The Latin American Identity and the African Diaspora: Ethnogenesi ...

than as fact. Nonetheless, the Kingdom of the Mahi is not unheard of, although there is some speculation as to whether the Mahi migrated to the Yoruba territory of present-day Nigeria from a region associated with today's Ghana (formerly called the Gold Coast). The background of the poet's mother and her African affiliation are not fantasy. Yet would Luiza Mahin return to the Gold Coast or to Nigeria after taking part in a rebellion against slavery and oppression in Brazil, we asked? Our supposition was that after a prolonged sojourn in Brazil, she could in all probability return to the Gold Coast or Nigeria a free Latina African, as opposed to remaining a fugitive, Portuguese-speaking African Latina in Brazil.

When it comes to the possibility of Africans returning to the Continent with their “latino” acculturation, the most common presumption, in the creative literature, seems to be that African enslavement to the Americas was a one-way journey and ties to the Continent were truncated completely. This thought and its ensuing aesthetics are underscored by the fact that in recent history none of the African countries, except Ghana, has ever made an overt appeal to Afrodescendants in the New World Diaspora to resettle in their nation and retrace the roots of their ancestors. This concept can perhaps be amended to include The Gambia. This West African country has of late made an effort to capitalize on the fame of Alex Haley's Roots and encourage African Americans of the United States to explore their heritage in the land of the novel's protagonist, Kunte Kinte, not as resettlers but as cash-spending tourists. Neither country, apparently, has given serious consideration to the Afro Latin as an integral element of the overall ethnic image of Africans and African descendants in the Diaspora. Contrary to popular notions, however, we are aware that there were large numbers of liberated Africans who did return to Africa in the nineteenth century, principally settling in Sierra Leone and Liberia. They did so with the assistance of England and the United States, and not at the expressed invitation of endemic groups already located in those areas. Furthermore, they were returnees from English-speaking countries and did not share in the culture or languages of the Latin American sphere. As a matter of fact, those African-descendant groups that American and British organizations returned to Africa tended to remain at social and