TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE ON IGBO NATION
AN EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK ‘OGHE PEOPLES AND CULTURE E-BOOK
BY
Chief (Hon) Ndu Oliver Kanayo
(Ezedinaobi)
Dip. Telecom (S/W Engr.), HND Acc, MBA Acc, ACM.
Former Administrator, Ezeagu North Development Council.
Phone: 08039572901
Email: nduoliverkanayo@gmail.com
Over the period of the Atlantic Slave Trade, from approximately 1526 to 1867, some 12.5 million captured men, women, and children were put on ships in Africa, and 10.7 million arrived in the Americas. The Atlantic Slave Trade was likely the most costly in human life of all long-distance global migrations.
The first Africans forced to work in the New World left from Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century, not from Africa. The first voyage carrying enslaved people direct from Africa to the Americas were brought by the Spanish in 1526.
The number of people carried off from Africa reached 30,000 per year in the 1690s and 85,000 per year a century later.
More than eight out of ten Africans forced into the slave trade crossed the Atlantic between 1700 and 1850. The decade 1821 to 1830 saw more than 80,000 people a year leaving Africa in slave ships. Well over a million more; one-tenth of those carried off in the slave trade era followed within the next twenty years.
By 1820, nearly four Africans for every one European had crossed the Atlantic; about four out of every five women who crossed the Atlantic were from Africa.
The majority of enslaved Africans brought to British North America arrived between 1720 and 1780.
Africans carried to Brazil came overwhelmingly from Angola. Africans carried to North America, including the Caribbean, left mainly from West Africa.
Well over 90 percent of enslaved Africans were sent to the Caribbean and South America. Only about 6 percent of African captives were sent directly to British North America. Yet by 1825, the US population included about one-quarter of the people of African descent in the Western Hemisphere.
The Middle Passage was dangerous and horrific. The sexes were separated; men, women, and children were kept naked, packed close together; and the men were chained for long periods. About 12 percent of those who embarked did not survive the voyage.
Enslavement: Plantations in the United States were dwarfed by those in the West Indies. In the Caribbean, many plantations held 150 enslaved persons or more. In the American South, only one slaveholder held as many as a thousand enslaved persons, and just 125 had over 250 enslaved persons.
In the Caribbean, Dutch Guiana, and Brazil, the enslaved death rate was so high and the birth rate so low that they could not sustain their population without importations from Africa. Rates of natural decrease ran as high as 5 percent a year. While the death rate of the US enslaved population was about the same as that of Jamaican enslaved persons, the birth rate was more than 80 percent higher in the United States.
In the United States enslaved persons were more generations removed from Africa than those in the Caribbean. In the nineteenth century, the majority of enslaved in the British Caribbean and Brazil were born in Africa.
In contrast, by 1850, most US enslaved persons were third-, fourth-, or fifth-generation Americans.
Slavery in the US was distinctive in the near balance of the sexes and the ability of the enslaved population to increase its numbers by natural reproduction. Unlike any other enslaved society, the US had a high and sustained natural increase in the enslaved population for a more than a century and a half.
Children: There were few instances in which enslaved women were released from field work for extended periods during slavery. Even during the last week before childbirth, pregnant women on average picked three-quarters or more of the amount normal for women.
Infant and child mortality rates were twice as high among enslaved children as among southern White children. Half of all enslaved infants died in their first year of life, due to chronic undernourishment.
The average birth weight of enslaved infants was less than 5.5 pounds, considered severely underweight by today’s standards.
Even in the eighteenth century, the earliest weaning age advised by doctors was eight months; but most enslaved infants were weaned within three or four months; and thereafter, fed a starch-based diet, consisting of foods such as gruel, which lacked sufficient nutrients for health and growth.
Health and Mortality: Enslaved persons suffered a variety of miserable and often fatal maladies due to the Atlantic Slave Trade, and to inhumane living and working conditions. Common symptoms among enslaved populations included blindness, abdominal swelling, bowed legs, skin lesions, and convulsions.
Common conditions among enslaved populations included beriberi (caused by a deficiency of thiamine), pellagra (caused by a niacin deficiency), tetany (caused by deficiencies of calcium, magnesium, and Vitamin D), rickets (also caused by a deficiency of Vitamin D), and kwashiorkor (caused by severe protein deficiency).
