There will be plenty of white christian slave masters in hell. Plenty of white christian missionaries in hell.

Your going to be up to your neck in Christians in hell. The worse kind of Christians.

I personally don't think it's a result of an admixture. I think some ppl are just light and some dark and some in-between etc.

One thing I've noticed is the number of Albino ppl. I'm Igbo so my experience is w/ Igbo ppl. Well I was a party once - must've been 10 or 11 - and I was like "who's that white lady?" and this girl - my new friend lol - goes "that's my aunt" and I was sooooo embarrassed b/c the lady turned around and I noticed she was Albino and not white. I apologized so much that time. BUt she was nice and said "It's ok, 3 of my aunts are that way". Come to find out that her grandparents had 5 daughter & 3 were albino. That's 60%! They also had a son who was not albino! Anyhow, the woman was married to an Igbo man & her children looked "mixed" w/ light skin - but not as light as you'd think - and one had blue eyes the other had hazel/blue eyes. Years later when I told my bio. teacher (in very general terms) she was like "That's not possible blah blah blah" b/c the kiddies aren't supposed to look like that or whatever.

So basically I think that some Igbo ppl have like a weird albino strain. I know. . .that's bad science but I'm believe it.

On another note, biologists always say that there is more biodiversity among Africans (ie Igbo & Yoruba) than between races (i.e., white Dutchman and black Zulu man). I believe this too. Meaning, we may have blue eyed, light skinned genes that are usually not expressed.

I just wanted to add that there are so so so many Igbo ppl that white ppl (men) would not have been able to change our "look". Consider the limited time and space. If this is true, then the ppl on the coast should be lighter than those as inland as Imo state, abi?

USnaijagirl, just realized you wrote "Imo state, the heart of Igbo land". LOL! I'm from ABIA! What, what! or should I say Igbo Kwenu? Anyhow, where you from in Imo mama?

I already talked about this several times on this board before; but slightly over 60% of the AA population is of majority Igbo descent, and another about--- 5% is of majority descent from other South-Eastern Nigerian ethnic groups, mainly Ibibio, so that's a total of about 66% of the population is of majority South-Eastern Nigerian descent.

That's why so many resemble South-Eastern Nigerians; the same goes for populations of the Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and at one time--- Haiti as well, before the French ended up selling off nearly all of their South-Eastern Nigerian slaves to American planters after the US government made it illegal for slaves to be imported into the US directly from Africa, yet their wealthy planters high demand for the "Pricey" though highly valuable Igbo and overall South Eastern Nigerian African,  remained as high as ever. Though by that time, the already large black population in the nation was growing on its own very well.

The vast majority of the remainder of the AA population is pejoratively descendant from the Ghanaian/Ivory Coast area and the Senegambian area. Very few are from South-Western Nigeria,  as the Yoruba are. The last time I went to Nigeria for a visit, I took an AA friend with me,  and he was utterly amazed at how amazingly the South-Eastern population resembled that of the AA population, until I told him about the historical AA/South-Eastern Nigerian connection. We saw so many folks over there that resembled our light lighter and darker complexioned family members, it was like Whoa!!

My wife and her family are Igbo, and all the time the members get that, "Oh, your Africa?", comment or intrigued stare from folks, upon being informed of their last names, or first,  for those with a traditional one. This is because they all look so much like your everyday traditional AA.

espcially @ afeni _{(your posts are half baked sometimes)}

Some of the history on this board are half baked at times, like the one I'm about to give you.

Benin (a city in current day nigeria) had a powerful empire and europeans did trade with them. Slave trade got to its height because some kingdoms suddenly had upper hand with the use of guns and they often raided villages to get their supply of slaves(there was a demand to be met).

This does not necessarily mean that there was any major confrontation between any group. It was a civil war of some sort. Even the major war of the Yoruba vs Hausa/Fulani (Sokoto was their capital)wasn't that big (In my opinion).

Hausa saw it as a victory against Yorubaland. A lot of Yorubas at that time saw it as a loss of a war post and city (ilorin and old oyo). But you should note that Ilorin at that time had converted to Islam.

I've heard that islam had always been there but this time there was some sort of revival. And some of the citizens of Ilorin saw it as a liberation by a brother (not blood but muslim). So, Ilorin fell quiet easily.

The Yoruba military capital moved away from old oyo southward to present day Ibadan and a lot of people moved with them too for safety reasons.

