Talabi

Talabi was a capoeira mestre from Periperi, a working-class neighborhood in Salvador's Subúrbio Ferroviário (railway suburbs). He taught at what became known as the "roda danada"—the "mad roda" or "wild roda"—where the old mestres of Salvador gathered in the 1930s to play capoeira before the era of formal academies.

Mestre Waldemar da Paixão identified Talabi as his third teacher in a 1989 interview: "I learned capoeira in 1936 in Periperi and my name is Waldemar Rodrigues da Paixão. I had four mestres: Siri de Mangue, one; Canário Pardo, two; Talavi, three, and Ricardo from Ilha de Maré, four". The 1970 Diário de Notícias article about Waldemar also references him as "a student of Mestre Talabi de Periperi", confirming the teaching relationship.

Waldemar described discovering capoeira when he saw the roda at Periperi: "All the old Mestres were there and I asked to learn". This was a time when capoeira had just been legalized (1937) but was still practiced informally in the streets and empty lots. As Waldemar recalled, "At those times there wasn't any Academy. There was only that roda in Periperi and the Academy was everywhere there was a good shadow from the sun".

The "roda danada" at Periperi was one of the key gathering points for capoeiristas in Salvador before the academy era. Mestres like Siri de Mangue, Canário Pardo, Talabi, and others would come together on Sundays and holidays to play. This was rough, street capoeira—the kind that would later be refined and preserved by Mestre Pastinha and others as Capoeira Angola, but in the 1930s it existed in a less codified form.

Talabi's apelido has multiple spelling variations in the historical record: Talabi, Talavi, Telabi, and sometimes "Calabi". The phrase "de Periperi" (of Periperi) appears frequently with his name, indicating his strong association with that neighborhood. This location-based identification was common among capoeiristas of this era, distinguishing them from others who might share the same nickname.

Beyond his role teaching Waldemar, almost nothing else is documented about Talabi's life. Like many capoeiristas of his generation, he left no written records, no photographs, and only the memories preserved in oral testimony. Yet his influence lives on through Mestre Waldemar, whose Barracão in Liberdade became one of the most important sites in capoeira history. Waldemar's students—including figures who would shape capoeira's global expansion—carry forward the teachings that Talabi helped transmit at that mad roda in Periperi.

The fact that Waldemar sought out four different mestres to learn from speaks to the diversity of capoeira knowledge in Salvador during the 1930s. Each mestre had his own style, his own tricks, his own philosophy. Talabi was one of those keepers of knowledge in the critical years when capoeira was transforming from an outlawed practice to a cultural tradition.