Diarrhea, dysentery, whooping cough, and respiratory diseases as well as worms pushed the infant and early childhood death rate of enslaved children to twice that experienced by White infants and children.
Domestic Slave Trade: The domestic slave trade in the US distributed the African American population throughout the South in a migration that greatly surpassed the Atlantic Slave Trade to North America.
Though Congress outlawed the African slave trade in 1808, domestic slave trade flourished, and the enslaved population in the US nearly tripled over the next fifty years.
The domestic trade continued into the 1860s and displaced approximately 1.2 million men, women, and children, the vast majority of whom were born in America.
To be “sold down the river” was one of the most dreaded prospects of the enslaved population. Some destinations, particularly the Louisiana sugar plantations, had especially grim reputations. But it was the destruction of family that made the domestic slave trade so terrifying.
Profitability: Prices of enslaved persons varied widely over time, due to factors including supply and changes in prices of commodities such as cotton. Even considering the relative expense of owning and keeping an enslaved person, slavery was profitable.
In order to ensure the profitability of enslavement and to produce maximum “return on investment,” slaveholders generally supplied only the minimum food and shelter needed for survival, and forced their enslaved persons to work from sunrise to sunset.
Although young adult men had the highest expected levels of output, young adult women had value over and above their ability to work in the fields; they were able to have children who by law were also enslaved by the owner of the mother. Therefore, the average price of enslaved females was higher than their male counterparts up to puberty age. Men around the age of 25 were the most “valuable.”
On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing, at least on paper all slaves in the United States. Slavery was constitutionally abolished in the United States in 1865, freeing over 4 million slaves; by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Slaveholding became more concentrated over time, particularly as slavery was abolished in the northern states. The fraction of households owning enslaved persons fell from 36 percent in 1830 to 25 percent in 1860.
During the Civil War, roughly 180,000 Black men served in the Union Army, and another 29,000 served in the Navy. Three-fifths of all Black troops were formerly enslaved.
Slave Trade In Igboland:
The Igbo were at the time of colonization of Nigeria, people of autonomous, democratic, independent villages; hence disunity and multiple rivaling neighbours. They were without a collective or national consciousness, but rather saw themselves as independent villages and could therefore not come together to resist slavery and the British incursion; a weakness which the British strategically used to perpetuate their rule – thus the policy of ‘Divide and rule’.
The first contact between Igboland and Europe came in the mid-fifteenth century with the arrival of the Portuguese. From 1434-1807 the Niger coast acted as a contact point between African and European traders, beginning with the Portuguese, then the Dutch and finally the English. At this stage there was an emphasis on trade rather than empire building, in this case the trade consisting primarily of Igbo slaves.
With foreign demands for slave labour, slavery and slave trade became the occupation of some people. One sells a member of one’s own race to a member of another race. Many even sold their own relatives into slavery and children were kidnapped from their parents.
The whole society was turned into a lawless group of individuals preying on the wake, the poor, the destitute and public and private enemies; all in pursuit of wealth, which was not in itself nourishing nor meant to serve biological needs but rather aimed at acquiring mere prestigious objects of no economic value. Societal values and morals diminished, people live in fear and uncertainty, with their freedom of movement drastically curtailed.
It is on record that the area “The Nigger Area” or “Land of Slaves”, identified today as Nigeria supplied more slaves than any other country in Africa. The quality of human “Cargo” was supreme and priced much more than slaves from other West African Countries. The men were strongly built and expert cotton farmers. Only wealthy plantation owners could afford slaves from Nigeria. They were nicknamed “black-gold” and the British slave ship named “White Lion” took them to Virginia.
Elizabeth Isichei quotes an early European visitor to an Igbo area who said that “he felt he was in a freeland, among free people”; she also quotes another Frechman who said that “true liberty existed in Igboland”.
The Igbo has no central government, rather every village has the liberty and autonomy; and the families are bound to observe all the traditions and decisions taken by the village, more especially the ethnical codes of conduct. The feeling of cultural identity was confined to clans and villages; hence dilutes, and narrows the sense of brotherhood among villages, seeing the other villages as foreign states.
The Igbo villages were therefore not well equipped, compared with the slave dealers, equipped with European weapons; these and other factors accelerated the slave trade to the point of making the Igbo country a ghost region.
