After reviewing posts in this forum and especially a lot of the comments and responses on the topic titled: Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba girls (Beauty):

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-3391.0.html
 
It opened my eyes to the different ethnic looks (features etc, depending on region of Nigeria) Nigerians have.  I must admit, this was something I didn’t take notice of until I came across this forum especially the topic mentioned above.  But after coming across this evidence, I've been doing more research on Nigeria’s different ethnic looks, Fulanis, Hausas, Igbos, Yorubas; and what makes us differ physically, from complexion to features, to body shape. 

What has intrigued me most is the Igbo people of South Eastern Nigeria. Being a Nigerian-American I've actually been to Nigeria twice in my lifetime. I’ve noticed that a vast majority of Igbos are light-skinned. I also noticed that Igbos are the most likely (out of all the other ethnic groups in Nigeria- Hausa, Yoruba etc.) to resemble African-Americans. I know that Fulanis are also know for being uniformly light as well, but I am more concerned with the Igbos, being one myself.

Most of their complexions that I've seen while in Imo state, the heart of Igboland where my parents are from, range from reddish chocolate to very high yellow. So when compared to our Yoruba and Hausa counterparts  (who are generally more uniformly darker in complexion) it makes me wonder why we as a people are so light. My great grandmother is very light skinned, lighter than Alicia Keys in complexion, and here in America people don't know I'm Nigerian just by glance. I've had people actually say 'I didn't know u were African until you pronounced your last name, u don't look African'.

I've read that the Igbos and other minority ethnic groups of SS/SE Nigeria (ie. Calabar, Rivers) where some of the first Nigerians to come into contact with white explorers/colonizers. In the forum topic I listed above and others as well, I notice a lot of jokes and comments being made about the light skinned trait of the Igbos suggesting that it is due to admixture, mixed blood maybe from the Portuguese and British. I found an article that spoke of Igbo women during the Early Modern Atlantic Time Period as being beautiful and highly desired by the white slavers/explorers/colonizers:

"Ironically, however, Igbo women had a surprisingly ‘good’ reputation. They were generally thought to be hard workers, industrious and diligent. And most significantly, Igbo women were the only Atlantic Africans whom white men generally saw as beautiful. In 1788 a major Bristol merchant trading to the West Indies wrote that, unlike females from the Gold Coast, “Eboe Women (from Bonny & New Calabar) are very fine and may be had.” As Captain Hugh Crow, who traded extensively at Bonny from 1791 to 1808 wrote of enslaved Igbo at the coast, “many of their women are of remarkably symmetrical shape, and if white, would in Europe be deemed beautiful.” A generation later (ca.1830), the Lander brothers, having come down the Niger from the north via Nupe, noted (and presumably in contrast to other Africans) that in riverain Igboland “the women are generally pretty.” A late-antebellum American (USA) evocation of this trope of the ‘very fine’ Igbo woman, a fictional “beautiful Eboe mulattress,” exists even in the novels of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Within this white male gaze, this burden of beauty, enslaved Igbo women and their immediate descendants resisted slavery in distinctive ways. As with Igbo in general one could enslave the bodies of Biafran women, but not their minds. And in the Black Atlantic, it seems that enslaved Igbo women used their own bodies at times as sites of resistance. This paper will explore a central ‘burden’ of Igbo female beauty; strategic reproduction."

Here's the hyperlink to the preceding excerpt:

http://users.rowan.edu/~korieh/Abstracts.html

So, I mean what do you all think? Could admixture be a possibility, as with the African-Americans? Could this be why Igbos and African-Americans highly resemble one another? The reason I ask is because I’m tired of the numerous jokes, stereotypes, and derogatory statements made about the light skinned tendency of the Igbos, and would like to shed some light on the truths of this topic. Why are Igbos generally fair/light in complexion? Personally I think God created Nigerians to naturally vary in complexion, and hope that the light skinned tendency of Igbos is not due to admixture.

Please feel free to share your insights and knowledge on this issue. I hope I do not come off as ignorant, but I am very curious, confused, and in need of enlightenment.   
Honest feedback is appreciated.

Igbos have light skin (yellowish but some are very dark too), bigger heads and jaws (bigger than hausa's and yoruba's), and flat nose, how european can that be?

gosh! don't be deceived into thinking that you have european blood in you. What you should wonder is if europeans have igbo blood in them. You know why?

All humans (homo sapiens) have their origin from africa. The first to migrate where Australians (Aborigines) about 50000-70000 years ago and later indians (asians). The last to migrate were europeans just about 40000-50000 years ago.

