By all accounts, Antônio Olinto, whose works have been translated into at least seven languages, deserves to be considered a Yoruba diaspora writer given his contributions to establishing connections between Yorubaland and its foremost and richest extension in the Americas: Bahia, Brazil. My personal experience in Salvador, Bahia, led to a reawakening of my own Yoruban diaspora consciousness.

Because I was born and raised in the bubbling heart of Lagos, Nigeria, Olinto's narratives, especially A casa da água, bring back memories of familiar settings. I can hear echoes of hustling street traders, the nocturnal pleasantries of celebrants barricading whole blocks for extravagant open-air parties, the playground in Campos Square (Praça campos) that serves as a point of encounter for students, truants, and adults who have come together to play soccer. Most significant is the Brazilian Quarter sandwiched between Kakawa, Broad, and Bamgbose Streets, as well as the relics of Brazilian architecture on Bamgbose, Simpson, and Oshodi Streets where the Iron Gate and a few other structures seem to transpose the northeast of Brazil, especially Bahia, into a Nigerian reality. Olinto's narratives depict an unbroken connection in this sense—a linkage that is easily made, a kinship that can neither be denied nor minimized. In addition, the names of my Lagosian friends and childhood classmates quickly come to mind: Vera Cruz, Da Costa, Pinheiro, Olympio, D'Almeida, Sho Silva, Gomez, Ferreira, Da Rocha, and Da Silva—all Brazilian names and families who returned to Nigeria and Benin after the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888.