Capoeira Angola in South Africa
Capoeira Angola has been recently introduced in South Africa. The first group, “Filhos de Angola”, was founded by Richie Rorich in Knysna in the first decade of 2000 and since 2011 occurs in Plettenberg Bay. The second, “Capoeira do Natal”, took place in Durban based at Durban University of Technology (DUT) under the direction of Maria Cristina Giampietri and Mark Hardie, who were part of a capoeira regional group and opted to follow capoeira Angola. In 2012, Capoeira do Natal group gave birth to another one called “Angoleiros KwaZulu” aimed to turn into a FICA study group (Fundação Internacional de Capoeira Angola in Salvador, Brazil under the coordination of Mestre Cobra Mansa and Mestre Valmir, International Foundation of Capoeira Angola). Lead by Maria Cristina Giampietri and Nkanyiso Shabalala, the new group based its activities at Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) in the township of Umlazi, where most of the members are studying. While capoeira Angola is a very recent movement in South Africa, capoeira regional started to be diffused much earlier and count with many groups in most of the big South African cities like Durban, Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Cape Town.
Workshop of Capoeira Angola in Durban
At the end of September 2012, a capoeira Angola workshop was held in Durban organized by Angoleiros Kwa-Zulu under the supervision of Mestre Cobra Mansa with about 30 participants some of whom were practicing capoeira Regional, but wanted to be in contact with a Brazilian Master. Among the members there were young people (20-25 years old) and some adults with different levels and experience in capoeira. Almost half of the participants were women.
Mestre Cobra Mansa is a renowned Master (“mestre”), from Mestre João Grande’s and Mestre Pedro Moraes’ lineage, all followers of Mestre Pastinha, the founder of capoeira Angola. The group, in this way, had the chance of experiencing and learning capoeira Angola from one of the most competent and reliable exponent. The workshop took place in different settings and with different groups: at Glenmore Primary School, the learners of the Kenneth Gardens Intervention Project; at Green Hub/Blue Lagoon, the children from an informal settlement; and at Durban University of Technology (DUT) Campus at Berea and Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) at Umlazi, university students, who followed the activities in all these settings during these three days.
Teaching and learning Capoeira Angola in South Africa: The methodology and its challenges Mestre Cobra Mansa adopted the same teaching methodology used in Brazilian capoeira Angola centers, with the difference that most of the members were not Portuguese speaking and that he had only three full days to try to pass on the essence of the knowledge and practice of capoeira Angola usually learned during years. Throughout these days, Mestre Cobra Mansa divided the activities into three parts so to give attention to a) the music, b) to the body movements and play fight, and c) historical and philosophical information.
The first part was aimed at training of musical abilities like the berimbaus and other instruments technique and their strokes; teaching the lyrics with the right pronunciation and explaining the meaning of the songs, which are characterized mostly by metaphorical expressions; developing the
coordination of playing and singing together. To develop this ability, every day the members received the assignment of learning two corridos and performing them with the group on the following day. Due to the lack of familiarity with capoeira music, it often happened that who was singing was not matching correctly the song with the instrumental accompaniment. So, a reasonable part of the activities was spent focusing on the musical elements, because if the musical base is not played and sung correctly the play fight cannot happen properly.
The second part was aimed at learning the movements and their sequences necessary during the play fight. The explanations were provided in English, mixed with Portuguese terms referring to the name of the movements. The final moment of this session was the simulation of a roda de capoeira, where pairs could apply what they learned. After the end of each training session (morning and afternoon), the group formed a circle to discuss the experiences and respond to any kind of curiosity or doubt. During these conversations Mestre Cobra Mansa always took the chance to explain philosophical, historical, cultural, social, and musical aspects. He was constantly calling the attention of the group to the fact that capoeira Angola is not restricted to body movements, but it needs a very competent musical base so as to allow the play fight to develop properly.
Furthermore, a capoeira player must be able to play a musical instrument and sing at the same time. Without these abilities, he/she will never be considered a real capoeirista (a capoeira player).
The body movements, Mestre Cobra Mansa constantly reminded the group, are not meant to be acrobatic so as to impress the public, but must be conceived of responsibly to show strategical thinking through the logic of attack and defense. For this reason, during the trainings, he organized the players in pairs in which one was more experienced than the other. This strategy is based on two reasons: the first because, in this way, the more experienced teach the others and also to reduce possible injuries.
Final considerations
It has been very enriching to be part of the workshop and observe the challenges of the teaching and learning process from another perspective. All the activities realized in capoeira Angola have a deep philosophical meaning, which can be understood through the comprehension of the language, but not only as the teaching and learning process is strongly based on non-verbal communication.
In Brazil, during the training, the master gives verbal instructions only in some cases, recurring mostly to the capacity of observation and imitation of the learner. As Mestre Cobra Mansa had only three days and was in a different cultural context, he had to verbalize much more than he would do in a workshop happening in Brazil. The play fight, for example, is often regulated by the messages given through the lyrics sung by the master or a leader. He/she can regulate the play fight to be faster or slower accelerating or decelerating the music tempo. Through the lyrics or during improvisations he gives advice to the players in case one is behaving aggressively or he praises when the play fight is occurring in a peaceful and creative way. If the players are not able to understand these messages because the songs are in Portuguese, they will only repeat sequences of movements, without reacting properly to the directions given by the master while singing. Aside from this aspect, it was interesting to observe the fact that, even though capoeira Angola has African roots and the Zulu ethnic group has its own fighting dances and uses a musical bow, the umakhweyane, its practice was not very natural to the members.
Most of the Angoleiros Kwa-Zulu members who were beginning their experience in capoeira Angola during the workshop realized the deepness of this Brazilian cultural manifestation and stated during an interview that their aim in life now is to become a real capoeirista and not just somebody who is able to make acrobatic movements. They are constantly practicing the berimbau
and the other instruments to become musically fluent. They started to learn Portuguese so as to be able to deepen the meaning and philosophical foundation of capoeira Angola.
References
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