Mestre Pessoa Bababá
Merchant seaman, disciple of Mestre Pastinha, and a quiet pillar of the Angola lineage, Pessoa Bababá taught the old game the old way: low light, small room, full attention. In 1968 he began training the young José Luiz “Bola Sete”, meeting him in the basement of a building in Salvador for about a year before guiding him to Pastinha’s academy in 1969. Remembered as “muito forte e valente,” Bababá was a traditional angoleiro who insisted on ritual, measure, and defense over show.

Though little about him was advertised, his influence runs straight through his student: Bola Sete’s emphasis on humility, music-led jogo, and respect for protocol mirrors Bababá’s teaching. In the memory-keeping of capoeira—songs, stories, and the pages of Histórias e Estórias da Capoeiragem—Bababástands as the mentor at the threshold, the sailor who helped steer street talent into Pastinha’s house without losing what made Angola Angola.