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade On Igbo Nation: The Igbo nation was one of the main ethnic groups enslaved with the Yorubas in the era of trans-atlantic slave trade, lasting between the 16th and late 19th century.
The major slave trading ports located near indigenous Igbo territory, where Igbo slaves were obtained were the Bight of Biafra (also known as the Bight of Bonny) and Calabar ports. A large number of Igbo slaves, kidnapped or bought were taken to Europe and the Americas by European slave traders.
An estimated 14.6% of slaves were taken from the Bight of Biafra between 1650 and 1900, the third greatest percentage in the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The Igbo slaves were preferred by the planters; hence they were dispersed to colonies such as Jamaica, Cuba, Hispaniola, Barbados, United States, Belize, and Trinidad and Tobago among others. Elements of Igbo culture can still be found in these places; hence "ARO-festival" is still celebrated in Cuba.
The Igbo banking system was more in the nature of Saving and Loans; called “Isusu” in which contributions are pooled each week and one person collects. Igbo slaves took this invention to the Carribean Islands where it is still practiced as “SueSue”.
Population of Africans on Caribbean islands recorded 2,863 Igbo on Trinidad and Tobago in 1813 census; 894 in Saint Lucia in 1815 census; 440 on Saint Kitts and Nevis in 1817 census; and 111 in Guayana in 1819 census.
IGBO LANDING:
Igbo Landing Mass Suicide (1803): Igbo Landing (also called Ibo Landing, Ebo Landing, or Ebos Landing) is a historic site at Dunbar Creek on St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia.
The largest mass suicides of enslaved people took place in May 1803 when a shipload of captive West Africans, upon surviving the Middle Passage, were landed by U.S. paid captors in Savannah , Georgia, on the slave ship the Wanderer.
The ship's enslaved passengers included a number of Igbo people from what is now Nigeria were taken to the Georgia coast, to be auctioned off at one of the local slave markets.
A group of 75 enslaved Igbo people were bought for an average of $100 each by slave merchants John Couper and Thomas Spalding to be resold for forced labor to plantations on nearby St. Simons Island. The chained slaves were packed under the deck of a small coastal vessel named The Schooner York, which would take them to St. Simons Island (other sources say the voyage took place aboard The Morovia). During the voyage, approximately 75 Igbo slaves rose in rebellion, took control of the ship, drowned their captors, and in the process caused the grounding of the ship Morovia in Dunbar Creek at the site now locally known as Igbo Landing.
It was the setting of a mass suicide in 1803 by captive Igbo people who had taken control of the slave ship they were on, and refused to submit to slavery in the United States. The Igbo were known by planters and slavers of the American South for being fiercely independent and resistant to chattel slavery.
The sequence of events that occurred next remains unclear, as there are several versions of the revolt's development, some of which are considered mythological.
Apparently, it is known only that the Igbo marched ashore, and subsequently, under the direction of a high Igbo chief among them, walked in unison into the creek singing in the Igbo language "The Water Spirit brought us, the Water Spirit will take us home". They thereby accepted the protection of their god Chukwu and death over the alternative of slavery.
Roswell King, a white overseer on the nearby Pierce Butler plantation (Butler Island Plantation), wrote one of the few contemporary accounts of the incident, which states that as soon as the Igbo landed on St. Simons Island they took to the swamp, dying by suicide by walking into Dunbar Creek.
A 19th-century account of the event identifies the captain by the surname Patterson and names Roswell King as the person who recovered many of the drowned bodies. Apparently only a subset of the 75 Igbo rebels drowned.
Thirteen bodies were recovered, but others remained missing, and some may have survived the suicide episode, making the actual numbers of deaths uncertain.
A letter describing the event written by Savannah slave dealer William Mein states that the Igbo walked into the marsh, where 10 to 12 drowned, while some were "salvaged" by bounty hunters who received $10 a head from Spalding and Couper.
According to some sources, survivors of the Igbo rebellion were taken to Cannon's Point on St. Simons Island and Sapelo Island.
Regardless of the numbers, the deaths signaled a powerful story of resistance as these captives overwhelmed their captors in a strange land, and many took their own lives rather than remain enslaved in the New World. The Igbo Landing gradually took on enormous symbolic importance in local African American folklore as the flying Africans legend, and in literary history.
