Manuel dos Reis Machado, commonly called Mestre Bimba, was a Brazilian capoeira mestre and the founder of the capoeira regional style. Bimba was one of the best capoeiristas of his time, undefeated in numerous public challenges against fighters from various martial arts.
O rei da Capoeira
Mestre Bimba's group in 2022
Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art and game that includes elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality.
Capoeira or the Dance of War by Johann Moritz Rugendas, 1825, published in 1835
Negroes fighting by Augustus Earle, c. 1824. Painting depicting an illegal capoeira-like game in Rio de Janeiro.
San Salvador, 1835, by Rugendas. "The scene is set in a clearing surrounded by tropical vegetation and palm trees, corresponding precisely to the space called capoeira in Brazil."
Capoeiristas outside