Equiano was an African writer whose experiences as a slave prompted him to become involved in the British abolition movement.

In his autobiography, Olaudah Equiano writes that he was born in the Eboe province, in the area that is now southern Nigeria. He describes how he was kidnapped with his sister at around the age of 11, sold by local slave traders and shipped across the Atlantic to Barbados and then Virginia.

In the absence of written records it is not certain whether Equiano's description of his early life is accurate. Doubt also stems from the fact that, in later life, he twice listed a birthplace in the Americas.

Apart from the uncertainty about his early years, everything Equiano describes in his extraordinary autobiography can be verified. In Virginia he was sold to a Royal Navy officer, Lieutenant Michael Pascal, who renamed him 'Gustavus Vassa' after the 16th-century Swedish king. Equiano travelled the oceans with Pascal for eight years, during which time he was baptised and learned to read and write.

Pascal then sold Equiano to a ship captain in London, who took him to Montserrat, where he was sold to the prominent merchant Robert King. While working as a deckhand, valet and barber for King, Equiano earned money by trading on the side. In only three years, he made enough money to buy his own freedom. Equiano then spent much of the next 20 years travelling the world, including trips to Turkey and the Arctic.

In 1786 in London, he became involved in the movement to abolish slavery. He was a prominent member of the 'Sons of Africa', a group of 12 black men who campaigned for abolition.

In 1789 he published his autobiography, 'The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African'. He travelled widely promoting the book, which became immensely popular, helped the abolitionist cause, and made Equiano a wealthy man. It is one of the earliest books published by a black African writer.

In 1792, Equiano married an Englishwoman, Susanna Cullen, and they had two daughters. Equiano died on 31 March 1797.

Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (c. 1809 – 31 December 1891) was a linguist and the first African Anglican bishop in Nigeria. Born in Osogun (in today's Iseyin Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria), Rev. Dr. Samuel Ajayi Crowther was a Yoruba man who also identified with Sierra Leone's ascendant Creole ethnic group.

William Napolean Barleycorn (1848–1925), born in Santa Isabel, Fernando Po, Spanish Guinea and a Fernandino of Igbo descent,[1] was Primitive Methodist missionary who went to Fernando Po (now known as Bioko) in Africa, about 1880. From there, he traveled to Edinburgh University. He was the son of Napoleon Barleycorn, also a Primitive Methodist missionary in Fernando Po, who sent his sons to be educated at Bourne College in Quinton, Scotland. He, additionally, studied in Barcelona, Spain and Victoria, Cameroon.[2]

William N Barleycorn served as a Sunday school teacher during the early 1870s. He also, during this time, was a member of the Native Missionary Class, serving as assistant society class leader, as well as a preacher at the local Bubi village of Basupu. In 1871 he abandoned running a small trading store, and moved to San Carlos (North-West Bay) to work as an assistant for a European missionary. And in 1873 he became the head of the Primitive Methodist Day School in San Carlos. Barleycorn made several trips to England, and received by the conference in Hull to serve as probationer in 1881.

In 1884 he became listed as one of the regular ministers, and studied in Barcelona for two years to obtained his Spanish teaching certificate. He became the visible leader of Santa Isabel's Fernandino community by the 1890s, and served as a patriarchal remnant the Anglophone and Protestant influence on the island.

In his honor, a 40-foot-high (12 m), $300 monument was erected in a Protestant cemetery near the Krio settlement Clarence Cove.[2]

Santeria or La Regla Lucumi is an Afro-Cuban religion originating in West Africa in what is now Nigeria and Benin, hailing from the traditional culture and worldview of the people now known as the Yoruba. The slave trade brought many of these people to the shores of Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, Trinidad and Puerto Rico among others. But along with the bodies being brought over for sale into a life of misery, something else was being brought along. Their souls. And their religion.

