Mestre Bamba

Kleber Umbelino Lopes Filho, known as Mestre Bamba, was born on 12 April 1966 in the Madre Deus neighbourhood of São Luís, Maranhão. Raised by his mother Marinildes Pinheiro Braga — who supported three children alone through laundry work, manicure, hair styling, bus conducting, and municipal employment after his father left when Kleber was four — he first encountered capoeira at the age of twelve, watching training sessions around São Luís.

In 1980, at fourteen, he began his formal training with Mestre Euzamor (Alberto Pereira Abreu), a Maranhão-based capoeira angola practitioner and jackknife-game specialist who had been formed by Mestre Sapo. Valdira Barros played a pivotal role in his development: she introduced him to Mestre Patinho at Laborarte in the mid-1990s. Under Patinho's guidance Bamba received his deepest formation: 'Mestre Patinho is my Mestre, my Father in Angola Capoeira. He was the one who educated me.' Patinho titled him Contramestre around 2003–2004 and later Mestre.

On 12 April 1996 — Kleber's own birthday — his students staged a surprise celebration that prompted him to declare: 'Starting today we are a School!', founding the Escola de Capoeira Angola Mandingueiros do Amanhã in São Luís. The school first operated out of the Cortiço do Abelha in the historic centre before eventually securing a historic mansion in Praia Grande through the state government's 'Adote um Casarão' programme. Co-founded with Mestra Valdira Barros, the group grew into the Centro Cultural e Educacional Mandingueiros do Amanhã.

Mestre Bamba extended his group's reach into quilombo communities in Itapecuru-Mirim and Santa Rita, where he documented the 'Pungada dos Homens' — a male variation of Tambor-de-Crioula incorporating movements similar to capoeira — in the Santa Maria dos Pretos settlement. He received formal recognition as Mestre da Cultura Popular from the Brazilian Ministry of Culture and developed 'Angolaterapia', a methodology blending capoeira angola movements with traditional rhythms. In 2024 the group's musical 'Resistência Ancestral: Gungas, Marimbas e Urucungos em Encantorias Ancestrais' played at the Teatro José de Alencar in Ceará.