"CAPOEIRA IS FOR MAN, BOY AND WOMAN": ANGOLEERS BETWEEN COLONIALITY AND DESCOLONIZATION

Abstract

Capoeira Angola is not strange to women. Although it is common it to be described as masculine, the truth is that where this brasilian-african art takes place and the way it is organized, has always counted on the women’s participation. And not just as spectators, as to the construction, transformation and establishment of a tradition. In this article I want to discuss, from a photographic image of the 1960s, which portrays the famous Master Pastinha (Vicente Ferreira Pastinha) observing two female studants training, the silencing of women from historiography and traditional narratives. Many stories are told in Capoeira universe about this photograph, always focusing on the role played by the great Master. It made me wonder who those women were. To support my argument, I rely on the following categories: gender, coloniality of power and decolonization of knowledge.