The Exodus of 1835: Life Histories, Social Networks, and the Return to Africa

After the defeat of the Malê Rebellion, a slave uprising that took place in Bahia in 1835, led by islamicized Yoruba, many African freedmen returned to their mother continent. An estimated 200 were deported and at least three times that number left voluntarily, fleeing repressive laws hastily enacted by the government. Upon arrival on the other side of the Atlantic, they settled in towns along the Western Mina Coast. Over the course of the 19th century, other migrations of this sort would continue to occur, but travelers who came in the late 1830s were by far the largest single group. To this day in various parts of the Bight of Benin, descendents of returnees cultivate a unique ethnic identity rooted in their ancestors’ shared experience in Brazil. In a few cases, family memories have enabled researchers to sketch the individual life stories of freedmen who returned in the latter part of the 1800s. But thus far, little has been known about those who left Bahia after the Malê rebellion. This paper examines a specific group of Yoruba-speaking freedmen who were part of the black elite of Salvador in the 1820s and early 1830s. Owners of real estate properties and numerous slaves, some were orisha worshippers who belonged to Catholic brotherhoods, while others were Muslims, but all were affected by the anti-African backlash that gripped Bahia after the rebellion. In many cases, they had friends, former slaves or neighbors among the accused. Reconstructing the social network that joined this privileged group before the uprising, the paper shows the impact of the rebellion on their lives, also examining the ties of friendship that shaped their collective decision to leave and that continued after their arrival in Agoué, Ouidah and Porto Novo.