# Le retour  
This movement of return to the Bight of Benin was the culmination of several factors. These journeys were almost always voluntary and were made both individually and collectively. They were paid for by the interested parties, often helped by Catholic brotherhoods of freed Africans (De Almeida Prado, 1954; Costa e Silva, 1989a, 1989b, 1989c, 1994; Da Cunha, 1985a, 1985b;  
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[^0]:    2 On the Agudás, see also: De Almeida Prado, 1954; Braga, 1968, 1970; Castillo, 2011a, 2011b, 2016; Castro, 1965; Da Costa e Silva, 1989, 1994; Da Cunha, 1985a; Freyre, 1990; Krasnowolski, 1987; Law, 2004; Lewicki, 1967; Lima e Souza, 2008, 2013; Rodrigues, 1962; Ross, 1965; Soumoni, 2001; Turner, 1975; Verger, 1953, 1968, 1992; Yai, 1997.  
Freyre, 1990; Lima e Souza, 2008, 2013; Pantoja, 1998; Sarracino, 1998; Turner, 1975; Verger, 1968). The idea of proximity to their origins also led many cult leaders to return to the main headquarters of the Jeje and-Nagô sects, which had spread throughout Bahia (Castillo, 2011a, 2011b).  
It is impossible to ascertain the exact number of Africans and Creoles - the latter being almost always children accompanying their parents (Turner, 1975, p. 69) - involved in this return movement. Verger (1968, p. 633) speaks of 3,000; this is increased to 4,000 by Turner (1975, p. 85). Da Cunha (1985a, p. 17) estimates that 7,000 to 8,000 Africans and Creoles left Brazil to settle in the region extending from Lagos to Lomé in the course of the nineteenth century.