# Atlantic contexts  
Another way of looking at the constitution of the returnee communities is through their Atlantic dimension, which influenced both the formation of the groups organized for the return trips and the construction of an identity in Africa itself. As part of his research into the Yorubas, Robin Law, a British historian long devoted to the study of the West African coast, considered the presence of returnees from Brazil and Sierra Leone acting as intermediaries between native and European groups. He saw this as a factor that contributed directly to the redefinition of local identities. This Atlantic perspective could be considered a key element of the history of returns from the Americas and of the formation of returnee communities in West Africa. This is true both in terms of the way these freedpersons organized their return trips and their integration into the places where they settled on the African continent. Law has published several papers on the subject. Studies by Beninese historian Elisée Soumonni continue along the same lines of analysis, incorporating sound African historiography and some advances in the debates around ancient Dahomey.  
This perspective has taken on other dimensions in more recent academic papers, bringing to the debate elements of the wider context of the Back-toAfrica movement from other regions of the black Americas. This includes the political discourse and actions - especially those of the British - that drove these movements, which have had an influence on the black populations of Brazilian cities (Lima e Souza, 2008). In addition, the concept of Atlantic circularity comprises an analysis of cultural practices present on both sides of the ocean. More than just a recreation or transposition by the returnees, these practices are indicative of mutual influences undergoing a permanent process of contact and transformation (Silva, 2014).