The large Campo de Santana superseded the Carioca Square as favourite for capoeira activity during the
1830s. Other popular places for capoeira gatherings were Capim Square, the port area, the surroundings of
the churches housing black brotherhoods, and the zungus. The zungus or angu houses stood for residences of
slaves ‘for hire’ and of the free coloured population, where cheap food, and especially a corn-meal purée
(angu) was sold. These houses constituted an alternaive ‘black space’, where slaves and freedmen reunited
not only to eat, but also to hold parties, worship their gods or play music. No wonder that zungus were
under constant police surveillance and often shut down arbitrarily.^32 The São José parish, considered the
Figure 3.3 Artists recorded the harsh repression unleashed on capoeiras in Rio de Janeiro. ‘Negroes which will be
flogged’. Lithograph by Frederico Guillerme Briggs, 1840. By kind permission of Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro.
Figure 3.2 Capoeira is depicted here as a game in the backyard without music. ‘Negros fighting, Brazil’. Watercolour
by Augustus Earle, 1820–1824. By kind permission of the Australian National Library.
74 CAPOEIRAGEM IN RIO DE JANEIRO