Mestre Janja: Reflections on Women in Capoeira

Here’s an excerpt of I Came Here to Play written by Mestre Janja and published in the fifth edition of Caxixi, Capoeira Angola’s literary magazine:

Perhaps few people have had the privilege that I have of participating in the conferences organized by the women of FICA…over the past ten years…

Even though [the presence of women] is not yet common in capoeira, nobody can deny the persistence, courage, dedication, and organizational models that these women have developed…

However, if this is a time of celebration, I also cannot help but lament that absence of many other women who have participated in these conference yet did not stay with capoeira…

A new sexist ethic is penetrating the discourse of “tradition”, confusing, masking other themes that often push us into disputes and fratricidal wars, without at least the conditions to reflect that it is in the subalternization of our condition as women that there is a reinvention of these traditions that can weigh down our bodies and souls like muzzles, controlling our language and our behavior…

We are here to re-affirm our commitment to capoeira, and at the same time, say that we are conscious of the many collaborations that we have emprendido so that capoeira may be truly a place in which diversity is not just a semantic construction, but a political commitment with liberty.

Long live the woman capoeira!