The UBC Centre for Migration Studies is pleased to be a co-sponsor of:
MOA Visual + Material Culture Research Seminar Series presents:
Reverse Diaspora: The “Brazilians” in West Africa by Dr. Antje Ziethen
September 16, 20214-5pm— Pacific Time (PT)Location: ZoomParticipation is free, but if you’d like attend online, registration is required (please see link below).
[Abstract]
This talk explores the history of the Agudas – enslaved Africans and free Blacks from Brazil who relocated to Togo, Benin, Ghana, and Nigeria in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Following unsuccessful slave revolts in Brazil, particularly in the State of Bahia, hundreds were deported to the port city of Ouidah in what was then the Kingdom of Dahomey, today’s Benin. As repression of the Black population in Bahia intensified, thousands left Brazil in search of new opportunities. They developed a number of Afro-Brazilian settlements in West Africa –notably the Brazilian Quarter in Lagos, Nigeria. Its architecture, epitomized in the famous Water House, bears witness to their political influence and economic success. Charles Piot notes that “standard conceptions of diasporic flow and cultural influence [are] always only one-way: from Africa, the homeland, to its diaspora in the Americas”. The Agudas, however, represent a reverse African Diaspora illustrating how returnees from the Americas contribute to the formation of cultures and identities in their communities of origin.
[About the Speaker]
Antje Ziethen is an Assistant Professor at the Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies, UBC
[About MOA Visual + Material Culture Research Seminar Series]
This interdisciplinary seminar series is for anyone with interests in visual and material culture across different departments at UBC and beyond. The seminar provides an opportunity to share research and exchange ideas, usually followed by conversations over a drink at Koerner’s Pub. Open to students, staff, faculty and community members in and around UBC.
The seminars will be held in a hybrid mode this term: in-person at Room 213 at MOA and also online over Zoom. If the COVID situation changes, we may shift to the online mode. The seminars will not be recorded.
Click here to register for Dr. Ziethen’s talk.
Click here to learn more about the MOA Visual + Material Culture Research Seminar Series.
