YOUR MESTRE LIED TO YOU PART 1

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     That's right. I said it. Your Mestre lied to you. In fact? Most of your Mestres don't even know enough about authentic Capoeira to even begin to lie to you. They wholeheartedly believe that a martial art that was designed and conceived to fight off slavers and slavery in Brazil [ the same Brazil which was the last major country on Earth to abolish slavery in the late 1800's almost the beginning of the 20th century, the same Brazil which didn't even make Capoeira legal until Mestre Bimba applied for his first permit to Dictator Vargas' government, which allowed Mestre Bimba [ for the first time in world history ] to teach Capoeira legally in an indoor academy, the same Brazil which hosted El Baruhlo...The Big Brawl in 1917 at the Curva Grande, wherein the police set a trap for a group of tough capoeiristas and got a whole lot more than they bargained for when the officers moved in to arrest them...] is now essentially a workout regime influenced by distant aspects [ the instruments, the songs, some social conventions like the roda ] of the warrior art of capoeira. Furthemore, most of the "capoeira Mestres" who teach nowadays have no connection whatsoever to the African community and culture which spawned Capoeira in its entirety, therefore they miss the utterly crucial spiritual, historical, cultural, and personal significance of what they are doing. This fact cannot be overstated enough, because the whole of the Western Hemisphere was a playground and slave nation for Europeans who despised downgraded and largely wholly misunderstood attempted to eradicate as well as scoffed at and were [ and still are ] largely hostile to every scrap of African culture they were ever exposed to. In countries like Brazil...where race and class are so tightly interlinked, and racism is both extremely virulent and massively rampant...these differences are wholly and absolutely critical and essential. Trying to learn capoeira from a person who is not of African descent and linked to the capoeira lineages would be like trying to learn the intricacies of North American inner city gang life, and gang culture...from rich conservatives. 

Frankly put? Such a thing is not possible. There is no way that the authentic, genuine Capoeira article would be respected preserved and passed on by people who are culturally philosophically and educationally hostile to such endeavors. Therefore, these people who are not of the appropriate race cast and lineage...however well meaning they are...add to an already unforgivably fractured Capoeira 'community' by making well intentioned changes which wholesale adulterate and sharply weaken both the whole fabric of Capoeira and the legacy, respect, contributions, world view, spirituality, culture and community of the people who founded Capoeira and birthed the most legendary of Capoeira's heroes and heroines...the much despised and maligned African-Brazilian community, and her "mestizos".

The roda ginga you learned is complete garbage. It is the least functional remnant of a clever disguise crafted in the early to mid-1800's by Africans seeking to hide the practice of Capoeira from the veil of prying eyes of rich White slaveowners and corrupt police by tricking them into thinking that we were performing African cultural dances. However, several critical points are missed with this oft-repeated narrative: 

1. CAPOEIRA WAS ALREADY IN EXISTENCE FOR 2-300 YEARS BEFORE THE GINGA WAS CREATED. Capoeira was well known, feared, and outlawed long before the invention of the Ginga. When enough European soldiers had arrived in Brazil to make it clear to the European populace that African Capoeiristas could not militarily overthrow the republic...something which took 2 to 3 centuries, as I mentioned earlier...the Brazilian government sought to destroy and/or subjugate as many Capoeiristas as possible in order to ensure its unquestioned internal sovereignty. Forcing Capoeiristas into close quarters with their ever watchful, hateful oppressors compelled the Capoeirista to invent something clever to shield and cover their continued practice of Capoeira. Needless to say, the continued practice of Capoeira was absolutely essential because the practice of slavery and all the depradations and degradations that came along with it was still the order of the day for Brazil pretty much until the middle 20th century. Despite the fact that de jure slavery...legal slavery...ended in Brazil around 1888, de facto slavery...the essential practice of slavery under other names...continued for nearly a century thereafter. Just as it did in the United States of America.

Capoeiristas fought fiercely for their freedom and dignity during this time. They fought using every tool available to them. They grappled; yes that also means chokes locks and arm breaks. How stupid would a person have to be to look at techniques that work and could earn them their freedom, but eschew them because some modern moron might think that it's "not Capoeira"? Please. That's a truly special level of stupid. Yes. Capoeiristas used guns and weapons. They punched, they kicked, they used animal  hand techniques. They continued the practices of Candomble in its pure and many hybrid forms. Where do you think names like Pantera and other animal names came from? They came from a fusion of the African-Brazilian's culture, street and spiritual, and the fighting history and fighting purpose of Capoeira itself. The whole "nickname/apelido" thing came about also as an essential "cover" to protect one's actual identity and one's family should a Capoeirista be known for various acts of defiance against the oppressor. Nowadays, many non-African descended Capoeiristas who have become "Mestres" assign degrading nicknames to Capoeiristas of African descent, and such practices show the unadulterated racism etc which still pollutes Capoeira and much of the world to this very day. 

I don't have any Mestre. My Capoeira is my family's Capoeira. We didn't bother with such stupid titles in the sense that the larger Capoeira organizations do nowadays. I don't belong to any organization and will not belong to any major organization. I don't have to toe any political lines and I can practice my Capoeira however I please...exactly as our fighting Capoeira ancestors did. I look for every possible way to be as effective as I can using my Capoeira and my martial expression as a whole. Just as our fighting Capoeira ancestors did. I am The Head Coach of our family's organization. My senior is my Uncle Bobby, who is the Senior Instructor of our Family's Martial Arts. I like it that way. I am free and unfettered to speak truths that most others don't even know about. And those few that do know what I know? They're very unlikely to speak on it as bluntly openly and publically as I do. Me? I'm a renegade and a true martial artist. I don't care a lick what the members of the reactionary "Capoeira" community might think or do.

So, yes. The ginga and almost everything else you learned is NOT genuine Capoeira. Ask yourselves this simple question: if you are training in a martial art, but the teacher gives you a workout instead and never teaches you ANY self defense whatsoever...how can you claim that you're training martial arts? Further and more importantly: if your Mestre is not teaching you self defense, how can he/she/they claim to know Capoeira, which is a legendary self defense oriented martial art? Would you think that a guy who claims to teach bjj but actually teaches you Taebo is a genuine bjj teacher? No? Then how can you train with a guy who claims to teach you Capoeira, but gives you a workout instead with zero self defense applications...and respect this person's claim that they are a Mestre of the legendarily lethal martial art of Capoeira?

You can't. Because those "Mestres" are NOT Mestres of Capoeira, and they ARE NOT teaching Capoeira.