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The Colour Cords That Borrowed Their Logic from Karate
6 MIN READ
The coloured cords of Regional capoeira — worn on the abadá — materialise a hierarchy borrowed from the belts of the Oriental martial arts, and stirred fierce debate in the 1970s.
WHY THIS ARTICLE
The graded cord is treated as a natural part of capoeira. The mémoire shows it as a 1970s import from Oriental martial arts, contested at its birth — and absent from angola entirely.
A visible hierarchy
The hierarchy must be respected; it is determined by cords — cordões — of colour attached to the abadá, on the left or right depending on the school. Only the Regional academies opted for a physical materialisation of the hierarchy. Among the angoleiros, a distinction exists between student, teacher and master, but it is not visible.
A borrowed, contested system
The establishment of such a system was the object of lively debate and opposition in the 1970s, in particular over the choice of colours and what they were supposed to symbolise. The choice made by the Regional translates the influence of the Oriental martial arts and their level-system of white, yellow and other belts tied around the waist. As in judo, the mémoire notes, the superior symbol — the grade — sometimes becomes synonymous with power in the service of an oligarchy.
Why it matters
The coloured cord is not an ancestral emblem but a 1970s borrowing from karate and judo, resisted when introduced. What looks like tradition is a recent, contested graft — and one half the capoeira world refused.
SOURCES
La technique corporelle au service de l’identité nationale : les élites et la capoeira du Brésil, de 1928 à nos jours, mémoire de maîtrise STAPS, Université des Antilles et de la Guyane, 2008 (on the cord-system as a 1970s borrowing from Oriental martial arts)
IN THE CORPUS
→ The Master's Body as an Instrument of Power
→ They Learned Capoeira from Karate Manuals
HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE
MALO, Olivier. The Colour Cords That Borrowed Their Logic from Karate. In: Black Combat Arts Institute — Articles [online]. No. 123. 2026 [accessed date]. Available from: https://www.blackcombatarts.com/articles/the-colour-cords-that-borrowed-their-logic-from-karate. Adapted from the author's doctoral thesis, Université des Antilles, 2020.