Illuminations: Patterns of knowledge on Africa and Latin America.

Recent moves in the world political order towards greater interconnectedness have brought about the need for Africa to move beyond national development and regional integration that followed independence towards a more globalized form of Pan Africanism. In this project, three major areas of focus were selected for the fresh perspectives they bring to the knowledge base on Africa-Latin America (and by extension Diaspora) relations. These are: 1) Documenting the history of Ghana-Latin-America relations to date. 2) Critical evaluation of the dynamics underlying the proliferation of Latin-American popular culture, especially telenovelas, on the African cultural scene with Ghana as a case study. 3) An examination of the socio-cultural, linguistic and religious evolution of the afro-descendant slave returnee communities, known as the Tabom (Ghana) and Aguda (Togo, Benin and Nigeria).