The Agudas of West Africa: Afro-Brazilian Returnees and State Formation (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Africa)

Brazil had by far the largest number of enslaved Africans during the transatlantic slave trade and after liberation, many returned to Africa, leveraging their experiences of emancipation and resistance to support decolonization and state formation efforts.This book argues that the formation of African nation-states such as Nigeria, Ghana, and the Benin Republic simply wouldn’t have happened without the contributions of Afro-Brazilian returnees (Agudas). Drawing on extensive interviews and fieldwork in Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, as well as archival research in these countries and also Brazil, the book demonstrates the role of Aguda communities in the political, social, and economic development of West African post-colonial states.It also highlights the role of Aguda Muslims in state formation after their return to the former slave coast of West Africa, most notably in Lagos, a city-state that at one point had the most significant presence of Agudas in West Africa. Tracing the hist