Verses and Cudgels:
Stick Playing in the Afro-Brazilian Culture of the Paraiba Valley

The film Verses and Cudgels: Stick Playing in the Afro-Brazilian Culture of the Paraiba Valley (2009, Directed by Matthias Röhrig Assunção and Hebe Mattos) documents the stick game and its place in the afro-fluminense culture of some rural areas of the state of Rio de Janeiro: the counties of Valença, Vassouras, Duas Barras e Miracema. In the XIX century these four counties were part of a vast area, known as Paraiba Valley, connected to coffee cultivation for export. Its protagonists are descendants of slaves who worked in coffee plantations of the region. The great majority of slaves came from Angola and Mozambique, and for this reason the popular culture of Paraíba Valley is strongly influenced by the cultures of bakongos, mbundus, ovimbundos and other bantu peoples of these areas. CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILM.

Even if the most related manifestation with African roots is the jongo (or caxambu), the cultures of the descendants of western-central African pastors and farmers also marked other expressions of the valley as the calangos and the folias de reis (in this regard, see the documentaries Memories of Captivity (2005) and Jongos, Calangos and Folias (2007), also produced by LABHOI. If today is not easy to find stick players in the old Paraiba Valley, the memory of many descendants of slaves indicates that this practice was very common all over the southeast coffee plantation.

Versos e Cacetes - O jogo do pau na cultura afro-fluminense (Verses and Cudgels: Stick Playing in the Afro-Brazilian Culture of the Paraiba Valley) | 2009 | Runtime: 37 min | Direction and Screenplay: Matthias Röhrig Assunção and Hebe Mattos | Images: Guilherme Fernandez, Helio Leite | Sound: Helio Leite, Luiz Paulo Gomes Neves | Editing: Isabel Castro | Research Assistants: Luana Oliveira, Edmilson Santos, Paulo Rogério da Silva | Camera Assistant: Gilciano Menezes | Transcription and Subtitles: Eric Brasil Nepomuceno, Eric Maia | Consultant: Martha Abreu | Production: Laboratory of Oral History and Image - LABHOI, Fluminense Federal University - UFF | Sponsorship: Projeto Capoeira Viva 2007