Taking a trip down memory lane to when I lead a guided tour through Jamestown and Otublohum with a few international friends who took me up on the offer to learn more about what remains of the Tabom community (descendants of Afro-Brazilian returnees) in Accra, Ghana. The Year of Return was perhaps Ghana's biggest PR... Continue Reading →
Tabom in Accra for the ‘The Year of Return’…
2019 has been dubbed 'The Year of Return' by Ghana's Tourism Board who's campaign to acknowledge 400 years since the first Trans-Atlantic slave ships left its shores for North America (Virginia), has attracted the Black Diaspora - particularly those from North America, to visit Ghana. The Year of Return is particularly symbolic in my journey... Continue Reading →
MisBeee Writes creates AKADi magazine – inspiring insights from our communities!
Nothing quite kicks away the blues than unexpectedly seeing yourself as the cover girl of a brand new magazine! I had to do a double take when fellow British-Ghanaian journalist, Abena Sɛwaa aka MisBeee, tagged me on the gram premiering her new online magazine... The surprise element of course being I wasn't aware I'd be on... Continue Reading →
Salvador: It’s not Goodbye
My stay in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil ended with a collaborative shoot with artist Jan Siebert for a visual idea I had to share some insight into my Salvador trip through film. Jan went along with my ideas and contributed his own creativity... Here's a quick edit of some of my fav shots in the... Continue Reading →
FALA: Kai Talks to Matheus Len’s
My stay in Salvador was an opportunity to self-reflect, and in doing so I centred my reflection around my ancestry... Who am I?, and who would I have been had my Tabom ancestors not left Salvador da Bahia, Brazil around the year of 1835?I sought a photographer I could collaborate with to share insight into... Continue Reading →
The month of August: Paying homage to my ancestry
This month of August, I would like to pay homage to my Tabom (Afro-Brazilian returnees to Ghana) ancestors by remembering their legacy. It occurred to me that there are a string of significant events and coincidences that took place during the month of august that are somehow in twined with Tabom history, and as a descendant; this... Continue Reading →
Journey through History in Brazil… The Malê Revolt.
To get a better understanding of who the Tabom returnees were, I'm looking into the social context of society in Bahia at the time, and what would become perhaps the most significant slave rebellion in Brazil; The Malê Revolt. And perhaps it is destiny, rather than a coincidence, that I, a descendant of an Afro-Brazilian,... Continue Reading →
Kai Li’s Tabom Project… An Introduction
I would like to think I started this project at an early age due to curiosity when my dad mentioned I had brazilian ancestry. Technically I started researching my Afro-Brazilian history just 2 years ago, in 2010. However, I've done a significant amount, enough to trace my ancestry 6 generations back to Salvador, Bahia. I... Continue Reading →