I know all this from studying haplogroups of humans (just something I did out of interest, I'm not a biologist in anyway).

check this document and this website

Europeans didn't interact much with africa until about 400 years ago. There is a chance that you have european blood in you from the interaction with europeans but the fact is that their numbers were so few that they couldn't have made an impact on your ethnicity. How can 200 europeans change the DNA structure of 15 million people in just 300 years? The African interlands where no go areas for europeans. It was called the "white mans grave". It was a very hash continent. Even if they could survive the heat and humid climate they couldnt survive Malaria. Horses don't do well in the tropics because of tse-tse fly and so they couldn't travel fast and far either. They never really explored the continent in large numbers. On the other hand, there has always been interaction with the middle east. There is probably a trade chain that goes from persia and bagdad to your father's village.

You don't know much about the history of igbos does not mean igbos started existing about a couple hundred years ago!

I can relate to wat u r saying gurl. it is true that most igbos are light skinned esp. Anambra people. I am an igbo manself and I have been giving a whole lot of nationality and nuthing related to being African. People including Nigerians alwayz think am mixed or 4rom da Caribbean and cuz am tired of arguing, I just accept wuteva people thinks I am. Someone on diz site thinks am an Hausa gurl and diz happened yesterday when I attended an IGBO YOUTH ASSOCIATION MEETING, some people dere say they have been seeing me at Nigerian gathering but thought I was caribbean and some said they thought I was an Hausa gurl cuz of ma featuers, For the cross Rover people, mos of them got in contact with da white datz why most of dem answer english names as their lastname, good research though

Okay, food4tot, interesting insight.  Yeah, I have also read that it's definetly a lot more common the other way around (with it being that many Europeans having Igbo/African ancestory and descent due to the disperse of human civilization from Africa.)

Yes, and interestingly enough, I also read somewhere about that part where u mention Africa  being "the white man's grave" lol! so totally true. It was new territory, new lands to the white man and he could barely survive the climate, causing him disease and such. Africa definitely had an upper hand.  If only the Native Americans had such an advantage, but unfortunately the white man brought disease to them causing their race to basically go extinct.  

"I know all this from studying haplogroups of humans (just something I did out of interest, I'm not a biologist in anyway)."

Yeah I'm no scientist either, but this stuff is interesting wouldn't u say?

"There is a chance that you have european blood in you from the interaction with europeans but the fact is that their numbers were so few that they couldn't have made an impact on your ethnicity. How can 200 europeans change the DNA structure of 15 million people about 300 years ago?"

Definitely! An ethnicity that I'm very proud of, and don't for one think that I'm going to let, the doings of some mesely white men, hinder my Nigerian pride, we are very strong as a people in that despite the Europeans we have, for the most part, retained our culture.  I totally agree food4tot, but as trival as it may be I'm just trying to generate some insights as to why people think the Igbos are so light, and why this light-skinned/mixed blood stereotype even exists.

Anyway,  Thanx for the feedback. If u have anymore insight, please feel free to share.  
U all keep the feedback coming.

@Hotstepper, u feel me!?

Thanx guurrl! U defintely know where I'm comin' from.

More feedback is appreciated.

Oh, and by the way, does anyone know how to delete a post that u've create? It has been brought to my attention that while creating this forum topic, I posted 2x. 

_________________________
"Do not dwell too much on the past, but use it in the present to prepare for the future."

_________________________
2 entries found for USnaijagrl

USnaijagrl  Pronunciation Key (u-s-na-ee-ja-gûrl)

Definition:
         
    1. ME! (as in only me, lol!)     
           
    2. the best Aruondizogu-Imo State-SE-Niger Delta-Igbo-Nigerian-American-Michigan girl u've eva met.   

[American/Nigerian slang  usnaijagrl, usnaijachic, USnaijagirl]

Now I do not know the difference between Igbos, Hausa, Yoruba's, Fulani's.

What I do know, is that people who say their from Nigeria (the ones who have identified their tribal affiliation were Yoruba's), do in fact have the facial structure of African Americans more than other Africans.

Me and my sister always joke about, with Nigerians, until they open their mouth, you can not tell if it is an African American or not.

With the other Africans you can tell, body language, facial features, style of dress is even different with Nigerians dressing more like how we would think of as normal.

Of course I am aware that in small pockets of America, there are African Americans who still speak Yoruba and particularily in Brazil and Cuba.

So I know that a lot are here.