What baffles me is the fact that Nigeria never had a proper slave port. I am tempted to believe that the coast from ghana to benin (the country not the city) is where the slaves are from.

But this is not true, it is obvious some of those slaves where Yoruba since they have gods like "ESU" in Brazil. Its on the tarot cards.

Another opinion of mine is that slave trade became illegal and it was at this time that traders moved inwards into present day nigeria and that is the reason why slaves still had their heritage intact until the global abolishment of slave trade, hence the noticable yoruba influence.

chinani:

I personally don't think it's a result of an admixture. I think some people are just light and some dark and some in-between etc.

One thing I've noticed is the number of Albino people. I'm Igbo so my experience is w/ Igbo people. Well I was a party once - must've been 10 or 11 - and I was like "who's that white lady?" and this girl - my new friend lol - goes "that's my aunt" and I was sooooo embarrassed b/c the lady turned around and I noticed she was Albino and not white. I apologized so much that time. BUt she was nice and said "It's ok, 3 of my aunts are that way". Come to find out that her grandparents had 5 daughter & 3 were albino. That's 60%! They also had a son who was not albino! Anyhow, the woman was married to an Igbo man & her children looked "mixed" w/ light skin - but not as light as you'd think - and one had blue eyes the other had hazel/blue eyes. Years later when I told my bio. teacher (in very general terms) she was like "That's not possible blah blah blah" b/c the kiddies aren't supposed to look like that or whatever.

So basically I think that some Igbo people have like a weird albino strain. I know. . .that's bad science but I'm believe it.

On another note, biologists always say that there is more biodiversity among Africans (ie Igbo & Yoruba) than between races (i.e., white Dutchman and black Zulu man). I believe this too. Meaning, we may have blue eyed, light skinned genes that are usually not expressed.

You touched on one very popular issue with the Albino point, in that South Eastern Nigerians, especially Igbos, are known to have a long standing history of having alot of Albinos, and thus many folks think that all of the light skin Igbos are all a result of being born with a weakened version of the Albino gene in which is so prevalent within the groups genetics.

The Igbo and their kin ethnicities in the South East are known to be descendant from the far upper Nile Valley on into Sinai and lower area of the what is today Israel. I'm not quite certain, but I believe their migration from the area took place about 5,000 years ago, though while in that region they lived around and or came in contact with a plethora of different folks, in whom in many occasions mixed into the group thus those groups genes were also implanted into the Igbo gene pool. Such groups were known to be anything from Ethiopians, to very possibly European as well, though not likely.

Most reasonably it was mainly Ethiopians, semitic groups, Turks and or Caspian groups, all of which explored through that region for trade and such. Thousands of years after moving out of the region the Igbo and their kin groups evolved into the very unique diverse featured groups in which we have today.

history can be manipulated sometimes, thats why I don't really like that subject. To say Igbos are from Isreal is absurd (in my opinion) where did you get your facts from? History is constantly being changed by the present.

Despite Yoruba's claim to a common heritage, do you know that Yoruba only used to be a term used for citizens of Oyo and sometimes those under the oyo empire? People had a sense of brotherhood when their language is similar to the other hence the acceptance of one ethnicity. No two ethnic groups can speak the same language without having a common link.


_{Sorry for going off topic, silly me, I've actually forgotten the topic}

Hero,

I just read a whole webpage about these so called Jewish Igbos.

How bewildering for the web page to acknowledge that 90 percent of the slaves, are Yoruba.

But then set out to prove that this is all just a misunderstanding? Their really Igbo's called Yoruba's?

Come now. That is kinda of out there.

food4tot,

The webpage itself acknowledges that the slaves, their descendants and all historians call African Americans::::::::Yoruba's.

Their not trying to convince you that the well known fact that Africans in America are Yoruba's is untrue.

What their trying to convince you is that it is all just one big mistake!

The people meant to call themselves Igbo not Yoruba!

It's one of those way out there on the fringes idea!

You are now beginning to get confused as I am, Congratulation, its the beginning of discovering your identity.

Ever heard of these words? Lukumi, Sango, Esu, Oduduwa, Olodumare? Igbos can't relate with those names. They all have Yoruba origin.

In Cuba and Brazil, some cults speak a "secret language" and sing songs that are different from the common language (English and Spanish, mostly Spanish).