Obeah (sometimes spelled Obi, Obea or Obia) is a term used in the West Indies to refer to folk magic, sorcery, and religious practices derived from West African, and specifically Igbo origin.[1] Obeah is similar to other African derived religions including Palo, Voodoo, Santeria, rootwork, and most of all hoodoo. Obeah is practiced in Suriname, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, Guyana, Barbados, Belize and other Caribbean countries.[2]

Obeah is associated with both benign and malignant magic, charms, luck, and with mysticism in general. In some Caribbean nations, Obeah refers to folk religions of the African diaspora. In some cases, aspects of these folk religions have survived through synthesis with Christian symbolism and practice introduced by European colonials and slave owners. Casual observation may conclude that Christian symbolism is incorporated into Obeah worship, but in fact may represent clandestine worship and religious protest.

In parts of the Caribbean where Obeah existed slaves were taken from a variety of African nations with differing spiritual practices and religions, it is from these arrivals and their spiritualisms that Obeah originates. The theory of origin that is most accepted and is supported by the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute database[3] traces obeah to the dibia or obia (Igbo: doctoring)[4] traditions of the Igbo people.[5][6] Specialists in Obia (also spelled Obea) were known as Ndi Obia (Igbo: Obia people) and practiced the same activities as the obeah men and women of the Caribbean like predicting the future and manufacturing charms.[1][7] Among the Igbo there were oracles known as ọbiạ which were said to be able to talk.[8] Parts of the Caribbean where Obeah was most active imported a large amount of its slaves from the Igbo dominated Bight of Biafra.[3]

Edward Wilmot Blyden (3 August 1832 – 7 February 1912) was a Sierra Leone Creole and Americo-Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, and politician in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Because Blyden was an intellectual force in both Liberia and Sierra Leone, historians regard him as both a Sierra Leone Creole and an Americo-Liberian.

Throughout Georgia’s Sea Islands, there are several different “Ibo Landings.” Although most of the stories originate from Dunbar Creek on St. Simons Island, just about every surrounding island has a little inlet that the locals call “Ibo Landing.” This is less the result of historical confusion as much as it is an indication of how this story has been embraced and mythologized by African-Americans in this region.

This story is one of many versions of this popular legend. No one is quite sure who these Ibo (also spelled “Ebo” and “Igbo”) captives were, where they came from, or if they committed suicide at all. Records from the period are sketchy concerning this incident. But it doesn’t really matter whether the incident happened or not, for over time it became a myth that gave pride to thousands of Africans forced into slavery on the vast Sea Island plantations that once controlled the area.

On the surface, the story seems one of simple defiance, as Ibo men, women and children drowned themselves in front of their white captors. As the story spread throughout the islands, however, two popular myths emerged: that the Ibos walked on the water back to Africa, or they flew back. Either way, the metaphor of a cultural link between African-Americans and the Motherland is strong. The Ibo Landing story continues to be used today as an argument for cultural continuity.

William Drew Robeson I (July 27, 1844 – May 17, 1918) was the father of Paul Robeson and the minister of Witherspoon Church in Princeton, New Jersey from 1880 to 1901. Associated with the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church, this facility was built for its black members.[1] [2][3][4]

Robeson escaped from slavery in North Carolina at the age of 15 and went to the free state of Pennsylvania. After the American Civil War, when he had worked for the Union Army, he earned an undergraduate degree and one in theology at Lincoln University. Married and with a family, he became a widower in 1904 and soon moved to New Jersey, where he served as a pastor at African Methodist Episcopal Zion churches.

The Roye episode shows that historical information on Liberia is fragmentary, unreliable, contradictory, and incomplete. The episode forms one of the most confusing ones in the history of the Liberian Republic.

Edward James Roye was a pure descendent of the Ibo tribe (West Africa, Nigeria), born in Newark, Ohio, USA, on February 3, 1815. He was the first pure black person to become President of Liberia. He arrived as a new immigrant in 1846, one year before Independence was proclaimed. Roye became President in 1870 but was deposed the following year in the first coup d’état in Africa’s Oldest Republic. He died a mysterious death in Monrovia in early 1872.

President Edward Roye was deposed on October 26, 1871. What exactly happened after his imprisonment is not known. The way in which, and even the day on which he died, are not known with certainty. His succession too is surrounded by mysteries.

