At Frieze London, a new section explores the flow of cultural influence between Africa and Brazil

"Across eight galleries featuring ten artists, Echoes in the Present highlights how the cultural influences between Africa and Brazil have flowed both ways, a realisation Das first made growing up in Nigeria in the 1990s. "There were references to Brazilian culture through food, people's last names," she says. "I then later came into an understanding of enslaved people from Yorubaland who were forcibly removed and taken to Brazil, who then returned to Nigeria as freed slaves.""

"Today, this influence on Brazilian culture-from music to religion-is unmistakable, yet remains little discussed outside the country. The relationship between Brazil and Africa, both historically and today, serves as the jump-off point for Echoes in the Present, a new section at this year's Frieze London curated by the Nigerian art historian Jareh Das."

More than five million of roughly 12 million Africans forcibly taken to the Americas were transported to Brazil, creating the largest enslaved population there. That history produced profound cultural influence on Brazilian music, religion, and cuisine, and established reciprocal flows between Brazil and West Africa. Echoes in the Present, curated by Nigerian art historian Jareh Das at Frieze London, occupies eight galleries with ten artists exploring these connections. Das encountered Brazilian cultural traces while growing up in 1990s Nigeria and traced how enslaved people from Yorubaland were taken to Brazil and some later returned freed. Recent exhibitions continue to revisit Afro-Atlantic histories across global venues including São Paulo and Dakar.

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