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 In his Voyage Pittoresque et Historique au Brésil, Jean-Baptiste Debret painted an elderly blind slave begging in the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Begging was often the occupation of slaves who had been awarded manumission due to handicaps that stopped them from working. The blind man is shown playing a berimbau, accompanied by a young boy who carries a sugar cane, "destined to his nourishment."
Debret, who was in Brazil between 1816 and 1831, wrote: "Initially amazed by the huge crowd of slaves spread through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, the calmer observer immediately recognizes the particular character of the singing and dancing, each of the black nations that are mingled there. "It is mainly in the plazas, around the public fountain, usual places of meetings of slaves, that many times, one inspired by missing his homeland, remembers a song. Listening to the voice of his compatriot, the others suddenly enraptured, gather around the singer and follow each verse with a national chorus, or simply a specific cry, a kind of odd refrain articulated in two or three sounds, susceptible however to a character "Almost always this chant that electrifies them is accompanied by an improvised pantomime, or varied successively by the spectators that want to figurate in the middle of the circle formed around the musicians. "Those African troubadors whose eloquence is fertile of love stories, usually end their naive stanzas with some lascivious words, followed by analogous gestures, an infallible way to make the black audiences cry with joy, and to mix applause with whistles, treble screams, contortions and jumps. "Fortunately, this explosion is momentous once they run away in all directions in order to avoid the repression of the police soldiers that chase them with clubs." (Almeida, Bira, Capoeira: A Brazilian Art Form, p.76 North Atlantic Books)
Two European visitors to Salvador in the early 19th century detailed how work and other activities were combined: "Immense numbers of tall, athletic negroes are seen moving in pairs or gangs of four, six or eight, with their loads suspended between them on heavy poles. Many more of their fellows are seen sitting upon their poles, braiding straw, or lying about the alleys and corners of the streets, asleep. ... "The sleepers generally have some sentinel ready to call them when they are wanted for services ... they often sing and shout as they go, but their gait is necessarily slow and measured, resembling a death march. (Reis, João José, Slave rebellion in Brazil, p161. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1995).
An English merchant described the singing of African slaves at work in Bahia: "During the time of carrying heavy burdens through the streets they sing a kind of chorus, a very useful manner of warning persons to get out of the way. This chorus generally consists of one of the blacks chanting a remark on anything he sees, and the other comes in with a chorus. ... "I have noticed, too, that when the work is heavy, or the burden is being carried uphill, that they become much more vigorous in their shouts, aiding their labour and varying their song ... and they are extremely independent, they would rather lose the chance of gaining a wage than carry more than what they thought proper." (Ibid.)
In the countryside, a 19th-century American traveller wrote about a plantation in Paraíba: "For those who did the work of the fazenda - the slaves, men, women and children, many of them recent arrivals from Mozambique, Angola, the Congo, and Benguela - Saturdays and saints' days were eagerly awaited. ... "Two or three slaves played the drums placed near the fire, where they could be heated when necessary. The slaves - men in white pants and striped shirts, women in blouses and wide, gathered skirts, kerchiefs on their heads - danced separately near the drummers, moving in a counter-clockwise circle. "A master singer sang the first line of a riddle (jongo) and the assembled slaves repeated the refrain. If no person could sing the answer to the riddle, a new one was sung. In the mixture of African tongue and Portuguese, the Negro slaves mocked their masters and themselves. "There were other dances mentioned by contemporary observers, the lundu and the batuque. Often the dances continued far into the night with little thought of the early hour at which [the] fazenda routine was resumed. (Levine and Crocittio, eds.; The Brazil reader: History, Culture, Politics, p. 84 (Stein, "A Paraíba Plantation," 1850-1860))
This dance, the lundu, along with the modinha, was a forerunner of samba, and was already popular by the late 1700s. From Pernambuco to Minas Gerais there were dances on feast days, often celebrating the coronation of African kings, sometimes called Kings of Congo. In the early 19th century, in Pernambuco, Henry Coster wrote: "The election of a King of Congo by the individuals who come from that part of Africa, seems indeed as if it would give them a bias towards the customs of their native soil; but the Brazilian Kings of Congo worship Our Lady of the Rosary, and are dressed in the dress of white men; they and their subjects dance, it is true, after the manner of their country; but to these festivals are admitted African negroes of other nations, creole blacks, and mulattos, all of whom dance after the same manner; and these dances are now as much the national dances of Brazil as they are of Africa." (Heywood, ed., Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora, p. 172 (Kiddy, "Who is the King of Congo?"))
