Capoeira's “Return” to Africa: Updating Brazilianness among the Tabom in Ghana?

Paper presented at the 60th SEM Annual Meeting in Austin, TX (December 4, 2015)
By: Juan Diego Diaz

“You know my people in Bahia!” Said Eric Morton, the chief drummer of the Tabom (also
spelled Tabon) in Ghana, when I told him that I have been in the state of Bahia, Brazil. Like
many other Tabom, Eric has a keen interest in Brazil, its history, its people, and its music. And
this interest is shared by other communities of Afro-Brazilians in West Africa.
The Tabom from Ghana and the Agudas from Benin, Togo and Nigeria are known in
their own countries as the Brazilians. They share a narrative of double displacement that some
have called reverse diaspora (Essien 2010) linked to the initial deportation of some 4.8 million
Africans to Brazil (1550-1860) and the return of some eight thousand from Bahia to West Africa
during the first half of the 19th century. Most came in the aftermath a major Muslim rebellion of
African slaves in Bahia in 1835. Some returned voluntarily, others were deported, and others
were merchants who settled in the bight of Benin.

Figure 1: Location of Tabom and Aguda communities in West Africa

Upon their arrival returnees formed communities with distinct Afro-Brazilian identities
and used practices learned in Brazil to maintain those identities. The Agudás from Benin and
Togo, for instance, still perform burrinha a theatrical folk tradition from the Brazilian Northeast
(Guran 1999). Although most no longer speak Portuguese and have never set foot in Brazil, they
are keen to strengthen their connection with Brazil. For example, the Brazilian soap opera

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Escrava Isaura, set in 19th century Brazil and aired in Benin in 1994, served to modernize the
“Brazilian” dressing styles that many Agudá women use as an identity marker (ibid). Brazilian
embassies are also helping some Tabom and Agudás to fulfill their desire to “relearn” Portuguese
(Schaumloeffel 2013).
Brazilian symbols help the Tabom and Agudas emphasize cultural uniqueness vis a vis
the ethnic groups and nations to which they integrated. Brazil is also where their ancestors came
from and where they “send back” the spirits of the deceased in ellaborate funeral ceremonies.
And the steady improvement of Brazil-Africa relations since the 1960s, particularly since Lula's
presidential term in 2002, has opened opportunities for returnee-descendants to obtain support to
preserve and portray their Brazilianness.
This paper presents early findings of a comparative study of how Brazil is musically
imagined and constructed by returnee-descendants in West Africa. In what follows I focus on the
Ghanian Tabom, one of the groups were traces of Brazilianness are harder to find.
I hypothesize that the Tabom’s pursuit of Brazilianness includes the creative adaptation
of contemporary musical forms from Brazil. In this paper I discuss how some Tabom engage
Afro-Brazilian musics, particularly capoeira, the only Brazilian music/dance style that is
consistently taught and practiced in Accra. I use data collected through ethnographic fieldwork in
Accra since August 2015 and recordings of Tabom interviews and performances from 2012
provided by the Brazilian embassy in Accra. I focus on the views of Eric Morton, the chief
drummer of the Tabom, who is the most highly regarded musician of the community and who is
teaching me agbe the only traditional musical style of the Tabom.

Background
Amos and Ayesu (2005) wrote that the Tabom ancestors arrived to Accra in three waves: in
1829, 1836, and 1838. Tabom narratives include direct arrival from Brazil and a detour through
Nigeria, Benin and Togo. They arrived in a coastal area of Accra called Jamestown inhabited by
the Ga people and under Dutch and British colonial control. Eventually they integrated to this
ethnic group.
Since Brazil opened its first embassy in Ghana in 1961, the Tabom have actively engaged
its functionaries and have seeked to develop relationships of mutual respect and collaboration.
These relationships improved significantly with Lula’s visits to Ghana in 2005, 2007, and 2013

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as the Brazilian ex-president met with the Tabom in all occasions. This is remarkable, given that
the Tabom is a relatively marginal minority group in Ghana. In 2005, the Tabom organized a
major celebration in his honor and gave him an honorary title of Tabom chief. In exchange, Lula
provided the funds to reconstruct the Brazil House, a Tabom historical site in Jamestown. In
2007, the Brazilian embassy hired London-based Brazilian percussionist Claudio Kron to teach
samba to the Tabom in preparation for Lula’s second visit. After a one-month workshop, the
Tabom greeted Lula at the Accra airport playing samba and later met him at a second
celebration. In each of these visits the Tabom performed agbe for Lula.

Figure 2: Ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva and Tabom Chief at a Tabom
celebration in Accra, 2005

Figure 3: Brazil House inauguration in Jamestown, Accra (2007)

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Agbe
I would like to take a moment to introduce agbe, the only distinct musical type of the Tabom.
Agbe refers to a style of music and dance, the name of the event where it is performed and of the
drums used. Agbe appears in many social contexts including birthdays, weddings, and mainly
funerals. It is also performed privately for Shango, a Yoruba deity that possesses a female
Tabom diviner when she is consulted by members of the community.
The instruments are two double-headed drums, one leading and one supporting. A
double-mouthed bell called agogo plays the timeline and various shakers known as chekeres.
Songs are responsorial and in Yoruba language. They thematize Tabom narratives, symbols, and
values. For instance one song mentions Olorum, the Yoruba supreme god, in the context of a
local proverb:

S: Aualama isho manu o If you wake up in the morning

Olorum noma nu You have to praise god
Ch: Aualamaaa omanu oo
S: Olorun noma nu

Figure 4: Melody, lyrics and translation of song “Aualama” and agbe timeline
(Source: Eric Morton, translation by Morton)

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 Another song says that agbe comes from Ijesha. Ijesha actually refers to Ilesha, the
central town of the Ijesha people in the Osun State of Nigeria.

C: Dabi beru agbe, Kim be wa jo We have brought agbe

R: Yee! dabi beru agbe, Kim be wa jo, eee! And we invite you to dance
C: Dabi beru ijesha Koni be agbe This dance comes form Ijesha
R: Yee! dabi beru agbe, Kim be wa jo, eee! This performance is called agbe

Figure 5: Melody, lyrics and translation of song “Dabi beru agbe” and agbe timeline
(Source: Eric Morton, translation by Morton and Amakye-Boateng)

This song reinforces the narrative of the Tabom’s arrival via Nigeria or at least, it
confirms the dynamic post arrival exchanges between Accra and Lagos (Amos and Ayesu 2005,
Essien 2010). But they may also be songs learned and brought from Bahia, where Nago (a
variant of Yoruba) was lingua franca among Africans and creoles during most of the 19th
century, the time when the Brazilians returned (Pares 2004).

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 Figure 6: Map of Ilesa in the Osun State (Nigeria)

An agbe performance is structured in three main sections: 1) an introduction including a

series of drum phrases in free rhythm and two opening songs; 2) Agbe proper which features the
agbe groove in 12/8 meter and a long series of songs accompanying the dance; and 3) The viva
viva section featuring a groove in 4/4 and a sequence of three songs used “to send the spirits of
the deceased back to Brazil” (p.c. Eric Morton, 13 Nov, 2015, Accra).

Figure 7: Agbe groove (source: Eric Morton)

Figure 8: Viva viva groove (source: Eric Morton)

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 Figure 9: Three songs of the viva viva section (source: Eric Morton)

Like in other West African and African diasporic genres, the agbe groove is formed by
interlocking repetitive patterns and enriched by variations played by the master drummer. Drum
variations may provoke changes in the dance, but not in a systematic way as they do in other
emblematic Ghanian drumming/dance genres such as atsiabekor, gahu, or kpalongo.1

Figure 10: Common master drum variations (source: Eric Morton)

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These pieces, traditionally associated to the Ewe and Ga ethnic groups in Ghana, have been appropriated since the
1960s by the Ghana Dance Ensemble, a nationalist initiative aimed to create a multiethnic national musical canon.
Since their folklorization, the choreographies of these pieces have been standardized with a repertoire of dance steps
corresponding to specific master drum variations.

