Mestre Roberval Serejo

Roberval Serejo was born in 1936 in Maranhão, Brazil. As a young man, he joined the Brazilian Navy (Marinha de Guerra) as a diver (escafandrista) and was stationed in Rio de Janeiro. There, he discovered capoeira and became a student of Mestre Artur Emídio, one of the pioneers of contemporary capoeira in Rio who had established an influential academy in the Bonsucesso neighborhood.

Having learned from one of the great masters of Rio de Janeiro, Serejo returned to his home state of Maranhão in the late 1950s, assigned to work on the construction of Porto do Itaqui, a major port being developed in São Luís. Upon arriving, he found that capoeira already had deep roots in the region - the rodas of Mestre Diniz were already happening at Praça Deodoro, where a local variant of the art called "carioca" had been practiced since the mid-19th century.

In 1959, Serejo established Grupo Bantu de Capoeira (also known as Academia Bantu), the first formally organized capoeira group in Maranhão. The founding members included Babalu, Jessé Lobão, Patinho, Bizerra, Manuel Peitudinho, Murilo, Lourinho, Elmo Cascavel, and Alô. The academy was centered in the São Pantaleão neighborhood, which became a hub for capoeira activity in the city.

Serejo's approach was described as coming from "a different school... of a 'primitive' capoeira" - a style rooted in the Rio traditions through figures like Artur Emídio, and by extension the Bahian lineage of Mestre Paizinho and Mestre Neném. His teachings attracted young practitioners, including Antônio José da Conceição Ramos, who would later become the legendary Mestre Patinho. Patinho received his first lessons from Jessé Lobão and then trained under Roberval Serejo for approximately two years.

Another significant disciple was Mestre Bezerra, who later carried the capoeira traditions to Pará state, where he became one of three principal masters who restructured capoeira in that region during the 1970s "hippie era." Bezerra developed capoeira in its sportive aspects, representing an encounter between historical local capoeira and the matrices brought from Maranhão.

The narrative of capoeira in Maranhão is often dominated by Mestre Sapo (Anselmo Barnabé Rodrigues), who arrived in 1966 with the Quarteto Aberrê led by Mestre Canjiquinha. However, scholars have begun to recognize that Roberval Serejo's work predated Sapo's arrival and was crucial in establishing an organized structure for capoeira transmission in the state.

Tragically, Roberval Serejo died in 1971 while working on the Porto do Itaqui construction project. His death cut short a promising career, but his legacy lived on through his students and the foundation he laid for organized capoeira in Maranhão. The Grupo Bantu de Capoeira he founded represented a bridge between Rio de Janeiro's capoeira traditions and the emerging scene in northern Brazil, ensuring that the art form would take root and flourish in Maranhão long before it gained mainstream recognition.