The Jaded Heritage: Nigeria´s brazilian connection

Abstract

By the end of the nineteenth century, the Brazilian elements in Lagos had become a major economic force as "comercial intermediaries between the European colonial firms and the native producers". They were an economic force wiht high hopes of playing an important role in politics in consonance with their position in the socio-economic reality of Lagos. This study seeks to examine how such a promising group as the Brazilians, freed slaves who were able to begin afresh so well, finished so poorly that today, their many achievements only feature in the nostalgic recollections of some families located in central Lagos. It is quite possible that things would have been different if, like the other Brazilians who settled on the west coast towns of Porto Novo and Ouidah among others , those in Lagos had chosen to be allies of the dominant colonial power. As it is, a lot happened which changed the pattern of events that where to relegate the once-flourishing Brazilians to their position in present-day Nigeria.When, in 1977, a delegation from Brazil arrived in the Nigerian capital for the Second World and African Festival of Arts and Cultures, it aroused in some people a feeling which distinguished it from other black groups of the Diaspora