A German, Von Martius, in Minas Gerais in 1818, wrote of a local King of Congo and Queen Xinga, whose titles referred back to the famous Angolan Queen Nzinga of Matamba. A few years later, also in Minas Gerais, Count Francis de la Porte de Castelneau wrote: "The king had a black mask. ... The court, whose costumes mixed all colours with extravagant decorations, was seated on either side of the king and queen; then came an infinity of other characters, the most considerable of which were without doubt great captains, famous warriors or ambassadors of distant authorities, all dressed up in the style of the Brazilian Indians, with great headdresses of feathers, cavalry sabres at their sides, and shields on their arms. "In this tumult, they mixed national dances, of dialogues between people, between these people and the king, or between the king and the queen, simulated battles and all types of somersaults." (Ibid., p.177)
The judiciary and their cavalry made a full-time occupation of breaking up African gatherings, particularly those accompanied by music and dance. Brazilian politicians weighed the relative advantages and dangers of batuques and African drum sessions. Their usual conclusion was that any group of Africans massing for activities other than work was threatening. As far back as 1559 a Portuguese decree stated: "The King, our Lord, orders that in the city of Lisbon, and one league around it, there might be no assembly of slaves or dances or playing of musical instruments performed in their [the African] manner, either at night or during the day, on feast days or during the week, under penalty of being arrested, and each one of those who play instruments or dance is to pay a thousand réis to whoever captures him, and those who do not dance and are arrested for being present are to pay five hundred réis. And that the same prohibition be understood for free blacks." (Conrad, Robert Edgar, ed. Children of God's Fire: A Documentary History of Black Slavery in Brazil. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995. p.247)
These laws extended to Brazil and continued to be updated throughout the captaincies. The labyrinth of rules made it seemingly illegal for African people to live at all. There were laws against religious worship, gambling, travelling outside their master's plantation, congregating in groups of more than three outside the plantation, begging, carrying weapons, wearing gold, wearing silk, wearing shoes, and wearing good quality cotton, fine wool, and Dutch linen. Any breach of this mid-18th-century dress code was punished by a fine. "Or not having the money to satisfy the fine, they will be whipped in the most public place in the town, in whose district they may reside; and for the second offence ... they will be imprisoned in the public jail until they may be exiled to the island of São Tomé for the rest of their lives." (Ibid. p.248)
Batuques Are Forbidden Any slaves carrying knives or other weapons were punished with "one hundred lashes, administered on the pillory (pelourinho) and repeated for ten alternating days." (Ibid., p.249) . But laws were just as prevalent to restrict music, dancing, and religious worship as they were for weapons. Many ordinances decreed against music, drumming, and dance gatherings. For example: "City of Desterro, Santa Catarina, Law of May 10, 1845. ... Article 38. From this time on assemblies of slaves or freed persons intended to form batuques are forbidden, as well as those which have as their purpose the supposed African royal ceremonies." (Ibid., p.260)
"City of Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Law of March 26, 1846. ... Article 41. Negro dances with hubbub and shouting [batuques com algazarra] which disturb the neighbourhood are forbidden." (Ibid., p. 261)
"Town of Itajubá, Minas Gerais, Law of 1853. ... Article 129. It is forbidden to dance batuque in the houses of the villages accompanied by loud noise either during the daytime or at night, in such a way that it disturbs the neighbourhood. ... Article 130. Negro dances ... which the slaves are accustomed to celebrate on certain days of the year are permitted, with the condition that they not be held at night." (Ibid., p. 262)
"City of Recife, 1833. ... Paragraph 3. From this time on the games which the blacks and vagrants are accustomed to play on the streets, plazas, beaches, and stairways are forbidden; under penalty of suffering, those who are free, from two to six days in jail ... and slaves from 12 to 36 bolos [a crack on the hand with a wooden paddle] administered in the same jail." (Ibid., p.263)
"Town of Itamaracá, 1836. ... Article 6. Screaming in the streets and in the churches ... batuques of the blacks at any hour, and boisterous diversions are forbidden: violators will pay a fine of 4$000 réis or will suffer 8 days in jail, and being a slave will receive 36 palmatoadas [the same as bolos], and twice the number in case of recurrence." (Ibid., p.264)
"Town of Cabo, 1836. Tranquility and Public Morality Article 1. Every shopowner who allows slaves to remain in his shop longer than the time needed to do their buying or selling, or who there allows meetings, dances, and drumbeating will be fined 4$000 réis." (Ibid.)
