By
A.R. Gomda
 | |
| Imoru Lincoln & Prof Cyril Fiscian |
The
waves of the great Atlantic Ocean continuously slap a portion of the banks of
the great ocean spanning the Ussher Fort and beyond in Accra. The age-old forward and recessive
motion of the waves was witnessed by the mostly Hausa and Yoruba slaves shipped
to the Americas, especially Brazil, to provide the much needed labour for new
industries springing up in the colonial period. They were pawns in the
interesting and disturbing history of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade which we
read and appreciate today.
Their
descendants, who were assimilated into ethnic groups living along the coast of
West Africa, upon the return of their forebears, still remember the oral
tradition imparted to them even as the Portuguese language they spoke upon
arrival has been replaced with Ga.
With
Brazil taking in about 40%
of slaves from West Africa at the peak of the
slave trade (about 6 million), the historical links between the sub-region and
the South American country are not surprising.
There
is no denying the fact that the contribution of this labour force to the
development of Brazil
was enormous. According to the IMF, by 2015, Brazil will be the fifth largest
economy in the world.
Brazil House
A
refurbished house, Brazil House, built through funds provided by the Brazilian
government, stands prominently facing the Atlantic Ocean.
It is the most well-known reminder of the relationship between Brazil and Ghana,
and indeed other coastal areas from Lagos
through to Cotonou, Lome
and Accra.
The
Gas could be described as the most hospitable ethnic group in Ghana, given their readiness to offer land to
total strangers, a trait which led to their offer of a plot for the black
returnees from Brazil.
It
was this inherent spirit of hospitability which drove the Gas to welcome with
open hands, the freed slaves who, out of their own volition, transported
themselves from faraway Brazil
to the land of their ancestors.
The
people of Otublohum from the Ga stock were exceptionally generous to the
strangers who landed on their portion of the coast. The Taboms were assisted by
the Otublohum, despite the initial resistance of the Dutch Commissioner
Christian Enrst Lars, the man in charge of the Otublohum area of Accra, which was then
divided into Dutch and British sections.
Brazil
House is situated on a land offered to Mamman Nasau or Nasir, one of the first
arrivals from Brazil. The house is dedicated to his memory via a
cement-work memorial pasted on the frontispiece of the imposing building.
The
Tabon Mantse flanked by family members
Tabon
Mantse
Many
families make up the Tabon group and their relationship to the Yoruba and Hausa
ethnic group is not in doubt. Some of the families have adopted names of their
Muslim forebears in an effort to preserve links with their heritage.
The
god of Fire, known as Sango, whose image today is used as the logo of the
Nigerian Electric Power Authority (NEPA), is still prominent among the Tabons,
along with other Yoruba words used in the cultural rituals in the Tabon Mantse
Palace. These words have
been passed on from generation to generation over the past 170 years since the
arrival of the slaves.
The
present Tabon Mantse, or Chief of the Tabons, spoke to Daily Guide about the
history of his people.
'Our
forebears were mostly Muslims. Some of them came from Mali and
surrounding countries. Most of them worked in Bahia, Brazil.
Our great grandfathers who were born there had Muslim names as evidenced from
the names of the first seven leaders who arrived here. These names were passed
on to us. So as I'm sitting down right
now, I'm called Abdulahi, but I am Christian.'
He
continued, 'Some of our people came with their traditional religion they
practiced while in Brazil
based around the worship of the god of Fire, Shango, who is still worshipped in
some parts of Brazil.'
Genesis
On
the genesis of the word Tabom, he stated, 'The word Tabom is traceable to the arrival
of our great grandfathers. They spoke only Portuguese and exchanged greetings
such as 'Es Ta Bon?' to wit 'is all well?' Since then, he explained, the Gas
'began to refer to them as the people who greet with 'tabom', hence the name
Taboms to date.'
The
Taboms brought to the Gas the well-digging, irrigation, tailoring, shoe-making
and masonry and using blocks for structures. The First Scissors House in Accra can boast of being
the first tailoring shop in the nation's capital, with the Morton family heading
the establishment.
It
is also interesting to note that one of the families, the Peregrinos, had a
Yoruba father in the person of Chief Brimah I, the man who, upon arrival in Accra, married a certain Fatuma, a first generation
descendant of Mamman Nasir or Nassau
closely related to the Lutterodts, cousins. The oldest descendant of Mamman
Nassir today is a certain William Lutterodt.
Mamman Nasir is said to have arrived in the Gold Coast in 1836 with his
cousin Adjuma, which is the altered version of Juma which means Friday in Hausa
or Arabic.
Adjuma
bore Peregrino. Fatuma's children with the first Head of the Islamic community
in the Gold Coast colony, Chief Brimah I, bear the surname Peregrino-Brimah to
differentiate themselves from the other children of the Yoruba wives of the
chief. When Mr. Lutterodt turned up for
the funeral of the late Chief Amida Peregrino-Brimah who died on 10th January
1998, he was attending the funeral of his cousin.
The
Brazilian Embassy sponsored the publication of Letters from Africa which has the
picture of Prof Edwin Fiscian, a renowned University of Ghana
psychology teacher of some 32 years standing. The Tabom man, now 83, recalled
at the time of the interview for the publication that his only connection with Brazil was his
grandfather, Nathaniel Kassum Fiscian, who passed away in 1922 aged 82. Kassum
or Kassim is an Islamic name.
