1. Panegyric to the slave merchant
Francisco Felix de Souza
DESCRIPTION
This station explores the complexities of memory and the ambivalent narratives around figures tied to the slave trade. Rek Souza’s song celebrates the Afro-Brazilian bouriyan, a carnival likely rooted in Central African traditions that also influenced samba. It tells of a 19th-century slave trader in Ouidah, Francisco de Souza, whose descendants, including Rek Souza, spread across the region. The song, a family panegyric, is performed on the ancestor’s birthday, with one verse explicitly acknowledging his past: E ple vi ple nɔ̀.
LITERARY EXCERPT Esclaves, 2009, by Kangni Alem
Ah, the Whites from the coast... A pack of dogs led by the one called Chacha, who no one had yet proclaimed viceroy of Gléhué, but who behaved as such, and whom the inhabitants, out of flattery and fear, had nicknamed the Grand Blanc. An adventurer who arrived penniless from Brazil, who took their women from the men here, whom he then enslaved and sold to human flesh buyers, the slavers plying the ocean aboard mysterious ships. (pp. 26-27)
Song lyrics in Fon and translation by Kangni Alem
| 1-Agŏ eee ɖɔbla è, ɖɔblà è | (Scream to signal presence, and request permission to speak/sing.) |
| 2-Vɔ kolokò kpɔ́n ajìnaku klanklan | The hyena can only leer at the elephant; it can’t do anything to it |
| 3-Hwèkɛ̀n ma hu lŏ è | The fish’s sting can’t kill the crocodile |
| 4-Xɔ na m bó xɔ́tɔ́ | He who redeems out of pity |
| 5-Zansukpɛ ɖokpo xɔ́ ɖo lankan wu xɔ́tɔ́ | He who buys a mosquito for the price of a precious pearl |
| 6-E ple vi ple nɔ̀ | He buys the child and his mother |
| 7-Vi se tɔ́gbè Gbɛ̀li ma bu | A child who follows his father’s instructions never goes astray |
| 8-Agbo ɖò kpɛ̀ bɔ̀ kɔ̀ja tɔ̀n nɔ̀ kpé ayi | The little ram’s mane, so thick that it drags it along the ground |
| 9-Xɛ̀ ɖò aja mɛ nɔ̀ gɛ̆n |
The sparrowhawk cannot kidnap a caged bird |
Video: “Deos me Ajuda “Palma” by Rek Souza” 1999