José Ferreira dos Santos — Mestre Ferreirinha
1925 – 1998 • Santo Amaro da Purificação, Bahia

Born in 1925, José Ferreira dos Santos—knownin the roda as Mestre Ferreirinha—movedto Santo Amaro at the age of ten and began training with Antônio Asa Branca. He came looking for work and found a life’s calling. The training was hard, the rules were clear, and the berimbau set the mood before any step was taken.

Ferreirinha taught where he lived. Classes met in a tiny three-by-three meter room in a manguezal community, and somehow that space held a crowd. He was Catholic and kept an altar to Santo Antônio. Before class there were prayers and candles, then music and play. Once a heated game sent a benção into the altar and started a fire, and Ferreirinha shut everything down for a month. Discipline mattered. Respect came first.

He made atabaques thanks to his carpenter’s background, but he did not sell them. Payment for training could be as simple as helping him cut beriba in the woods, or giving up the cake money from a birthday party when a child had nothing else to offer. He demanded a lot and gave a lot. Students stayed for years because the lessons reached beyond movement.

Ferreirinha belonged to the same era that shaped Pastinha and João Pequeno, and he spent time with them. His students carried his cadence forward. Mestre Ivan began with him in 1976 at the age of ten and trained for a decade. Macaco started in the 1970s and was recognized as a mestre in 1985. Ferreirinha’s name appears across the southern Palmares timeline: the I Batismo de Capoeira Ajagunã de Palmares on Ilha de Santa Catarina in 1987, the 2º Batismo de Capoeira Palmares Sul in Florianópolis in 1988, and the Capoeira Angola Palmares Sul encounter in 1990, where he taught and was photographed with Lúcia Correia Lima. In 1991 he was photographed with Mestre Nô outside his home. He was interviewed in 1989 by Itapoan, Luiz Renato, and Eziquiel, and later by Matthias Assunção in 1994 and 1995.

Street rodas under Ferreirinha usually happened during festivals. The rest of the time training stayed close to home, and for a year he also taught with the infantry in Santo Amaro. He was known for a commanding berimbau, a dry humor, and for stories about his mestre Asa Branca—aman who, by some accounts, played even better after a drink, although Ferreirinha himself did not drink.

He passed away in 1998 at the age of 72. What remains is a teacher who held a community together in a small room, a musician whose berimbau set the standard, and a guardian who proved that Capoeira Angola can thrive with little more than faith, wood, and song.

Selected milestones

• 1925 — Born

• 1936 — Moves to Santo Amaro and trains with Antônio Asa Branca

• 1976 — Ten-year-old Ivan begins with him

• 1985 — Student Macaco is recognized as mestre

• 1987 — Present at the I Batismo de Capoeira Ajagunã de Palmares, Ilha de Santa Catarina

• 1988 — Present at the 2º Batismo de Capoeira Palmares Sul, Florianópolis

• 1989 — Interviewed in Santo Amaro by Mestres Itapoan, Luiz Renato, and Eziquiel

• 1990 — Teaches at the Capoeira Angola Palmares Sul encounter

• 1991 — Photo with Mestre Nô in front of his house

• 1994 & 1995 — Interviews with Matthias Assunção

• 1998 — Dies at age 72