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 Many Yoruba symbols are built into agbe. Songs are in Yoruba and mention places and
gods in Yorubaland. This exclusive use of Yoruba in ritual settings connects the Tabom with
other diasporic communities such as Santeria, Vudou, and Candomblé practitioners in Cuba,
Haiti, and Brazil respectively.2
When asked about agbe’s Brazilianness, Morton refers to the viva viva section where
ancestors are sent back to Brazil. The word “viva” means “long live” in Portuguese as in “long
live the king” and acccording to Amakye-Boateng, (a local researcher who has translated many
Tabom songs), is the only word in Portuguese in the current song repertoire.
Morton and many other Tabom’s exposure to contemporary Brazilian music has been
minimal. Morton’s actual musical references of Brazil are fragmentary at best and built from
random encounters with Brazilian visitors. However, he is keen and treasures what he learns
about the music. For instance, he remembers distinctively the samba patterns that Kron taught
him in 2007. He sang for me the individual parts of four drums and even some of the breaks (see
Figure 11). This is remarkable because he has not been able to practice as the samba drums that
the Brazilian Embassy purchased for the Tabom have been locked in the house of the Tabom
chief since 2007. He intends to form a group to teach and perform samba. For him learning about
Brazilian music and teaching it to others Tabom is part of his duty as the agbe master musician.

Figure 11: Morton’s samba

2
Santeria, Vodou and Candomblé are umbrella terms referring to African-derived religious practices in Cuba, Haiti
and Brazil, respectively. All are syncretic, blending Yoruba religiosity and Catholicism to different degree.
Although varying in protocol, all include polyrhythmic drumming, call-and-response songs, dancing, and spirit
possession.

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 I decided to show Morton some videos of iconic Afro-Bahian musics including capoeira,
samba de roda, ijexa, samba-reggae, and candomble.3 We also watched videos of burrinha from
the Agudas in Togo and Benin.4 I provided contextual information only when he requested it. He
was interested in the places of origin, the people, the instruments, and in drumming patterns.
Within the first ten seconds of each recording he consistingly said “it is the same as agbe” as if
he wished that was the case. When he noticed differences in instrumentation, structure, and style
he said “everyone has their own culture”, “we have agbe and they have theirs” “I can go there
teach them agbe and to learn their music.”
Two audio recordings of the Nagô (Yoruba-based) Candomblé tradition in Bahia from
the 1960s impressed Morton: one groove and song for orixa5 Oxum and another one for Xangô.6
These correspond to the ijexa and aluja grooves. Morton recognized rhythmic similarities
between the ijexa and viva viva timeline and between agbe and the aluja timelines.

Figure 12: Timelines of ijexa and viva viva superimposed

Figure 13: Timelines of agbe and aluja (Xango’s groove in Brazilian Candomblé)

When we finished listening, Morton asked: “was that in Brazil?” upon confirmation he
said “I have to go there one day before I die.”
His desire to visit Bahia is shared by many. Edwin Brown, a young Tabom student at the
University of Ghana said “my grandmother used to say that a ship will come one day to take us
3
The videos can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhE_zFJEfbM,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-vPiPvnsuc, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qInjnUBfsyk,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHPzEfHq7tA,, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqJd3CHncxo
4
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGjFYpKI1C0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viAekBuzM6U
5
Orixa (Orisha or Orisa) is a generic name for deities in Yoruba-based religions.
6
The two pieces were recorded by Brazilian Luiz da Muriçoca and released in 1967 in the album Candomblé da
Bahia. Nação Keto.

