In the twentieth century, works by authors such as Gilberto Freyre (1943), João Fernando de Almeida Prado (1956) and Pierre Verger (1953, 1957 and 1968) analysed the presence of groups identifying themselves as descendants of returnees from Brazil and their cultural practices in cities near what was formerly the Slave Coast. ${ }^{3}$ Among these authors, we can highlight the work of Verger, who expanded his historical research to cover both sides of the Atlantic. He examined the ways in which enslaved people expressed themselves and sought freedom and, above all, the ways in which, once freed, they made it possible for themselves to make their return journey. For these individuals, this preparation sometimes involved engaging in activities related to the slave trade itself. Brazilian sociologist Freyre was interested in the essential features of Brazilianness - and, beyond this, the specific characteristics of the black population in the state of Bahia - as they can be seen in the practices and customs of communities of returnees on that African coast, supporting his already well-known theory on the cultural similarities between Brazil and Africa (Freyre, 1973, pp. 263-313). De Almeida Prado highlighted Brazil's relations with what was once Dahomey and the methods used by these groups to modernize local societies, referring to the reports of travellers who also focused on this aspect (De Almeida Prado, 1956, pp. 377-439).  
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[^0]:    3 Region located on the coast of West Africa, comprising an area stretching from the coast of Ghana to the city of Lagos - thus including the Bight of Benin. It was also referred to as the Mina Coast or Coast of Africa in Brazilian documentation of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.