Someone was interested in the cult and found out that the language was his own native language (a little bastardized over a period of 300 years), It was the Yoruba language.

food4tot:

Some of the history on this board are half baked at times, like the one I'm about to give you.

Benin (a city in current day nigeria) had a powerful empire and europeans did trade with them. Slave trade got to its height because some kingdoms suddenly had upper hand with the use of guns and they often raided villages to get their supply of slaves(there was a demand to be met).

This does not necessarily mean that there was any major confrontation between any group. It was a civil war of some sort. Even the major war of the Yoruba vs Hausa/Fulani (Sokoto was their capital)wasn't that big (In my opinion).

Hausa saw it as a victory against Yorubaland. A lot of Yorubas at that time saw it as a loss of a war post and city (ilorin and old oyo). But you should note that Ilorin at that time had converted to Islam.

I've heard that islam had always been there but this time there was some sort of revival. And some of the citizens of Ilorin saw it as a liberation by a brother (not blood but muslim). So, Ilorin fell quiet easily.

The Yoruba military capital moved away from old oyo southward to present day Ibadan and a lot of people moved with them too for safety reasons.

What baffles me is the fact that Nigeria never had a proper slave port. I am tempted to believe that the coast from ghana to benin (the country not the city) is where the slaves are from.

But this is not true, it is obvious some of those slaves where Yoruba since they have gods like "ESU" in Brazil. Its on the tarot cards.

Another opinion of mine is that slave trade became illegal and it was at this time that traders moved inwards into present day Nigeria and that is the reason why slaves still had their heritage intact until the global abolishment of slave trade, hence the noticable yoruba influence.

Actually, Nigeria had more slave ports than any other region by far, though none were ever developed to be as fancy as those found in Ghana, Senegal and the likes further north, and in Angola. But this was for a reason, and that is that the Nigerian ports were never owned long enough by any one European power to build such elaborate slave ports as that in which are found in other areas.

Don't let the media fool you, Lagos, Sapele, Badagory (sp), and the infamous slaving ports of Calabar and Bonny are just a few of the many that were established for the sole purpose of orchestrating the African end of the triangle trade. An whopping 1/3 of ALLLL slaves who arrived in the Americas and Europe came from South-Eastern Nigeria alone, that's an astonishing, about, 4Mill people,  the VAST majority of which were Igbo, captured by coastal tribes armed by the Europeans with guns and cannon.

The demand for Igbo slaves in the Americas, especially the US and the Caribbean,  grew so demanding between the early 1600's on into the early 1800's when the British began blocking slave shipments from Africa----  that nearly 80% of all of the over 4Mill South-Eastern Naiga slaves were captured and sent to the Americas.  

Most of them where shipped from Calabar and Bonny ports, though alot were also shipped from much smaller shotty ports in which after the trade was ended,  rotted away into nothingness and or where covered over by forestation growth. There used to be a ton of these all along the Nigerian coast. South Western Nigeria numbered 3rd behind Angola as the departure place for slaves to the new world. Over 3Mill came from that region and the vast majority were sent to the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and Brazil, NOT THE US. Only a minute fraction were ever sent to the US, who's very affluent planters preferred the the very pricey SE Nigerian Igbo and Ibibio, pejoratively,  instead.

A constant 80% of the black populations from North Carolina up, was/is historically known to be of Igbo and Ibibio descent alone. South of this area, the percentage drops to about 50%-55%.

Hero,

I think that is wrong to use statistics about Yoruba's and change the word to Igbo's.

You should give a disclaimer that everything you are talking is actually Yoruba history but you choose to speak of it in terms of Igbo, with your belief that Yoruba is wrong word.

Just curious, how come their language couldn't survive but Yoruba language survived. Your claims can be flawed. I know Igbo and ibibio where taken as slave but PLEASE, for the love of sanity don't tell me 80% of Nigerian slaves where igbo and ibibio.

How come the remaining 20%(I'm assuming yorubas would be in this mix) were able to make more impact on America? Dont you question your reasoning?

I'm going off topic as usual, but I saw this article from a website and decided to post this extract. I found it interesting

Eventually West Africans began to study in the famous Islamic universities of Northern Africa. Already in the twelfth century there were in Ghana ‘scholars, lawyers, and Koran readers [who] have become pre-eminent in these fields’; some of them were probably educated in Morocco [105]. In the following century, a hostel (madrasa) for West African students and pilgrims was opened in Cairo, and it was maintained by the rulers of Bornu [106].

