Besouro Mangangá
Capoeirista from Bahia
- Born
- 1895, Santo Amaro
- Died
- 8 July 1924, Bahia
- Citizenship
- Brazil
- Sport
- capoeira
- Occupation
- martial artist, capoeira practitioner
Manoel Henrique Pereira (c. 1895 in Santo Amaro, Bahia – c. 1924 in Santo Amaro, Bahia), known as Besouro Mangangá was a legendary Brazilian capoeira fighter from Bahia who ran capoeira school in Santo Amaro at the beginning of the 20th century.
Besouro was a dangerous faquista, highly skilled in knife fight, and known to play with a straight razor using his foot. Besouro was murdered quite young in 1924 in the Maracangalha camp, in the Santa Casa de Misericórdia of Santo Amaro.
Shortly after his death, Besouro became a mythical capoeira hero. Its fame reached the national level from the 1930s and, with the expansion of capoeira to other continents, it became international.
Besouro was the teacher of capoeira mestre Cobrinha Verde.
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q709141 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.