Fatuma
Peregrino
In
her fantastic publication, The Brazil House, Mae-ling Lokko presents an
insightful Mamman Nassu or Nasiru family tree which has within it Peregrino,
Claude, Mrs. Plange, Naa Supiano, Fatuma, Rachia or Rakiya, Alfred Theodore
Lutterodt and many others. The names
were chosen at random and not in the order in which they appear in the author's
work. Suffice it to suggest however that the names, as they appear above, are
descendants of Mamman Nasiru, one of the returnees.
Fatuma
Peregrino or Okpedu bore five children for her Yoruba husband who later became
the first head of the Islamic community in Accra, Chief Brimah I, an appointment he got
from King Tackie Tawiah I.
Fatuma
was a wealthy beads trader in Accra
whose pedigree contributed towards the stature Chief Brimah I assumed in the
colony. She is said to have provided him with assistance to run his business.
One of her children, Imoru Mobolaji Peregrino-Brimah, was a rich Accra resident with a lot
of property in both Adabraka and Lagostown. He was also a Councilor for Ayawaso
in Accra and the first man to import a Lincoln car into the Gold Coast and was a member of Accra's elite class made
up of persons like Lawyer Agbado, his cousin, and many others. He later became
known as Imoru Lincoln and a leading member of the Accra Turf Club.
http://www.dailyguideghana.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/brazil_house_1.jpg
The
Brazil
House
On
arrival aboard the British ship SS Salisbury, some of the freed men who thought
Lagos was where their ancestors were before they
were taken away to Brazil,
disembarked while others continued to Accra
and other places along the coast. Varied factors informed their decision to
settle in these parts. While some of them might have feared the kind of
reception that awaited them in the hinterland which they could not locate
anyway, others found out that their villages had been wiped out through slave
raids. Those who settled in Lagos are called
Agudas, descendants of Yorubas and their Accra
counterparts, the Taboms, descended from Hausas, Yorubas and other neighbouring
countries like Burkina Faso
and Mali.
Some
of the names attest to the foregone – Mamman Nassau and Mamman Sokoto, Aruna or Adjuma or
Juma. Some of the families forming part of the Accra landscape today, who originated from
the returnees, are Souzas, Silvas, Vieras and Peregrinos. According to Ayesu
and Amos, the wave of return to West Africa
took place some 170 years ago, with British ship SS Salisbury playing a key
role in the movement. While some academics point at 8th August 1836 as the date
of the first arrival of the first group making up of the Nelsons, some put it a
little later. The family which provides
the Tabom chief, the Nelsons, was led by Kangidi Asuman. The surname could be a
bastardised form of Osuman or Asuman. Many of the returnees migrated from Bahaia, Brazil.
Mamman
Sokoto
Another
group to arrive was led by Mamman Sokoto, Costa, Ribeiro and then Morton.
Mantse
Ankrah has been mentioned as the man who played a prominent role in the
reception given the strangers who came with skills like tailoring, shoe making,
carpentry and even irrigation. Some of them were offered land away from the
coast which saw the development of some areas such as Tudu, which is a
Portuguese word for 'it's good', Adabraka and others beyond for the purpose of
farming. Some of the mango trees and others they planted still stand to date,
reminder to their memories.
Seven
of the families which formed new families in the Dutch section of Accra are Vialla, Gomez,
Maslieno, Johsah or Josiah, Nelson, Adama, Abu, Manuel, Zuzer, Sokoto, Azumah,
Peregrino, Costa, Morton, Aruna, and Fiscian an offshoot of the Arunas. Mr.
Lutterodt, father of the Chief Justice Georgina Theodore Woode, a descendant of
Mamman Nassau or Nasir, has contributed immensely towards the compilation of
the history of the Taboms.
We
have gleaned from the afore-mentioned publication about varied opinions about
the leadership of the Taboms. While some think the Nelsons have provided the
leadership from the beginning and that Mamman Sokoto might have held that
position, W.L.Lutterodt, according to Marco Aurelio's book, offers another
view, explaining that Mahama Sokoto provided spiritual leadership while Mamman
Nasau bore the flag of the Taboms.
The
latest cultural activity to take place at Brazil House, dubbed 'Letters from Africa', had the Brazilian envoy say what surmises the
history of the Taboms. 'Welcomed by the legendary hospitality of the Gas, they
started, precisely in James Town, a brand new life, keeping forever the
position of a link between the land that they had left and the one they had
adopted,' he said.
The
exhibition, he said, 'tells the history of those who have made the history of
the relations between Brazil,
on one side, and Ghana, Nigeria, Benin
and Togo,
on the other side. If fifty years ago we opened our Embassy in Accra, it was much before, in 1836, when the
Tabom people landed here that the brotherhood Brazil-Ghana actually started'.
The
forced labour to Brazil
and the voluntary return to their roots eventually gave birth to a new breed of
Gas, the Taboms, an anthropological amalgam of Yorubas, Hausas, Gas and now
others from other local ethnic groupings from as far afield as Dagbon through
intermarriages.
Source:
Daily Guide
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