What is a “berimbau” in Portuguese and capoeira?

The berimbau is a one-string musical bow with a gourd (cabaça) as resonator, played with a small stick and a coin or stone. It sets the rhythm and tempo of capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian art often described as uma luta disfarçada na dança, “a fight disguised as a dance.” Its twangy sound is one of the most recognisable in Brazilian culture.

In this clip a jiu-jitsu practitioner sings a capoeira-style song about making a berimbau and stresses that capoeira is a fight hidden in dance. The berimbau is the leader of the roda (the circle where capoeiristas play), and different rhythms tell players how fast and how aggressive the game should be. The word is also a good pronunciation test: stress falls on the last syllable, be-rim-BAU.