Individual and collective memories of slavery and the slave trade: A contrastive comparison of different communities, generations and groupings in Ghana and Brazil

Project description

Our empirical study focused on making a contrastive comparison of collective and individual memories of slavery in different regions, generations, and groupings in Ghana and Brazil, and shows how they are the result of very different historical trajectories and changing social figurations. In Ghana, we focused on Elmina and Cape Coast, from where the slave ships departed, and on three areas in the north of the country (Upper East, Northern Region and Salaga) where people were captured and sold in slave markets. In Brazil, we worked in the coastal region of Salvador da Bahia, where most of the present-day inhabitants are descendants of former slaves, and in the region around Pelotas and Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul, where most people are of European descent.
We addressed the following research questions: What knowledge of the past has been handed down in the local communities and families? What kinds of slavery and slave trade are thematized by whom, how, and in what contexts?

A central finding of our study is that in both Ghana and Brazil, the transatlantic slave trade is in the foreground of public discourses; this tends to overshadow the practices of raiding, trading, and keeping slaves within both countries. The problem is that the public discourses lead to progressive suppression of the knowledge still present in communicative memories in families and local communities. Through our multi-method research, which combined thematically focused and biographical interviews, participant observation, and group discussions, we were able, particularly in Ghana, to bring this still-existing knowledge to the fore. On the other hand, it became clear which repair strategies – that is, which defensive patterns of argumentation – are employed to avoid addressing the burdensome aspects of the past. In Ghana, this is primarily due to the fact that shame, and thus silence, prevails where there is a family history involving enslaved relatives or ancestors. Furthermore, the discourse on slavery within different ethno-political groupings is dominated by royals and chiefs in high positions, who attempt to deny or trivialize their ancestors' involvement in slave raiding.

In Brazil, we observed an increasing interest among the younger generation of Afro-Brazilians in obtaining information about the history of specific local ancestors, and a prevailing discourse that highlights the pride of Afro-Brazilians in their history of resistance and their “African cultural heritage.” Members of the Afro-Brazilian population attempt to reconstruct a sense of belonging and re-establish continuities with a lost African past. This is pursued through the preservation of religious practices, so-called African traditions – such as food, dance, or music – as well as through the use of DNA ancestry testing as a means to restore their interrupted lineages.

Publications

Two project volumes are planned: Volume I (2026) and Volume II (2027) in the Göttingen University Press in "Göttingen Series in Sociological Biographical Research"
Eva Bahl / Maria Pohn-Lauggas (2025): "Intersektionale Figurationen in der soziologischen Gedächtnisforschung. Reflexionen aus postkolonialen Forschungskontexten. In: Sozialer Sinn 26 (1). 53-74.
Steve Tonah (2023): "Making the town: Afro-Brazilian Tabon returnees and the transformation of Accra from the early colonial times", Global Qualitative Sociology Network.
Eva Bahl (2023): "Challenges and ambivalences of a global micro-sociology", Global Qualitative Sociology Network.

Presentations

Eva Bahl (2025): Placing Memories: Which Histories Are (De-)Thematized at Memory Sites in Ghana and Brazil?, 5th ISA Forum of Sociology “Knowing Justice in the Anthropocene”, Rabat, July 10th.
Eva Bahl (2025): Memories of Enslavement and Sexual Violence, 5th ISA Forum of Sociology “Knowing Justice in the Anthropocene”, Rabat, July 8th.
Lucas Cé Sangalli (2025): The Sociohistorical Construction of Slave Ancestry in Salaga, Ghana, 5th ISA Forum of Sociology “Knowing Justice in the Anthropocene”, Rabat, July 7th.
Lucas Cé Sangalli (2025): Afrofuturism and the Legacies of Enslavement: Counter-Colonial Constellations in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, Spring Conference of the Section Development Sociology/Social Anthropology (ESSA) of the German Sociological Association (DGS) “Shaping ‘Youthful Futures’ in the Global South”, Fulda, May 8–9.
Eva Bahl (2024): “Two Ghanaian port cities as crossroads of multiple (Hi)stories: Biographical Research in Historical Sociology and Memory Studies”, Conference: Biographical research quo vadis? New and recurring challenges in the study of life (hi)stories and social change, ELTE/CEU, Budapest, September 4th.
Lucas Cé Sangalli (2024): “Knowledge About ‘the Past’: Processes of Legitimation in the Production of and Access to the Past Among African Descendants in Brazilian ‘Quilombos’”, 4th International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (“SMUS Conference”), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok/Thailand.
Eva Bahl (2024): “Memories of Enslavement in Ghana and Brazil – Entanglements, Figurations, Relationalities”, 4th Workshop of the “Global Qualitative Sociology”-Network, Shue Yan University, Hong Kong. May 25th.
Eva Bahl (2023): “Perspectivas biográficas sobre memorias colectivas pos/coloniales”, Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile. December 6th.
Eva Bahl (2023): „Elmina and Cape Coast (Ghana) As Points of Intersection: Entangled Histories and Relational Memories“, XX ISA World Congress of Sociology, Melbourne, June 28th.
Steve Tonah (2023): „Making the Town: Afro-Brazilian Returnees and the Transformation of Accra from the Early Colonial Times till Today“, Workshop: Global Sociology and Comparative Urbanism, University of Ghana, Legon, February 15th.
Ruth Kaburi (2022): “Memories of Slavery: Traditional Religious Practices among the Tabom of Accra“ University of Ghana/Department of Sociology, Legon, September 30th.