Engolo

Histoire

Engolo is a kicking game and fighting tradition of the herding peoples of southern Angola. Players kick, sweep and do handstands, often to music, in a way that strongly resembles capoeira.

Historians such as Matthias Röhrig Assunção and T. J. Desch-Obi see engolo as one of the African roots of Brazilian capoeira, brought by enslaved Angolans.

The link with capoeira was first popularised by the Angolan-Portuguese painter Albano Neves e Sousa, who described "n’golo" among peoples of southern Angola in the mid-20th century. Later, historian T. J. Desch-Obi studied engolo in fieldwork and placed it within a wider family of Angolan fighting games.

Le saviez-vous ?

• Engolo includes inverted kicks done from a handstand, like capoeira's "aú".
• It was traditionally played by young herders.
• The name and history of engolo became known to many capoeiristas thanks to Mestre Pastinha's references to Angola.
• Engolo is played in a circle, like the capoeira roda.

Glossaire des techniques

Inverted kicks

kicks from a handstand

Sweeps

leg sweeps

Sources: Matthias Röhrig Assunção, "Capoeira: The History of an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art" · T. J. Desch-Obi, "Fighting for Honor: The History of African Martial Art Traditions in the Atlantic World" (2008)