Torn loyalties for Ghana's African Brazilians

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

ACCRA, June 25 (Reuters) When Ghanaian chief Nii Azumah the fifth sits down on Tuesday to watch the country's soccer team play Brazil for a place in the World Cup quarter-finals, his loyalties will be divided.

He is one of an estimated 2,000 direct descendants of a group of 70 Brazilian slaves who bought their freedom and returned to the continent of their ancestors nearly two centuries ago.

''I call myself a Ghanaian. In my mind I will support Brazil, but in my heart it is Ghana. In my mind, my descendants are from that place, no matter what I should be with them,'' Azumah said.

''If it had been any other team, I would have supported Brazil 100 percent. But I was born, bred and educated in Ghana (so I have to support Ghana),'' he said.

Azumah's great grandfather was a leader of the first Tabon, so called by Ghanaians when they heard the new arrivals reply Ta Bom (I'm fine) to the Portuguese greeting of Como Esta (how are you?).

He is now the chief of the Tabon.

''I am very, very proud, I am very proud of my ancestors, my family, almost everything that constitutes (being) a Tabon,'' said Azumah, who has never been to Brazil.

Four-time winners of the African Cup of Nations, the Ghanaian football team earned the nickname the African Brazilians in homage to the world champions, Brazil.

Ghana will play Brazil on Tuesday after clinching a place in the second round of the World Cup finals in Germany.

The links between the two countries were forged by the slave trade, which saw hundreds of thousands of West Africans sold to the Caribbean, Brazil and America -- parts of the world which remain heavily populated by people of African descent.

BRAZIL LANE Many freed Brazilian slaves returned to West Africa, settling in Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Benin and their presence is still visible in the seaside heart of old Accra, Jamestown, where the dilapidated Brazil House stands on Brazil Lane.

Said to have brought the first scissors to Accra, the Tabon set up a tailoring shop in Jamestown's Scissors House, still home to many Tabon people. They dug the city's first wells, a skill learnt in Brazil.

The modern Tabon are integrated into Accra's Ga tribe but their food, dance and song -- some of which contain Portuguese words -- reflect their Brazilian heritage, and many want stronger links with Brazil.

''I would like to go to Bahia (in Brazil) and meet as many black people as possible. Some of them are entrepreneurs and could join us here in Ghana,'' he said.

Lawyer Nii Azuma Nelson, also a Tabon, believes Brazil could do more for his community. ''We think Brazil should give us a little more recognition, we have ties, we have families there..

We are the poor relatives, they are the rich relatives,'' Nelson said.

REUTERS DH RS2006

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