Manuel dos Reis Machado

Manuel dos Reis Machado, commonly called Mestre Bimba (; November 23, 1899 or 1900 – February 5, 1974), was a Brazilian capoeira mestre and the founder of the capoeira regional style. He was initially a street fighter and learned the batuque style from his father. Subsequently, he learned traditional capoeira; in the 1910s and 1920s, he reformed it into his own style, called capoeira regional. He eventually established an institutional method for teaching capoeira, and helped to legitimize it in the eyes of Brazilian society. He pursued a friendly rivalry with Mestre Pastinha, who advocated a more traditional style under the name capoeira Angola.

Early life

Manoel dos Reis Machado was born to Luiz Cândido Machado and Maria Martinha do Bonfim on 23 November 1900 (according to Matthias Röhrig Assunção) or 1899 (according to Bira Almeida) in the neighbourhood of Engenho Velho, in Salvador. He was one of 25 children born to the couple. The nickname "Bimba", whose literal meaning is "phallus", resulted from a bet between his mother and the midwife during his birth. His mother bet that he was going to be a girl and the midwife bet he would be a boy; after the delivery, the midwife confirmed he was a boy by pointing at his bimba. In the context of Brazil, "Bimba" also meant "beating".

He worked as a carpenter, dockworker, and day laborer. He started learning capoeira when he was 12 years old, with an African boat commander called Bentinho. He had previously learned techniques of batuque, a related fighting-dance, from his father, Luis Cândido Machado. As a young man, he had the nickname Três Pancadas, meaning "three blows", because this was said to be the number of his punches necessary to knock down an opponent.

1910s and 1920s Bimba was trained in traditional capoeira. He reformed capoeira primarily in response to Burlamaqui and Sinhôzinho's attempts to strip it of music and African traditions, and transform it into a mere set of bodily techniques. He was also dissatisfied with the capoeira of his time because of its emphasis on rituals and ineffective kicks.

At 18, Bimba felt that capoeira had lost all its efficacy as a martial art and an instrument of resistance, becoming a folkloric activity reduced to nine movements. It was then that Bimba started to restore movements from the old capoeira (later known as Angola), added movements from an extinct African fighting style called batuque – a type of martial art that he learned from his father (of which his father was a champion), as well as introducing movements created by himself. Bimba was the first to create a method of teaching to help facilitate learning because, until then, capoeira was only learned by watching and participating in the roda.

It also has been theorized that Bimba received influence by other martial arts when adding and perfecting movements to the capoeira repertoire. He is known to have studied the method of capoeira teachers like Mestre Sinhozinho, Mario Aleixo and Anibal "Zuma" Burlamaqui, Other sources, among them Mestre Itapoan, believe that Bimba made virtually no additions from other martial arts to capoeira, and that all its movements came from batuque or itself; moreover, there are reports of capoeira techniques similar to those from judo as far back as 1888, before Eastern martial arts came to Brazil. This was called the Academia-escola de Cultura Regional, at the Engenho de Brotas in Salvador, Bahia.

Bimba tested his new students putting them in a strong gravata or neck lock for three minutes, only accepting them in his school if they endured said time without tapping out. However, after the entrance of his apprentice Cisnando Lima, he changed the initiation test to a demonstration of flexibility and a written examination. The newspaper A Tarde covered the incident under the title of "It's not easy to catch a capoeirista! He defended himself using cabeçadas and rabos de arraia" ("Não é fácil pegar um capoeirista... Livrou-se da agressão com cabeçadas e rabos de arraia").

Mestre Pastinha established a new style closer to the traditional origins preceding some of Bimba's reforms, named capoeira Angola; the two men became respectful competitors.

1940s and 1950s In 1942, Machado opened his second school at the Terreiro de Jesus on Rua das Laranjeiras. The school is still open today and was supervised by his former student, "Vermelho" until the early 1980s. The school then came under the brief supervision of Mestre Almiro, before being transferred to Mestre Bamba; the man who leads the school today. He also taught capoeira to the army and at the police academy. He was then considered "the father of modern capoeira".

Bimba was one of the best capoeiristas of his time, undefeated in numerous public challenges against fighters from various martial arts. In 1945, Bimba and his students were challenged by Jayme Ferreira, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitor trained by the Gracie family, who accused regional capoeiristas of avoiding fights. Bimba answered by saying capoeira regional was for self-defense, not for fighting under sport rules. During this tour, they received two challenges to fight for real (pra valer), one by Brazilian catch wrestlers led by Piragibe and another one by capoeira carioca leader Mestre Sinhozinho.

Academy rules

Bimba strongly believed capoeira had an extraordinary value as a self-defense martial art, hence his efforts to develop its learning in a structured and methodical way.

Bimba developed a capoeira teaching method with commandments, principles and traditions, which are still part of the capoeira regional up to this day. Some of his commandments are:

To stop smoking and drinking since it interferes with the players' performance Avoid demonstrating your progress to your friends outside the capoeira roda. Remember that surprise is your best ally in a fight Avoid conversation during training, instead observe and learn from watching Always ginga Practice daily the basic fundamentals Keep your body relaxed It is better to get "caught" in the roda than on the streets Don't be afraid to get close to the opponent. The closer you stay, the better you will learn Students must maintain good grades in school or be employed

Bimba also established his own capoeira principles as the basis for his capoeira teaching method:

Gingar sempre (to keep oneself in constant movement when fighting); ginga is the capoeira basic movement Esquivar sempre (to dodge away from the opponent's attacks) All movements must have a purpose (attack and corresponding defense movement) Preserve a constant fixed position on the ground (acrobatic jumps makes one vulnerable) Play according to the rhythm determined by the berimbau (capoeira musical instrument) Always play close to your partner Respect a player when he/she can no longer defend an attack movement Protect the opponent's physical and moral integrity (during the practice, the stronger will protect the weaker player)

Consequently, Bimba created several traditions and rituals to support his methodology:

A chair was used in order to train beginner students/players The charanga is the capoeira orchestra, composed by a berimbau and two pandeiros The singing (quadras e corridos), songs composed by Bimba to accompany the game The batizado (baptism), the first time the student plays capoeira at the sound of berimbau

The aspects that still makes capoeira regional unique is its method:

Admission exam (physical test made with capoeira movements to identify students' abilities) The sequência (sequence) of the basic 17 capoeira attack and defence movements Practice of the different rhythms of the game Specific movements: traumatizing, projection, connected and unbalancing Practice of cintura desprezada (second sequence practice by advanced students) Formatura (capoeira teacher graduation) Especialização and emboscada (specific advanced exams)

To celebrate his 119th birthday, Google released a Google Doodle commemorating him.

In popular culture Mestre Bimba: A Capoeira Illuminada (2006) is a documentary about Mestre Bimba and Capoeira.

Literature

Wesolowski, Katya (2023). Capoeira Connections: A Memoir in Motion. University of Florida Press. ISBN 978-1-68340-320-3.