Ninho

Ninho was a capoeirista from the Ribeira neighborhood in Salvador's Cidade Baixa (Lower City). While little is documented about his personal history, his role as a foundational teacher in the Massaranduba-Uruguai capoeira network places him as an important link in the transmission of capoeira angola during the mid-20th century.

Ninho ran rodas at Praça Argolo (also called Largo de Argolo), a small crossroads situated between the neighborhoods of Massaranduba and Jardim Cruzeiro. This location served as a gathering point for capoeiristas from the surrounding areas, where the art was practiced in the traditional street roda format that characterized Salvador's Lower City scene before the era of formal academies.

His most documented legacy is as the first teacher of the brothers Nilton (born October 16, 1937) and Nelson Moraes Paes, known as Cutica (1941-1970). The brothers lived in Massaranduba and first learned capoeira with Ninho at the Argolo Square rodas before progressing to train with Mestre Pierrô and Mestre Zeca do Uruguai in the neighboring Uruguai district, less than a kilometer away.

Ninho was part of a network of capoeiristas active in Salvador's Lower City that included Pierrô, Cobrinha do Morro (Pedro Caipora, described as "one of the most dangerous"), Risadinha da Rua Chile, Edinho do Uruguai, Cacua, João Caveirinha (a skilled berimbau player), Edinho Bufo-Bufo, and the elder Mestre Zeca do Uruguai. This informal community of practitioners maintained the tradition of street rodas in neighborhoods like Ribeira, Massaranduba, Uruguai, Bonfim, and Jardim Cruzeiro.

Through his students Nilton and Cutica, Ninho's influence extended to the next generation: in 1952, when the young Norival Moreira de Oliveira's family moved to Massaranduba, the brothers took him to meet the elder masters and began his capoeira education. Norival would later become Mestre Nô, the "mestre dos mestres" who has graduated over 75 students to the rank of master—making Ninho an ancestor in one of the most prolific capoeira angola lineages in history.