June 2004 – Marco Schaumloeffel

A Brazilian in Ghana – VI

SCHAUMLOEFFEL, Marco Aurelio. The Afro-Brazilian religions. Daily Graphic, Accra, v. 149159, p. 9 – 9, 15 jun. 2004.

The Afro-Brazilian Religions

When the Africans were brought to Brazil as slaves, they were not only “human machines” that worked in the plantations, as maybe wished by the Portuguese colonizers, but fortunately they contributed in various aspects of the life of Brazilian society. Under those contributions are the creation of diversity in creeds and religions and the consequent modification and adaptation of them in Brazil. The biggest part of the Brazilian population is Roman Catholic, which doesn’t mean that they are “pure” Catholics. In the state of Bahia the way to act and to belief of a Catholic family is certainly quite different from a traditional Catholic family in Italy, since the African elements played a role in the worship, in the beliefs, in the superstitions, in the collective mentality and in the way to interpret the world.

From South to North of our country we can see Afro-Brazilian religions. Well call them so, because in Brazil the African religions suffered various processes of influences and interaction with Catholicism and Spiritualism. Apart from that, the diverse African religions influenced each other internally in Brazil, in a type of amalgamation of traditions from several African tribes and countries. This whole phenomenon we call “syncretism”.

Even though the Africans brought to Brazil were from different regions, from Sudanese people of the West and North to Bantu people from the Southern part of the Continent, the Nago (Nigeria) and the Ewe (Togo) had the biggest influences in different Afro-Brazilians aspects of life. Nago (ioruba) became a kind of lingua franca under the Afro-Brazilians and the mixture of various African elements, but principally Nago and Ewe characteristics, created the Afro-Brazilian religions. Catholicism was the official religion of Brazil from 1500 to 1889, which meant, that the other religions like Afro-Brazilian creeds were forbidden. With a lot of creativity and the instinctive sense to keep their beliefs, the Afro-Brazilians “masked” their Gods with names of Catholic saints, which helped to preserve their religion, but now under the support of the “official church”. Because of these, the Gods and the saints of the Afro-Brazilian religions normally have nowadays two names. So e. g. the orisha (divinity) called Shango (God of thunder and lightning) can be also called Sao Jeronimo and Iansan (Goddess of the water) is also known as Santa Barbara.

The structure of an Afro-Brazilian religion normally presents an almighty God called Olorun (originally “the sky”, also called Olodumare, Olerum or Lorum) and the divinities (Orishas) acting between Him and the ordinary human beings. Orisha is a designation from Ioruba, the same as Vodum for the Ewes. In Central and North America this term was distorted, so that the fetishist Voodoo is for them quite different from the original Ewe meaning of divinity or saint.

The Sudanese (people from West Africa) culture created in Brazil various religions that are very similar, but labelled with different names. So we have Candomble in the State of Bahia, Shango in Pernambuco. Tambor-de-Mina in Maranhao, Batuque (also called Nassao or Para) in Rio Grande do Sul, amongst others. With a bigger Bantu influence, we have the religion called Umbanda, which has also, apart from the orishas, the influence of Spiritualism. They also worship the spirits of their ancestors. The Afro-Brazilians also interacted with the native people of Brazil, the Indios. As a result, we have the combination of Afro-Indigenous elements in religions called Babassue in the Amazon region or Tereco in Goias and Maranhao. Specialists in religious studies classify the Afro-Brazilian religions as anthropomorphic polytheistic fetishism, which means fetishism with various divinities in human forms. These human forms can also represent phenomena of nature.

The Afro-Brazilian religions are less closed than the Juju is in Ghana or in Nigeria; sacrifices to pay for good gods or to avoid malevolence are however done in secret in both places. In spite of the former syncretism, the Afro-Brazilian religions form separate churches, even if the same people attend more than one type of worship in the same day.

In Ghana I didn’t have the opportunity as yet to learn more about the traditional religions. People always say to me: “no, no, I’m a Christian. I don’t know anything about it”. Either they are trying to hide it from me or it is really a sign that the Western Christian churches, with all their advantages and disadvantages, are overriding the traditional religions and consequently a part of the African culture.

Marco Aurelio Schaumloeffel
Brazilian Lecturer in Ghana

Publicado em 03.06.2004 no Daily Graphic (ISSN 0855-1529), página 14

SCHAUMLOEFFEL, Marco Aurelio. Tabom: The Afro-Brazilian community in Accra. Daily Graphic, Accra, v. 149143, p. 14 – 14, 03 jun. 2004.

A Brazilian in Ghana – V

Tabom – The Afro-Brazilian community in Accra

It was very strange for me as a Brazilian to arrive in Ghana and hear tales of a people called “Tabom”, because of the familiarity of the term with greetings in the Brazilian Portuguese. The Tabom People is an Afro-Brazilian community of former slaves, who decided to come back to the African continent of their ancestors, after they bought their own freedom in Brazil*. When they arrived in Accra they could speak only Portuguese, so they greeted each other with “Como esta?” (How are you?) to which the reply was “Ta bom”, so the Ga people of Accra started to call them the Tabom People.

