The distinction between sacred and profane is equally hazardous in the case of colonial and imperial Brazil,
since religion permeated every aspect of life in both African and early modern Catholic societies. It is also
necessary to highlight that Iberian popular Catholicism constituted a very different belief system from what
is, in the Anglophone world, commonly understood by Christianity. Popular Catholicism as it was
introduced in Brazil constituted a complex fusion of older Iberian, partially pagan practices and rituals with
Christian beliefs. The absorption of African elements constituted therefore only a further separation of
popular practice of Catholicism in Kongo/Angola and Brazil from Roman orthodoxy. This process had been
encouraged through the institution of the patronage (padroado), whereby the Pope had delegated the
administration of the colonial Church to the Portuguese crown, the expulsion of the Jesuits and the limited
number of secular priests in Brazil, the particularly lax customs of the clergy in the colony, and the
consequent privatization of religion.^67 The situation only changed in the second half of the nineteenth
century, when the Vatican implemented its harsh policy of Romanization in Brazil, leading to new attitudes
towards popular Catholicism in general and Afro-Brazilian culture in particular. Until that moment, the
integration of African elements into wider celebrations was not necessarily seen as irremediably negative. On
the contrary, as long as manifestations remained ‘honest’ and ‘decent’, they could be seen as a contribution
towards the exaltation of the universal values of Christendom.
If African practices such as the batuque became increasingly creolized, so did European celebrations. The
‘Africanization’ of wider popular culture in Brazilian cities can be shown through the evolution of what
constituted the most important annual celebrations, the festival of the Divine Spirit in Rio de Janeiro and the
festival of Our Lord of the Good End in Salvador. Both festivals originated within the tradition of
Portuguese Catholic devotions, but absorbed so many African elements that they became largely
multicultural and syncretic. Batuques and sambas figured prominently in both celebrations to the point that
ecclesiastical authorities recommended intervention and the police carried out rigorous repression. Yet
despite periodic clampdowns, these festivals became privileged sites for intense vertical and horizontal
cultural exchanges, mixing groups of diverse colour, class and status.^68
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Brazilian popular culture underwent constant change and
re-elaborations. This makes rigid classifications of formal aspects or social context as strictly ‘African’ or
‘traditional’ inadequate. The difference between ‘African’, ‘slave’ or ‘black’ was often blurred, since
audiences—in particular of recreational practices—rapidly changed and tended to lose their exclusive
character.^69 In that respect one should rather view these manifestations, as Herskovits has suggested, as
having various degrees of ‘African intensity’. On the other hand, we should be aware—just as
contemporaries were—that music and dance fulfilled important functions in the redefinition of ethnic
identities and style. Capoeira rhythms having neo-African names such as Angola or Benguela are thus
perfectly in line with the historical formation of slave culture.
Combat games of the Black Atlantic
Slave traders deprived their African captives of any weapons before embarking on the Middle Passage.
Thus, when slaves needed to fight in their New World environment, they had to transform their bodies into
weapons. A common story told in capoeira groups states that the art uses mainly kicks and head butts
because slaves had their hands tied in shackles and thus had to use other parts of their bodies in their
desperate attempt to defend themselves against overseers and slave catchers. This explanation is often
expanded further to suggest that runaway slaves used capoeira in the Brazilian backlands against the
Portuguese. Unfortunately, not a single document supports these claims. On the contrary, sources dealing
44 THE CONTEXT OF THE BLACK ATLANTIC