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Capoeira and the Afro-Brazilian religions: the sacred in the roda

How Candomblé, Umbanda and popular Catholicism live in capoeira’s songs, amulets and rituals, without making capoeira a religion.

Capoeira played in the street in Brazil, lithograph after Rugendas — Jogar capoëra ou danse de la guerre — Johann Moritz Rugendas, 1835. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

The story

Capoeira grew in Brazil among enslaved Africans and their descendants, a game of fight, music and trickery. The same communities kept alive African religious traditions, which in Bahia took shape as Candomblé, devoted to the orixás of Yoruba origin and to spirits of Bantu and Fon traditions, often joined with Catholic saints. In the twentieth century Umbanda appeared, mixing African, Indigenous, Catholic and Spiritist elements.

These worlds meet in the roda. Songs greet Catholic saints and sometimes orixás; the ladainha opens the game like a prayer; players cross themselves or touch the ground at the foot of the berimbau. Old capoeiristas wore a patuá, a small amulet, and spoke of the corpo fechado, the “closed body” protected by ritual against knives and bullets. The word mandinga means both cunning in the game and a kind of magic.

Capoeira was banned by the Brazilian Penal Code of 1890, and Afro-Brazilian religions were also persecuted by the police for decades. In 1932 Mestre Bimba opened his academy of Capoeira Regional in Salvador, and in 1941 Mestre Pastinha founded his centre of Capoeira Angola. In 2014 UNESCO inscribed the capoeira circle as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Today capoeiristas include followers of Candomblé, Catholics, evangelicals and atheists.

What the tradition holds

The roda is a protected space with its own rituals and respect for the berimbau.
Mandinga and the corpo fechado protect the player in and out of the game.
Capoeira carries the memory and resistance of the ancestors.

What history and science show

The 1890 ban, the persecution of Afro-Brazilian religions, Bimba’s and Pastinha’s schools and the 2014 UNESCO listing are well documented.
Capoeira is not a branch of Candomblé; the two shared people, places and symbols, and their mix varies from group to group.
No test supports a ritually “closed body” stopping weapons; the belief is part of the culture and its stories, such as the legend of Besouro Mangangá.

Myth and fact

Myth

Capoeira was a fight disguised as a dance so that slave owners would not notice.

This is a popular story, but there is no contemporary evidence for it. Police records from the nineteenth century show that the authorities knew exactly what capoeira was and arrested its players.

A note of respect

Candomblé and Umbanda are living religions that still face prejudice. We describe their place in capoeira as their followers describe it, without judging faith.

Images: public-domain or CC0 works credited under each picture, or original WABUKAN ink illustrations. Panels: the story told in numbered comic boxes.

Sources

Capoeira — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
Candomblé — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
Umbanda — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
Mestre Bimba — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
Mestre Pastinha — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
Besouro Mangangá — Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
UNESCO — Capoeira circle — ich.unesco.org
Jogar capoëra ou danse de la guerre — Wikimedia Commons — commons.wikimedia.org

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You may quote and share this page with a link to WABUKAN. Suggested citation:

WABUKAN 和武館, «Capoeira and the Afro-Brazilian religions: the sacred in the roda», https://wabukan.com/crenca-capoeira-religioes (accessed 2026-10-30).

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