We in Brazil already know about various communities of Afro-Brazilian descendants in West Africa, most of them spread through Benin, Nigeria and Togo. Some studies estimate that in the 19th Century approximately 10,000 former slaves decided to return to Africa. Throughout these countries we can find estates, schools and museums with the name “Brazil”. In Lagos there is an estate called “Brazilian Quarter” and a club with the name “Brazilian Social Club”; in Benin we can find a school called “Ecole Bresil”. In those countries it is very common to find family names like Souza, Silva, Olympio or Cardoso. Some of them were very well known in their countries. Sylvanus Epiphanio Kwami Olympio e.g. was elected the first President of Togo in 1960, unfortunately killed in 1963 because of a military coup. The first Chacha of Benin, that means the chief and controller of trade and relations with foreigners, was the Afro-Brazilian Francisco Felix de Souza, he became very rich due to his involvement in the slave traffic. He had 53 wives, 80 children and about 12,000 slaves. When he died, he left an empire of an estimated 120 Millions Dollars to his successors. The royal line of the Chachas still exists nowadays in Togo. The first Brazilian Ambassador to Ghana arrived in 1961. He was an Afro-Brazilian called Raymundo de Souza Dantas. He cites in his book “Africa dificil”, that he received a letter from a Togolese called Benedito de Souza, who alleged to be his cousin.

In Ghana, the only representative group of people that decided to come back from Brazil is the Tabom People. They came back on a ship called S. S. Salisbury, offered by the English Government. About seventy Afro-Brazilians of seven different families arrived in Accra, in the region of the old port in James Town in 1836, coming from Nigeria as visitors. The reception by the Mantse Nii Ankrah of the Otoblohum area was so friendly, that they decided to settle down in Accra. The leader of the Tabom group at the time of their arrival was a certain Nii Azumah Nelson. Since than time the Nelson family has been very important to the History of the Tabom People. The eldest son of Azumah Nelson, Nii Alasha, was his successor and a very close friend to the Ga King Nii Tackie Tawiah. Together they helped in the development of the whole community in commerce and environmental sanitation.

At the present moment the Tabom Mantse is Nii Azumah V, descendant of the Nelson’s. The Tabons are also known as the founders of the First Scissors House in 1854, the first tailoring shop in the country, which had amongst other activities, the task to provide the Ghanaian Army with uniforms. Proof of these skills is without any doubt Mr. Dan Morton, another Tabom and one of the most famous tailors nowadays in Accra.

Because they were welcomed by the Ga people and received by their king as personal guests, the Tabons received lands in privileged locations, in places that are nowadays very well known estates, like Asylum Down, the area near to the central train station and around the Accra Breweries. In those areas, the mango trees planted by them bear silent witnesses to their presence. In the estate of North Ridge there is a street called “Tabon Street”, which is a reminder of the huge plantations that they formerly had there. Some of the Tabons live nowadays in James Town, where the first house built and used by them as they arrived in Ghana is located. It is called the “Brazil House” and can be found in a short street with the name “Brazil Lane”.

The Tabons did not arrive poor, but rather with much wealth. Because of their agricultural skills, they started plantations of mango, cassava, beans and other vegetables. They brought also skills such as irrigation techniques, architecture, carpentry, blacksmithing, gold smithing, tailoring, amongst others, which certainly improved the quality of life of the whole community.

Apart from all these contributions, they also influenced the religious life of the community, helping in the definitive establishment of the Islamic religion and the preservation of some African religions that they modified in Brazil, like the shango. Nowadays the Tabons are completely integrated in the Ghanaian society and are a part of the Otublohum Section of the Ga People.

* Up to now it is not very clear, if they really bought their freedom and decided to immediately come back or if they were at that time free workers in Brazil, but were deported after the Male Revolt of 1835. A lot of Afro-Brazilians were deported back to Africa, especially Moslems who organised the Male Revolt. Since they arrived accidentally in 1836 in Accra and most of them were Moslems, it can possibly be the case. Only detailed and deeper studies can prove one of the suppositions.

Marco Aurelio Schaumloeffel

Brazilian Lecturer in Ghana

Picture 1: The Tabom Nii Alasha, extreme left, with Ga Chiefs including Nii Tackie Tawiah.

Picture 2: Nii Azumah III with from left to right on the front row Naa Abiana II, Queen Mother of the Tabom, H.E. Raymundo De Souza Dantas the Ambassador of Brazil to Ghana from 1961 to 1963, Mrs De Souza Dantas, the Ambassador’s wife, and their child between them. Nii Azumah III on the extreme right and other members of the Tabom Community in the background (1961).

Picture 3: Tabom Mantse Nii Azumah V dancing during the outdooring ceremony at the Stool House (February 26th, 2000).