The Latin American Identity and the African Diaspora: Ethnogenesis in Context
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the chief's brother, Mr. Alexander Aruna Nelson, for accepting me into his home and sharing the memory of his family's journey from Brazil to the land of the Gã. I owe him a mountain of gratitude for allowing me to peruse, with his commentary, the invaluable collection of photographs and documents of his ancestors, the Brazilian Africans. However, none of my efforts in Ghana would have come to fruition without the capable assistance of Mr. Abobo Williams, who was then a student at the University of Ghana but is now pursuing graduate studies at Ohio University. Abobo is trained in the literatures and cultures of his homeland and is a fluent speaker of one of Ghana's endemic languages, Akan, as well as two of that language's most popular dialects: Twi and Fante. Likewise, he is a native speaker of his family's Dagaare language, in which I express my heartfelt thanks to him: “Barka Abobo.” Furthermore, his perfect command of English not only made him a most capable interpreter and guide but also made it possible for me to breeze through the protocol of first-time introductions with a minimum of cultural mishaps. Abobo's translation also helped me in our interactions with the taxi drivers who drove us to our appointments; they were speakers of Ewe but also spoke Twi. Additionally, it was Abobo who relied on his acquaintance with some of the elders in his hometown, Takoradi, to retrieve the poems, songs, and sayings related to slavery that were incorporated into this project. Mr. Edmond Adoko, an Akan elder, graciously offered to cooperate in this respect. I am likewise grateful to Abobo's elder brother, Jonathan “Kunwanie” Williams, for pitching in to help in retrieving and sending some much-needed research material that was only available from Mr. Adoko after Abobo had left Takoradi to return to Accra. Finally, I am indebted to Michael Narh Luther-Tetteh for his belief in me as someone genuinely interested in the ethnic groups of his country and his confidence in my research capability. Michael's interesting accounts of tribal history and culture helped me to experience how he viewed his role in Ghana's multiethnic “crisol” and to envision how the Tabom were able to connect the dots that followed their position as African natives, then Africans in the Diaspora, and finally as Diaspora-African returnees without a loss of self and purpose. Translations from English to Gã, and Gã to English were