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to Brazil,” (p.c. Nov. 27, 2015, Accra) showing how senses of longing and belonging to Brazil
still root the identity of some Tabom. Since his visit in 2005, Lula has promised to invite some
Tabom to visit Brazil. Many Tabom are still waiting. To my knowledge only one Tabom has
actually visited Brazil and he did it before Lula’s promise.

Capoeira
My initial hypothesis that capoeira offers returnee-descendants new symbols of Brazilianness
and African unity useful to update their identities, has not been validated among the Tabom. The
idea was appealing because capoeira is a recognized symbol of Brazilianness7 and Pan-
Africanism that has been enthusiastically embraced as such in other places of Africa like Benin
and Angola.8
There is an issue of exposure. Capoeira’s availability in Accra is poor. Capoeira was
brought to Accra in 2009 by African-American Obadele Kambon who has been teaching an
Afrocentric and martialized version of the art at the University of Ghana campus eversince.
Various other foreign instructors have taught for short periods at other places in the ciy. Kambon
actively promotes his group in social media and has been invited to demonstrate and talk about
capoeira to the national TV where he has presented the art as a tool for African liberation.
Despite these efforts he and others have struggled to consolidate a group.
To my knowledge, Eric Morton and his fellow agbe musicians have been exposed to
capoeira twice. In 2007 Claudio Kron, the Brazilian who imparted the one-month samba
workshop, also taught capoeira music, songs and dance. Morton still remembers the refrain of
“Paranaue”, a famous capoeira song that he learned from Kron, but admitted that he prefers
samba. A second contact happened at an event at Brazil House in December 2012 when Kambon
and one of his students were invited to perform. In this occasion capoeira was actually danced to
the beat of agbe.

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In 2008 the Brazilian government gave capoeira the status of immaterial cultural heritage. With this recognition
capoeira became central to Brazil's official international image. In one publication, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
presented capoeira as “a broad-based, deeply-rooted aspect of what means to be Brazilian” and as “Brazil's
contribution to the cultural heritage of mankind” (Vieira 2008:7). In 2014 capoeira was also inscribed on
UNESCO’s representative list of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
8
Capoeira has been praticed in Angola and Benin at least since 2000. Many active and numerous groups exist in
each of these countries and practitioners see capoeira as a means to strenghten connections with Brazil and other
places of the African continent (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0o31LB-MGE and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-loje6EH3I).

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 Figure 15: Capoeira danced to agbe drumming at Brazil House (December 2012)
(Source: Brazilian Embassy in Accra)

Morton and I have watched a half a dozen capoeira videos in Bahia, Angola, Togo and
Benin.9 “It’s not bad” is his best assesment. We have spoken about capoeira’s past and present
links to Afro-Brazilian resistance and he shows interest in the history but not in the music or the
dance.
It is clear that watching a video cannot replace the experience of an actual capoeira
performance. Challenges to the practice of capoeira identified by Morton are: access to the
instruments, the language barrier, and the acrobatic side of it since Morton as in his 60s. Morton
noted that learning capoeira music, songs and dance requires time and a permanent qualified
instructor, unlike samba, which he feels qualified to perform and teach after a one-month
workshop.
Apart from these practical reasons, there seems to be something aesthetic too. Kambon
has offered capoeira lessons without cost since 2009 at the University of Ghana campus where
thousands of young Ghanians could potentially participate, but to my knowledge only one young
Tabom, Edwin Brown, has tried. After a few classes he stopped. His assesment was similar to
Morton’s: “it was not bad.” Morton ans Brown know that capoeira is Afro-Brazilian, and that it

9
The videos watched can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5BUaQcDLm4,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqJd3CHncxo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkcBKwhdxJA,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W1MyC4is4E, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwTc8H9rEEg,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gPi78MfVG4.

