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Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on the grassroots socio-cultural practices of members of the Afro-Brazilian organisations in Nigeria. While negotiating the past, identity and agency, the group manifests in two areas: spatiality and subjectivity and gains an activist and politicized character

Paper long abstract:

The subject of the presentation, which is part of the research on the past and future as well as cultural heritage, is a comprehensive examination of the social and cultural practices of activist members of an Afro-Brazilian association in southern Nigeria. They create the discourse of the African future through specific cultural practices that are determinants of identity and meanings. Afro-Brazilians in Nigeria, including Nigerians with Brazilian surnames, identifying themselves with the descendants of Africans (mainly from West Africa and Angola), migrated from Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries and settled on the West African coast. Currently, the representatives of the group have united in associations and organizations - Brazilian Descendants Association Lagos and Yoruba-Brazilian Descendants Renascimento Association, which both formally and informally work to popularize local heritage and exert social pressure for the correct interpretation of the past regarding the colonialism of the group's history and identity and agency. As I note, this is manifested in two areas: spatiality and subjectivity, which gains a politicized character, including in Lagos and Badagry, including indigenous secular and sacral architecture in the historic Popo-Aguda district located on Lagos Island, practicing holidays, celebrating festivals and carnivals. As I postulate, these activities can be considered grassroots forms of cultural activism. How is the past negotiated? What is the impact of young organisational leaders who are shaping the new discourse on origin, heritage and cultural memory?