Muito obrigado to everyone who made the present situation we’re in possible! We began by planting the first seeds of capoeira in Malaysia with Seda, Coelho, Andrew and the other splinter capoeira groups doing their thing, showing off the art of capoeira through shows and classes.

Seda and Coelho impressed upon Mestre Pintor to consider sending over an instructor to Malaysia and establish an academy here.

We first established our Bantus link when I invited the then Grupo Capoeira Angola de Palmares over to the 2nd Bantus Batizado in Perth, Western Australia, in which Seda and Coelho impressed upon Mestre Pintor to consider sending over an instructor to Malaysia and establish an academy here.

Months passed as we discussed our plans, how we should go about doing this, making sure we have the financial capability to carry this through. Many an emails were exchanged before we finally took the plunge.

I’ve got a vibe that tonight’s the night to call the Bantus academy in Brazil…

We just finished a great session (one of many) at the Tranquil Room, and I told Seda, “I’ve got a vibe that tonight’s the night to call the Bantus academy in Brazil” and we did. We called and as luck would have it, the receptionist spoke English! But none of our primary contacts was there! Feeling a bit bummered… Seda took a long shot and asked if Rafael was there…

I can come over tomorrow if you guys can get me the plane ticket tonight.

Our first conversation with Rafael was via a translator (I think her name was Chloe), Seda asked if he was still keen to come to teach capoeira in Malaysia, in which his reply was along the lines of, “I can come over tomorrow if you guys can get me the plane ticket tonight.”

Between the night of that phone call and the Saturday of Rafael’s arrival, many things were prepared on our end. Seda, Coelho and me, committed ourselves to form a partnership, the Capoeira Bantus Agency, in order to better facilitate the running of the capoeira classes and shows.

We have much to thank our lovely ladies, Jessica and Michelle for getting most if not all of the paperwork, research and accounting affairs done for us, Andrew for working on most of the copy and helping us do the publicity work, Terry and Athira and the rest of the senior alunos (students) for helping out with the class with your enthusiasm and dedication to the art and finally all the other capoeiristas who helped out by making the classes so successful, with song, games of beautiful capoeira, and giving their 100% in assisting us to perform amazing shows!

With the seeds in place, and the groundwork laid, our gardener has arrived in the form of Rafael Barbosa Rosario. In the coming months, Rafael will continue the work Seda, Coelho, Andrew and I have started. He will force us to learn Portuguese out of necessity. He will teach us Samba, Forro, Maculele. He will teach us many more capoeira songs. He will of course teach us the fundamentals and the acrobatics of capoeira. But most importantly he will nurture the culture and community of capoeira in Malaysia.

Rafael wishes to see “the best capoeira all over in Malaysia” and that “Bantus Capoeira be the best capoeira group in the region.

Last night, Rafael communicated to me via much dictionary flipping and “shit… man!” expletives, his aspirations and goals here in Malaysia. Rafael wishes to see “the best capoeira all over in Malaysia” and that “Bantus Capoeira be the best capoeira group in the region.” He expressed that “It’s Pintor’s, and naturally his philosophy that the Bantus group do many many shows so that we can attract many students, that’s how they do things in every other Bantus Academias in the world and we will be no different.”

Rafael’s plans for us tentatively is as follows, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays classes, Saturdays for music classes and open roda, Sundays is for training mortals and acrobatics. Bantus Capoeira Malaysia will hold its first Capoeira Festival and Batizado in September and he wants to have it at the KLCC park! (Good luck getting permit for that, I told him, but we’ll see…)

Such as the one about Sao Paolõ being flushed out of existence due to heavy waterfall-like rain storms…

I think I’ve conveyed the gist of what he was trying to tell me with what little (e.g. sort of like zero) competency in the Portuguese language, and for the record, I apologise if I mangled bits of his message or left out any portions of our “talk”. Such as the one about Sao Paolõ being flushed out of existence due to heavy waterfall-like rain storms, or the few dozen stories about how so and so did some acrobatic and shattered a knee or dislocated a shoulder under his care… Just kidding lah! For the record, Rafael’s great with kids, so if any of the single ladies in our group are looking for a such character in a man, please join the drooling queue over there).

With that said, I would like to convey muito muito obrigado again to everyone in the group for making all this possible. Let’s all work together and help Rafael realize his dreams for us and I hope you all have an amazing experience enriching your lives together with our group!