Brazilian society. This, without doubt, constitutes one of Bimba’s chief merits. On the other side, taking
capoeira out of its original context implied that crucial aspects of the art and even its meaning might
change. As we are going to see in Chapter 7, the music, not supported any longer by familiarity with a
specific tradition, evolved. The same rituals performed in another context might not any longer have the
same meaning. According to many critics, even the movements of Regional—more upright and fast—
reflect middle-class, white kinaesthetics. If it seems reasonable to assume that the broadening of the social
background of capoeira practitioners had an impact on the art, it is much less clear how to assess that
change. As Greg Downey has pointed out, both scholars and practitioners have rather preconceived ideas
about what taste defines wbich class: middle-class whites for instance are supposed to be less inclined to
perform rituals or they are said to prefer techniques that resemble Asian martial arts or Western gymnastics.
These simplistic assumptions are difficult to prove, and exceptions too numerous. As Downey appropriately
states: ‘An exact correspondence between kinesthetic distinctions and social class, race, ethos, or worldview
is not possible.’^104
Bimba was frequently accused of having been co-opted by the powerful. His exhibitions for state
governors and President Vargas are cited as proof of class betrayal. Looking at the evidence, it appears that
his relationship with men in power was less intimate than often portrayed. Frede Abreu has provided a list
of examples where Bimba showed contempt for the powerful, and Muniz Sodré concluded that an ‘ethical
abyss’ separated him from the ruling military.^105 The fact that he died in poverty also does not suggest he
had been successfully co-opted. No doubt Bimba had some important ‘connections’, which helped him to
avoid repression and to establish his style. His supporters emphasize that the mestre was only resorting to a
common mechanism among the Afro-Bahian community to avoid repression of their culture. All the
important candomblé houses, for example, sought to establish links with people invested with some kind of
power—police chiefs, judges, politicians, and the military. The latter were attributed honorary posts within
the cult (ogã) in return for the protection they granted. The Interventor Juracy Magalhães, for instance,
allegedly protected the candomblé of Bernardino do Bate Folha. Bimba was just establishing a similar
pattern for his capoeira group.^106
As Muniz Sodré already pointed out 30 years ago, Bimba’s style maintained five decisive aspects of Afro-
Bahian culture: religion, ritual songs, musical instruments, the cult of capoeira heroes and the ginga (see
Figure 5.6).^107 One cannot avoid admiring how Bimba managed to combine different traditions, innovating
where necessary—to avoid extinction—and preserving crucial tenets of Afro-Bahian form of capoeira in
order to avoid total ‘de-characterization’. Bimba’s genius transformed capoeira into an art form that could
be practised by wider, even white and middle-class audiences. No doubt this entailed a number of
concessions to white or middle-class taste. In that respect his posture was very different from subsequent
Angola mestres like Moraes, who maintains that students have to adapt to capoeira Angola, not the opposite.
Despite his personal financial straits, Bimba’s overall strategy was immensely successful. Without him
only a Burlamaqui model of a completely de-Africanized capoeira might have survived, parallel to entirely
folklorized shows for tourists without any martial efficiency. The oriental martial arts would have taken over
completely—as they did in so many other countries. Mestre Bimba created an alternative model of black
modernization for an African derived combat tradition, which seemed to be the only one capable of
avoiding both total
144 BIMBA AND ‘REGIONAL’ STYLE