The mutiny and subsequent suicide by the Igbo people was called by many locals the first freedom march in the history of the United States.
Local people claimed that the Landing and surrounding marshes in Dunbar Creek where the Igbo people committed suicide in 1803 were haunted by the souls of the dead Igbo slaves.
The story of Igbo, who chose death over slavery which had long been part of Gullah folklore, was finally recorded from various oral sources in the 1930s by members of the Federal Writers Project.
While many historians for centuries have cast doubt on the Igbo Landing mass suicide, suggesting that the entire incident was more legend than fact, the accounts Roswell King and others provided at the time were verified by post-1980 research which used modern scientific techniques to reconstruct the episode and confirm the factual basis of the longstanding oral accounts; hence the site was included as a historic resource in a 2009 county survey.
The site bears no official historical marker. A sewage disposal plant was built beside the historical site in the 1940s despite local opposition by African Americans. The site is still routinely visited by historians and tourists.
In September 2002, the St. Simons African American community organized a two-day commemoration with events related to Igbo history and a procession to the site of the mass suicide. Seventy-five attendees came from different states across the United States, as well Nigeria, Brazil, and Haiti.
The attendees designated the site as a holy ground and called for the souls to be permanently at rest. The Igbo Landing is now part of the curriculum for coastal Georgia schools.
Historical context: Floyd White, an elderly African American interviewed by the Federal Writers Project in the 1930s is recorded as saying:
“Heard about the Ibo's Landing? That's the place where they bring the Ibos over in a slave ship and when they get here, they ain't like it and so they all start singing and they march right down in the river to march back to Africa, but they ain't able to get there. They gets drown”.
A typical Gullah telling of the events, incorporating many of the recurrent themes that are common to most myths related to the Igbo Landing, is recorded by Linda S. Watts:
The West Africans upon assessing their situation resolved to risk their lives by walking home over the water rather than submit to the living death that awaited them in American slavery. As the tale has it, the tribes people disembark from the ship, and as a group, turned around and walked along the water, traveling in the opposite direction from the arrival port. As they took this march together, the West Africans joined in song.
They are reported to have sung a hymn in which the lyrics assert that the water spirits will take them home. While versions of this story vary in nuance, all attest to the courage in rebellion displayed by the enslaved Igbo.
Myth of the flying Africans: Another popular legend associated with Igbo Landing is known as the myth of the flying Africans. It was recorded from various oral sources in the 1930s by members of the Federal Writers Project.
In these cases, the Africans are reputed to have grown wings, or turned into vultures, before flying back home to freedom in Africa.
Wallace Quarterman, an African American born in 1844, who was interviewed in 1930, when asked if he had heard about the Igbo landing states:
“Ain't you heard about them? Well, at that time Mr. Blue he was the overseer and ... Mr. Blue he goes down one morning with a long whip for to whip them good. ... Anyway, he whipped them good and they got together and stuck that hoe in the field and then ... rose up in the sky and turned themselves into buzzards and flew right back to Africa. ... Everybody knows about them.”
As Professor Terri L. Snyder notes:
“The flying African folktale probably has its historical roots in an 1803 collective suicide by newly imported slaves. A group of Igbo (variously, Ebo or Ibo) captives who had survived the middle passage were sold near Savannah, Georgia, and reloaded onto a small ship bound for St. Simon's Island. Off the coast of the island, the enslaved cargo, who had "suffered much by mismanagement," "rose" from their confinement in the small vessel, and revolted against the crew, forcing them into the water where they drowned.
After the ship ran aground, the Igbos "took to the marsh" and drowned themselves—an act that most scholars have understood as a deliberate, collective suicide. The site of their fatal immersion was named Ebos Landing. The fate of those Igbo in 1803 gave rise to a distinctive regional folklore and a place name.
This theory is disputed, however, by Professor Jeroen Dewulf, who argues that there are frequent references to Igbos as well as to enslave Africans flying home in the Federal Writers Project interviews, but that theories connecting both are built on weak foundations. Dewulf, instead, traces the origins of the myth of the flying Africans to the Kingdom of Loango and the Kingdom of Kongo in Central Africa.”
Reported haunting: Local people claim that the Igbo Landing and surrounding marshes in Dunbar Creek are haunted by the souls of the dead Igbo who were enslaved.
