Manuel dos Reis Machado
Manuel dos Reis Machado
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Manuel dos Reis Machado

Manuel dos Reis Machado, commonly called Mestre Bimba (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈmɛstɾi ˈbĩbɐ]; November 23, 1900 – February 5, 1974), 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.

Bimba came from capoeira Angola, and taught Angola style. He reformed capoeira primarily in response to Burlamaqui and Sinhôzinho's attempts to strip it of music and African traditions, and transform it into a mere set of bodily techniques. On the other hand, he was unsatisfied with capoeira Angola of his time, because of its emphasis on rituals and ineffective kicks.

Bimba encouraged adding new kicks to capoeira, as long as they were effective and incorporated into the basic footwork, ginga. In declaration of his style in 1936, Bimba claimed to have subtracted two and added 15 kicks to traditional capoeira. Later, this number rose to 52 techniques from various arts. Martelo and queixada kicks, introduced by Bimba, became hallmarks of the Regional style.

Sequences of predetermined movements as a teaching method was one of the major innovations of Bimba. Another key innovations was teaching capoeira to a broader audience, which helped spread the art to different social groups and ultimately contributed to its decriminalization.

Bimba was also an excellent singer and berimbau player.

Manoel dos Reis Machado was born on 23 November 1900 (according to Assunção) or 1899 (according to Almeida) in the neighbourhood of Engenho Velho, in Salvador.

The son of Luiz Cândido Machado and Maria Martinha do Bonfim, Machado was born at the Bairro do Engenho Velho, Salvador. The nickname "Bimba", whose literal meaning was "phallus", came up as a result of a bet between his mother and the midwife during his birth. His mother bet that he was going to be a girl and the midwife bet he would be a boy; after he was delivered, the midwife revealed that he was a boy by pointing between his legs at his bimba. In the context of Brazil, "Bimba" also meant "beating".

He worked as a carpenter, dockworker, and day laborer. He started learning capoeira when he was 12 years old, with an African boat commander called Bentinho. He had previously learned techniques of batuque, a related fighting-dance, from his fater, Luis Cândido Machado. As a young man, he had the nickname Três Pancadas, meaning "three blows", because this was said to be the number of his punches necessary to knock down an opponent.

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