The Famous Senzala Group Was Built on Bimba's Regional Capoeira

WHY THIS ARTICLE

The great carioca groups are seen as autonomous creations. The thesis shows Senzala's technique, spirit and recognition drew directly on Bimba's regional capoeira from Salvador.

A borrowed matrix

The members of the group trained from time to time with Artur Emídio, adept and best ambassador of the regional capoeira in the Sudeste. If Senzala won the folkloric Berimbau de Ouro competition three times — in 1967, 1968 and 1969 — it was thanks to a show modelled on Vem Camará, proposed just a few months earlier by Bimba's best pupils.

Technique, spirit, recognition

The regional capoeira was thus the matrix of the technique, the spirit and the social recognition of the Senzala group. Its members, in numerous folkloric performances, television broadcasts and press interviews, made themselves ardent defenders of Bahian culture — a culture whose technical infrastructure they had received from Salvador.

Why it matters

The most celebrated carioca group was, at root, a transmission of Bimba's Bahian regional capoeira. The map of influence runs the opposite way to the group's own self-image.

SOURCES

La capoeira et les arts de combat noirs : histoire effacée, techniques invisibles (1905–1984), thèse de doctorat, Université des Antilles, 2020 (Part III: the Senzala group and Bimba's regional capoeira; the Berimbau de Ouro 1967–69)

IN THE CORPUS

→ Bimba Was Promoter, Referee, Rule-Writer and Fighter

→ The Bahian Who Wanted to Test Himself Against Carioca Capoeira

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HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE

MALO, Olivier. The Famous Senzala Group Was Built on Bimba's Regional Capoeira. In: Black Combat Arts Institute — Articles [online]. No. 109. 2026 [accessed date]. Available from: https://www.blackcombatarts.com/articles/the-famous-senzala-group-was-built-on-bimba-s-regional-capoeira. Adapted from the author's doctoral thesis, Université des Antilles, 2020.