Grupo Bantu de Capoeira

Grupo Bantu de Capoeira — also known as Academia Bantu — was the first formally organised capoeira group in Maranhão. Founded in 1959 by Roberval Serejo, a Maranhão-born Navy diver who had learned capoeira from Mestre Artur Emídio in Rio de Janeiro. The group was based in the São Pantaleão neighbourhood, São Luís, and operated until Serejo's death in 1971.

When Roberval Serejo arrived in São Luís in the late 1950s to work on the construction of Porto do Itaqui, capoeira was already present in the city in the form of a local practice called 'carioca', dating to the nineteenth century and practised at Praça Deodoro by Mestre Diniz. In 1959 Serejo founded Grupo Bantu de Capoeira with ten founding members: himself (leader), Babalu, Jessé Lobão, Patinho (Antônio José da Conceição Ramos), Bizerra, Manuel Peitudinho, Murilo, Lourinho, Elmo Cascavel, and Alô.

Serejo's approach was described as coming from 'a different school... of a primitive capoeira', rooted in the Rio de Janeiro tradition through Artur Emídio and, by extension, the Bahian lineage of Mestre Paizinho and Mestre Neném. The group operated under relative social isolation, facing the stigma that associated capoeira with vagrants and troublemakers. According to accounts, they trained intensively and occasionally appeared at parties where fights broke out, overcoming opponents who often did not realise until years later that they had been beaten by capoeiristas.

Grupo Bantu predated by seven years the arrival of Mestre Sapo (Anselmo Barnabé Rodrigues) in São Luís in 1966 with the Quarteto Aberrê led by Mestre Canjiquinha. Although the dominant narrative of Maranhão capoeira has historically centred on Mestre Sapo, scholars have begun to recognise Grupo Bantu's prior role in establishing an organised framework for the art's transmission in the state.

Roberval Serejo died in 1971 during the Porto do Itaqui construction works. With his death the group ceased formal activities, but its legacy persisted through those it had formed: Mestre Patinho (who would become the preeminent figure of capoeira angola in Maranhão), Mestre Bezerra (who brought capoeira to Pará in the 1970s), and founding members including Jessé Lobão.