To provide some small comfort to her children during
the terrible voyages aboard the tumbeiros (a small ship
carrying the transport of slaves between Africa and
Brazil) the African mothers would tear patches of their
skirts and from them they created small dolls, made of
braids or knots, which served as both a protective
amulet and a way to stay connected if/when separated.
The dolls, a symbol of resistance, became known as
Abayomi, a term meaning ‘precious one’ in Yoruba, one
of the largest ethnic groups in Africa, whose population
lives in parts of Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire.