Interview Mestre Ananias

Translated from Portuguese automatically (under improvement). Thank you for your understanding.

80 years with MESTRE ANANIAS Mestre Ananias is the synthesis of the African heritage of the Brazilian people.

Capoeira, Samba and Candomblé live without dissociating them, clarifying in their behavior questions about the ancestry of our people.

Born in 1924, in São Félix, in the Recôncavo Baiano region whose cultural fertility deserves in-depth study. It absorbs the context in which it is immersed and in the middle of the 20th century comes to São Paulo at the invitation of São Paulo theater producers.

He works with Plínio Marcos, Solano Trindade and other personalities, in all theaters in the city. In 1953, the year of his arrival, Mestre Ananias founds the most traditional capoeira circle in São Paulo, the Roda da Praça da República.

This gains strength with the arrival of his countrymen and in the meantime capoeira in fact exercises one of its main foundations, integrating disadvantaged classes into society in the face of racial and social impositions and prejudices.

Portal Capoeira, through comrade Minhoca, Uirapuru Assessoria Cultural and Associação Cultural Cachuera, is extremely pleased to bring this special interview with Mestre Ananias, and invites you to record his CD vol II with his Samba group. Wheel "Garoa do Recôncavo". The recording will be performed live, in two presentations and with limited ticket sales, since it is a record. It is intended to maintain the authenticity of samba de roda, so community participation is essential. Everyone is a special guest for this important moment of Afro-Bahian culture in the capital of São Paulo.

Name (full): Ananias Ferreira

Date of birth: 01/12/1924

- What is capoeira, mestre?

Capoeira for me is health, a sport for home, in speech mode !! you have to be brave, behave, accept a pinch, it’s not just beats, because today it’s like this ... We have iron health, there are people who say it’s dance, for me it’s the dance of death, capoeira kills smiling , a greeting is gorpe, boy !!! It is everything in my life, if it weren't for capoeira I wouldn't be at the age I am.

- How did you start (and when) with capoeira (your story)?

Since I was 14, it is the age to feel capoeira on my skin, before that I have no idea of ​​anything, I don’t understand “patavida”, this is the age to start telling stories, I started to get smart. I've been in the middle of this since I was a kid, I'm from São Félix / Cachoeira

- What can you say about whoever taught you?

Juvêncio was a master, he was the master, he worked capoeira on the edge of the pier of São Félix, in Varre Estrada, at the festivities of the Church of São Deus Menino and Senhor São Félix. The roda was formed with João de Zazá, the brothers Toy and Roxinho, Alvelino and Santos, two brothers also from Muritiba, Caial, Estevão perverse capoeira, that was the watchman of the cigar factory (“Letialvi”) and so many people that ... Traíra and Café de Cachoeira ... Nobody taught, but the master was Juvêncio, everyone got together and that was it, there was no business in looking for a master. Then, when I went to Salvador, there, I arrived at Pastinha's wheel in 1940 more or less. I lived in Liberdade, on Rua XIII and on Sundays I would watch Mestre Waldemar's roda and started to attend. On Wednesdays I had training and Sunday was the wheel to present to the people, the Americans who went there to see our work. He formed with Dorival (Mestre Waldemar's brother) Maré, Caiçara, Zacaria, Bom Cabelo, Nagé, Onça Preta, Bugalho and Mucunge berimbau player. In the capital I started to improve my berimbau and play with the late Waldemar, with time I received the post of Contra Mestre do Waldemar, a rigorous test with the masters.

Canjica was a great capoeirista, samba player, singer, rhythm player, the home was complete, I did a show with him here in São Paulo, I met him in Bahia and then here, I played capoeira with him always out, doing shows, not in the gym, and I took my diploma with him, in the old days I didn't have this diploma thing.

- Who were your examples when you started practicing capoeira?

Nagé and Onça Preta was beautiful, a ballet game, laughing, making monkey, very beautiful ... the others were tougher. Maré and Traíra also had a beautiful game, Bom Cabelo e Zacarias, now Waldemar was the Master, right, too good, he was good at everything. Caiçara, Caiçara was impish and Dorival, when they met, hum !! They were enemies inside the circle, the game was angry, I don't know already ...

- What do you think is most important to be a good capoeirista?

You have to dedicate yourself to know everything about capoeira, from the instruments to the game and you know how to teach too, there's a lot going on, it's not just beating an instrument, there's a lot ...

- What is the difference between capoeira in the past and capoeira now?

A lot of difference ... want to compare the capoeira of the old with the brazen of today ... hum! Today, in that slowness, he went for a little more wood, sitting on the floor ... that's why they disqualify capoeira from Angola, it has to be above and below, a live game. And he saw more ... So inventing fashion, capoeira belongs to the world, it belongs to the world, it doesn’t have an owner, they want to earn money from the muggles. The rhythm was lively, the notes explained, nowadays it is a sadness, you can't understand it.

- And samba Mestre, from whom did you learn !?

There with the old people in Bahia, in candomblés, in the samba circles, he made capoeira and then samba in particular. My father mainly, did any business, he was the home of samba with his guitar players, with tambourine together, and I was in the middle there I learned.

- And the group “Garoa do Recôncavo”, where did it come from !?

It is very good, I graduated between me and my students, first came capoeira, then I joined the boys there, then he picked up the pitch, everyone is applauding and here for the better, we have to improve right and we get there. This samba that we do is old, I was a boy when I learned it, it’s the hard samba from Recôncavo ... And the CD, with God's graces will be good, it’s getting good

- What do you want to teach your disciples?

Everything that is inside of me, to teach my students, depends on their good will, right, but nobody wants anything with anything and I want my corner back, it is the home of all of us, where everyone comes and likes, but so far ... everyone is charging our space back

- Where will capoeira be in 20 years?

It depends on the masters, right, because the way it goes, this anarchy, especially in the public square, they only think about bravery, let's think better, look at the future there ...

- Do you have a Capoeira song that you prefer or do I really like to sing?

All of them are the same, all good

- What do you like to do outside capoeira?

Candomblé, like the entities' organ, is painted, scraped and cathulated, available to the orixás, but ... everything is also modified, even the entities are modified, the corners ...

-Maybe you can tell us more about your group

Our group is great, what’s missing is a space, right, but depending on you, a swallow just doesn’t make a summer, let’s get together, I’m very jealous about me, one says this, the other that, it’s one “he told me he said miseravi ”.