For those who do not know Bornu is in present day Nigeria.

You can read the rest on this website [url]http://www.uta.fi/~hipema/trans.htm[/url]

food4tot,

In Africa, have you ever seen a tribe call themselves Yoruba.

For 400 years everybody know they are Yoruba's.

All the Historians write books about the Yoruba slaves.

Suddenly, it's just all a BIG MISTAKE and Yoruba's should now call themselves Igbo's?

It is like saying that Aliens came down and brought Igbo slaves to America and gave them all mind control drugs to convince them they are Yoruba's.

How have I made myself so misunderstood?

I never said Igbo slaves were confused into thinking they were Yoruba, that was Hero's idea or a website he saw somewhere. Definitely not me.

I might have made a comment about the word "Yoruba".

I said somewhere (don't know where) that the LANGUAGE now known as Yoruba is a very old language (like a lot of other west african languages) but I don't think it was called Yoruba.

I believe the word "Yoruba" is less than 400 years old.

I never said Igbo slaves were confused into thinking they were Yoruba, that was Hero's idea or a website he saw somewhere. Definitely not me.

food4tot,

Alright. Then it was my mistake.

Hero, I see you've been reading! But really you've brought up many interesting things over the last few months. I've read and gone out to read other things after your posts. I've also read about the lost tribe of Israel connection. For anyone interested, Igbo ppl claim 4 main origins, 3 from the West (a lil shaky here. . .) and 1 from the East (Aro). The "Easterners" came from the "East", from NE Africa it is believed. So I see where you're going w/ this Hero. But I do disagree w/ your statistics. (I think you know this.) Like someone said, if the vast majority of slaves were from Igboland, then Igbo language would have survived as Yoruba did. The fact that it did not must contridict your assertion and statitics. Also, Igbo ppl from around Arochucku (SE Igboland) can learn Ibibio and Ibibio ppl can learn our Igbo dialect - my Uncles did & their friends in boyhood - so Ibibio would have also survived. And let's not forget, we are very very very many! Who are these "coastal people" who took us against our will

I for one think that Igbo slaves were sold by other Igbo people (if only to other Nigerian ethnicities and eventually ended up in the Americas). And finally, as you've pointed out Hero, there were slave "ports" in Nigeria. But I believe these were markets where slaves could be purchased though not the dominant trade of the market. Anyhow, there ports were located from Cameron and up the West Coast to Ghana, Togo, Cote d'voire. Arochuckwu was supposedly a "huge slave market" it was located in Arochucku. . .as I said I think it was a big market not necessarily a big slave market but it's size was a result of the dominant Arochucku Federation. You see, the preists of Aro had everyone on lock at the moment (end of 18thc to 19thc). I think Igbo states to the West paid tribute there etc. If this is so - and I believe it to be - how are other groups supposed to come in & capture us? Guns? Yes, guns. . .but if we founght the Brits (w/ their guns) until like 19teens (w/ the Woman's War in 1929) what makes you think the "coastal groups" with their small numbers could be so dominant?

I know this is an Igbo thread but I just want to say I have mad respect for Yoruba people. Somehow they kept their language & culture alive despite the odds. In the Americas, there are Yoruba indigenes in S. America, notably Brazil. There culture is still alive in different countries though it's thought of as mysticism. You've gotta be a pretty strong group of people to do that. So if you're Yoruba, whether from Benin, Togo or Nigeria, give yourself a pat on the back. In fact I proclaim today: International Yoruba Day!

hahhahaa@INTERATIONAL YORUBA DAY, den another civil war go land, lol

chinani:

Hero, I see you've been reading! But really you've brought up many interesting things over the last few months. I've read and gone out to read other things after your posts. I've also read about the lost tribe of Israel connection. For anyone interested, Igbo people claim 4 main origins, 3 from the West (a lil shaky here. . .) and 1 from the East (Aro). The "Easterners" came from the "East", from NE Africa it is believed. So I see where you're going w/ this Hero. But I do disagree w/ your statistics. (I think you know this.) Like someone said, if the vast majority of slaves were from Igboland, then Igbo language would have survived as Yoruba did. The fact that it did not must contridict your assertion and statitics[color=#990000]. Also, Igbo people from around Arochucku (SE Igboland) can learn Ibibio and Ibibio people can learn our Igbo dialect - my Uncles did & their friends in boyhood - so Ibibio would have also survived. And let's not forget, we are very very very many! Who are these "coastal people" who took us against our will

