It’s Angola or Regional? Capoeira Styles as Aesthetics of the African Diaspora

Abstract

This article intends to visualize the reinscription of capoeira in modernity, establishing capoeira styles as Afro-diasporic aesthetic constructions. From the analysis of characteristics arising from the ways of playing capoeira, under the prism of the main concepts of Diaspora studies and Post-Colonial theory, we will demonstrate how capoeira developed under the names Angola and Regional, with its authors, masters Pastinha and Bimba, leading their national and transnational projections. Such styles, and their creators, were responsible for modifying the condition of capoeira in the 20th century, and traced its development from diasporic pedagogies that defined it in the field of black popular culture at the same time in which it was translated as an element of national identity for its policy of recognition.