According to some sources Roye escaped from prison but was drowned while trying to escape to a British ship. One author reports that the canoe in which Roye tried to make his escape capsized after which he drowned. The English money, which he had tied around his waist – thought to be the proceeds from the 1870 Loan - was taken from his body and stolen after his body was brought ashore (Huberich). Another author writes that the weight of the money around his waist was the cause of his drowning when he was swimming to a British ship (Banks Henries).

According to other sources , Roye died in prison, after having been dragged half-naked through the streets of Monrovia after his attempt to escape from prison (Karnga, Cassell) . Cassell denies that Roye was drowned though he confirms that he carried money in a belt when he tried to escape. According to him, Roye was savagely beaten after being brought ashore and robbed of the money he carried in his belt. The Liberian President President William Tubman (1944 - 71) was among the many Liberians who believed the version according to which Roye was brutally beaten after his deposition. This story states that Roye’s (nude) body was dragged through the streets of Monrovia to a spot in Ashmun Street where he is reported to have died. This caused President Tubman to erect the new building of his political party, the True Whig Party (Roye’s party), on this same spot and to name the party headquarters after the deposed and – according to this version – murdered President (Yancy). One of Roye’s closest friends, Edward Blyden, however claimed that when “Roye escaped from prison and was waiting for a boat, a mulatto shot him and published he got drowned.” (Lynch)

Banks Henries reports February 12, 1872 as the date on which former President Roye died. This agrees with the information provided by Guannu, another contemporary Liberian historian. Richardson also refers to the date of February 12, 1872 though with less certainty than the other two Liberian authors. However, a visit to the fourth floor of the President’s Executive Mansion in Monrovia which the present author made in 1978 concerned the portrait galery which showed portraits of all Liberian Presidents before William R. Tolbert, the then President of Liberia. It was noted that under the portrait of E. J. Roye was written: “died: February 11, 1872” (Van der Kraaij).

Who became President of Liberia after Roye had been deposed? Also in this respect there is no agreement. Huberich and Richardson e.g. state that he was succeeded by his Vice-President, James S. Smith. Banks Henries reports that one week after the imprisonment of Roye, Vice-President Smith took over the reins of Government. She even quotes from the Annual Message to the Legislature which President Smith pronounced, on December 4, 1871. Cassell, on the other hand, writes that “(…) the Vice-President (…) never appeared (…) to take over the reins of Government. Vice-President James S. Smith was a True Whig, and all True Whigs were being arrested then (…). In any event, Smith never became President of Liberia.”

Hence, it is not known with certainty whether Vice-President Smith served Roye’s unexpired term.

After this confusing period new (presidential) elections were organised and as most, if not all, leading officials of the True Whig Party had been jailed the Republican Party won these elections. In January 1872 the presidential power was handed over to a former (and Liberia’s first) President, J.J. Roberts, one of the leaders of the Republican Party.

One of the “50 Greatest Players” in NBA History (1996), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, is a former American professional basketball player, actor, basketball coach and author. Starting out on the court, he played center for UCLA from 1965 to 1969, during which time he made a name for himself for being a three-time First Team All-American, three-time NCAA champion, a Naismith College Player of the Year, and Most Outstanding Player in NCAA Tournament, before playing professionally for the Milwaukee Bucks from 1969 to 1975 and the Los Angeles Lakers from 1975 to his retirement in 1989. During his twenty seasons in the NBA, he won a NBA Rookie of the Year in 1970, a record six Most Valuable Player Awards and a two-time Finals MVP, as well as played on six championship teams. Well-known for his “Skyhook” shot and his height, Abdul-Jabbar was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on May 15, 1995. His glorious career in basketball led the now retired sportsman to pursue a career as a coach. He has worked as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Seattle SuperSonics and was the head coach of the Oklahoma Storm United States Basketball League in 2002. As of 2005, he has served as a special assistant for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Outside basketball, Abdul-Jabbar has been recognized as a part-time actor and author. Among his remarkable roles are Bruce Lee's enemy in “Game of Death” (1978) and the co-pilot Roger Murdock on “Airplane!” (1980). He also guest starred in numerous television series, including “Diff'rent Strokes,” “Scrubs” and “21 Jump Street,” and appeared in the miniseries version of Stephen King's “The Stand.” Abdul-Jabbar is popular among book fans for “On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance,” “Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African-American Achievement,” “A Season on the Reservation: My Sojourn with the White Mountain Apaches” and others.

