Paper short abstract:

Based on thirteen months of fieldwork research in Salvador de Bahia Brazil, the paper discusses how Afro-Brazilian Capoeira teachers from the State of Bahia aim to assert power, legitimacy and value by investing with meaning specific places and people related to Capoeira’ s origins and significant past.

Paper long abstract:

Capoeira, once a marginalized and illegal social practice, has nowadays attained a radically different status due to tourism, State policies, local initiatives and the Afro Brazilian Capoeira practitioners' migratory movements. However, new conflicts arise as various agents aim to strategically appropriate it. In this context, Capoeira's origins emerge prominently as one of the most central and controversial issues relating place(s) and people. Africa, Salvador de Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, the urban space, the street, ex slave communities and the Bahian interior have claimed primacy.

Based on thirteen months of fieldwork research in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil and twelve months in Barcelona, Spain, the paper is concerned with the discourses and strategies Afro Brazilian Capoeira teachers deploy as they struggle to assert control over their heritage. Striving to gain recognition they organize commemorative events in politically significant places to express solidarity to certain mestres who are in need. In times of scarce resources these activities are facilitated by the involvement of NGO's and foreign apprentices' participation, giving rise to new interpretations of Capoeira's past.

The paper addresses the following questions: What places do they choose to invest with meaning; how do they remember them and how do they associate them with Capoeira's origins and past? Who are the mestres who embody Capoeira's essence and consequently, the essence of a place, and who has the legitimate right to define them as such? Finally, is Capoeira a symbol of the city of Salvador, of Brazil or of the localities in the Bahian interior?