to affiliate, even though their style is quite different. A real competition has also developed with regard to
the old mestres. They are invited to events, and courted by different means, in the hope that they will
eventually become godfather of the group. The old mestres are perceived as important for the transmission
of capoeira traditions. Here Bahia, with its dozens of old capoeiras over 60, still holds the hegemony over
tradition, at least for the time being. They provide symbolic capital and attest a group’s seriousness. Any
organizer of a capoeira event will seek to have a number of well-known mestres attend. This has led to the
emergence of a jet set of prestigious mestres who attend events all over the world.
Because of the decentralized growth it is difficult to give an estimate of the total number of practitioners.
Official figures registered 874 teaching centres of capoeira in Greater São Paulo in 1996.^66 The membership
of individual groups can vary from a couple of dozen students of one mestre or teacher to greater
associations where several thousands students are taught by several mestres, spread over many locations and
cities. The group Beribazu, for instance, created in 1972 by M.Zulu in Brasília, and now headed by a
collective of mestres, counted 9 mestres, 10 contra-mestres, 16 instructors and 3,000 students in 1997.^67
Candeias de Capoeira, founded in 1991 and presided by M.Suino, with headquarters in the Goiás state, had
4 mestres, 8 contra-mestres, 59 other teachers and 5,000 affiliated students in 1999.^68 Capoeira Brasil,
founded in 1989 by M.Sabiá, Paulão and Boneco, counted 8,000 members in Brazil alone a decade later.^69
The growth of capoeira is so impressive because the art expanded not only geographically, in terms of
class and ‘colour’, but also in terms of gender. As we have seen in Chapter 4, capoeira has always been a
male pastime. Women—although frequent spectators—only exceptionally played themselves. M.Pastinha
was the first mestre to systematically encourage women to train with him, and many other teachers followed
suit. Nevertheless, very few women started training in Bahia until the 1990s, while in Southeast Brazil,
Western Europe and the United States an increasing number of women have joined capoeira groups;
reflecting a more substantial change in gender relations than in Bahia.^70 Everywhere relationships with
other male students or teachers have not always been easy, and women often struggled—and still struggle—
to be accepted as equals. Now women training in capoeira is almost universally accepted. All contemporary
capoeira groups include women, who constitute anything between 10 and 50 per cent of the membership.
The best female capoeiristas have now achieved a level that ranks them as equals among the steadily
increasing number of mestres, even though they still remain a small minority at that level. For this reason
female instructors play a crucial role as models for younger generations of capoeiristas. The first woman to
become a mestre was Fátima Colombiana (M.Cigana), who graduated in 1980 under M.Canjiquinha. She
has since taught capoeira to hundreds of students in São Paulo and Rio and become president of the
Cariocan Federation of Capoeira. Even though she recognizes she still has to overcome male prejudice in
her profession, her career illustrates what women can achieve in capoeira today.^71 Edna Lima, another
female pioneer who became a mestre in 1981, at the age of 19, also holds a fourth-degree black belt in
Shotokan karate. She now teaches in New York and has recently joined the group Abadá.^72 In Capoeira
Angola a few women from Bahia—Janja, Jararaca and Paulinha—have also achieved contra-mestre status.
These and other female teachers are usually well known beyond their respective groups. Capoeira
magazines publish regular sections dedicated to women in capoeira, with reports and interviews with the
emerging female stars of capoeira. Some female instructors insist that in their group women are respected
and have equal rights.^73
If on the one hand contemporary capoeira thus contributes to greater equality between sexes, on the other
female bodies are still used on magazine covers to attract a still predominantly male readership or to
advertise capoeira clothes.^74 Ongoing machismo from male capoeiristas remains a common complaint from
female practitioners. Rather than solving gender issues, capoeira provides a space where these can be
renegotiated, and here every group has its own idiosyncratic practice. Some groups, such as the International
180 CONTEMPORARY CAPOEIRA