Legacy: In September 2002, the St. Simons African-American Heritage Coalition organized a two-day commemoration with events related to Igbo history and a procession to the site. The 75 attendees came from other states, as well as Nigeria, and Belize and Haiti, where similar resistance had taken place.
They gathered to designate the site as holy ground and give the souls rest. The account of the Igbo is now part of the curriculum for coastal Georgia schools.
Historical marker:
In 2021, a group of students at the Glynn Academy Ethnology Club submitted an application to the Georgia Historical Society to erect a historical marker in honor of Igbo Landing.
This included writing an in-depth and accurate research paper using primary source documents as part of the Georgia Historical Marker Program Marker Application, a competitive and selective process. The Glynn Academy Club reached out to the Coastal Georgia Historical Society and local Saint Simons African American Coalition for guidance.
After the application’s acceptance, the Glynn Academy Ethnology Club raised roughly $2,500 for the marker. Another $2,500 came from the Coastal Georgia Historical Society. Igbo Landing itself is located on private property, and the historical marker was erected at a nearby green space owned by the St Simons Land Trust.
A celebration in honor of the unveiling of the sign was held on May 24, 2022 and was attended by roughly 100 people. The sign is located at Old Stables Corner on St Simons Island, Georgia, at the northwest corner of Frederica Road and Sea Island Road.
It reads:
Ibo Landing: The Legacy of Resisting Enslavement
“In 1803, Igbo captives (also Ibo or Ebo) from West Africa revolted while on a slave ship in Dunbar Creek. It is believed that at least ten Igbo drowned, choosing death over enslavement. The Gullah Geechee, descendants of enslaved West Africans along the southeastern US coast, passed down the story of the Igbo's suicide through oral tradition.
The tradition, illustrated by the Igbo saying, "The water brought us here, the water will take us away," highlights the use of water as a means for the enslaved Igbo to escape back to Africa. Many works by prominent African-American authors and artists feature similar stories of water or spiritual flight as symbols of resistance.
A portion of Dunbar Creek, west of this location, is still referred to as Igbo or Ibo Landing.”
Erected by the Georgia Historical Society, the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, the Glynn Academy Ethnology Club, and the St. Simons African American Heritage Coalition.
Representation in other media: The historical events pertaining to the Igbo slave escape in Dunbar Creek, and the associated myth, have inspired and influenced a number of artists from the African diaspora.
Examples include Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, who used the myth of the flying Africans in her novel, Song of Solomon, and Alex Haley, who retells the story in his book Roots. The Paule Marshall novel Praise song for the Widow also was inspired by these events.
Beverly Buchanan’s sculpture Marsh Ruins (1981), located at the Marshes of Glynn Overlook Park near Dunbar Creek, is partly homage to Igbo Landing.
The events are retold from the context of the Gullah descendants in the feature film Daughters of the Dust (1991), directed by Julie Dash.
The 1994 Ngozi Onwurah film Welcome II the Terrordome features a dramatization of the Igbo Landing, serving as a frame for the film's main plot and dystopian setting.
Other contemporary artists that allude to, or have integrated the complete tale of the Flying Africans in their work, include Joseph Zobel, Maryse Conde, Toni Cade Bambara, and Jamaica Kincaid. Imagery from the "Love Drought" portion of Beyoncé's visual album Lemonade is said to be inspired by Daughters of the Dust and the story of Igbo Landing.
In the 2018 Marvel film Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan, as Killmonger, references Igbo Landing during his death scene: "Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped from ships, 'cause they knew death was better than bondage."
Igbo In Sierra Leone: In April 1971, Christopher Okoro Cole became the first President of Sierra Leone. An Igbo by origin, Cole had previously served as Governor- General of Sierra Leone. His ascendency to the presidency marked a historic moment for the Igbo Community.
In April, 1992, Captain Yahaya Kalu, another Igbo individual, rose to the role of military head of State. Kalu’s leadership further solidified the influence of the Igbo in Sierra Leonie’s politics.
Back to 1857, Simon Jonas, an ex-slave of Igbo heritage wrote the first Igbo-Language manuscript.
His Isawama Ibo prima was crafted in Sierra Leone for emancipated slaves in Igboland living in Free Town. The dialect spoken in Sierra Leone is called Isawama or Isuama Igbo. Samuel Crowder an ex-Yoruba slave helped publish the manuscript as a book.
