This mixture of game,
dance and pugilism is present in 48+ countries, none of them in Africa. The word
capoeira comes from
Tupi and it means ''very sparse''. It is probable that it arose in the countryside amongst the slaves, but there are those who defend the theory that it is urban. The existence of similar physical games in Cuba proves that the seed of all of the speculations is in the customs brought in the holds of the slave ships that also continued on to the Caribbean. The law punished the playing of
capoeira with sentences of up to 300 lashes and imprisonment. The height of the repression was in 1890 when the deportation of capoeira practitioners from Rio to Fernando de Noronha became institutionalized. In Bahia they became disorganized when many were called up in 1864 for the Paraguayan war. Those from Recife ended in 1912 when the game became once again a form of diversion, giving origin to the frevo
dance. From 1890 to 1937 it was a crime prescribed in the penal code of the republic. Practice in the street could get up to 6 months in prison. The schools survived clandestinely in the suburbs. A new capoeira with another name arose, combining techniques from boxing and jiu jitsu where a kick to the head or thorax could be fatal.