The Igbo Influence on the African Diaspora

[Onyiiboy]

by Onyemobi Anyiwo

Every Black History Month, we celebrate the legacy of Africa, and tell stories of how her children were scattered all over the world. However, no story of Africans in the Diaspora would be complete without the mention of the impact and influence of the Igbo people. Of the tens of millions of captured Africans who survived the Middle Passage, Igbo people accounted for 75% of those that came from the region in at the time as the "Bight of Biafra." It is difficult to know how many Igbo people were taken from the continent since a good portion of them decided that it was better to take their own lives then to have it ruled by someone else. The millions of Igbo people who actually did reach the western hemisphere ended up in large numbers in southern states like Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana and Georgia. Those that arrived in the Caribbean ended up mainly in places like Haiti, Jamaica, Belize, Brazil, Cuba, and Trinidad, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts.

Igbo people made an impact everywhere they arrived in the "New World." Olaudah Equiano, an Igbo man, was one of the first African slaves to write an autobiography, which detailed his early life in West Africa and providing the western world with the earliest accounts of pre-colonial life in Africa from an Igbo perspective (an event that would be repeated once again by Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart). It was his firsthand account of the Middle Passage, and the years of hardship as a slave that followed, that made his book gain notoriety and made Equiano a pioneer in the Abolitionist movement.

Abolitionism was not the only avenue that Igbo people used to resist slavery. Igbos also played a role in many of the slave rebellions of the Caribbean and Americas. On the island of Jamaica in 1816, a group of Eboes (Igbos) had conspired to get their freedom by killing all the whites on the Island on Christmas Day. Their plot was eventually discovered by an overseer and never was brought into fruition. The blood oath used in Tackey's conspiracy in Antigua also most likely had Igbo influence, as it was reported to have been done in a similar fashion as the igba ndu (binding life) pact done in Igboland.

Igbos left their mark in other ways as well. One the island of Belize, one section of Belize Town was known as Eboe Town, and on a small island off the coast of Georgia there is a legendary place known as Ebo Landing. A cemetery in George Washington National Forest in Virginia shows the marks of Nsibidi, which was an Igbo writing system.

However, the biggest mark that the Igbo left on the Diaspora was their own blood. As stated before, Igbos made up more then 75% of the slaves taken from the Bight of Biafra, which itself exported nearly 20% of all the slaves captured from Africa. In states like Virginia, Igbos at one time made up over 70% of the black African population. Furthermore, Igbo women were amongst the most fertile of the African slaves in America, and had one of the highest proportions of surviving children, making them highly desirable mates. According to Douglas Chambers, author of Murder at Montpelier: Igbo Africans in Virginia, at least 60% of black Americans have at least one Igbo ancestor. If there is a time for the descendants of Igbos in the Diaspora to reconnect to the descendants of Igbos in Africa, it is now. We all must remember and honor our ancestors on both sides of the Atlantic, for without them, none of us would be here.

[Mr.Wahala]

Olaudah Equiano Igbo???????

i could have sworn he was yoruba.

[Onyiiboy]

Originally Posted by nigeria dude

Olaudah Equiano Igbo???????

i could have sworn he was yoruba.

Nope. He was Igbo. Look it up.

[Mr.Wahala]

Interesting.

sources i read dispute his birthplace.
some say he may have been born in south carolina during slavery.

http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/biog.htm
http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i03/03a01101.htm

[Onyiiboy]

Originally Posted by nigeria dude

Interesting.

sources i read dispute his birthplace.
some say he may have been born in south carolina during slavery.

http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/biog.htm
http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i03/03a01101.htm

Yeah I've heard about that too. But until they can prove otherwise, he was born in Africa.

[Uncle Sunday]

Wesley Snipes is a Nigerian too.

[Onyiiboy]

Originally Posted by Uncle Sunday

Wesley Snipes is a Nigerian too.

He traced his ancestry back or something?

[Rotimi]

Originally Posted by Onyiiboy

by Onyemobi Anyiwo

Every Black History Month, we celebrate the legacy of Africa, and tell stories of how her children were scattered all over the world. However, no story of Africans in the Diaspora would be complete without the mention of the impact and influence of the Igbo people. Of the tens of millions of captured Africans who survived the Middle Passage, Igbo people accounted for 75% of those that came from the region in at the time as the "Bight of Biafra." It is difficult to know how many Igbo people were taken from the continent since a good portion of them decided that it was better to take their own lives then to have it ruled by someone else. The millions of Igbo people who actually did reach the western hemisphere ended up in large numbers in southern states like Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana and Georgia. Those that arrived in the Caribbean ended up mainly in places like Haiti, Jamaica, Belize, Brazil, Cuba, and Trinidad, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts.

Igbo people made an impact everywhere they arrived in the "New World." Olaudah Equiano, an Igbo man, was one of the first African slaves to write an autobiography, which detailed his early life in West Africa and providing the western world with the earliest accounts of pre-colonial life in Africa from an Igbo perspective (an event that would be repeated once again by Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart). It was his firsthand account of the Middle Passage, and the years of hardship as a slave that followed, that made his book gain notoriety and made Equiano a pioneer in the Abolitionist movement.

Abolitionism was not the only avenue that Igbo people used to resist slavery. Igbos also played a role in many of the slave rebellions of the Caribbean and Americas. On the island of Jamaica in 1816, a group of Eboes (Igbos) had conspired to get their freedom by killing all the whites on the Island on Christmas Day. Their plot was eventually discovered by an overseer and never was brought into fruition. The blood oath used in Tackey's conspiracy in Antigua also most likely had Igbo influence, as it was reported to have been done in a similar fashion as the igba ndu (binding life) pact done in Igboland.

Igbos left their mark in other ways as well. One the island of Belize, one section of Belize Town was known as Eboe Town, and on a small island off the coast of Georgia there is a legendary place known as Ebo Landing. A cemetery in George Washington National Forest in Virginia shows the marks of Nsibidi, which was an Igbo writing system.

However, the biggest mark that the Igbo left on the Diaspora was their own blood. As stated before, Igbos made up more then 75% of the slaves taken from the Bight of Biafra, which itself exported nearly 20% of all the slaves captured from Africa. In states like Virginia, Igbos at one time made up over 70% of the black African population. Furthermore, Igbo women were amongst the most fertile of the African slaves in America, and had one of the highest proportions of surviving children, making them highly desirable mates. According to Douglas Chambers, author of Murder at Montpelier: Igbo Africans in Virginia, at least 60% of black Americans have at least one Igbo ancestor. If there is a time for the descendants of Igbos in the Diaspora to reconnect to the descendants of Igbos in Africa, it is now. We all must remember and honor our ancestors on both sides of the Atlantic, for without them, none of us would be here.

I can't help but question your sources.......

I'm not a Africana studies major....but I've had a few classes in it and am currently taking two classes in the field of study........

I can't rightfully say they are fabrications...but right now......let's leave it at....questionable.......

[Onyiiboy]

Originally Posted by Rotimi

I can't help but question your sources.......

I'm not a Africana studies major....but I've had a few classes in it and am currently taking two classes in the field of study........

I can't rightfully say they are fabrications...but right now......let's leave it at....questionable.......

[Oderah]

Interesting

[ChildOfOya]

What always gets me (not cause I am part Igbo) is the fact that everyone questions something RATHER than looks it up for their own satisfaction. this was eye-opening, however I will research the percentages. I would have thought the majority of people (unless they migrated a lot) were all from the Gold and Ivory Coasts, Gambia and Mali, perhaps.