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Some time ago, I posted a blog called, "WHEN CAPOEIRA STOPS BEING NICE, AND STARTS GETTING REAL".

In that post, I touched a little bit on Capoeira's history. And now, I thought I'd expand on it a little bit.

And speaking of capoeira history, Head Coach Ras of ATACXGYM CAPOEIRA has written an EPIC eye-opening blog detailing the African origins of capoeira, putting together a HUGE amount of information in a way that has never been before.

------------CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT------------

I said before that, for a long time now, there has been a HUGE debate surrounding Capoeira's origins.

These links are usually what is said all over the world about Capoeira's history, the "party-line", if you will.

http://muzenza.com.br/2013/historia/ngolo-ou-danca-da-zebra/

http://www.capoeiramuzenza.co.uk/history.htm

http://muzenzatraining.co.uk/wordpress/home-wts/about-capoeira/history/

This is a bit more detailed than others I've seen on the web, but if you ask most capoeirisats, THIS is the kind of history you'll get, or something similar. However, this historical analysis is... incomplete (Yeah, that's how I'll put it), drawing largely upon the propaganda created by the government just before the Dictator, then President Getulio Vargas and the propaganda of Vargas's regime. The brazilian government of that time was trying to deny the African creators, practitioners, and culture of capoeira, and replace it with the lies and fabrications that many brazilians believe are true today.

For instance, Many capoeristas all over the world think that Capoeira is an indigenous brazilian word, taken from the Tupi/Guarani word, "Caam-Puera", which means "cleared land with tall grass", or something. Apparently, it's where slaves in brazil would gather to practice their martial arts.

This might actually be true. But personally, I think it's a load of bullshit.

I think it's just another myth being pushed for many years by the larger capoeira organizations to give a capoeira a more "brazilian" origin, and to push the african roots aside, and worse yet, to deny capoeira's african roots, and 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 TRUE descendants of the art's creators to have much real power in the capoeira "world", as it will.

I believe that Capoeira is an African word. I think that "Capoeira" is most probably a portugese pronounciation of the Ndongo word, "Kapwera", which I have read, means "to fight, to struggle."

Why? Well, to be honest, the african definition of the word Capoeira makes more sense to me. Remember ... What became capoeira was born before the time of slavery, and during the time of slavery, many warriors fought for the freedom and dignity of ALL people with capoeira.



My friends, capoeiristas are warriors, before we are anything else.

WHEREVER WE COME FROM.



This was all part of a larger government policy followed in one way or another by almost all of the governments in Latin America at that time, collectively called BLANQEAMIENTO (EMBRANQUECIMENTO IN PORTUGUESE).

For more information about the problem of race and racism in brazil, I recommend you read the article titled "How is brazil racist? Let me count the ways," by Mark Wells.

------------CLICK HERE TO READ IT------------

Like I said before, Capoeira's roots can be traced back to african people for anybody who wants to look honestly for them. Capoeira's true African roots are out there, but historically, it has often times been conveniently overlooked if it supports information for the african argument.

This is nothing new. These myths sprang up at a time in brazil (And the rest of the western world), when african people could NEVER be credited wit the development of something as sophisticated as the martial arts. Blanqueamiento, remember?

For example, look at the picture below:

This picture was originally from an Englishman named PERCY NEWBERRY who traced this drawing, from the walls of the tomb of Governor Baquet III, in 1893. In 1941, there was a popular National Geographic magazine article titled, "Daily life in Ancient Egypt". included a portion of a scene from this tomb. The caption reads:

"By contrasting the body colors of the Egyptian athlete and his Negro opponent the ancient sports artist made clear the holds, many of which are identical with those used today".



Egyptian athelete and his "Negro" opponent? WHAT THE FUCK?!!!

O.K., to the plain observer, I guess it could be misinterpeted to mean a black(Negro) and white(Egyptian) wrestler.