However, this would be my question. Some historians say that the Yoruba's were bigger in ancient times and then other tribes have now formed that were originally just broken off from Yoruba.

I do not know, I just ran across that the other day.

Yes, Drusilla, that is true. The Yorubas were under a loose confederation that was under the control of Oyo. All the mini Yoruba kingdoms payed tribute (tax) to the Oyo. However, Muslim invaders from the Northern region of Present day Nigeria convinced the Northern Yorubas that they didn't need to pay taxes to the Oyo empire and that was the start of the civil war. It was at around this time that the Europeans came in contact with the Edo (A group closely related to Yorubas in south central Nigeria) and began trading them guns for slaves that the Edo got from waging wars with other neighboring peoples. Once the Edo got the guns, they took control of Eko (Presently Lagos State in Nigeria) where they began selling Yorubas, which were involved in a full scale civil war with other Yoruba kingdoms, to the Europeans. Hence, most African American and other people of African dissent are actually Yoruba or have at least a little bit of Yoruba blood in them.

During the Yoruba civil war, the people of Dahomey (located in Benin republic) also sold some Yorubas from the weaker Yoruba Kingdoms to the Europeans. But towards the end of the slave trade, they got too close to the Oyo Kingdom (Strongest Yoruba Kingdom) and they were forced to turn into a tributary State (Pay tax to Oyo).

Igbos, hausas, whatever. I hereby renounce my Yoruba-ness. Happy now?

Seun, you can't renounce your Yoruba-ness. Being Yoruba is not something you can change. Just learn to accept and support your local pro-Yoruba groups.

Afeni,

Thank you.  I agree. I think we have a lot of Yoruba's for sure.

I have thought it interesting that scholars from Nigeria have come to Haiti and other places to study the religion, because some of the religion has survived in a undistorted form in Haiti.

Thats a good point. Most of the traditional religions in Nigeria are all but gone. Next time I go home, I am going to visit the smaller towns to document past Yoruba and history and culture before the elders die out.

Afeni,

Good idea.

You never know, I might even be able to resurrect the old Gods and kill-off Christianity in parts of Nigeria.

Afeni,

I suppose bumping your own head could be fun the first time or so.

That went over my head. What do you mean?

Afeni,

Fighting against God (the Only True God -the God of Christianity) is like fighting the wind.

Even to me, it is obvious that God has you by the neck right now.

You are already His, this is why you fight so.

If you were a muslim, they would call you an islamofacist. Its a pity that no such titles for Christians exist.

Afeni,

I believe there are many different paths to Jesus Christ. So have any religion you choose.

How about those that choose no religion?

Afeni,

Pre-Jesus people are welcome also.

I am just kidding. I don't want to be in the same room with Christians, talk less of spending an eternity with them. Give me hell, please.

Afeni:

I am just kidding. I don't want to be in the say room with Christians, talk less of spending an eternity with them. Give me hell, please.

You talk as a child my friend, one day your eyes will see the truth! Don't curse yourself by running your mouth carelessly for attention, not even a muslim is willing to go to hell!

I am the child? You are the one that believes in invisible men and eternal life. You are the child, not me.

Afeni:

I am the child? You are the one that believes in invisible men and eternal life. You are the child, not me.

As expected, another statement made without thinking thru! I meant the "child" as a metaphor.

tsk tsk, afeni believing in eternal life is childish? sorry o mr 'all grown up don't believe in life after death' afeni

Don't play mind games with me, davidylan. When you said child, you meant something akin to immature or simple minded. And it was going with that same assumption that I used to call you a child for believing in invisible man in the sky. Get real.

Afeni:

Don't play mind games with me, davidylan. When you said child, you meant something akin to immature or simple minded. And it was going with that same assumption that I used to call you a child for believing in invisible man in the sky. Get real.

I don't trade words with kids who think because they now have access to a pc they are now grown up. I won't play mind games with you, from your many posts i've read you're not worth the waste of time. Pls by all means book your ticket to hell now before space runs out!

I am now an igbo as well as yoruba.

Afeni, if you are an atheist you should value your life and that of others.

I am now an igbo as well as yoruba.

nibo for where? Those of us that are "half-caste" igbo-yoruba know ourselves o. O ye club who represent the hand-shake across the niger stand up and be counted. we are the real detribalised nigerians. Well not that we had much of a choice anyway. lol

Afeni,


Going to hell will not get you away from Christians.

In hell your going to meet more people who call themselves Christians, then you will in heaven.