Here at Bantu, we serve and empower children and families in our island community through Capoeira, digital literacy, nutritious meals, and more. Our impact is real, but extreme poverty persists.
So I’m inviting you to join our Bantu and You sustainability campaign.
Today I’ll tell you about the easiest way you can help: Did you know that if you’re in a more resource-abundant region like the USA, Europe, or Australia, a small monthly donation will create a huge impact here in Brazil. A few dollars or euros, like the price of a coffee in your country, can help cover essentials like electricity and internet, provide bus tickets for our volunteers, or meals for hungry children.
Just like with Capoeira, we’re all in this together. When you donate, you join our Bantu family and help to change the world. Are you ready to make a difference? Tell us in the comments, sign up to donate, and help spread the word. And stay tuned for more ways to join us. Thank you!
Now, I’m VERY EXCITED to show you my 1st guest blog, written by my friend, and fellow capoeirista LIZA BERNSTEIN. This is first of a 2-part series, where she writes about a couple of things we’re learning in Mestre Roxinho’s online class.
Since the workshops Mestre Roxinho led here in Los Angeles earlier this year, some of us have been meeting with him for online classes. Recently he gave us the assignment to learn, reflect on, and discuss one of Mestre Bigodinho’s ladainhas.
But wait, who is or was Mestre Bigodinho?
We’ve been getting to know Mestre Roxinho, and my take is that answering that question was likely one of his tricky reasons for giving us the assignment in the first place.
Out here in LA, many in our Capoeira Angola community know the lineage that connects us to Mestre Pastinha, through Mestre João Grande (that’s my direct lineage, and John’s too). And many of us learned that Mestre João Grande and Mestre João Pequeno were the two students to whom Mestre Pastinha entrusted his legacy. But what about other leading Angoleiro Elders, whether peers or students of Mestre Pastinha or not? Some whose names and impact are familiar to most of us include Mestres Waldemar da Paixão, Canjiquinha, Curió, and Boca Rica.
Well, Mestre Bigodinho belongs on that list! To learn more about him, if you read Portuguese, check out this post which looks like it was translated into English here. And, watch Mestre Lua Rasta’s documentary, Tributo a Mestre Bigodinho which includes them in conversation, as well as scenes from the tribute to Mestre Bigodinho, plus footage and discussion of Capoeira Angola and related art forms of Samba de Roda, Maculelê, Burrinha, and Nego Fugido.
Known for his musical talent, both in Capoeira and Samba de Roda, Mestre Bigodinho imparted his wisdom through the oral tradition, and in particular the ladainhas he composed. In Part 2 of this series, we’ll talk about the one we studied with Mestre Roxinho.
Until then, enjoy Mestre Bigodinho singing while Mestre Boca Rica and a camarada play a magnificent example of what some might call the “Old Man’s Game” of Capoeira Angola.
In this post, I want to talk about the roots of capoeira. This is going to be the first in a blog series talking about this subject.
Check this out:
What you see above is a demonstration of engolo and kandeka, 2 martial arts from angola that Capoeira is derived from.
But are they the true roots of Capoeira?
Well, I say Yes… and No.
The reason I say so is that I believe that what it takes for a marital art to develop is the unique times, the terrain, and the unique cultures and worldview of the poeple who created it.
In the case of Capoeira, that is the Afro-Brazilian people.
Sure, engolo and other martial sciences from west africa have had their input in the creation of capoeira, but when enslaved africans were taken to other parts of the western hemisphere, different martial arts evolved which had similarities to capoeira, but were different due to the times, terrain, and the cultures and world views of those places.
In my opinion, there is only ONE place where capoeira as we know it, with it’s rituals, it’s fighting strategy, it’s music, etc. could have evolved, and that is Bahia, Brazil.
The afro brazilian people there developed a unique culture that birthed many cultural expressions that are loved and celebrated worldwide, like Samba, Maculele, Puxada de Rede, etc.
And Capoeira is one of those expressions.
In the future, I will post more about samba and the other cultural expressions of the Afro-Brazilian people, which I believe are the TRUE ROOTS of capoeira.
Now, I would like to introduce to to a very special city, One of the few places I want to go before I die…
Well, like the title says, I’m gonna start a blog series called, “The roots of Capoeira Angola”.
But before I do that, I want you to watch this video I posted here, from “THE PROFESSOR”.
So, you guys may be wondering, “Why post a couple of about Hip-Hop history?”
“What the hell does this have to do with Capoeira?”
Well, I’ll tell you.
This video on Hip Hop history has many parallels with the many arguments about the history of capoeira going around.
From the time that our African ancestors were brought here to this hemisphere, there has always been a tendency from non-afro descendants to “creolize”, Co opt, and claim as their own anything that was created by blacks, or came from African culture, while at the same time, demonizing the very same black people who created it.
It’s like there’s a HUGE aversion out there for people to admit or acknowledge that African descended people could create or maintain a cultural practice on their own, without the help or “input” from other cultures.
I also explained that for a long time now, there has been a HUGE DEBATE about Capoeira’s origins, which I believe is because “certain entities” in the capoeira “universe” as it is, want to give a capoeira a more “Universally Brazilian” origin, and to push the African roots aside, and worse yet, to DENY them, in order to give them a sense of “ownership” to the art, to justify taking control of how it’s taught and practiced, and to try and deny the actual descendants of the art’s creators to have much real power in capoeira.
I said elsewhere on this blog that for far too long, other cultures have been taking over the narrative of my ancestor’s history and culture, and controlled what the world thinks about us.
That applies to Capoeira, that applies to Hip Hop, and EVERY other cultural manifestation that African Diasporic people has “gifted” to the world.
Now that Capoeira in it’s many forms has spread around the world, It’s now very important that WE African descended people take back control of OUR STORY here in the Americas. Hopefully, this series I’m creating will help out in this mission.
I don’t know how long this series will be, it could be 100 posts or more, or it could be just 1 post. But, I’m looking forward to starting this journey, as much as I hope you’re looking forward to reading it.
About a week ago or so, I posted a video with this picture in the title:
And I urged us all to learn our history so that we can tell our own story to the world.
Let me tell you why.
For about a week now, this video, and responses to it, have been popping up on my YouTube feed.
This video has JUST ENOUGH truth in it for someone who hasn’t studied the history of the transatlantic slave trade in depth to find what was said in the video to be plausible. But someone who has studied the history of the transatlantic slave trade will also find a thick layer of Bull@%*t layered in with it to wonder what exactly the producers of that video was smoking when they made it.
Now, I’m not gonna go into the obvious half-truths and outright lies in this video. However, if you click HERE, you can watch a video which does.
This blog entry is NOT about the above video. I only posted it here to show you what happens when we let the powers that be write our history for us.
Because when they write our history for us, they tend to leave important things out of OUR HISTORY.
Like this….
And this…
Look, in the last blog I wrote about this subject, and elsewhere on this website, I included this video.
And also elsewhere on this website, I wrote these words under this video:
Although the great Continent of Africa has it’s problems just like everywhere else, the fact is that many great ancient civilizations came from Africa, which in their day, and even to this day, were just as splendid and glorious as any other great civilization on the face of the earth. And, the people of africa and the african diaspora have made many contributions to the western world…
And under those words, I also included this video:
Now, let me say this AGAIN…
We children of Africa cannot depend on others to write our history for us.
WE MUST write our history.
WE MUST tell our own stories.
WE MUST take control of the narrative, and show the rest of the world WHO WE ARE.
Jogo Corpo Fechado 