Capoeira is lacking a uniform graduation system. A lot of Capoeira groups, schools and academies have their own distinct system of coloured ropes representing the level of the player. Since the systems are a quite new tradition I tried to find out why and how they started, using as much information sources as I could find. If anyone has additional information, feel free to add your comment!

History
The Capoeira graduation system is quite young and still evolving. The tradition of giving coloured ropes symbolizing the level of the student has only been in existence for 40 years. It involves the use of titles like ‘graduado’, ‘professor’ or ‘mestre’ and respective coloured ropes ('cordas'), much like Asian martial arts that use belts. You recieve a first rope (if your school uses them) during the ‘batizado’ (baptism, entrance into the capoeira community) and you can change levels in the following ‘troca de cordas’ (change of ropes). Capoeira Angola schools do not use ropes. Still, the ropes neither belong to the legacy of mestre Bimba, inventor of Capoeira Regional.

Capoeira originated in the poor streets and houses of the main Brazilian cities: Salvador da Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Recife, as a cultural resistance and outlet of poor, mainly Afro-Brazilian communities. In the nineteenth century Capoeira was feared by the elite and the name itself became synonimous for ‘gangster’, ‘smalltime crook’ and such. From 1890 to 1936 the practice of Capoeira was completely banned and persecuted under Brazilian Criminal Law. In this situation, capoeiristas did not use graduation systems, as there were few players and most knew who was who. The best players and valued teachers were considered ‘mestre’ in their rodas, neighbourhoods and cities. There was only the mestre and a few of his followers. Capoeira was still a pastime, filosophy and way of life: not an organised sport.
After legalization in 1936 mestres like Bimba, Pastinha and Noronha started up acadamies and tried to organize them. Graduation systems for their students would have been a logical response to the school environment capoeira was brought into. In fact Mestre Pastinha did organise his Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola with appointed mestres responsible for any thinkable task: music, roda, administration. Also, he used the colours of his favorite soccer team, Ipiranga, as official school colours: black pants and yellow shirts. But the real differentiation in the path from aluno (apprentice) to mestre (master) only started in the sixties, when the work of Mestre Bimba and others was taking root across the whole of Brazil. The development of graduation systems has largely been propelled by the urge to develop capoeira itself and transform it into a respected artform/sport in Brazilian society.

Mestre Bimba was the first to establish an official academy, taking capoeira off the streets and inside the school. He also created a teaching method consisting of eight sequences and special courses. He never used ropes, but in the end he did give coloured scarfs to his students. They were red, blue and yellow and you would recieve them after completing a course. Therefore, it seems Capoeira Regional and its adepts have the strongest tradition of graduation systems. This may also be due to the influence of Asian martial arts. Capoeira Angola groups, ususally very well-organised, can use titles like ‘treinel’, ‘professor’, ‘contramestre’ and of course ‘mestre’ but have no cordas. Some contemporary Capoeira Angola groups do make graduation differences in the uniform, for example by colour of shirts.

The rope system
As said, Mestre Bimba never used ropes. In the 1960’s one of his former students, mestre Senna, started using bands around the waist in the colours of the Brazilian flag. According to him the slaves had also used bands to hold their pants. Mestre Itapoan, student of Bimba, then started using ropes for his academy. As mestre Bimba was trying to enter Capoeira into the Confederação Brasileira de Pugilismo (Brazilian Boxing Federation) as a recognised sport, he developed an official diploma of “Mestre de capoeira” (see picture, courtesy mestre Decanio). But he fell into disagreement with the Boxing Federation and never really used the diplomas. He did start using coloured scarfs and medals for different stages of development of his students. The origin of the scarfs lies in the silk scarfs that street players used in the old days. The scarfs protected them from a cut in the throat by a razor blade! Silk is very strong and smooth so the razor would slip away, saving the capoeristas’ life.