I for one think that Igbo slaves were sold by other Igbo people (if only to other Nigerian ethnicities and eventually ended up in the Americas). And finally, as you've pointed out Hero, there were slave "ports" in Nigeria. But I believe these were markets where slaves could be purchased though not the dominant trade of the market. Anyhow, there ports were located from Cameron and up the West Coast to Ghana, Togo, Cote d'voire. Arochuckwu was supposedly a "huge slave market" it was located in Arochucku. . .as I said I think it was a big market not necessarily a big slave market but it's size was a result of the dominant Arochucku Federation. You see, the preists of Aro had everyone on lock at the moment (end of 18thc to 19thc). I think Igbo states to the West paid tribute there etc. If this is so - and I believe it to be - how are other groups supposed to come in & capture us? Guns? Yes, guns. . .but if we founght the Brits (w/ their guns) until like 19teens (w/ the Woman's War in 1929) what makes you think the "coastal groups" with their small numbers could be so dominant?

Ok, let me touch on the part in red first and then later I'll do the rest. Ok, you've brought up a really good question, and the answer to it is rather interesting as well. Well, not really. The plain and simple fact is that the Igbo were just outshined by the more flamboyant Yorubas upon reaching the Americas. Once being degraded by being torn from their homeland and stripped of their freedom lived under the very democratic way of life back home in Igboland,  many simply either gave up on life and killed themselves rather than spend their lives as freeless slaves, while many more attempted to fight against their oppressionist rulers in the Americas and were slaughtered and forced into conditions in which retarded their cultural contributions in the Americas.

Yet the vast majority of the rest like the vast majority of the other hundreds of tribes that were brought to the Americas,  simply just gave up on their cultural attributes, and as the generations went on ended up totally loosing it in replace of those of their European masters and other African groups Like the Yoruba and Luanda of Angola who made it a point to hold tight to their cultural traditions, and they were allowed to flourish within the Portuguese, Spanish and French slave systems; yet under the Anglo system it they were not.

The Anglos set out to insure that very little if any African influence was spread into their colonies and nations, and so the first step they did was make it a point to only or most bring in Africans whom, as observed in the older more established slave systems of their Latin cousins, were most acceptable to being assimilated out of their ethnic traditions.  

Further more in a desperate need to play a quick game of catchup with the Latin Colonies, they needed Africans in whom were known to come with very productive, multi faceted skills and a rugged diplomatic nature, in which would help them carve their colonies out of the thick and rugged forested areas of North America, learn both English and Native-American languages fast, and apply the knowledge of how to grow various North American crops given by the Natives--- in a fast and efficient way, in that the growing seasons in the British North America were relatively short compared to the year round growing conditions in which their colonial cousins to the south experienced.

So to stay in the game the Anglos needed alot of what they saw via the Latin systems to be the best and brightest of the Africans under in performance while under the system of slavery. This system was very different from the Latin one. It was built on very proficient hand picked distribution of African into and around the system, with infacist on preservation of available stock, selective breading of available stock for proficiency, and most importantly,  self replenishment of available stock, in which cut down on losses incurred by uprisings from new imports, and interference in system's cultural and genetic balance in which was systematically structured to achieve the greatest level of work proficiency, production and profits from the available number of slaves.

In other wards, the Anglo system was structured in a way that would see that their Africans lived much longer, received less abuse, and grew much faster via self-replenishment, and lived much healthier lives than their average Latin owned counterparts. In all reality the latin systems were structured as nearly one big holocaustic system in which up until the time the British began cracking down on slave shipments from Africa to the Americas,  pretty much just mass important Africans of all types into their colonies and placed them under suicidal work conditions until they dropped dead within 2-3 years after arriving in the Americas, only to be replaced by loads more who too dropped dead within 2-3 years after arriving in the Americas.

This devastating cycle went on within the Latin Systems for centuries--- until the Latins were forced, by the British, into following the more liberal or human, if you will, Anglo system of preservation of available stock. By the time this was achieved by the Brits, already about 3/4 of the black population in the US was US born, and numbered about 1/3 to 2/5 the total population of Brazil's black population; an Amazing feet considering that Brazil imported a reported nearly 4.5Mill blacks, while only about 550,000 blacks were ever imported into the US.

