Mestre Sabú

Manoel Pio Sales was born on May 6, 1940, in the historic city of Goiás (Cidade de Goiás), in the state of Goiás. His parents were Benedito Rodrigues do Rosário and Maria de Sales Pinheiro, both already deceased by the time of interviews conducted in the 2010s. He spent his youth in Goiás until circumstances brought him to Salvador, Bahia, where his uncle Francisco de Sales Pinheiro lived in the Terreiro de Jesus neighborhood.

In Salvador, young Manoel had his first contact with capoeira. He studied briefly with Mestre Pastinha—"almost two years"—learning the foundational philosophy of Capoeira Angola. He then trained with Mestre Noronha, the historian and co-founder of the Gengibirra center. But it was under Mestre Caiçara that Sabú completed his formal training and "graduated". For Mestre Sabú, Caiçara represented "ethics, posture, perseverance"—a master who "had confidence in what he was practicing and teaching". Caiçara's repertoire and approach became the foundation of everything Sabú would teach.

During his time in Salvador, Sabú also learned Vale Tudo and Luta Livre from Mestre Valdemar Santana—the famous martial artist who famously defeated Hélio Gracie in 1955. These fighting skills would later provide financial resources to support his capoeira work.

Before capoeira became his life's work, Sabú had an earlier career as a professional wrestler in Luta Livre, fighting masked on television under the ring name "Sabú"—a name taken from a comic book character. This experience introduced him to public performance and the entertainment world.

Around 1958 or 1959, Sabú returned to Goiânia. Capoeira was not accepted by much of the population, with many believing it was associated with "terreiro de macumba" (Afro-Brazilian religious practices). Facing prejudice and discrimination, Sabú never lost interest in spreading the art.

In 1960, he began teaching Vale Tudo and Luta Livre in Goiânia, using these practices to support his family for years while simultaneously maintaining his capoeira teaching activities. During the 1960s, he established his "Terreiro de Capoeira Angola" in Vila Redenção, Goiânia—a space in the backyard of his house where he would train his growing group of students.

In 1973, Sabú formed his first official group, comprising street children he had taken under his wing. From 1974 to 1984, he cared for nearly 500 children at his Terreiro de Capoeira Angola, doing social work at a time when such initiatives were rarely undertaken for genuine humanitarian purposes rather than political status. He raised nearly two dozen children and adolescents through a resocialization project focused on teaching capoeira and the artisanal production of percussion instruments.

Mestre Sabú became renowned as a master craftsman of traditional instruments. At his Terreiro in Vila Redenção, he manufactured and taught the production of atabaque, agogô, afoxé, reco-reco, maracá, tamborim, surdo, cuíca, tumbadora, timbau, berimbau, and ganzá. He was considered a great autodidact who learned to make instruments by necessity without anyone to teach him. The sale of these instruments became a crucial source of income, allowing him to dedicate himself exclusively to capoeira.

Sabú held open rodas at Praça Cívica and the Feira Hippie (Hippie Fair) of Goiânia, spreading capoeira and selling his handcrafted instruments. He performed at schools, television programs, and Sunday gatherings. Besides his capoeira group, he also formed a maculelê group and a tapuios dance group—the latter being a genuine folk tradition from his birthplace, Cidade de Goiás.

He became the creator and eternal honorary president of the Federação Goiana de Capoeira (Goiás Federation of Capoeira), established under LEI 1030/88, recognized as the first and only capoeira federation in the state with public utility status. Through this institution, he worked to publicize capoeira events, support affiliated members, and recognize instructor, teacher, and master-level practitioners throughout Goiás.

During Mestre Bimba's time in Goiânia (1972-1974), Sabú had the opportunity to know the legendary mestre personally. While their primary styles differed—Sabú representing Caiçara's Angola lineage and Bimba representing Regional—both were present in Goiânia during this crucial period when Bimba had abandoned Bahia in frustration and would ultimately die there on February 5, 1974.

In later years, Sabú stopped practicing capoeira due to chronic leg problems, which he attributed to sleeping in his car at the TV tower parking lot in Brasília, where he would go every weekend to sell his berimbaus after the Feira Hippie "left Praça Cívica and turned into something without meaning". He also worked as a used car salesman at Praça do Avião and performed as a bolero singer at a nightclub in Aparecida de Goiás.

Mestre Sabú died on February 27, 2017, at age 76, in Goiânia. His work was documented by anthropologist Emílio Vieira in the study "Na roda do Berimbau", and his social memory and cultural practices became the subject of a master's thesis at the Federal University of Goiás by Tatiana Tucunduva (2015).

He left behind legions of friends, admirers, and former students, many of whom are now teaching Capoeira Angola themselves. Alongside Mestre Osvaldo de Souza, Sabú planted the first seeds of capoeira in Goiânia in the late 1960s, establishing the foundation for what would become a thriving capoeira community.