drills, which focused on the application of various takedowns to different types of attacks. Despite my nineteen years in Capoeira, this phase of the class was the most interesting and also challenging. Finally, the class ended with a lively and energetic roda.

Reflexões de Salvador: Monday, August 11

Dique do Tororó
On Monday, we visited three locations–a central theme of the first two was the Orixa tradition in Brazil.

The first trip was to the Dique do Tororó features statues of various Orixas including Iansã, Nanã, Ogum, Oxalá, Oxossi, Oxum, Xangô, Iemanjá; in addition to, Ewá, Logun-Edé, Ossain, Oxumaré. This lake was a very inspiring site as it represents the inscription of African knowledges on the spatial environment. This was a constant element of being in Salvador–the seemingly ubiquitous visual representations of Africanness, especially as exemplified by the Orixas.

Further, given that they represent divine forces, elements of nature, social archetypes, and ethical values and practices–the various representations of the Orixas serve as a potent reminder of how people conceive of and celebrate the sacred in their day-to-day lives. Further, they illustrate how African spirituality functions as an anchor of personal and collective identity, as well as how the concepts and values that the Orixa exemplify possess enduring relevance and meaning in the lives of millions of people both in Brazil and around the world.

Museu Afro-Brasileiro-UFBA
Our second trip was to the Afro-Brazilian Museum contained exhibits on Afro-Brazilian spiritual traditions. It included clothes, paraphernalia, furniture, and various objects associated with the rituals and traditions of Candomblé. There were also items present from Nigeria, Benin, Senegal, and other parts of Africa that demonstrated the depth of continuity between Africa and Brazil.

A highlight of this museum was a collection of works by two artists depicting the orixas. One was a collection of carvings by artist Manoel Do Bomfim which, aesthetically, brings to mind art from the Edo Kingdom of Benin. The other collection was a piece titled “Mural dos Orixás” by Carybé (born Julio Paride Bernabó). It featured 27 panels displaying Orixás from both Yoruba (Ioruba) and Ewe-Fon (Jeje) traditions. It was visually striking in its interpolation of materials–wood, metal, shells, and so on. Further, its use of color produced highly evocative pieces that conveyed motion and energy, capturing the profound beauty and complexity of Candomblé.

Associação de Capoeira Angola Navio Negreiro (ACANNE)
That night I ventured out to my first Capoeira class, which was at the Associação de Capoeira Angola Navio Negreiro run by Mestre Renê Bitencourt, a student of Mestre Paulo dos Anjos, who was a student of Mestre Canjiquinha.

Mestre Renê teaches Capoeira Angola as a mindful, ancestral practice. He constantly emphasizes the importance of listening and observing–listeninig to the music and observing the other practitioner with whom one is playing. His emphasis on listening is analogous to something that my teacher, Mestre Preto Velho says, “Stay in time of the motion within the space of the jogo.” In this way, Mestre Renê taught the need to stay focused on what was happening in the jogo, while also reacting accordingly to the other Capoeirista’s actions. In the context of class he also talked about safety and being “calma” (calm) during one’s practice, and I would add, throughout one’s life.

In terms of physicality, Mestre Renê’s class demonstrated that Capoeira Angola is not easier than other styles of Capoeira. While it places less emphasis on acrobatic movement, it is no less demanding in terms of the dexterity, agility, balance, and strength that it requires. Thus, the movements were physically and mentally demanding. Also, like all Angola styles, his was a grounded form of Capoeira wherein we spent most of our time on the floor and a good amount of that time inverted. Further, his approach to teaching emphasized the dynamic and interactive corporeality of Capoeira–the dynamic exchange of movement and intention inherent in the jogo, the game of Capoeira.

Lastly, the energy of the class was phenomenal. In the roda, Mestre Renê demonstrated that Capoeira is about warriorhood–about facing the challenges of life and living head on. Also, the atmosphere of the class, the community which pervaded the group was palpable. This also reflects the point that one enters into the practice of Capoeira via physical movement, but movement should not be perceived as the totality of the art. It is a practice focused on preparing one to experience life itself.

Reflexões de Salvador: Sunday, August 10, 2025

Our third museum trip was on Sunday to the Cidade da Música da Bahia. This museum featured exhibits that celebrated the music of Salvador, and especially from Afro-Brazilians across the city’s various neighborhoods.

Salvador’s culturally rich neighborhoods were a central feature. Different video stations played documentary footage of key performers from various parts of the city. These artists’ work was discussed in the context of broader historical dynamics–shaping Salvador in recent history.

The group Ilê Aiyê was a central feature–as their music, in its artistically rich celebration of Afro-Brazilian culture, highlighted the ways in which African traditions, those from centuries past and those which are being (re)discovered and reintegrated, have left an indelible impact on local artists.

Additionally, various forms of traditional instruments were featured. Patrons had the opportunity to play some of these instruments. Further, a member of the museum staff gave a dynamic presentation on these instruments along with a storytelling demonstration.