USA & Brazil in gantois power and the transnational origin of Afro-Brazilian studies

Abstract

Between 1941 and 1943 the city of Salvador, Bahia became the site of the battle between two different perceptions of black integration in the United States and of the place of Africa in this process. Franklin Frazier, the most famous black sociologist of the time, was locked into an argument with the equally famous, white, and Jewish anthropologist Melville Herskovits on the “origins” of the so-called black family. To make things even more complex, both centered their contention on fieldwork done among the same informants: the povo de santo (the members) of the same candomblé house of worship in Salvador. In between the two of them was linguist Lorenzo vibrant v.8 n.1 livio sansone Dow Turner. The article shows how transnational was the making of Afro- Brazilian studies and how important is a critical assessment of power relations in this international field of studies.

Field Station Bahia

“…These lectures, performances, dance shows and radio programmes are evidence of two things. In and around Chicago, there was a interest in black cultures from around the world, and this, in turn, provided an audience for Turner's creative production, which could not find its way through the conventional academic channels.75 Together with his findings on the Gullah language and, later, Yoruba in Nigeria and the Creole language of Sierra Leone, his Bahia findings corroborated his understanding of the centrality of Africa in contemporary black speech.76 He saw his work as intrinsically transnational and transatlantic, but the academic establishment barely recognized this ( Sansone 2011).77…”

“…Frazier returned from Haiti to the United States to strengthen "his opinion that humanity was possible for black people in the New World in the context of modernization and industrialization" (Sansone 2011). He engaged in many activities to improve inter-American solidarity.…”

“…As can be seen from his notes at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, from the 1940s to the end of his life Frazier resented deeply all the obstacles he faced that prevented him from becoming the universal scholar he had certainly hoped to be (Sansone 2011).55 Yet, he achieved a lot. He was not only attuned to mainstream sociology throughout his life but also well connected.…”

“…Verger was facilitated by his French colonial connections and prioritized Benin; Turner made use of the Fulbright grant and later the Peace Corps funds, and focused on the Yoruba of Nigeria and thereafter the Krio of Sierra Leone. In her biography of Turner, Margaret Wade-Lewis mentions that he had plans to publish three books on his fieldwork in Brazil82 (Sansone 2011). Eventually, he would publish none of his planned volumes, and only parts of his material and findings would come out as articles.…”

Du Bois and Brazil

“… 3 See Sansone (2011), Pereira (2013), and Francisco (2014) for other African Americans engaging with the myth of racial democracy and the reasons for such engagement. …”