A Trend in Capoeira: Benguela on the Rise

It may have been my beginner's naivety, but I doubt it. There seems to be a trend in the capoeira world regarding the three games. Specifically, Benguela for many capoeira contemporânea groups is beginning to be more heavily emphasized. Meanwhile, the importance, to capoeira students at least, of Capoeira Angola is being de-emphasized. I do not think, however, that Benguela is replacing Angola.

When I started capoeira several years ago, obviously Benguela existed, and we played to it. Mestre Bimba created the toque and game to calm down his students who had gotten to be too aggressive in São Bento. Meaning "toothless" colloquially, Mestre Bimba must have thought it a clever and funny joke—and I agree—to call this new toque Benguela—which is also the name of a port city in Angola, Africa.

In a previous post, I shared some thoughts from Professor Cavalo (then, instrutor), about how best to define the game of Benguela. He had some great thoughts on comparing the three games, but I've been thinking about it more lately.

Back in the day, there were differences among the games of Angola, Benguela, and São Bento Grande, but it always seemed that the games of Benguela and São Bento Grande differed in two major dimensions: Speed and height of the game. Lately, Benguela is changing more dramatically, taking elements from both Angola and São Bento and somehow becoming something distinct from either.

Meanwhile, Angola, for us capoeira contemporânea group, Angola is becoming more and more of an artifact, unchanging in fundamental ways. In my opinion, we need some connection to the past so that we can continue to develop and evolve capoeira as a holistic art. The evolution first manifested as a divergence of technique and form that you can see in capoeira students of Bimba's original Regional style and contemporary São Bento Grande. Now, the evolution is manifesting as a more distinct Benguela, what I think is becoming the third pillar in the world of capoeira. To me, Benguela is becoming more than just a toque or a game that regionalistas play, which I blogged about earlier.

As a capoeira student, you should keep this in mind. Your movements, your attitude, your character, and your expression should all be very different in all three Angola, Benguela, and São Bento Grande. Obviously, there will be overlap.

As a capoeira teacher, it's becoming harder to come up with classes that have movements universal to all three games. It's almost impossible to give a class that develops Angola and São Bento Grande. It used to be fairly easy to develop Benguela and São Bento Grande in one class—nowadays, not so much.

Has anyone else noticed any big changes or shifts? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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