ABSTRACT
Mestre Pastinha’s outstanding contribution to the revitalization of traditional capoeira took place during a time of wider cultural change in Bahia. The decades following emancipation in Salvador were characterized by renewed attempts to eradicate the most visible and audible aspects of Afro-Bahian culture from the city in the name of progress and hygiene (see Chapter 4). Yet despite police repression and measures of hygienization, Afro-Bahian culture survived in the city. Even if some aspects still had to remain underground, Salvador certainly was among the cities with the most vibrant African derived culture in the Americas. During the 1930s the anti-African prejudices of the Bahian elites were openly challenged by the alliance forged between an avant-garde of left-wing intellectuals such as Jorge Amado, Artur Ramos and Edison Carneiro, and some of the most prominent leaders of Afro-Bahian religion, such as Martiniano Bomfim, Eugênia dos Santos (better known as ‘Aninha’, head of the Opô Afonjá shrine) and João da Pedra Preta (later known as Joãozinho da Goméia, head of the most famous Angola terreiro).
