In Search of Mandinga: Encounters Around the World Paperback – 13 Feb. 2024

I read this book in a couple of days because it is such a good read - each chapter takes you to a different place and a different experience.Mestre Carlão, as he is known in the capoeira world, has been learning, and practicing capoeira since the 1980s and started to teach in the 1990s, taking capoeira to a number of places around the Atlantic. He has a vast experience from which this book draws. From his insertion into Carioca musical culture and playing with the legendary Mestre João Grande, each chapter provides a very different take from his life-long involvement with this Afro-Brazilian martial art and related art forms more generally. You learn a lot about the insertion of capoeira into wider Afro-Brazilian culture, be it through the atabaque drum, which also figures in candomblé ceremonies, or his cultural activism in the Casarão de São Domingos in his native Niteroí. “Wirikuta” shares his mystical experience behind the composition of his song “Caboclo Gira, Caboclo Joga”. The chapter “Mestre Ananias” provides an account of this masters’ visit to the roda Carlão was organising during a couple of years at the Valongo site, the quay where enslaved Africans were disembarked during times of slavery.My preferred chapters include the story of the roda that took place in the Bonfim Church andthe account of his trip to Martinique, as part of the GCAP group he then belonged to, in order to get to know Danmyé. Nobody else from the group has written about that important experience, which documented – 50 years after Katherine Dunham - this combat game so closely related to capoeira.

This is a wonderful book and highly recommended. Mestre Carlo's writing is engaging, emotive and educational, there is much to learn from his powerful story telling, as he recounts anecdotes from his lifetime immersed in capoeira, and the lessons and reflections taken from these experiences.Capoeira has a rich cultural and historic background, but it is important to remember that history is a living thing, and that the capoeira happening today is the capoeira history of the future. How fortunate we are to have this record of an insight into the life of contemporary capoeira mestre.Thank you for sharing your experiences with us Mestre!

"In search of mandinga" is both gripping and insightful, taking us on unexpected journeys with realism and humility. Thoroughly enjoyable and stuffed with fascinating mateiral. A must read for capoeiristas, artist and adventurers

The book arrived. The book was opened. The book, like my ancestors kept calling me. The book finished its words. I digested it and combined it ideas within the colours of my heart and it sat well.Carlo Alexandre Teixeira has observed, FELT, questioned the inside out/outside inward and managed to find a narative to built a bridge to an guide for others who what to take part in the indigenous world wide cultures 'ancestral sacred' worlds.Hand on heart, it is FELT. AxéMay your work guide the mass.

As a long time Capoeirista, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Alex takes us on a personal journey through Capoeira, filled with observations and insights. As the author recreates these moments and paints those characters enountered throughout this journey, you can't help get drawn in and follow along through the pages.All in all, its a great addition for those wanting to know more about Capoeira's history.

Carlo Alexandre Texeira shares many insights into the history /culture plus extra ordinary experiences within Capoeira martial arts.A book for all martial art enthusiasts as well as music, black history and culture.I started my capoeira journey when I was already 39 and only had Chinese martial arts (my passion is Chinese Medicine ) to compare this Afro Brazilian art form . My own experience of the two cultures has created a lot of balance in my life . In this special book you will find yourself compelled to believe in the powers of nature.We are human creatures searching for a little magic after all .My favourite chapter is “Roda in the Church “ where I found myself able to be an onlooker and hear the sounds of the Afrobrazilan beats and the call of the chamada and feel the vibration of the Roda experience as described so honestly by the author.

In search of Mandinga is not only a book for the beginner or experienced Capoeista but too it’s a book for our times. With the rise of AI and all that it promises for mankind (yawn yawn) - what ‘it’ can never promise EVER – is what it is to be a sensory spiritual human – such that Mestre Carlao attempts to express in this beautiful book : AI will never master the infinite within the finite, the magical, the unpredictable, the intuitive, the instinctive, the illusive, or the mysterious – – such stuff all students understand when entering into the world of Capoeira.

A Capoeira isn't just another marcial art, a Capoeira Is an antique culture, you need to Buy, read AND study Capoeira.Thanks Mestre Carlão for be an Capoeira investigador.

This book is filled with historical information, self analysis from all the author felt, saw and learned. As a copoeirista serching for more knowledge about the art of capoeira i was filled with knowledge and more understanding. This book is one of those books that you read slowly, simply because you don't want it to be over. I'll read it again and again. Thank you Mestre Carlo Alexandre Teixera for sharing your knowledge and experiences.