Game of Freedom
Mestre Bimba and the Art of Capoeira
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In the powerful, vibrant biography Game of Freedom, award-winning creator Duncan Tonatiuh sheds light on the legacy of a legendary capoeira player, Mestre Bimba, who resisted racial oppression through art and turned a marginalized practice into a global phenomenon.
A meia lua whooshed in the air. The strike was evaded and followed with an aú.
Two young men were playing capoeira in the middle of the roda. Bimba wanted to play too.
Although it is debated when and where capoeira—an art form that blends martial arts, dance, acrobatics, music, and spirituality—originated exactly, one thing is certain: in the early 20th century, Brazil was the only country in the world where capoeira was played, and it was mainly practiced by people of African descent. In 1890, two years after Brazil officially abolished slavery, the game was outlawed. Wealthy, lighter-skinned society feared and looked down on capoeira, seeing it as a game for malandros—what people in power called the poor Black communities they disdained. But in the early 1920s in the city of Salvador, a man called Bimba advocated for capoeira, and those who practiced it, demanding they be treated with dignity and respect.
Duncan Tonatiuh’s lyrical prose and beloved full-color illustrations, inspired by pre-Columbian codices, tell the story of arguably the greatest capoeirista of all time, who fought to turn a misunderstood, persecuted Afro-Brazilian activity into a celebrated art practiced by millions around the world. In 2014, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named capoeira an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a distinction awarded because of the game’s promotion of social integration and the memory it holds of the struggle against historical oppression. From an award-winning author-illustrator, Game of Freedom is a stirring celebration of solidarity and resistance through art.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This movement-filled biography about Brazilian capoeira mestre Bimba (1899–1974) begins with his youth in Salvador, Brazil, where he's taken with the combination of "music, fighting, theatrics, and dance." Practiced by Black men who are, like Bimba, descendants of Africans enslaved by the Portuguese, capoeira is disdained by "predominantly white" authorities, who outlaw playing it in the streets, beating and incarcerating the capoeiristas they catch. To reduce stigma against capoeira, Bimba develops his own form, called regional, which he opens a school to teach in 1932. Through rigorous teaching and official competition, Bimba slowly raises the profile of regional until capoeira is not only decriminalized but also declared by Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas "the only truly national sport." Tonatiuh's signature-style illustrations employ fluid motion to simulate capoeira's graceful acrobatics, while lengthy informative text conveys the history of Bimba and of the once-persecuted Afro-Brazilian cultural expression. An author's note and glossary conclude. Ages 4–8.