Jonas and Crowther stayed together in Lagos before being shipped to Sierra Leone.
Crowther’s efforts helped spread literacy among the Igbo Community in the diaspora. Their resilience and intellectual contributions continued to shape Sierra Leone history.
Igbo In Brazil (Umuarama): The Trans-Atlantic slave trade did not only transport ethnic groups from Africa to the Americas but also instilled lasting impacts in several of the Latin American cities.
A lot of people are quite befuddled about a city in Brazil which has an Igbo name; many have tried to unravel the mystery behind Umuarama, a city in the State of Parana, Brazil.
Umuarama, according to researchers, is connected with the Igbo ethnic group from Nígeria; it is historically a settlement of the descendants of “Arama”, a reversed word of “Amara” which means “Grace” or “Abundant free will”.
In 1924, technicians in agriculture and reforestation of the England Montagu Commission, Lord Lovat and a group of Nigerians Igbos came to Brazil on duties, they arrived in the North of Paraná to extend agricultural duties, they could not easily realize the mission as lack of roads prevented them from going beyond the 25 km of the primitive railroad that existed.
The settlers who first settled there were from São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Gauchos, Minas Gerais, they joined the African technicians trained in London to establish the city in Parana named Umuarama.
Attending to Ancestral News’ Adeyinka Olaiya, a Brazilian Anthropologist, Prof. Edmundo Rodrigues said: “Africa did not just impact a region in Brazil, but several regions in the Latin America, the name Umuarama has been traced to African origin, precisely from the Igbos. However, other research institutes insists Umuarama is a mixed of African and the indigenous Guarani “the Anthropologist explained.
Umuarama is with more than 110 thousand inhabitants, many squares, wide and well-signposted avenues; it is famous for its receptivity and the affection with which it welcomes visitors, consumers in the region and investors.
The tropical climate makes the city a great place to live. It is among the 100 best places to invest in Brazil (Revista Exame).
Umuarama is driven by agriculture, livestock, furniture and food industry, strong commerce and a vast list of services, the city moves the regional economy and is a record holder in terms of job creation.
It has a university center with several institutions and dozens of courses including Medicine. Umuarama also stands out in the health area with five large hospitals, several clinics, dozens of pharmacies and a well-structured public health.
Umuarama city, though having Igbo name and history, could still not be traced to the Nigerian Igbos.
“Umuarama” has also been linked to the indigenous Language in Brazil, but could not be traced in Tupi Guarani till date“– Carlos Andrade/UFPR.
Barbados: The Igbo were dispersed to Barbados in large numbers. Olaudah Equiano was dropped off there, and promptly shipped to Virginia.
At his time, 44 percent of the 90,000 Africans disembarking on Barbados Island (between 1751 and 1775) were from the Bight of Biafra; and therefore mainly of Igbo origin.
From the mid-seventeenth century, half of the African captives arriving Barbados Island were Igbos from the Bight of Biafra.
Haiti: Some slaves arriving in Haiti included Igbo people who were considered suicidal and therefore unwanted by plantation owners. The Igbo settler in Haiti refused to be colonized by anybody.
According to Adiele Afigbo there is still the Creole saying of Ibos pend'cor'a yo (the slaves hang themselves). Aspects of Haitian culture that exhibit this can be seen in the Ibo loa, a Haitian loa (or deity) created by the Igbo in the Vodun religion.
Jamaica: Igbo people in Jamaica... Bonny and Calabar emerged as major embarkation points of enslaved West Africans destined for Jamaica's slave markets in the 18th century.
Dominated by Bristol and Liverpool slave ships, these ports were used primarily for the supply of slaves to British colonies in the Americas. In Jamaica, the bulk of Igbo slaves arrived relatively later than the rest of other arrivals of Africans on the Island in the period after the 1750s. There was a general rise in the amount of enslaved people arriving to the Americas, particularly British Colonies, from the Bight of Biafra in the 18th century; the heaviest of these forced migrations occurred between 1790 and 1807.
The result of such slaving patterns made Jamaica, after Virginia , the second most common destination for slaves arriving from the Bight of Biafra; as the Igbo formed the majority from the bight, they became largely represented in Jamaica in the 18th and 19th century.
United States: The Igbo slaves were known for being rebellious. In some states such as Georgia, the Igbo had a high suicide rate.
Igbo slaves were most numerous in the states of Maryland and Virginia, in the 19th century the state of Virginia received around 37,000 slaves from Calabar of which 30,000 were Igbo according to Douglas B. Chambers.
The Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia estimates around 38% of captives taken to Virginia were from the Bight of Biafra. Igbo peoples constituted the majority of enslaved Africans in Maryland. Chambers has been quoted saying that, "research suggests that perhaps 60 percent of black Americans have at least one Igbo ancestor and their Igboness element can still be traced till today.
Igbo in Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea, with total population of 1.2 million people is located at the Eastern end of the Gulf of Guinea, West coast of Africa; the only Sub-Saharan African Country situated in the middle of the ocean, outside African map separated by water, the only Spanish speaking.
Among the tribes are the Igbo people who also inhabit South Eastern Nigeria, off the Bight of Biafra, the Bubi and Fang ethnic groups and among other tribes.
There are over 40 thousand Igbos and Igbo descendants, mainly in the Bioko Island; therefore Igbo is a regional language in Equatorial Guinea.
The Igbo as officially declared by the government of Equatorial Guinea is third largest after Fang and Bubi tribes, and occupies a small area in Bioko, their communities are small compared to Bubi and Fang. Majority of them migrated to Bioko from Arochukwu Abia state. These people are tirelessly hard working, the hustle spirit all shows Igbo.
William Napoleon Barleycorn (1848–1925), born in Santa Isabel, Fernando Po, Spanish Guinea and a Krio Fernandino of Igbo descent, was a Primitive Methodist missionary who went to Fernando Po (now known as Bioko) in Africa in the early 1880s. From there, he traveled to Edinburgh University.
Their primary language is Igbo. The primary religion practiced by the Igbo is marginal Christianity, a form of religion with roots in Christianity but not theologically Christian".
Bioko, formerly known as Fernando Po, is the largest region in Equatorial Guinea; they speak the Pigin English, Spanish foreign language, and Fang, Igbo and Bubi indigenous languages.
The original inhabitants of Bioko are the indigenous people of Bubi, descendants of mainland Bantu tribes, they are warlike, fought and defeated the Fang, and pushed them to inland part while they occupy the coastal areas, the Fang is also an ethnic group in Cameroon.
Bioko also is home to descendants of former slaves who were freed in the nineteenth century. Many Bubi have recently immigrated to the continent, and along with other, smaller Bantu-speaking tribes, comprise the remaining 10 percent of the population in Río Muni.
Minority tribes include the Kombe, Balengue, Bujebas. Currently, the population constitutes: the Bubi 58%; the Fang 16%; the Fernandino 12%; and the Igbo 7%; as well as African and European immigrants.
Most people's daily lives are conducted in tribal languages, Fang, Bubi, or Igbo; all of which are in the Bantu family of languages.
National Identity: Equatorial Guineans identify first with their tribe or ethnic group, second with the nation. The current country was formed during Spanish rule, linking the main island of Bioko with the mainland territory, despite the fact that the two were culturally distinct. Since the unification of the two, there has been some intermingling and migration, particularly of mainland Fang to Bubi-inhabited Bioko. The Fang tribe itself is not limited to the Río Muni area, but extends also north into Cameroon and south into Gabon.
Ethnic Relations: Legally there is no discrimination against ethnic or racial minorities, but in practice this is not the case. The Bubi have experienced persecution under the post-independence government. Prior to independence, the group formed a majority on Bioko.
However, since 1968, many Fang migrated to the island, and a small sub-clan, the Mongomo, has dominated the government. There is resentment and violence not only between the Bubi and the Fang but also between the Mongomo and other Fang sub-groups.
Independence of Bioko: The Bubi, a warlike tribe are leading the independence struggle, a proposed Country that includes the Igbo minority and Fang, though there is no record of any opposition to the demands for Republic of Bioko by Fang and the Igbo.
As regards the language, Igbo is a recognized official language in Equatorial Guinea and it has been confirmed that the people still speak the Igbo language which has some form of deviation from the modern Igbo spoken in Nigeria. Some people who have seen them say they say, 'bia ikaa' for 'come here'.
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