Joan Diamante was grabbed by the consciousness of belonging when he left the airport terminal, several thousand miles away from the birthplace of Brazil.
“The first thing I felt was what I was at home,” Rio’s 33 -year -old celebrity chef reminds me. “No one saw me as they feared for my skin color. On the contrary, I saw people like me. I saw similarities. “
“I have never been there,” said Diamante, who arrived at Benin’s largest city, Kotonou, last year. “But I was convinced that this was the place I knew: that smell, its music, its sound, the noise of the car angle, the atmosphere.”
Brazil’s chef was in a sense, in a sense, in a sense, despite his first trip to Africa. Diamante was born in Salvador, the largest black city in Japan, which has the largest black population outside of Africa, and has been forced to travel to the southern Brazil and have been forced to travel to the south. I grew up in the dishes produced by the roots. American country that works for gold mine, sugar and coffee agriculture.
Approximately 40 % of the estimated 12 million slaves were shipped through the Atlantic Ocean between the 16th and 19th centuries, which was the last country of the United States to abolish slavery in 1888. I did it.
Diamante, a full name of Joan August Santos Batista, believes that his ancestors have been forced to Brazil in the West African region around the 19th century Benin. Two centuries, he reconnects with his family’s Africa roots, and hopes to become a Benin citizen thanks to new laws to provide Afro giving people around the world the path to citizenship. 。
“I’m already trying to resolve the documents … I want a Brazilian passport and Vennesese passport,” said the chef in his restaurant in Rio’s port area, known as PEQUENAFRICA (Little Africa). I talked. Established Afrobrazilian community. “It’s about who I am, where I came from, about my pedigree and my family,” he added. “Many people dream of having us and European passports. Because Africa is my hometown.”
Benin’s citizenship scheme -President Patris Talon, Proposal and approved by members of the Diet in October, attempts to heal the “deep wounds” given to Africa, and for centuries. He is trying to heal what has been robbed by the transformed people.
According to the law, this initiative is open to “all the people in the world where the African ancestors of Sahara, south of Sahara, were forced to repatriate (and) in the context of slavery.” Such people say that Benin is regarded as “their hometown” and has the right to demand a passport.
This law is particularly interested in Brazil, considering the many people who were slaves transported from the port along the African “slave coast” between Nigeria western and Benin and Togo. Ta.
According to Marcero Sacramento, the honorary consulate of Benan, Salvador, the capital of Bahia, the northeastern Brazil,:
“In the era of slavery, more than 1 million Benesez came to the Via … what it means (about today’s population) … millions of Brazilians,” said Sakuranzy. I will offer it.
Sacramento, which has a population of about 15 million, thinks that Tens of millions of Brazilian citizens, with a population of 215 million, will suddenly seek citizenship for new laws. I said it wasn’t. Rather, Talon has increased the number of tourists returning to “their homeland”, saying “I wanted to change Benin into a gateway for Africa’s Diaspola to return to Africa.” Brazil and Bennese authorities hope that low -cost flights connecting Salvador and Kotonou will be launched at the end of the year, and it takes time for travelers to move between two countries from 20 hours or more. I want to reduce.
Benin is not the first country to accept the return of the descendants of the slaves.
In the 1970s, the American superstar, Nina Simone, enjoyed a three -year stint in Liberia. Thousands of African Americans, once a slave, migrated to the 19th century, flowing the influence of racism.
In the era of slavery, more than 1 million Beninese came to Vaia … it was millions of Brazilian people.
Marcerosacramento
Near Ghana in 2019, the 400th anniversary of Africans, who became a US slave, was called the year of return. President Nana Akafo Adood has given 200 African Americans citizenship and deleted many caribbean visa requirements. His government also accepted the government’s invitation in 1961, and two years later, he gave an example of a famous intellectual and civil rights activist web duba, who lived with his wife until his death. I returned to the country and worked to live.
Since then, thousands of tourists have flooded in West Africa, especially in December, have further established the culture of the party, which is now known in colloquial, and has been rooted in Detti December in Nigeria. However, the locals also say that the inflow of the returnee also caused the cost of the crisis in which the return of the return and the strange case of the real estate list caused by the dollar of Ghana. Other places, Gabon also provides citizenship to a few famous African Americans, including rapper Rudakris and actor Samuel L. Jackson.
In order to prove the ancestors of Sahara, those who want to be a Benin citizen will have to provide documents and have a DNA test approved by the government.
“The DNA test is not an ancestor test,” said Agstin Fentes, a professor at the University of Princeton University.
Fuentes said that by comparing DNA samples with samples in various regions around the world, it could reach a specific conclusion on someone’s ancestors. “They are just saying …” Considering our entire database, you look like the DNA people we have from Lagos in Nigeria.
However, such tests could not specify what geographic “ancestors” indicated in the past had come. “I think Benin’s intention is good,” Fentes said, but he believed that DNA testing was not a “completely scientific” method to check someone’s ancestors.
Regarding the return to Benin, Diamante, who created a four -part documentary, has excitement about the prospect of deepening his relationship with his ancestors.
While traveling to Benan, he visited a no -return door. This is a commemorative arch of the beach side built to remember the Africans shipped to the United States.
“It was catastrophic … we were looted without shame … it was one of the cruel things that human beings had formed,” said Diamante. He talked about the souvenirs of the town of Wida, one of the busiest ports in Africa. And 19th century.
Two centuries, Diamante opened a restaurant near the ruins of Rio’s Valongowar, which was sold by hundreds of thousands of slaves in the early 19th century. The menu celebrates the Aphrobrazilian culture and food, fusing the taste of Rio, Via and Benin.
After acquiring Benese’s citizenship, the chef thought that he would run a restaurant in West Africa. “Our mission now is to conquer and celebrate everyone who died, so that we can come here today,” said Diamante.