"Town of Brejo, 1836. ... Article 20. Shouting after hours is forbidden in the streets of this town, as well as batuques of any kind ... being a slave he will suffer 25 lashes, his master having the option of a fine." (Ibid., p265)
"Legislação do Rio de Janeiro ... 1836. Ordinance 6. Every person who in his house or residence, or in some other adjacent house, allows gatherings for dances, or Candomblé, in which outside slaves take part will be punished. ... The slaves who are arrested at such gatherings will be punished with from fifty to a hundred lashes." (Ibid., p.258)
Batuques had taken place in Salvador's town center for well over a hundred years. In 1802, a professor in Salvador made bitter complaints about "barbarous batuques through the city streets ... to the beat of ... horrible atabaques, indecently dancing to pagan songs [and] speaking various languages." 1814 petition: sent to the prince regent, Dom João, by merchants and citizens of Bahia: "What is most amazing in this lamentable and disastrous situation is the government's indifference. Not satisfied with a policy of inaction over a period of forty days, it even permits and recommends in its first and only order of the day during that time that the blacks be allowed to entertain themselves with their dances in the two plazas named Barbalho and Graça, places as dangerous for a gathering as any that exist, without considering what they might do there, and when in fact, in the present circumstances, not even three should be allowed to talk together. ..it is even suggested in this first order that interference with the batuques which might be performed elsewhere should be carried out with great moderation. "Perhaps we should ask them on our knees not to dance the batuque and not to convert this country into a new Mina Coast, as they have been doing up to this time...Failure to establish firm principles spoils these people; fear and rigorous punishment are the only way to make them behave correctly. "Since their batuques have been allowed (they are in fact banned by statutes), and since they have been permitted to dress themselves up in royal costumes...and paying homage to one another, gathering together to play a kind of single stringed instrument resembling a guzla, and agitating the city - it is since all this has been permitted that we have witnessed most of the acts of violence and disobedience." (Conrad, Children of God's Fire p.403, with an original source citation in full from Carlos B. Ott, Formação e evolução étnica da cidade do Salvador, 2 vols. (Bahia: Tipografia Manu, 1995, 1957), II, 103-108)
The fact that so many laws were passed to contain Africans has led some historians to conclude that there would have been no sense disguising capoeira as a dance, as dance and batuques were banned by statute. And yet it was exactly in capoeira's most formative period in Salvador, when the Central and West African cultures began to merge in the city, that there would have been good reason to disguise the practice of capoeira as a harmless dance or batuque. The Count dos Arcos was governor of Bahia from 1810 to 1818. During that time batuques do Negros were outlawed and there was a punishment of 150 lashes for groups of more than four slaves gathering together or being in town at night without their owner's permission. But the Count dos Arcos strongly believed enforcing this ban would only unite Africans from different nations to rebel, so he disobeyed Lisbon's orders and let certain kinds of batuque go ahead in Barbalha and Graça plazas. He was criticized for having weak policies and showing excessive friendliness toward Africans. Salvador citizens petitioned the king, but still the batuques, accompanied by berimbaus, continued. Nor was Salvador isolated in this situation; local governors often made allowances for batuques as long as they were peaceful and didn't create a disturbance. In Goiânia in 1796, for example, the military called for an end to batuques in the town. The government refused, "Since it is the main pleasure they can have throughout their days of bondage" (although they warned of severe punishments for disturbances). There was a significant period when it was definitely not only possible, but in view of the incredibly harsh physical punishments, also often life saving to disguise the fighting movements of capoeira as a harmless batuque such as the lundu. In the late 18th and early 19th century, certain influential members of the elite allowed harmless dances to go ahead but ordered that any sign of violence or disturbance would be crushed. The text above was excerpted from Capoeira The Jogo de Angola from Luanda to Cyberspace Volume 1. Gerard Taylor studied capoeira in the 1980s and 1990s with Master Sylvia Bazzarelli and Contra Master Marcos Dos Santos of the London School of Capoeira Herança. After graduating as an instructor, he co-founded the Oslo Capoeira Klubb Herança with Professora Agnes Folkestad. Gerard has worked as a journalist and copywriter. He was a PR copy writer for the Foundation for African Arts in London in the late 1980s, and Northern Ireland Editor for the Black Voice newspaper in London. You can get in touch with him at
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