After much trial and error and study the Igbo and their south-Western Naiga cousin groups were found to be most sufficient and fitting into the Anglo slave system, followed by groups from the Gold and Ivory coastal region,  most of whom were taken to Jamaica, Bahamas and other other British Isles in the Caribbean, and lastly were the Senegambian regional Africans. The Americans and Brits rarely deterred from these three groups.

The reasons that the Igbo were so much more willing to fit into this system than the Latin one are kind of up in the air, possibly the major difference in humanness between the two was one, but the point is that they did, and they ended up becoming the largest ethnic group in the US by an 60% majority.

So to recap: Their contributions under the latin structures were overshadowed and diluted by the more influential Yoruba, Luanda and other groups attributes, and in the Anglo lands they along with all other groups attributes, were utterly suppressed by the Anglo system and they were systematically pressured into replacing the vast majority of it with the Anglo and later on--- Celtic and Germanic cultures.

The Yoruba's strong desire and insistence in hanging on to and spreading their cultural attributes would have been very problematic in a system like this, and so the British rarely imported them into their colonies, yet instead sold them (along with other south-westerners and Northerners who where hauled into their ports at Lagos, Badagary among other South-South and South-Western areas),  to the Latins, in mass.

And those are the Facts. Do I need to post up documents supporting this, or what?  

Yes I do (usually) ask for documentation. You can post whatever you desire.

But while your response is interesting I don't know that I can believe it. It's hard to believe that Thomas Slavetrader would say "These Yoruba ppl hold on to their culture, let's sell 'em to the Spaniards, I'll take the Igbos thanks." I don't think Tommie Slavetrader was a sociologist/anthropologists type reading into who retains their culture. Furthermore slavery was perpatrated by people who believed we (Africans, Black pppl, whathaveyou) were/are without culture and distinction. People were separated from each other to stop alliances/mutiny but most slavetraders thought we were below culture.

In my opinoin a 60% Igbo (& Ibibio) majority would had held onto some (more) culture and language. Why don't we have an Igbo version of the Gullah people in the US? It just doesn't follow that 60% of the ppl would just say "Hey let's just let this Igbo stuff go. . ."

To me, the most logical explanation is that many, many groups of Africans were shipped to the US as slaves - to the extent that there was no clear majority - and that English was learned as lengua franca. While culture was suppressed by slavery itself, the Africans in America - and their descendants, African Americans - adopted a parts of new cultures and thereby decreased the cultural differences between groups. I'm not say that you are wrong, but I think that this explanation is the most logical one. Er, at this point, yes, post your links or give me a book list.

Please post a link to the Angola information. I know very little about them. (Have you seen that PBS doc called "Angola" about slave born free in Angola who bought himself out of slavery and later owned a large farm?)

@Topic & USnaijagirl
It occured to me today that many African Americans say "I didn't know you were African" not b/c we have lack distinct features but b/c of their preconcieved notions of what Africans are. Whether Black, white or undecided many Americans - more so than Europeans I think - think Africans are ugly, naked, ignorant and did I say ugly. If you are a pretty girl or an intelligent person, ppl will be amazed that you are African and when you ask "Why?" they will not say "B/c of my ingrained racist perspections" but instead "You do not look it."

This statement, "You do not look it" maybe w/o intention offence but it is still loaded. Perhaps we are looking for the wrong thing! Here we are trying to explain why Igbos are light skinned or "Igbo ppl look like A.A.s" when we should ask "Do we really?" I don't think that we (ndi Igbo) look more like A.A. than Edo ppl - and that's a compliment. Instead of questioning ourselves we should be questioning others. Let 'em know the truth y'all.