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has a similar narrative of double displacement as the Tabom, but they still perceive it as
different.
Three important characteristics of capoeira are 1) the use of the berimbau, a musical bow
leading the percussion ensemble; 2) an ambiguity between dance and combat manifested in
cunning attitudes in the physical expression of the art; and 3) inverted physical positions with
dancers often walking upside down and putting their heads on the floor. There are no musical
bows in Tabom or Ga traditional music, or dances mocking a combat and featuring people
raising their legs above their heads. Morton admitted that he finds capoeira’s bodily positions
strange. In a conversation with a colleague at the University of Ghana I learned that many
believe in Ghana that witches and wizards walk upside down and that a person can be associated
with withcraft if they are seen upside down in certain contexts. I confirmed that Morton holds
this belief, but also that this association is neutralized if a person inverts their body for exercise
or artistic purposes, like in capoeira. However, I have not seen or heard of a traditional dance or
practice involving bodily inversion in Ghana.10

Concluding remarks
Morton’s sense of belonging to the Tabom is centered around a discourse of Brazilianness and a
musical practice that has linguistic and religious connections to the Yoruba. Some Tabom
reconcile these two cultural references by attributing a Brazilian origin to agbe, which implies
that those who arrived from Bahia were Yoruba speakers. Others like Morton believe that those
who crossed the Atlantic made a “stop over” in Nigeria and brought agbe from there to Ghana.
Memories and practices from the Tabom exemplify a triangular relationship across the South
Atlantic between Bahia, Yorubaland, and Ghana.
Morton is keen to learn new styles of Brazilian music. But he is selective. He has
embraced a form of carnival samba that he learned and performed for Lula in 2007. He

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These negative connotations of inverted positions in Ghana contrast with West Central African beliefs where
bodily invertions are also associated with the spiritual world but in a positive way. Desch Obi (2008) claims that the
use of physical inversions in capoeira evidences the retention of this belief and the Kongo concept of kalunga in
Brazil. Kalunga offers an interpretation of the middle passage as crossing a bridge to the land of the dead. According
to Kalunga this bridge can only be crossed back by ancestors walking with their feet up. Desch Obi argues that
through physical inversion, early capoeira adepts symbolically gained the spiritual power required to return to Africa
with honor (ibid). It is also possible that capoeira’s practice of touching the ground with the head during the dance,
clashes with a Yoruba head-centered worldview, which sees the head as the locus of one’s knowledge, personality,
and destiny (Lawal 1985). As shown, the Tabom retain aspects of Yoruba spirituality and thus may resist the idea of
placing their head on dusty ground.

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recognizes in samba a symbol that he can share with Brazilians. When exposed to new Brazilian
musical styles, he cherishes those resembling agbe and the viva viva. These include Candomblé
grooves for deities Xango and Oxum, both with songs in Yoruba, but not capoeira.
But the Tabom’s lack of interest in capoeira seems to go beyond poor availability and
musical differences to agbe. It is possible that the physical expression of capoeira clashes with
local aesthetics and worldviews that privilege upright bodily positions. But more research needs
to be done to prove this.

Bibliography
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em Accra, Gana” (I am a Brazilian: History of Afro-Brazilians in Accra, Ghana). UFBA
Afro-Asia 33.
Desch-Obi, Thomas J. 2008. Fighting for honor: the history of African martial art traditions in
the Atlantic world. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Essien, Kwame. 2010. “African diaspora in reverse: The Tabom people in Ghana, 1820s-2009.”
Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.
Guran, Milton. 1999. Agudás: os “Brasileiros” do Benim (Agudás: The “Brazilians” of Benin).
Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira.
Lawal, Babatunde. 1985. “Ori: The Significance of the Head in Yoruba Sculpture.” Journal of
Anthopological Research 41(1): 91-103.
Parés, Luis Nicolau. 2004. “The 'Nagôization' Process in Bahian Candomblé” in The Yoruba
Diaspora in the Atlantic World. Edited by Toyin Falola and Matt D. Childs.
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Schaumloeffel, Marco Aurelio. 2013 (2008). Tabom: the Afro-Brazilian community in Ghana.
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