Afro-Brazilians in Togo

Abstract

In 1836 a group of Afro-Brazilians settled in Accra where they were called Tabong (a corruption of Tá Bom an expression that means "All is well" in Portuguese) (DEBRUNNER 1965: 37).

Playing with Origins: Racial Self‐Making and Embodying History in Togolese Capoeira

“…They also became instrumental in the "modernization" and "development" of religious, political, and sociocultural institutions in what ultimately became the Togolese state in 1960. In the process, Brazilian immigrants established themselves as among the socioeconomic elites and even resisted German colonial rule to establish an independent Togo (Amos 2001). Togo's first president, Sylvanus Olympio, was a descendant of one of the Atlantic world's most prominent traders.…”

“…Togo's position in the Black Atlantic tells a story of Black communities in global dialogue with both colonial modernity and counter‐modernity (Piot 2001; Rosenthal 1998, 2010), and yet social science and humanities scholarship on contemporary Togo is mostly focused on quantitative indexes of poverty and the social effects of Vodu religious practice 14 . The country's historical ties to the Americas and the transatlantic slave trade are scarce (with the exception of Amos 2001; Piot 2001; Rosenthal 1998, 2010), even as scholarship grows on nineteenth‐century Brazilian returnees to the surrounding countries of Nigeria, Benin, and Ghana (Araujo 2010; Bailey 2005; Dávila 2010; Essien 2016; Matory 2005; Otero 2010). The interplay between racial subjectivity, historical time, and ethnic and national education all came together in the project of disseminating capoeira in Togo.…”