Tabom People

The Tabom People or Agudas are the Afro-Brazilian community in South of Ghana who are mostly of Yoruba descent. The Tabom People are an Afro-Brazilian community of former slaves returnees. When they arrived in South Ghana and Accra and they could speak only Portuguese, so they greeted each other with “Como está?” (How are you?) to which the reply was “Tá bom”, so the Ewe people, Ga-Adangbe people and Akan people in of South Ghana and Accra started to call them the Tabom People.

The Afro-Brazilian descendants and community in South Ghana dates back to one study from the 19th century that between an estimated 3,000 and 8,000 former slaves decided to return to Africa.

Up to now it is not very clear, if the Tabom really bought their freedom and decided to immediately come back or if they were at that time free workers in Brazil, they came after the Malê Revolt of 1835 in Bahia. A lot of Afro-Brazilians when percecuted found their way back to Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria especially those who organised the Malê Revolt. In Ghana it is common to find family names like de Souza, Silva, or Cardoso. Some of them have been very well known in Ghana. The first Brazilian Ambassador to Ghana, Raymundo de Souza Dantas, arrived in 1961.

In Ghana, the representative group of people that decided to come back from Brazil is the Tabom People. They came back on a ship called SS Salisbury, offered by the British government. About seventy Afro-Brazilians of seven different families arrived in South Ghana and Accra, in the region of the old port in James Town in 1836. The reception by the Mantse Nii Ankrah of the Otublohum area was so warm that they decided to settle down in Accra. The leader of the Tabom group at the time of their arrival was a certain Nii Azumah Nelson. The eldest son of Azumah Nelson, Nii Alasha, was his successor and a very close friend to the Ga King Nii Tackie Tawiah. Together they helped in the development of the whole community in commerce.

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Wikipedia