As for his personal life, Abdul-Jabbar has been divorced from Janice 'Habiba' Brown since 1978, with whom he has three children, Habiba, Sultana and Kareem Jr. With companion Cheryl Piston, he has a son named Amir. His youngest child is Adam. Abdul-Jabbar was once also romantically linked to actress Pam Grier (born May 26, 1949). He suffers from migraines and uses cannabis to reduce the symptoms, which has caused legal ramifications. Abdul-Jabbar converted to Islam during his college years.

[. . .]

Previously known as Lew Alcindor, the Roman Catholic-raised star changed his name in 1971, several years after converting to Islam. Addressing his thoughts behind his name change, Kareem stated to Playboy magazine, “I was 'latching' on to something that was part of my heritage because many of the slaves who were brought here were Muslims. My family was brought to America by a French planter named Alcindor who came here from Trinidad in the 18th Century. My people were Yoruba and their culture survived slavery. My father found out about that when I was a kid and it gave me all I needed to know that, hey, I was somebody, even if nobody else knew about it. When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people and that's a terrible burden on black people because they don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted.”

Bussa (died 1816) was an African-born Barbadian slave who led a slave uprising in Barbados. He was born a free man in Africa of Igbo origin, but was captured by African slave merchants and sold to the English men and brought to Barbados in the late 18th century as a slave. Not much is known about him and there are no records of him prior to this date. Since slave owners almost never bothered to keep detailed records about the lives of their slaves (who were considered property), virtually no biographical information about Bussa is available. Records show a slave named "Bussa" worked as a ranger on Bayley's Plantation in the parish of St. Philip around the time of the rebellion. This privileged position would have given Bussa much more freedom of movement than the average slave and would have made it easier for him to plan and coordinate the rebellion.

David’s family, the Monteiths from Black River in Jamaica, are one of only a handful of slave descendants who can truly trace their heritage.

A memoir written in 1854 on the life and times of his great-great-great-grandfather, Archibald Monteith, gives a unique insight into his African origins, what life was like as a slave and what life was like before slavery. [. . .]

(1835-1883)
SCIENTIST AND AFRICAN PATRIOT

Africanus Horton was a surgeon, scientist, soldier, and political thinker who worked toward African independence a century before it occurred. . Born James Beale Horton, he grew up in Gloucester Village, the son of an lbo Recaptive who worked as a carpenter, Horton was educated at the eMS Grammar School and at the Fourah Bay Institution (later Fourah Bay College), and in 1853 received a War Office scholarship to study medicine in Great Britain. He studied at King's College, London and Edinburgh University, qualifying as a medical doctor in 1859. While a student, he took the name "Africanus" as an emblem of pride in his African homeland.

The Eboes or Ibos appear to have been particularly numerous in Belize. One section of Belize Town was known throughout the first half of the 19th century as Eboe Town[. . .]

Members of the Ebo (Ibo) tribe seem to have been most numerous. One district of Belize Town during the 19th century was called “Eboe Town” (Yarborough). Here what were known as “Negro Houses” were built. These were long rows of separate rooms having a single roof.

Olodum is a cultural group based in the Afro Brazilian community of Salvador, the capital city of the state of Bahia, Brazil. It was founded by percussionist, Neguinho do Samba.[1]

One of many similar groups in the city (and elsewhere in Brazil), it offers cultural activities to young people, largely centered around music; it also offers theatrical productions and other activities. Founded in 1979, its stated aims are to combat racism, to encourage self-esteem and pride among Afro Brazilians, and to fight for civil rights for all marginalized groups.

