Mestre Bimba

Manoel dos Reis Machado
(1900 - 1974)
English | Português

Manuel dos Reis Machado (Mestre Bimba) was born on November 23, 1900 (1899) in Engenho Velho de Brotas in Salvador, Bahia-Brazil. He was the son of Luis Cândido Machado, renowned champion of the Batuque fighting style and Dona Maria Martinha do Bonfim. He got his nickname through a bet made between his mother and her midwife. Dona Maria thought that it would be a girl, while her midwife said it would be a boy. Dona Maria lost that bet when her midwife confirmed ‘Bimba’ was born. Bimba is a popular word used in Bahia for a male baby’s sexual organ.

At 12 years old, he had his first contact with capoeira in the Estrada das Boiadas, today known as the Liberdade neighborhood in Salvador. His mestre was an African man named Bentinho who, at the time, was the capitan of a Bahian Shipping Company. At 18, Mestre Bimba started to teach the capoeira he had learned (called ‘primitive' or 'aboriginal' capoeira), that today we refer to as Capoeira Angola, classified as Capoeira Angola because it came after Mestre Bimba

created his style of capoeira, the infamous and celebrated Capoeira Regional.

Mestre Bimba saw that capoeira was straying from its characteristic fight origins, and transforming into an acrobatic performance for tourists. The capoeiristas during that era exaggerated and sensationalized their movements to impress spectators who made them feel valued and paid them for their performances.

Mestre Bimba also worried a great deal about capoeira’s image and reputation in society, because capoeiristas were constant victims of prejudice and discrimination, viewed as vandals, insignificant, thieves, lazy bums, etc… Based on this social reality, around 1928 Mestre Bimba created a new style that he called Capoeira Regional, developed with his own teaching methodology which mixed his father’s Batuque fighting technique with the capoeira he had learned, preserving the rituals and rudiments that standardized the evolution and modernization of Capoeira, turning it into a reputable and socially acceptable, genuine Brazilian martial art form, lifting Capoeira into a place of respect and value, for the capoeirista of Mestre Bimba’s vision were men of honor and strong ethics. And because of these modifications, Mestre Bimba was invited to make a presentation for the Getulho Vargas, the President at the time, in the Governmental Palace in Brasília in the country’s capital. After the President declared that capoeira be removed from the Penal Code and recognized capoeira as an exclusively Brazilian Martial Art form, which could make a great contribution to the field of Physical Education.

Mestre Bimba’s heart was Bahian and he loved his state, but he was not happy with the way he was treated by the Bahian governor. He never felt sufficiently valued by the Bahian authorities and with this outlook it was not hard for his to accept the invitation made by his student, Osvaldo de Sousa, in 1973, to live in Goiânia, capital of the state of Goiás. In Goiânia, Mestre Bimba thought that he would be valued in the way that he truly deserved.

In 1974, Manuel dos Reis Machado, the great Mestre Bimba, died. Not long after a performance, Mestre Bimba started to feel sick and was taken to the Hospital in Goiânia, where he died from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 74. He left the capoeira world so sad that all of the academies in Bahia closed for 7 days in honor of the Mestre.

Much axé to the great Mestre Bimba,
a man who was born to change history,
and who deserves our respect and admiration
and who will never be forgotten.

Mestre Bimba Forever!