The Saga of Lohodann: Making Sense of an Annobonese Folktale Rooted in Carolingian Drama

Abstract

The essay analyzes the saga of Lohodann in relation to the idiosyncratic cultural and religious history of the African Atlantic island of Annobón. It does so by placing the history of the island in the context of the Portuguese expansion in Africa during the early modern era, and studies the folktale in connection to the dissemination of Iberian cultural elements in the region. It pays special attention to the role of confraternities, in the context of which the population of Annobón reinvented and reimagined Iberian culture from an African perspective.