Brazilian-African Diaspora in Ghana: The Tabom, Slavery, Dissonance of Memory, Identity, and Locating Home by Kwame Essien

Abstract

Essien, Kwame. Diaspora in Ghana: The Tabom, Slavery, Dissonance of Memory, Identity, and Locating Home. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2016. Kwame Essien's book solidifies Ghana's place in the West African strand of the Afro-Brazilian narrative that is inarguably dominated by Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. In many ways, this rich exposition, regarding the abounding fortitude with which formerly enslaved Africans in Brazil and their descendants pursued multiple Atlantic crossings in search of ancestral roots, presents Ghana as a significant locale in the discourse on reverse diverse migration. The inclusion of this country in light of that larger discussion amounts to an expansion of Atlantic history, especially given Ghana's enduring connection with the transatlantic slave trade, and Pan Africanism. The book is composed of ten chapters and is broadly divided into three parts. The copious notes have the potential to serve as reliable sources for scholars with similar research interests. The forthrightness with which the author intermittently discusses the difficulties and challenges in locating other relevant research that would have allowed for a more robust historical interpretation is intrinsically informative and quite directional for future research. This book also benefits immensely from the author's interdisciplinary approach. As Essien points out in the introduction, the chapters overlap heavily; while this might make the book a bit repetitive in part, it also reinforces and thereby enhances a better understanding of the dominant thematic connectedness in this work. The cardinal strength of Essien's book lies not only in the fact that this narrative is woven into that of other returnee communities, particularly in Ghana (the Gold Coast) and Africa in general, but also in exploring the three-stage transatlantic migrations: Involuntary migrations to Brazil, reverse migrations to Accra, and descendant visits to Brazil. By sharply emphasizing the third strand, the author departs from the hitherto traditional one-dimensional paradigm that focuses on migrations from different parts of the New World to various places in Africa. Beyond these considerations, Essien also discusses the exigencies of Afro-Brazilian settlement in West Africa and why Ghana became appealing to those who finally decided to relocate there. Paramount in this decision was land availability, which invariably became the attractive force and made land ownership synonymous with Brazilian-African and Tabom identity in view of the fact that that privilege was a denied opportunity in Brazil (p. 34). And sure enough, in the Gold Coast they were not spared, not even among themselves, the controversies, conflicts, as well as the concomitant court cases that come with land interests. …