And told me in a unfriendly manner
Get lost, white man!^14This poem suggests that animosity could run high between black capoeiras and white, middle-class men
and confirms the close association between vadiação and blackness in that period. Yet other references
show that, as in Rio de Janeiro, capoeira practice also spread beyond its original African constituency. One
article in the Alabama, for instance, mentions a gang (súcia de capoeiras) meeting on the Saude Square.
Prominent among them was the mulatto (pardo) Luiz, a slave, ‘who always walks around with a knife,
which he displays to prove his guts’. Another article explains that the head butt was not any longer used by
the ‘black kids’ (classe moleca) alone, since an upper-class youth (baronete) had used foot kicks in a fight.
Further references emphasize that national guards and municipal employees indulged in the practice of
capoeira.^15 According to Querino, some capoeira gangs—presumably those constituted by literate middle-
class youngsters—even exchanged handwritten pamphlets before their confrontations, and sought
inspiration from epic warrior tales about Charlemagne or Napoleon.^16
The War of Paraguay (1865–1870) and the resulting compulsory draft for the Brazilian army contributed
towards greater public exposure of the Bahian capoeiras. At least this is the reason why several articles in
the Alabama mention the art. One reported that a young black, member of the citizens’ militia, the National
Guard, resisted conscription into the regular army. ‘Trained in capoeira’ he kicked the forefront of one of
the two policemen trying to arrest him, which knocked the officer to the ground. Another article complained
that ‘the capoeiras continue to walk around at night to make trouble’ whilst the single children of widows,
minors or even slaves are drafted into the army.^17
Despite the complaints of the Alabama, a substantial number of Bahian capoeiras was recruited and did
fight in the Paraguay War. Some went on their own will, many others only through coercion. Even hundreds
of slaves were among the 15,000 plus soldiers the province of Bahia sent to Paraguay; they were freed for
serving the fatherland.^18 Manuel Querino reports that the capoeira soldiers distinguished themselves in
assaults with bayonet, and traces the profile of two of them, one from Bahia and the other from
Pernambuco.^19 Many capoeiristas today emphasize the role capoeiras played in the war, yet none of these
accounts relies on any additional evidence other than the brief passage provided by Querino. Given the
constraints of army discipline and European-style warfare adopted by the Brazilian commanders, I found
the common idea of whole groups of soldiers systematically using capoeira kicks in battle rather
unconvincing. Nevertheless the War of Paraguay was crucial for the history of capoeira, albeit for other
reasons.
As already suggested in Chapter 3, the war constituted a major watershed not only in politics, but also in
Brazilian social and cultural history. Thousands of young males from all Brazilian provinces and different
ethnic and social backgrounds lived and fought together against a common enemy. It is likely that important
exchanges regarding fighting techniques, including capoeira, occurred during that shared life in the
barracks. Perhaps the war even reinforced the use of the term ‘capoeira’ throughout Brazil. The War of
Paraguay resulted in an unprecedented patriotic mobilization, a growing awareness of belonging to a
Brazilian nation, which profoundly altered Brazilian civic culture.
In the City of Bahia the war was at the origin of popular manifestations such as the ‘pilgrimage of the
police’, which celebrated the return of the police corps from the battlefields.^20 As in other cities, the names
of famous battles won by the Brazilian armed forces were profusely used to christen streets and squares.
Given this wider context and the participation of capoeiras in the war, one should not wonder then that
some of the oldest identifiable references in capoeira songs mention places and events associated with the
100 THE CAPOEIRA SCENE IN BAHIA