One of the names that appears most often in capoeira songs is Besouro Mangangá. In the songs he is remembered as a hero whom bullets could not harm, who always escaped the police and who was finally killed with a knife made from tucum wood.
Besouro was a real person: his real name was Manoel Henrique Pereira. His birth, his clashes with the police and his death left traces in the documents. In this article we introduce Besouro first as the documents describe him, then as the legends do, and try to separate the two.
A boy born in Santo Amaro
Manoel Henrique Pereira was born in the town of Santo Amaro da Purificação in Bahia’s Recôncavo region. Most research gives his year of birth as 1895; some sources say 1897. His mother’s name is recorded as Maria José and his father’s as João Matos Pereira.
Santo Amaro was a town surrounded by sugar-cane fields and sugar mills. Slavery had ended in 1888, but most Black workers in the region were still working the same fields for low wages. Besouro grew up in this setting.
His master and his student
According to the accounts, Besouro learned capoeira as a child from Mestre Alípio in the Trapiche de Baixo area of Santo Amaro. He is said to have got the nickname Besouro Mangangá there too. Mangangá is the name of a large species of bee in Brazil; besouro means ‘beetle’.
Much of what we know about Besouro today comes from Mestre Cobrinha Verde, who described Besouro as his cousin and first master. Some of the dates in these accounts don’t add up; researchers point to the mismatch between Cobrinha Verde’s year of birth and the year of Besouro’s death. Oral history is valuable, but not every detail is confirmed by documents.
Capoeira before the academies
In Besouro’s time there were no capoeira academies. Mestre Bimba would open his first academy in 1932 and Mestre Pastinha his Capoeira Angola centre in 1941. Besouro’s capoeira was a banned but widespread game played on the street, on the docks, at festivals and among field workers.
The Recôncavo was one of the strongest centres of this street capoeira. Santo Amaro is also the home of maculelê, played with sticks, and of samba de roda. Besouro’s generation is remembered as the last street generation, the one that passed capoeira on to the masters who would take it into the training halls.
Mangangá isn’t the only nickname for Besouro in the sources. In some accounts he is called Besouro Preto (Black Beetle), in others Besouro Cordão de Ouro. Today there are capoeira groups around the world named after his nicknames.
What do the documents say?
There are documents showing that Besouro was a real person. Some of the records researchers have found:
- Military and police records: Besouro served in the army for a time. The documents mention an incident in 1918 in Salvador’s São Caetano neighbourhood, when he went to a police station to retrieve a berimbau belonging to his group and a clash broke out.
- Hospital record: According to the records of the Santa Casa de Misericórdia hospital in Santo Amaro, Manoel Henrique was brought to the hospital with an abdominal wound on 8 July 1924 and died the same day.
- Death certificate: The certificate gives his occupation as vaqueiro (cowherd), his marital status as single and his residence as Usina Maracangalha. The cause of death is a puncture wound.
The legends
The stories that turned Besouro into a hero are these:
- Closed body (corpo fechado): It was believed that Besouro’s body was protected by magic and that bullets and knives could not harm him.
- Turning into a beetle: It is said that when he faced too many enemies he turned into a beetle and flew away; some link his nickname to this.
- The letter trap: In the best-known story, Besouro delivers a letter to a farm manager in Maracangalha. The letter asks for the bearer to be killed.
- The tucum knife: According to the songs, only a knife carved from the tucum palm could break Besouro’s magic, and that was the knife that killed him.
Where do document and legend meet?
What’s interesting is that the documents and the legend overlap at some points. The death certificate says Besouro lived in Maracangalha and died of a puncture wound; the legend says he was killed with a knife in Maracangalha. That the knife was made of tucum, and the belief in the closed body, belong not to the documents but to the songs and oral tradition.
Besouro’s clashes with the police, the stories of him standing up for workers who weren’t paid, and his short life turned him into a folk hero of the Recôncavo who stood against injustice.
Besouro in songs and on screen
Today Besouro is one of the names most often mentioned in capoeira songs. Corridos and ladainhas telling of his death are sung in rodas. We describe the song types in our article capoeira musical instruments.
His life was also the subject of the 2009 film ‘Besouro’, directed by João Daniel Tikhomiroff. The film is not a historical biography but an adventure film telling the legend; even so, it introduced Besouro’s name to audiences outside capoeira.
Frequently asked questions
Was Besouro Mangangá a real person?
Yes. His real name was Manoel Henrique Pereira; there are records of his birth, police records and a death certificate from 1924. Stories such as the bulletproof body are legend.
When did Besouro die?
According to hospital records, he died on 8 July 1924 in Santo Amaro from an abdominal wound.
Did Besouro play Capoeira Angola or Regional?
Neither. Besouro lived before the names Angola and Regional appeared; he played the street capoeira of Bahia. We tell the story of how the two styles were born in our article Angola and Regional.
Hear the legend in the roda
Hearing Besouro’s name in a song sung in the roda to the berimbau is very different from reading this story. In Axé Capoeira Türkiye groups the first class is a free trial.
Read more
- Nagoas and Guaiamuns: Who Were Rio’s Capoeira Maltas?
- Lei Áurea: 13 May 1888 and the End of Slavery in Capoeira Songs
- The 1890 Penal Code: Article 402, Which Made Capoeira a Crime
New to capoeira? Start with our guide What is capoeira and how is it played?.
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