Acknowledgements
This book was written during the years 2001–3; collecting material started in 1994. My personal
involvement with capoeira began in fact in 1980, when I was carrying out research for my PhD (on a
completely different topic) in the archives of Rio de Janeiro and Maranhão. After sitting long hours in
archives literally eating dust, I needed compensating activities. So I spent evenings learning lelê (a peasant
dance of the Itapecuru valley) with the Grupo Pai Simão or learning capoeira in one of the beautiful
colonial-style townhouses of the ‘city of tiles’. I thus am indebted to my first capoeira mestre (teacher,
master), Sapo de Canjiquinha (Anselmo Barnabé Rodrigues), who came to São Luís from Bahia in the 1960s.
He instructed hundreds of capoeiristas in Maranhão, and I also learned from him some basics of the art
until his premature death in a fight, in 1982. When I returned to Europe, in 1983, capoeira was still almost
unheard of. Only some years later did capoeira come to Berlin, but then the city quickly became a prime
location for diffusion of the art in Europe. At first, only some isolated students of a faraway mestre made
their way to Berlin, such as Tom Cuson (pupil of Bira Almeida, M.Acordeon). Then Brazilian teachers and
mestres started to migrate to Europe. Capoeira schools opened in Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Berlin and
London. In Berlin, M.Gegê and instructor Saulo (from Grupo Iúna, Rio de Janeiro) were among the first
Brazilians to teach their art to Berliners, and I owe them not only some instruction, but also the first regular
rodas in the city, which re-connected me with capoeira and its groups.
Because of new professional commitments I started to live in England in 1993 and ‘commute’ to Bahia
during the 1990s. During these years I often resumed training, but unfortunately many other commitments
prevented me from training regularly. And worse, I did what all capoeira teachers strongly (and rightly so)
recommend not to do. Because of various moves and frequent travels I had to change teachers or mestres
several times. As expected, this was very bad for my capoeira (since every mestre teaches his own style, and
changing means starting all over again). However, it also helped me to appreciate the difference of style and
teaching methods of a range of mestres. I would like to thank them all for having tried to teach me
something and not having despaired over my shortcomings, in particular M.(mestre) Ousado and M.Pastel
in London. From 1994 onwards I also had the opportunity to spend some time learning capoeira Angola in
Salvador, the holy city of capoeira, where I had the chance to take classes with M.Moraes, M.Valmir, CM.
(contramestre) Poloca, CM.Boca do Rio, and CM.Paulinha.
The initial research for this book was carried out with a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
—DFG, as part of a wider project on the Afro-America n herita during post-emancipation, carried out with
Professor Reinhard Liehr (FU Berlin) and Professor Michael Zeuske (Köln). The project was funded
through a special research area idealized by Professor Dietmar Rothermund (Heidelberg), a vigorous
defender of extra-European history’ within German academia. He stimulated the debate over ‘re-
appropriation’ and ‘self-affirmation’ in Asia, Africa and Latin America and participating in the workshops
and meetings of the Area ‘Cognitive Interaction in the European Expansion’ proved always inspiring.