Originally Posted by capoeirista

I know about knocking and kicking, and I feel where you are coming from, and if by Chicago you mean Eric "Chicago" Murray, then, yes, I met him personally. Capoeira is just not a "fighting style" in the western use of the phrase.

If you can get your hands on it, I would highly recommend you read Dr. Thomas J. Desch-Obi's thesis on capoeira, a man who group up studying African Martial Arts, studied with the Knocking and Kicking masters that are still around (not an easy feet to even find one), and studied with the old Engolo Masters (hence Capoeira Angola) in Africa and has and incredible amount to say on these subjects. I was fortunate enough to attend his talk with Chicago earlier this year. He should be coming out with a book soon expanding and correcting his thesis. I'll keep you abreast.

Capoeira Angola is one of the few remaining vestiges of Kalunga worship and Angolan ancestral veneration in Brazil. When you get up on your hands in the roda, you "cross the Kalunga", the line that seperates the world of the living and the world of the ancestors. It was a spiritual fight, a kind of medicine, or nkisi against witchcraft - kindoki: power which when used with malintent causes harm to an individual or community, ie slavery. The movement 'negativa' is a swama (bodily protection) against witchcraft in use in Angola to this day.

The maltas that I'm sure you've heard about, used Engolo (capoeira angola) in this sense. A moleque is kid who hasn't been inducted in engolo. A caxanguele is an engolo neophyte in the malta, and the capoeira was essentially a foot soldier. The maltas kept slave owners in check, were an informal legal system for the slaves, enforcing codes of conduct (if you do not live honorably in this world, you can't attain spiritual enlightenment in the spiritual world, and you won't be reincarnated), used there influence to keep slave families together, and helped protect quilombos by conducting ambushes on soldiers, among other things. Slave fraternal organizations were very common through out South America. It is also a street performance, a game among friends, something to pass the time infront of bars to make some extra cash. This day and age the game and pass time is focused on because very few people are familiar with the cosmologies of the Bantu peoples, but can relate to the use of capoeira festivals and gatherings.

That gives you some idea of what I mean

ps, capoeira angola as it is today syncretized yoruban and portuguese culture and religion with capoeira, redefining many of the Engola symbolisms inherited from the original cosmology. But if you look hard enough, you'll see it.

Check out this paper by Maya Talmon-Chvaicer. This paper does an excellent job in disecting competing historical perspectives.

If you are interested, once Dr. Desch-Obi's book comes out, I'll post the info.