CAPOEIRA IS...
Capoeira [ka.pu.ej.] is a Brazilian fight-dance, game, and martial art created by enslaved Africans during the 19th Century Participants form a roda (circle) and take turns playing instruments, singing, and sparring in pairs in the centre of the circle.
The word could derive from two Tupi-Guarani words, kaá (leaf, plant) and puéra (past aspect marker), which literally means "formerly a forest", referring to an area of forest that had been cleared by burning or cutting down. In such places a thick, low secondary vegetation would grow, making it a good place for those who escaped slavery and bandits to hide.
