“Eshu–Elegba”: Facing Both Past and Present

This talk examines the historical continuities and contemporary transformations of Afro-Brazilian communities across the Atlantic, focusing on Lagos (Nigeria) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), with reference to Bahia. While earlier scholarship has often treated these communities within separate regional or national frameworks, this presentation places them in direct dialogue, highlighting the enduring cultural exchanges that link West Africa and Brazil.

Particular attention is given to carnival traditions—such as Fanti Carnival in Lagos and Carnaval in Rio—which are explored as performative spaces through which histories of migration, return, and diaspora are both remembered and reimagined. These festivals are considered not only as cultural expressions, but also as sites of negotiation, where questions of identity, belonging, and heritage are actively produced.

Framed through the figure of Eshu–Elegba, a deity associated with mediation, multiplicity, and the crossing of boundaries, the talk approaches carnival as a symbolic and material space in which past and present, Africa and its diasporas, converge. In doing so, it reflects on how Afro-Brazilian cultural forms are sustained, adapted, and reinterpreted within contemporary urban contexts.

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Host or Publisher AHUWA Liverpool