Mestre Bimba

Manoel dos Reis Machado (1900–1974), better known as Mestre Bimba, is the predominant figure and creator of Capoeira Regional and the game called benguela. Among his many accomplishments, the most influential was likely his work in legalizing capoeira.

Mestre Bimba was known to have many jobs throughout his life; he worked as a coal miner, carpetner, warehouse man, longshoreman, and a horse coach conductor. However, he was always primarily a capoeirista. He started learning capoeira at the age of 12. Along with Mestre Pastinha, he is one of the legendary founding fathers of modern, contemporary capoeira.

Early life

The son of Luis Candido Machado, a famous Bahian batuque champion, and Maria Martinha do Bomfim. Bimba received his nickname as the result of a bet between his mother and the midwife. During pregnancy, his mother was convinced that she was carrying a girl, but the midwife was convinced it was a boy. At the moment of his delivery, the midwife cried, in reference to his masculine genatalia, "Bimba!" The name stuck.

In 1912, he started learning capoeira from an African navigation captain, named Bentinho, despite the fact that capoeira was illegal at the time.

The Innovator

Mestre Bimba first learned Capoeira Angola which he taught for years of his life. However, starting at the age of 18, Bimba began to feel that capoeira had lost its primal efficacy as a martial art and instrument against oppression. At the time, capoeiristas were marginalized. Many Bahian capoeiristas feared a police sergeant named Pedrito. They began to hide martial aspects of capoeira, eliminating kicks and attacks until the art had transformed into an almost purely folkloric dance.

Afraid that capoeira had lost touch with its roots as a martial art, Mestre Bimba began to develop a new form of capoeira called Regional Baiana (or simply "Regional"). Mestre Bimba incorporated aspects of his father's martial art, Batuque, to improve the effectiveness of capoeira.

In 1928, Mestre Bimba authored a new chapter in the history of capoeira by heralding its legalization. After a demonstration at the governor's palace in Bahia, Bimba succeeded in convincing authorities of capoeira's cultural value as a Brazilian art. In 1930, the forty-year ban on capoeira was lifted.

Mestre Bimba founded his first academy in 1932, and a few years later, he was prepared to review his new form of capoeira. In 1936, Bimba challenged fighters of any martial art to test his style. Four fighters accepted the challenge, and Bimba defeated them all. His students continued to compete in martial arts tournaments that involved multiple styles, and they were commonly victors using Mestre Bimba's capoeira regional.

While Bimba reinvented capoeira, many argue that his evolution of capoeira managed to successfully recover capoeira from becoming obsolete by reintroducing the original values and purpose of capoeira, as a martial art. In Bimba's philosophy of the art, capoeira is competitive in a cooperative sense in whichthe stronger player is responsible for the wellbeing of the weaker.

Mestre Bimba is seen as an innovator of the sport and as a visionary. In a recent film about his life, Capoeira Iluminada, many of his students explained his visions for the spread of capoeira. In the time, capoeira was barely taking root in Bahia, its birthplace. Bimba frequently predicted that capoeira would soon spread throughout the world. A relevation that surely has come true.

Death

After years of success in Bahia, Mestre Bimba in 1983 moved to Goiânia in 1973, disenfrachised by a lack of support by local authorities in Bahia. A year later, Mestre Bimba died in the Hospital das Clínicas de Goiânia after suffering from a stroke and a heart attack.