Jessé Lobão

Jessé Lobão is a Maranhão capoeirista who received his formation in Rio de Janeiro, training under Mestre Djalma Bandeira in the Olaria neighbourhood during the 1960s. Djalma Bandeira was himself a student of Mestre Artur Emídio de Oliveira, one of the pillars of contemporary capoeira in Rio's northern suburbs (Bonsucesso). On returning to São Luís, Lobão became a founding member of Grupo Bantu de Capoeira (also known as Academia Bantu), established by Roberval Serejo in 1959 in the São Pantaleão neighbourhood. Grupo Bantu was the first formally organized capoeira group in Maranhão; its founding cohort included Lobão, Serejo, Babalu, Bizerra, Manuel Peitudinho, Murilo, Lourinho, Elmo Cascavel, and Alô.

It was Jessé Lobão who gave young Antônio José da Conceição Ramos — the future Mestre Patinho — his very first capoeira lessons. After this initiation, Patinho went on to train directly with Roberval Serejo and in the late 1960s found his principal teacher, Mestre Sapo (Anselmo Barnabé Rodrigues). Patinho himself credited Lobão as central to the founding of the Bantú academy and to the transmission of the tradition brought from Djalma Bandeira. Beyond Patinho, Lobão played alongside Mestre Diniz (Firmino Diniz) — who was already conducting rodas at Praça Deodoro before Serejo arrived — in the early Grupo Bantu milieu.

No documentary records of a formal title, birth date, or death date for Jessé Lobão have been found. Living status is unknown.