Click the links below for a bit of interesting info in which touches just a bit on what I was saying. This is just an starter, I'll soon post more stuff up.

http://www./Biafraland%20Invitation%20to%20Ibo%20Landing%20dedication%20ceremony.htm

http://users.telenet.be/african-shop/african-headstones-usa.htm

click on the link below! Would you consider that info as credible enough for you?

http://www./ibo_reunification_train_rolls_on.htm

Most of the slaves brought to America and the rest of the New World came from west Africa. A good number of these slaves in turn came from Igboland. In fact, an estimated 80 percent of the slaves transported to such southern U.S. states as Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia are Igbos. The Igbo nation lost more than 2 million of its able-bodied and talented men and women as a result of the slave trade. Igboland was vulnerable to attack by the slave raiders because Igbos were (and still are) a fiercely democratic and republican people who had neither kings as a shield against attack nor built fences and high walls around themselves as other African ethnic groups did.   Igbo slaves were also well sought after because of their known reputation for hard work and endurance as well as because of their agricultural and metallurgical expertise. The slaves who drowned themselves at St. Simons Island brought with them banana plants that till date still grow wild in the creek where they made their tragic disembarkment.

If not, here's another bit of credible work in which you should possibly invest in getting a hold of. It's a book called 'Murder At Montpelier: Igbo Africans In Virginia'.  I've read it, and it's a very good and telling book. Trust me it's known and it's know very well,  by those whom study these things, that we AfAm's are holders of the worlds second largest Igbo population; second to only Nigeria. Almost 30 million of us are of Majority Igbo genes, with several millions more being of significant levels of Igbo stock. In Nigeria there's believed to be about 40-45 million Igbos. All studies done on this issue show that the Igbo ethnic group was by far the most sought after people by the American slave holders,  and thus they were by far the most prolifically imported group into the nation.

Here's the link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578067065/102-4777379-1715367?v=glance&n=283155

Here's an review of it: Check out the red highlighter part on the bottom.

The story of the poisoning of President James Madison's grandfather and the solidarity of a slave community's traditions , 
In 1732 Ambrose Madison, grandfather of the future president, languished for weeks in a sickbed then died. The death, soon after his arrival on the plantation, bore hallmarks of what planters assumed to be traditional African medicine. African slaves were suspected of poisoning their master.

For Montpelier, his estate, and for Virginia, this was a watershed moment. "Murder at Montpelier: Igbo Africans in Virginia" explores the consequences of Madison's death and the ways in which this event shaped both white slaveholding society and the surrounding slave culture.

At Montpelier, now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and open to the public, Igbo slaves under the directions of white overseers had been felling trees, clearing land, and planting tobacco and other crops for five years before Madison arrived. This deadly initial encounter between American colonial master and African slave community irrevocably changed both whites and blacks.

This book explores the many broader meanings of this suspected murder and its aftermath. It weaves together a series of transformations that followed, such as the negotiation of master-slave relations, the Americanization of Igbo culture in the New World, and the social memory of a particular slave community. For the first time, the book presents the larger history of the slave community at James Madison's Montpelier --- over the five generations from the 1720s through the 1850s and beyond. "Murder at Montpelier: Igbo Africans in Virginia" revises many assumptions about how Africans survived enslavement, the middle passage, and grueling labor as chattel in North America. The importance of Igbo among the colonial slave population makes this work a controversial reappraisal of how Africans made themselves "African Americans" in Virginia

.

MORE COMING SOON!!! 

Another good book to read is called 'Equiano the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man'. The book was written in the 1700's by an ex-South Carolinian slave of Igbo ethnicity, named Olaudah Equiano or his European name of Gustavus Vassa. The book explores the life long experiences of this South Carolinian slave born, Igbo-American legend whom had rose from the hot South Carolina plantation feilds into an worldly traveled freedom fighter, whom in his book, falsely claimed that he was born in Igboland, so to bolster the drama in his book. The fact of that he was born and raised for good portion of his young life in South Carolina, goes to show that the American drive to erase the African identity from the slave or general black population of the nation, was not all that successful in the early years of the nations history, and in fact many of the slaves knew well were and whom their family descended from in African.

Here's the link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0820325716/ref=pd_sim_b_4/102-4777379-1715367?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

Editorial Reviews:

Olaudah Equiano's (c. 1745–1797) much anthologized autobiography is one of the earliest by an English-speaking person of African descent. But was it wholly truthful in its self-portrayal? Carretta, a senior fellow at Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research, provides a masterful, lively and scrupulously researched account that questions central parts of the ex-slave's narrative, but upholds his view of himself as a self-made man. Carretta points out "compelling but not absolutely conclusive" evidence that Equiano, despite his description of a childhood in Africa and the Middle Passage, was born in South Carolina. As a slave, he spent most of his early life at sea, serving various British naval officers. Quick-witted and intelligent, Equiano gained his superiors' confidence and eventually his freedom; his nautical knowledge served him well later, when he traveled as a missionary to Sierra Leone. He lived most of his free life in England, worked as an abolitionist and served as a missionary. As Carretta so eloquently observes, Equiano did invent himself as a writer with a singular vantage point on slavery and as a spokesman for Africa (which he did visit later in life), a continent that few Europeans knew about in the 18th century. Carretta's exemplary study offers not only the definitive biography of Equiano but also a first-rate social history of the late 18th century in America and in England. B&w illus., maps. (Oct. 24)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

When a former slave, Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, wrote his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, in 1789, he became a prominent voice of resistance to slavery by descendants of Africans. Equiano detailed horrendous conditions for slaves in the West Indies and the Americas, providing firsthand accounts of the perilous Middle Passage. Matching historical records against Equiano's accounts of his life and voyages throughout North America, the Mediterranean, Europe, and the North Pole, Carretta records the adventurous life of a man who counted himself equal to all others and who worked at various times as a seaman, entrepreneur, overseer, and antislavery advocate. His wide experience, Carretta shows, gave Equiano a distinctive perspective on slavery and the tenuous life of a free black man. Carretta's research also reveals that, despite claiming that he was captured in Africa and enslaved, Equiano, in fact, was born in South Carolina. But that revelation only adds to the complex portrait of a man who passionately gave himself to a cause and shrewdly realized that, by claiming to be African-born, he could better aid that cause. This is a thoroughly rich, engrossing, and well-researched portrait of an exceptional man and the cause he championed.

MORE COMING SOON!!

MISEDUCATION OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN.

What you need to do is dig up journals of sailors involved in slave trade and european adventurers.

Please note that one of the reasons why slaves native languages were unsustainable is because of the small numbers of the speakers. There might have been large numbers of slaves but there were equally large numbers of languages.

The number of languages in present day west africa has reduced drastically with the introduction of lingua franca like french and english. Some west africans now claim french as their native language.

You would wonder where I am going with this, Here it is

. . .if your slave master says you are Black who are you to object, it is his language and that is what he wishes to call you. Likewise, if he says you are Igbo, (Yoruba, or whatever) who are you to object too.

Afterall a lot of the slave traders don't know a great deal about the diversity of west africa.
Imagine a gang of raiders takes captive of a group of villagers with an unfamiliar language in a very small village not far from Benin (the city). They could wrongly inform their fellow partner in crime (the guy who transports them to America) that this bunch of fellows are Yorubas.

Hero,

Equiano was not born in South Carolina. The confusion stems from when asked on a sailing ship, where he was from. He naturally gave the answer that any slave running away would give: South Carolina. It is the same for his baptismal records.

In otherwords people are trying to use Equiano's words as a runaway slave trying to get away against him.

If you were a runaway slave, would you really tell the captain in America, that you were from Africa? Tell a church about to baptise you that you were from Africa?

Come now.

food4tot,

I think the problem comes in when certain African Americans (Hero is not the first) fall in love with a particular place or people in Africa. Then they want desparately to be from those people.

So they throw up 4 or 5 webpages and that is supposed to be the proof.

The written and oral records show the overwhelming proof that most of the slaves were Yoruba or Angolan.

What is being posted here as Igbo history, is in fact being gotten out of historical books about Yoruba history in the America's.

@everybody, including myself

I suggest that we should try and be open. Thats the only way we can increase in knowledge. Shed the scales in our eyes and live life.

I don't believe everything I hear or see I only consider them. I really don't know when I start believing but when I look back, I realize some of my views have changed.

food4tot,

I hear ya. I even think Hero's theory is moderately appealing.

African Americans are really descendants of Jews. It's not unheard of.

I appreciate what he is trying to say.

I just would suggest that it is easier using the bible, history and science to prove this.

Hero's way is a long way to go and a hard way to get there.

@ Hero, Glad u could join. I've actually read some of your previous post on this topic (Igbos/African-Americans) and I really enjoy your insight. 

@ chinani, Nne, my grandparents are from the village Aruondizogu, Imo State, but my parents settled in Owerri for a while, before they arrived @ the States and had me and my other siblings.  ABIA! Ogini!? Ogini!? Eeeehh!  Igbo kwenu!, Kwezuonu!!! 

_________________________
"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]