Afro-Brazilian Returnee Festivals: From Brazilian Bumba-Meu-Boi to Contemporary Lagos Carnival

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This article presents a study of how Afro-Brazilian returnees resorted to Brazilian festivals as a coping mechanism due to the nostalgia they had of Brazil (despite the horrors of slavery) as well as a way to incorporate their Afro-Brazilian identity and colonial experiences in Brazil into their newly found “Nigerian” sense of belonging. I find this argument compelling. Festive practices have proven as an effective mechanism for adaptation and survival, especially Black communities. 

The into needs some clarity as the author jumps between time periods. The article might benefit from segregating or streamlining the personal memories. The subject of the piece should be presented at first with greater clarity and personal digressions than do not advance the argument should be eliminated. Ideas need to be better organized and presented. 

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Needs to the clearer 

Author Response

Dear reviewer:   Please refer to the attachment for the specific revisions of the manuscript. In addition to using a tracked review command, which I left in-tact for you to see my changes or revisions on the manuscript, the following are the major changes:  

1. Streamlining of dates.
2. Correcting misspelled or obsolete words such as changing "relics" to "legacies."
3. Defining and providing new notes for terms such as "reverse diaspora agency" and "conflictual binaries."
4. Splitting lines 161-165 to 3 sentences.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript, Afro-Brazilian Returnee Festivals: From Brazilian to Bumba-Meu-Boi to Contemporary Lagos Carnival explores ways in which Afro-Brazilian heritage has been maintained in Nigeria.  The author focuses specifically on the Meboi festival which originated among enslaved Africans in Maranhão, Brazil and was maintained among returnees to Nigeria.  By taking a deep dive into the scholarly literature about the practice by both Brazilian and Nigerian authors, the author is able to outlines some of the complexities of this festival/practice, which reflects notions of who represents a nation marked by extensive slavery, slaveowners, Indigenous persons and religious figures.  All participate in what the author notes has been a footprint of Brazilian culture and history in Nigeria.  The author provides extensive resources for those who may never have heard of this popular festival in Brazil, which has now expanded well beyond the state of Maranhão as well as the context of ‘reverse’ heritage practices, which is rarely addressed in the literature.  The fact that the legacies of the ‘transatlantic exchange’ of kidnapping, forced migration, colonization, different social circumstances, and geopolitical constraints has been sustained is a testament to the resilience and importance of this festival for practitioners and participants. 

 

However, it is only on page 8 that one is introduced to information on the contemporary impact of the festival in Lagos.  The author notes that little has been written on this and there are some suggestions as to influence this cultural practice locally.  There are a number of valuable insights in the manuscript, but this reviewer was left wanted to know more about the impact in relation to contemporary Lagos.  What do practitioners say about how things have changed (or not)?  In what ways has the festival been modified or creolized in Lagos, despite its deep ties with the historic and social context of Brazil?  Given changing tastes in consumption of ‘culture’, online access, youth activism, digital tools that allow for cultural encounters far from where they originated, different notions of Blackness in different contexts, has the ‘meaning’ of MeBoi been altered?  I suggest this only because the author notes on line 407 the necessity of agencies such as UNESCO to recognize and preserve this Afro-Brazilian heritage, but have there been on community led initiatives to safeguard the memory of Meboi, including digital strategies for documentation/archiving?

 

This may be beyond the scope of the article, but perhaps a few lines from practitioners would give some teeth to the author’s review of the practice. 

 

I recommend the ms with minor revisions. 

 

The ms requires editing (mostly misspelled words) or phrases that could use a definition (line 102 ‘reverse diasporic agency’).

 

Use of term legacies rather than ‘relics’ (relics used on archeology and usually refers to material culture).

 

Lines 161-165 could be divided into 2 or 3 sentences.

 

Line 192: Conflictual binaries? 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear reviewer:   Please refer to the attachment for the specific revisions of the manuscript. In addition to using a tracked review command, which I left in-tact for you to see my changes or revisions on the manuscript, the following are the major changes:  

1. Streamlining of dates.
2. Correcting misspelled or obsolete words such as changing "relics" to "legacies."
3. Defining and providing new notes for terms such as "reverse diaspora agency" and "conflictual binaries."
4. Splitting lines 161-165 to 3 sentences.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf