Blyss:

One crucial part that the information left out was that, do to the fact of that the majority of the Africans brought to the US were Igbo, thus the African-American black population was/is majorly an Igbo population, the term Redbone rather fluidly transgressed into the society as in the early 1800's some Jamaican slaves began being taken to the US to help fuel the rapidly growing Cotton plantations of the Deep south, in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas, and in in the process passed on some of their unique slangs.

*Kails*:


exactly.
now this is true. again it has nothing to do with igbo..
but the influence the caribbean had on southern culture specifically louisiana.

not only just the l.a. creoles - who are basically haitians but also the other black americans in southern lousiana. even to this day i see similarities between the way they flex or act and how we do. Don't get me started on the food and voodoo.

mind you the south was french territory as was the majority of the caribbean before the spaniards came and took over. it's no coincidence. our history is rich and i feel it's unfair to try to play this igbo vs yoruba game to divide us like that. it's not a competition...if it was both groups would STILL come second and third to the Kongo. lol.

but anyway, all of this is off topic.

*Kails*:
don't pass your place with me blyss.
im half but my mother is 100 percent JAMO. And not one person in my family on her side has EVER heard of the term "red igbo". I'm talking about COUNTRY FOLKS who did not leave the country side until the 60s! So take your place on the side lines and have a seat. You can't educate me about Jamaica. Period.

btw do look wide and long for this "documentary".
let's see if you are not lying as usual.

*Kails*:
don't pass your place with me blyss.
im half but my mother is 100 percent JAMO. And not one person in my family on her side has EVER heard of the term "red igbo". I'm talking about COUNTRY FOLKS who did not leave the country side until the 60s! So take your place on the side lines and have a seat. You can't educate me about Jamaica. Period.

btw do look wide and long for this "documentary".
let's see if you are not lying as usual.

bigfrancis21:
Have you ever visited igboland before? Have you ever come across lots of Igbo people before? I guess you've not because if you have the first thing you'll notice is the strikingly high number of very light-skinned people among the Igbo. About 45% of the Igbo race is very light-skinned. Many Igbo people when they go to the US blend in very quickly and easily pass for an african american, even I myself. Are you aware that two separate BLACK Igbo couples gave birth to WHITE babies in london two years ago? These two families never had any white blood running through them. The light-skinned nature of the Igbo race is indubitable. Even in Nigeria here, the Igbo people (and the Ibibio/Efik) are quickly recognized by their light-skinned nature. Come across any light-skinned person on the streets of Nigeria and that person is likely Igbo. www.nairaland.com/1073120/nigerian-igbos-white-children

If you've read your history well you would have also known that during the slave trade era the white slave masters often took female igbo slaves as concubines due to their light-skinned complexion. This light-skinned nature of the Igbo slaves earned them the hatred of their fellow tribes slaves and they were often called the derogatory name, 'red ibo'. This was how the name stuck. The other tribes slaves felt that the light-skinned igbo weren't properly 'black' enough like them and hence looked down on them. They felt that this earned them the preference of the white slave masters over them. This same term was later to change to 'redbone' and has remained so ever since. This 'red ibo' fact you are disputing here is well documented in books and research works. I'd suggest you do your homework very well.

الملكي فوق الله: LmL^ i LOvE when MsDark is MsDark and not Kails

But yo, i have heard the Red Ibo Story told to. It was told to me from a Nigerian Teacher from back in the Day.

I remember it because she used me as an Example to tell her story to everyone.

MsDarkskin is still right though...Because even when she is wrong she is Right Because When she is Wrong she still has more swagger in her post then someone who is right

MsDarkskins Wrongs are Epic...even more Epic than Her Rights which make her Wrongs Greater than Others Rights.

[size=3pt]...Please don't take this personal I am juss playin wit chu babii.[/size] lol

*Kails*:
@bigfrancis,
i dont care about light skin and the igbo population. that has nothing to do with what people are trying to insinuate on here. the light skin population in the caribbean is the result of widespread race mixing. second i was talking about the whole "red igbo" term some folks claim we use/d in JAMAICA.

*Kails*:
@bigfrancis,
i dont care about light skin and the igbo population. that has nothing to do with what people are trying to insinuate on here. the light skin population in the caribbean is the result of widespread race mixing. second i was talking about the whole "red igbo" term some folks claim we use/d in JAMAICA.

Flytefalls:
Seconded. While it is true there could have been igbo's in Jamaica, the race mixing eclipses that effect.

*Kails*:


Thank you. And "red" was used to describe [size=18pt]ALL[/size] biracial, creole, and even albino Jamos (but we mostly called them "Dundus" though). But we didn't even use the word "red" until the enslaved understood English which took a long time seeing as how we spoke "old time patois", cromanti (akan) and kongo languages to communicate. So wtf we get "red igbo" from? As if our ancestors were walking around calling people according to their tribe.

"Hey you!! di red bwoy! Yeah, the Igbo, come 'ear nuh man!" yeah right!

I'm not paying these ppl any mind trying to prove something to other ethnic groups and themselves. "well documented" mi back foot. Lolz.

Abagworo: Y'all should stop acting like light skin is better than ebony. Igbos are not white. We are proudly black people and are same with every black people in the world. Black people generally vary in colour.

Where did anyone in this thread claim Lightskin was better than Ebony

I must have missed some post.

bigfrancis21:

Honestly, you so far displayed some level of knowledge in your posts until recently. Now just take a look at this your particular post and notice the level of crass ignorance you displayed here. Eewo!! (That is another igbo word used during exclamation and used in JAMO as well, are you also going to deny that it is an Igbo word used in JAMO too??).
I'm going to buttress home my point with these statements.
First, I mentioned, as I gleaned from history books, that the jamaican phrase 'red ibo'/'red bone' currently used to refer †o lightskinned blacks among themselves ORIGINATED during the slave trade era due to the light-skinned Igbo slaves that were present in high numbers among the black slaves. The original meaning and usage was INITIALLY DIRECTED at the light-skinned Ibo slaves by other tribes slaves! Of course, over the years, descendants of the several african tribes in Jamaica, Igbo included, acculturated and mixed together and then saw themselves as one people/blacks/jamaicans/afro-carribeans and lost all sense of identifying with individual tribes, however the phrase itself was stuck and passed down to generations!
Second, are you even aware that the meanings/connotations of words and phrases change over the years? Are you aware that with new generations come new styles, meaning and usage of words? It is only natural that the meanings or usage of words change over time. In other words, connotations are subjective. The same phrase 'red ibo'/'red bone' used in JAMO currently has exactly the same intentions with the ancient usage when it originated originally - TO SPITE THE LIGHT-SKINNED BLACKS WHO AREN'T BLACK ENOUGH!!! The ancient and modern meanings both portray the same intention. In addition, since JAMOs nowadays no longer identify themselves by their several ancestral tribes, common sense tells you that the red ibo/red bone phrase when used today no longer refers to the Ibo Jamaicans!, given that there are no more self-identifying Ibo Jamaicans! This is an ancient phrase that has changed in usage but still preserved its underlying connotation.
Third, I never implied, directly nor discreetly, that the light-skinned Igbo slave population is singly responsible for the light-skinned JAMOs among you guys today. I never said so. If I did, please kindly show me where I did. I only mentioned the prevalent and overt light-skinned nature of the Igbo to buttress my point that 'this light-skinned nature of the Igbo is highly prevalent compared to other black tribes in africa and, was too strikingly obvious to ignore during the slave trade era, that the other black tribes who had much lesser populations of light-skinned ones amongst them had to characterize the Igbo slaves with the derogatory phrase - RED IBO!'.
I strongly believe that other tribes in JAMO had their own phrases given to them by fellow african tribes but such phrases somehow never made it to today.
Nevertheless, one can't rule out that the light-skinned genes of the Igbo also partially contributes to the current light-skinned genes of SOME jamaicans today, for those familiar with human genetics.

Flytefalls:
Jamo... That word

Does it apply to only Jamaicans? Out of interest.

Blyss:

Well the fact of that you're only half Jamaican clearly shows in your lack of knowledge of Jamaican history.

Abagworo: Y'all should stop acting like light skin is better than ebony. Igbos are not white. We are proudly black people and are same with every black people in the world. Black people generally vary in colour.

Flytefalls:

Well it seems like West Africans obsess over our history more than a natural Jamaican. I can site 5 ethic mixes in my own ancestry (within approx the last 200 years), but I'm still black Caribbean. Our history can be a perplexing. Being a part of Africa is a beautiful thing. Help us know our history, but not by force.

Signed, a fellow half Jamaican.

Blyss:

You are preaching to the wrong person my Caribbean cousin, I'm a Black-American. We share a common history, that's how I know so much about your's, and how lacking Kails is in regard to this part of her Jamaican history. Kails is my girl for real on here, but she dropped the ball on this one. Just saying.

Blyss:

You are preaching to the wrong person my Caribbean cousin, I'm a Black-American. We share a common history, that's how I know so much about your's, and how lacking Kails is in regard to this part of her Jamaican history. Kails is my girl for real on here, but she dropped the ball on this one. Just saying.

Flytefalls:
Wagwan Cuz. Leave my sis alone, she has dropped no ball

Blyss:

Oh, she dropped it alright. Matter of fact in my search for information to post in the thread speaking on the Igbo ancestry of the black-american people, I came across a piece in which stated that Jamaica received the second largest importation of Igbo slaves in the history of the Atlantic Slave Trade, second to only the USA with State/colony of Virginia alone receiving more than Jamaica, meaning that the US took in a massive amount of Igbo. A telling situation considering that, the US imported only a meager half a million slaves, in comparison to Jamaica and other Caribbean, central and South American nations in which took in Millions of slaves each.

bigfrancis21:
My brother/sister thank you for your truth. Igbo slaves were highly sought after by the English and they were taken away in mass numbers. However, you'll rarely find significant evidence of the Igbo presence in the Americas, only a few tid bits here and there. Along the sea coast of the state of Georgia is a place named 'Ibos landing' named after a significant event took place there during the slave trade. A slave ship had embarked on a journey carrying many Igbo slaves. They were to be sold elsewhere. However, along the way, the igbo slaves in the ship revolted and some escaped and jumped into the sea. On seeing this, the white slave masters quickly put a halt to it. They considered it a great loss for the igbo slaves were highly priced, at a price of $4 or so per head and many jumped into the sea leaving just a few behind. During the revolution the igbo slaves were singing in igbo 'oke mmiri si ala anyi duru anyi bia ga-educhie anyi azu' meaning, 'the great waters that brought us from our land will also take us back'. The place 'Ibos landing' still stands in Georgia till today.
Of course, Jamaica received huge number of Igbo slaves. Jamaica and other carribean nations were formerly plantation areas. The whites established the agricultural plantation trade in the region and needed black slaves to man the plantations as they themselves could not survive the harsh/rugged realities of the environment. Many died after they contracted malaria from the rampant mosquitoes and other diseases. The Igbo slaves were considered perfect for this purpose and they were described by various slave masters thus, 'the eboes are hard-working, rugged, strong, have well-built physique, and are knowledgeable in the field of agriculture - the perfect qualities required to survive in the plantation fields'. Hence, many Igbo male slaves, after they arrived the US, were quickly shipped off to the caribbean areas to man the plantation trade. This same fact was also recorded by the Igbo ex-slave, Olaudah Ekwuano, in his slave account, when after having arrived the US from Africa was shipped off to the caribbean where he also found his own 'country men' in numbers.
In addition, linguistic evidence of the igbo still remains in the Jamaican patois with Igbo words such as 'unu (igbo for 'you' plural), sooso (igbo for only), eewo (igbo exclamation), red ibo/red bone, hop afa mi (closely resembles the igbo hapu mu aka', leave me alone), etc. The jamaican 'obeah' spirituality originated from the Igbo 'obia' or 'dibia' native religion.
To further support the massive Igbo presence in the americas, I did a research on the patois of the caribbean nations and I discovered that the igbo word, 'unu' is present in the patois of many of the caribbean countries! These countries include trinidad and tobago, belize, st guyana, st kittles, barbados, jamaica, etc. This word could not have been present in the patois if the igbo weren't present in these countries.
One not-so-good characteristic of the Igbo people is their high tendency to embrace change in the face of change. Not being tied to tradition, the Igbo man is naturally free to accept the change that comes his way and adapts easily, much to the detriment of his own culture. This is a problem amongst ourselves today. The igbo man will leave his land and travel to a foreign land and within a space of a few years he'll learn the foreign language and integrate into the foreign community, forgetting his land, culture and even language. He doesn't deem his culture/tradition as important as his quest to embrace change and grab the opportunities that come his way. This was the same characteristic of the igbo slaves then back in the days of the slave trade. They didn't deem it necessary to uphold their native traditions/culture whatsoever. They just adapted...leaving little evidence of their ubiquitous presence behind.

Blyss:

Yes, I've mentioned all of that in which you've stated and more in the thread speaking on the Igbo ancestry of the Black-American people. The thread is located right here in the culture section. You should check it out.

bigfrancis21:
This was the same characteristic of the igbo slaves then back in the days of the slave trade. They didn't deem it necessary to uphold their native traditions/culture whatsoever. They just adapted...leaving little evidence of their ubiquitous presence behind.

Flytefalls:
So there we have it. I am not Igbo, I am black Caribbean. Not just a difference by country of birth, surname, culture, but even my own genetics would differ largely from a contempory Igbo because it's all over the place. However fine Igbo's may be (and they really are hot!! *fans herself*).

The jamaican 'obeah' spirituality originated from the Igbo 'obia' or 'dibia' native religion.