Modern graduation systems
In 1974, the Confederação Brasileira de Pugilismo (in Sao Paulo) adopted a similar colour system as mestre Senna used. It consisted of ten colours representing the Brazilian flag from outside in:
• Green
• Green-yellow
• Yellow
• Yellow-blue
• Blue
• Blue-white (aluno formado)
• All colours mixed (contramestre)
• White-green (mestre 1° grau)
• White-blue (mestre 2° grau)
• White (Mestre)

The flag colours were no coincidence: Brazil was ruled at that time by a technocratic junta of military dictators and the nationalistic and militaristic tendencies were everywhere.
The meaning was to create a national rope system so people could compete in boxing-style championships. Fortunately, this practice was not a succes. Thus the national rope system was doomed, as was the junta. But many groups still use the flag colours in their rope system.

Other origins of the colours used for the ropes have been religiously inspired (Candomblé colours) or symbolize the historical origins of capoeira: blue for the water that the slaveships crossed, brown for the earth of the 'canavial' where the slaves worked, green for the woods where they fled into to build the 'quilombos', yellow for the gold mining era, etcetera. Many modern graduation systems were also influenced by one of the first capoeira groups outside Bahia, Grupo Senzala. The group started in the 1960’s in Rio de Janeiro. As mestre Peixinho of Grupo Senzala explained us once, the first Senzala players like him used only one rope, the red one. They liked the colour and its representation of blood. The group grew, attracting more and more students for whom they had to invent other cordas with different colours. This way the system expanded and red became the corda of a Senzala mestre. Other groups that emerged from the Senzala group, modified this system slightly.

Together with the creation of the white uniform (stretch pants and t-shirt), inspired by the Asian martial arts, these systems paved the way for an enormous variety in rope systems. Every group attached its own philosophy, identity and ideas about capoeira to its graduation system. Affiliations, ruptures and expansions spread the graduation systems throughout Brazil. This situation, despite ongoing efforts to unite, has not changed to date. The development of enormous groups of sometimes thousands of players seems to call for even more systems and extra cordas. There are now subsystems for children (both as goal and reward: to not let them wait ten years before they can reach another level, but give them an incentive to keep training). Also the titles of different graduation levels evolved. An overview of the (sometimes contested) possibilities:

• Aluno
• Aluno graduado
• Monitor
• Estagiario
• Instrutor
• Professor
• Contramestre
• Mestrando/formando
• Mestre
• (Mestre 1/2/3/4/5 Grau); (Mestrissimo); (Graomestre)

Concluding
The positive side of the graduation systems has been the professionalisation of Capoeira, giving it a more respectable look than an unorganised group of shirtless players in dirty trousers. Also, a graduation system gives the student a defined goal to work towards. It can create both competition (healthy or unhealthy) and cohesion within a capoeira group and forms the feeling of a traditional legacy. It helped the development and growth of capoeira. The standardisation of capoeira could be seen as a negative side to this development. Militarisation of the free capoeirista, could lead to a capoeira that is a mere sport, with regulations and competitions. So you could actually say that the use of different coloursystems by contemporary groups isn’t such a bad compromise, for it renders the ropes less important in a roda where different groups are present. As some mestres say, the corda serves to keep your pants from falling, but in the roda only your game shows your graduation! When doubting, just ask the person about its graduation. Sometimes people confuse their own groups teachers rope for the beginners rope of another group. Be alert whenever you see someone wearing a white, red or black rope: you're probably meeting a master.

The process is still evolving. At the moment, Brazilian government intervention is trying to regulate capoeira professionals. Proposals for the official status of Capoeira Teacher are being negociated. The positive and negative sides of this development are clear. Acknowledged Capoeira teachers can obtain the status of a recognised education worker, but a lot of poor capoeira teachers who lack formal education and money to pay the compulsary courses will probably be excluded from the benefits. We can only hope that any future overall system will help capoeira forward and not restrain it in bureaucracy. After all, capoeira is freedom.

Sources
A. A. Decanio Filho - A herança de Pastinha, Edição CEPAC, Salvador/BA (1998)
(http://planeta.terra.com.br/esporte/capoeiradabahia/)
L. Vidor de Sousa Reis – O mundo de pernas para o ar (1997)
J. Lowell lewis – Ring of liberation (1992)