Return Migration across the Black Atlantic: The “Brazilians” in Francophone West Africa
Presenter: Dr. Antje Ziethen, Associate Professor of French (FHIS)
Discussant: Dr. Marco Schaumloeffel, Lecturer of Portuguese (FHIS)
🗓️ February 5, 2025 (Wednesday)
🕒 3:00-4:30 PM
📍 Buchanan Tower, Room 726
RSVP: https://fhis.ubc.ca/events/event/fhis-research-seminar-feb-5-2025/
About the talk:
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, 3000-8000 Africans and African descendants mainly from Brazil relocated to the Bight of Benin and developed extensive urban settlements in what is today Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. Two Francophone African authors have drawn attention to the Brazilian returnee communities and their immense legacy in Togo and Benin. In their novels Les Enfants du Brésil and Les Fantômes du Brésil, Kangni Alem and Florent Couao-Zotti retrieve an obscured chapter of transatlantic history and reimagine the establishment of an economic, political, and cultural elite whose influence can still be felt in cities such as Lomé and Ouidah. Both authors infuse their novels with historical and ethnological elements that are transformed by literature through what Alem calls “material imagination”. I will read the novels through the lens of what Russell King and Anastasia Christou call “return mobilities”, a term that describes a wide variety of migratory counter-currents and thus enables me to discuss the novels’ complex returnee identities and notions of home. I particularly draw on Christin Hess’ concept of “reverse diaspora”, originally used in the European context.
Sponsored by: UBC Public Humanities Hub
If you have questions, please contact Dr. Katharina Piechocki (katharina.piechocki@ubc.ca).