Public Memory of Slavery: Victims and Perpetrators in the South ...

I am indebted to a great number of people who (on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean) helped me to carry out this research. I am grateful to Alain Godonou and Gérard Tognimassou as well as to all the team from the École du Patrimoine Africain (Porto-Novo, Benin), and especially to Victoire Adegbidi, Ibrahim Guelignlan, Adéchina Lawal Alaofé, and François Godonou, who not only allowed me to benefit from the structure of this École du Patrimoine Africain, but who warmly received me and helped me with their valuable advice. This work also could not have been accomplished without the contribution of many members of the Afro-Luso-Brazilian community in Benin, who agreed to receive a stranger in the intimacy of their homes and who allowed me to interview them and to film and take pictures. I am indebted to Francisca Patterson, Achilles Patterson, Léon Léopold de Medeiros, Aristide Medeiros, Mito Honoré Feliciano Julião de Souza (Chacha VIII), David de Souza, Christian de Souza, Françoise de Souza, Florence de Souza, Christiane de Souza, Émile-Désiré Ologoudou, Léopold-David Gnahoui, Alfred Vieyra, Jacqueline Aboul, Renée Sadeler, Alfred Vieyra, Hilaire Crinot Pereira, and Urbain-Karim-Elisio da Silva. I am also grateful to Jacques Vieyra and Honorine Hounsinou, who helped me to contact the members of their families and social circles. I also thank the personnel of the Archives Nationales du Bénin. I wish to thank Professor Félix Iroko (Université Nationale du Bénin) for the fruitful exchanges we had in Cotonou, and also to express my gratitude to Professor Elisée Soumonni (IBERDA, Université Nationale du Bénin) for his valuable assistance during the time I spent in Benin. I am also indebted to Professor Paulin Hountondji, who graciously received me in his seminar at Centre Africain des Hautes Études in Porto-Novo.

In Brazil, several institutions contributed to the accomplishment of this work. I wish to express my deep gratitude to Angela Lühning, who opened the archives of the Pierre Verger Foundation to me, which allowed me to consult as well as document Verger's research notes on Dahomey and Bahia, and gave me the permission to publish a rare picture of Verger in Ouidah. My thanks go also to the entire staff of the Pierre Verger Foundation, especially to Laila Rosa, Luisa Vidal, and Nancy de Souza