However, take a look at THIS picture:

This is a photo of a scene from the ACTUAL tomb that Percy Newberry traced those figures from. When he traced them, he drew one in outline, and filled the other figure in black. In his own words, percy left no room for ANY kind of misinterpetation:

The match is between two egyptians, both colured the same in the original, but for the sake of distinctness in the Plate, one of each pair has been drawn in outline.

The information I just showed you, was taken from the book, "NUBA WRESTLING: THE ORIGINAL ART" by Nijel Binns. You can purchase a copy by clicking HERE.


And, In case you're wondering, this art is still practiced today. Check it out:






Now people, I'm not going to go into how the oldest martial arts are african, and how the oriental martial arts all originally came from africa...

No, I'll let this video do that:







O.K., now back to Capoeira.

Now personally, I liken the history and development of Capoeira to the development of another martial art called KAJUKENBO. Now in case you don't know what Kajukenbo is, it's an american hybrid martial art developed in 1947 in the palama settlement of Oahu, Hawaii.

Here's my favorite video showing this style:



Now as you can see in the video above, although Kajukenbo is an "American" martial art, developed in response to the way violence happens in the U.S. of A, the techniques, fighting strategy, and even the UNIFORMS of this martial art are totally from ORIENTAL roots.

Well, it's the same for the "Brazilian" art of capoeira. although it was developed in response to the way violence happens and has happened to people in BRAZIL, almost every single aspect of Capoeira, the techniques, the fighting strategy, the music, the way the songs are sung, the instruments, etc. ALL of them have african roots.

Now of course there are many brazilian(Read:European) influences as well, like the fact that the songs are sung in portugese(Even though there are MANY AFRICAN LYRICS as well), there is many references to Catholic saints(I'll blog more about that later), and they depict and celebrate the lives of the brazilian people in general, and the afro-brazilian people in particular.

Now there are some mestres who have claimed to have gone to angola in search of capoeira's roots. Capoeira Angola Mestre Cobra Mansa of FICA has made such a journey, and here's 2 video clips of what he's found there:







To find out more about this project, click the links below:

http://www.indiegogo.com/angolanroots...

Web Site http://rootsofcapoeirathemovie.blogsp...

FB https://www.facebook.com/AngolanRoots...

And, check out what this Congolese Capoeirista has to say about Capoeira's history:




And one more thing.

Capoeira is not the ONLY surviving Afro-Atlantic martial art practiced in North and South America. It's just the most well known.

I created this playlist showing these arts a few years ago, and I continually add video clips to it. I hope you enjoy it:






Now, I also said before, that in my opinion, much of the dispute surrounding the origins of capoeira stems from a continued effort to disenfrancise african people of our contributions to world civilization. You see, during the advent of the Atlantic Slave trade, and During the Colonial expansion from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, while Europe was excavating the many treasures of african culture, they were also doing their best to either destroy, or cover up africa's contribution to the world. Because of this continuing, centuries - long effort to promote this insane notion, We black people have to go to great lengths just to prove that we black people of africa, and her desendendants, have contributed to the advancement of civilization on this planet, something that most other races/ethnic groups take for granted.

Before, I gave this video as an example, because besides the RIDICULOUS way that they came to this conclusion about King Tut's DNA, they also make ERRONEOUS claims about what africans have contributed to civilization.



Coach Ras has also made an EPIC blog about this subject:

------------CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT------------

Now, here's 2 more examples. THESE VIDEOS ACTUALLY SHOW FOR EVERYBODY TO SEE HOW SOME OF THE AFRICAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO WORLD CIVILIZATION HAS BEEN COVERED UP!







Now like I said before,

THAT'S THE KIND OF SHIT I DON'T LIKE!!!





In the next couple of days, I'm gonna be talking about some more about this subject.

But for now, I'm gonna end this blog with this video, "Capoeira in the Mountain of Angels.", done by my friend Charles Williams, and done to the music of the most beautiful song in the world.











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