To a large extent the writing-up of this book was only possible thanks to the systematic encouragement
and the continuous support of what has been my home institution for the last 11 years. Despite growing
pressure from above on resources and academic time and growing bureaucratic requirements, the University
of Essex has managed to continue providing a stimulating research environment. The excellent
infrastructure and the generous concessions of regular terms of study leave proved particularly helpful, as well
as an additional term of leave granted by the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB). A research
grant from the Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) allowed me to revise the
manuscript. Working in the History Dpeartment at Essex has been a very rewarding experience for me. The
systematic support and encouragement of successive heads of department and other colleagues have greatly
contributed to me being able to complete this book. I would like to thank, in particular, all my colleagues
who have read and commented on the outline, research grant or draft chapters of this book (even when it
coincided with exam periods or other moments of pressure): Brian Hamnett, Jeremy Krikler, Steve Smith,
and John Walter (History), Andrew Canessa, Paul Thompson (Sociology), Peter Hulme, Erna von der
Walde (Literature), Gabriela Salgado (Latin American Art Collection—UECLAA). I am also grateful to
academics from other institutions who commented on draft chapters, in particular Vivian Schelling
(University of East London), Sylvia Chant (LSE), Kathianne Hingwan (Goldsmiths), and Sérgio Costa (FU
Berlin). I also have to thank the capoeiristas who commented—and often very differently than my
academic friends—on the same drafts: M.Luiz Renato Vieira, M.Gato, M.Cobra Mansa, and George
Pintado.
I would also like to express my gratitude to M.Paulo Siqueira (Hamburg), M.Pastel (London), M.Cobra
Mansa (Washington, DC), M.Rosalvo and CM.Susi (Berlin), Fantasma (London), and Leticia Vidor Reis
(São Paulo) for inviting me to talk to capoeira adepts at events they organized during the years 2001–04.
This has provided me with some very stimulating feedback, and taught me how seriously many practitioners
take their art and how important it is to their life.
I am furthermore indebted to all the veteran mestres who have agreed to be interviewed, in particular the
late Mestres Caiçara, Vavá and Ferreirinha, and furthermore M.Felipe Santiago, M.João Pequeno,
M.Itapoan, M.Boca Rica, M.Diogo, M.Onça (Jair Moura), M. Gigante, M.João Grande, M.Brasília,
M.Ousado, M.Moraes, M.Marco Aurélio, M.Russo, and M.Brasilio. M.Boca Rica merits special thanks for
his kind support for my research. Many other capoeiristas have also been supportive in a number of ways
and I would like to thank them here. In São Luís, M.Pato, M.Alberto Euzamor, CM.Marco-Aurélio,
Nelsinho, Sami, and Mauro Abreu; in Salvador, M.Bamba, M.Nenel, M.Macumba, Angelo Decânio,
M.Itapoan, Jair Moura, and Adriana ‘Pimenta’; in Rio de Janeiro, Lobisomem, M.Gato, M. Teco, CM
Urubu and Daniel Granada da Silva Ferreira; in the US: Margaret Willson, Daniel Dawson, Sylvia
Robinson (from FICA) in London: Christina, Zumbi, Goggi, Hassan, Pedreiro and Marguerite, Shemba,
Fumaça (Mariano Almeida), Shona, Florence (Jurema), Alessandra, Cibèle and Índio Falador, Patrick,
Helem Lara, Fantasma, Lia, Gill, Marcelo.
Although capoeira books are often difficult to find in libraries (even in places where one would expect a
good collection) some institutions proved very useful for my research and their employees provided much
help. I have to thank, in particular, the librarians from the Biblioteca Amadeu Amaral (Rio de Janeiro), from
the Biblioteca Nacional in Rio de Janeiro and in Lisboa, Alex Badarel and Angela Lühning from the
Fundação Pierre Verger (Salvador), and the staff from the Albert Sloman Library in Essex, in particular Chris
Anderton and all the colleagues working at this marvellous invention called interlibrary loan.
A range of people that never practised capoeira were nevertheless important for the completion of this
book. Manuel Barcia (University of Essex), José Horta (Universidade de Lisboa), and Hendrik Kraay
(University of Calgary) provided me with crucial material from their own research. In Europe Prof Barbara
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