Vivian Nwakah

AFRICAN ROOTS IN BRAZIL

I cherish private moments with my Nigerian mother and father when they pass down the oral history of our people. What excites me most is when my mother tells me stories of her mother’s people. Stories of the Efik tribes and nomadic tribes that shaped her existence. In a cold nordic suburb of Chicago, Illinois there was an awakening in me. The more I grew older I could not mistake my African heritage. Its in my walk, my talk, my drive. My people, that traveled up and down the Sahara Desert, traded palm oil, language full of Hebrew, Syro-Arabic influences, a language that was an early disseminator of education, trade and commerce for West Africa. A language that dates back to 4000 BC. What a brave people proud people I come from. You cannot deny what’s in your soul and was pre-determined centuries before you were born.

So when I had my first experience with the people of Salvador Brazil, it awoke a sense of kinship. Many of the slaves sent to Salvador Brazil, were from Nigeria. In their stride, their faces, their language, their food, their joy for life, I knew I had found my way a step towards home. Just like the spirit and essence of my ancestors is alive and well in me, it is the same in Bahia. You can not take the Africa away. Bahians were proudly African. Afros, and proclamations of a connection with Africa was on everyone’s lips. Women and men with fair white skin proudly proclaimed their African heritage and it was exhilarating to be in Bahia and see this display of love for the origin. Original Africa

SOLO TRAVEL AWAKENED BY AFRICAN ROOTS IN BRAZIL