Unknown Capoeira, Volume Two: A History of the Brazilian Martial Art

Mestre Ricardo Cachorro (Author)

Capoeiraï¾’s unique blend of martial art, dance, and thrilling sport has made it an increasingly popular activity worldwide. But its origins have been shrouded in mystery and its complex history not well understood. For volume two of his Unknown Capoeira series, Mestre Ricardo Cachorro has done extensive archival research to shed light on these shadowy areas. Reaching back as far as the year 1415, Cachorro documents the cultures and individuals that gave birth toï¾—and helped alter and redefineï¾— capoeira. He uncovers its beginnings in the dramatic saga of the Akindele family, who lived in a storied Yoruba kingdom in pre-Colonial Africa, and in the vibrant culture of newly explored Bahia de Todos os Santos in 1531. Cachorro continues his investigation with the Feitorias and Capitaniasï¾—the legendary sugarcane mills of the seventeenth centuryï¾—an important but little-known cradle of capoeira. He explores the historical and cultural aspects of each significant period of the disciplineï¾’s development from ancient Africa to present-day Brazil, in the process profiling its key contemporary players and answering such longstanding questions as why capoeira did not emerge in other enslaved countries of the New World.