These are my notes from a lecture given by Mestre Moraes at the
Brazilian Capoeira Angola Association in Salvador, on October 24th, 2006.

Mestre Moraes began by saying that capoeira is not "genuinely Brazilian" – what on earth has Brazil contributed to capoeira? The art is African because its roots come from Africans of various ethnicities; it’s not just the region of the country now called Angola. In the colonial era, "Angola" referred to the port of Luanda, from which Africans gathered from various parts of the continent were exported.

He then distinguished between spirituality and religion: spirituality involves matters of the spirit, core beliefs/values, and ancestrality. Religion is the "team you're on," the category you put yourself into. You can change your religion overnight – for example, yesterday you were a Baptist, today you’re a practitioner of Candomblé – but your core beliefs (your spirituality) will take time to change. Capoeira is spiritual, but not religious. It involves your spirit, it has its own philosophy and ancestrality, but it is not tied to any particular religion.

Candomblé is a religion with African roots, but it is not inherently linked to or essential to the practice of capoeira, no more so than maculelê and samba are essential to the practice of capoeira. Moraes suggested that maculelê and samba began being practiced by capoeira groups because of the influence of capitalism – whoever has the most products to sell wins. It’s not wrong to practice these other Afro-Brazilian dances, but whoever wants to learn capoeira should focus on capoeira; "a jack of all trades is master of none."

In capoeira, your spirituality (regardless of your religion) is African, because the art’s ancestrality and philosophy are African. Ancestrality is important in capoeira, as it is an art that has been passed down from generation to generation. It’s like the boy who asked, "Father, who are you?" and the father responded, "I am the link between you and your grandfather." Although capoeira’s spirituality is African, this does not mean that only people of African descent should practice or teach it. Anyone, from any culture, can get involved with things of another culture, learn them, and become a representative of them.

Folkloric shows have given people a superficial image of capoeira and prevented many from delving deep into the art’s historical, political, philosophical, and spiritual aspects. It’s one thing to mimic being a believer in a religion, and it’s another to actually have faith. People should be true to whatever religion (if any) they’ve chosen, rather than trying to fake it.

For example, many capoeiristas imitate being a follower of Candomblé by wearing amulets and necklaces when they don’t actually practice or believe anything. Moraes notes that they always pick necklaces with the colors of Xangô, Ogum, Oxossi – these are the strong and macho orixás – why aren’t there ever any capoeiristas of Iemanjá (the goddess of the sea)? This results from the fact that these capoeiristas are just picking whichever orixá they think is coolest, not the orixá that they’re actually the son/daughter of, which they would know if they actually practiced Candomblé.

Finally, Moraes closed by making a distinction between a capoeira player and a capoeirista. A capoeira player just does the movements and stays on this shallow, superficial level; a capoeirista, on the other hand, truly understands the art and lives it in his/her daily life. He made a comparison to acupuncture: any fool can buy needles at a store and stick them into people, but only someone who truly knows the art can practice it effectively. Capoeira is much more about the sentimento than the movimento; that is, more about the feeling than the movement.