Gabby Omoni Hartemann’s research centers on the continuity of lived experiences of Africans in the Amazon, specifically in the region of the Guianas. The town of Mana, founded by 400 Africans who had been illegally taken captive in the first half of the 19th century, serves as a starting point to look at Afrodiasporic reconfigurations of livelihoods in the Amazon. Mana appears as a 19th century hub for multiple Afrodiasporic communities, ranging from the original founders to formerly enslaved Caribbean immigrants, and even neighboring Saamaka Maroons. Therefore, it highlights the plurality of negotiations of autonomy, self-determination and identity formation in this environment. Through the archaeological study of Afroamazonian relations with the land, the research aims at interrogating past and present mechanisms of persistence, and recreated sociabilities in the Guianas.