Olodum is widely credited with developing the music style known as samba reggae and for its active participation in carnaval each year. Neguinho do Samba, the lead percussionist, created a mix of the traditional Brazilian samba beat with merengue, salsa, and reggae rhythms for the Carnaval of 1986. This became known as samba reggae. This "bloco afro" music is closely tied to its African roots, as seen through its percussion instruments, participatory dancing and unique rhythm.[2] It also directly draws from many Caribbean cultures, like Cuba and Puerto Rico.[3] Olodum's performing band (or Banda) has released records in its own right and has been featured on recordings by Brazilian stars such as Simone and Daniela Mercury.

Olodum performed on Paul Simon's 1990 album The Rhythm of the Saints and at the subsequent concert in Central Park, New York City on August 15, 1991.

In 1995, Olodum appeared in the second music video for Michael Jackson's single, "They Don't Care About Us" (the original "Prison version" was banned on most music stations due to its violent scenes). The music was changed slightly to fit Olodum's style of drumming. The "Olodum version" (unofficial title) of the song has since become more popular than the original album version.[citation needed]

Neguinho do Samba died of heart failure on October 31, 2009, at the age of 54.

The Abakuá Secret Society
In Cuba, those persons belonging to the secret masculine society Abakuá are known as abakúa or ñañigo.

This kind of society is unique in the American continent. This association was founded in the first decades of the 19th century, a hostile moment for the slaves and the black persons. The form they found to avoid the repression and the harassment was a mutualistic religious group.

The first society composed by white persons was founded in the early 19th century and it was named Akanarán Efó Muñón Ekobio Mucarán. The founder was Andrés Facundo de los Dolores Petit, well known by his contribution to the Regla de Palo, and the elaboration of the conceptual body and ritual of the Kimbisa variant.

The antecedents of the abakuá or ñañiguismo are in the secret society that existed in Nigeria, Calabar. Its organization and content have the roots in the African legend that tells the story of the violation of a secret by a woman: the princess Sikan. She found the sacred fish Tanze and reproduced the roar in the sacred drum Eku.

The ñañiguismo can not be separated of the African believes about the existence of ancestor (spirits), thats why in all the ceremonies they are called to guaranty the development of the ritual according to rigorous liturgical norms. Its symbolic representation is the ireme or diablito.

All the activities of the cult are made in the temples. In all the rituals are used lines and graphics known as Ekeniyo which are an ideological –graphical system of signs to immobilize and attach the representation of global events. These symbols are painted with yellow and with yeast and they are divided in three categories: the Gandos, the Signs or Anaforuanas and the Seals.

The ñañigismo has several hierarchies. The Indisime is the applicant to enter into a potencia, the Obonekué is an already initiated man. The Plaza is a everlasting hierarchy with a relevant position in the juego. This person is in charge to preserve and to make follow the norms and ritual and social principles. The Iyamba, Mokongo, Ekueñón, Nkrikamo and Nasako have the title of Plaza. Only men are admitted in the secret society Abakua.

If you ask among its members about the concept of Man they will reply: " It is not about those who are not homosexual but, those who reflect the purest dignity of the human beings, laboriousness, fraternity, joy, rebelliousness against injustice, and follower of the moral codes established by the ancestors, the pioneers of the Abakua; it is the good father, the good son, the good brother, the good friend.

Paul Leroy Robeson[1] (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American concert singer (bass-baritone), recording artist, athlete and actor who became noted for his political radicalism and activism in the civil rights movement.[2] Robeson was the first major concert star to popularize the performance of Negro spirituals. He was the first black actor of the 20th century to portray Shakespeare's Othello in a production with an all-white cast.[3]

A nationally renowned football player from 1917 to the early 1920s, Robeson was an All-American athlete, and Phi Beta Kappa Society laureate during his years at Rutgers University. In 1923, Robeson drifted into amateur theater work, and within a decade he had become an international star of stage, screen, radio and film. Robeson was awarded the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, the Stalin Peace Prize and honorary memberships in over half a dozen trade unions.[4][5][6][7] James Earl Jones, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte have cited Robeson's lead film roles as being the first to display dignity for black actors and pride in African heritage.[8][9] Though one of the most internationally famous people of the 20th century, Robeson was blacklisted during the Cold War and his activism was nearly erased from mainstream accounts of that period.[6]

At the height of his career, Paul Robeson chose to become primarily a political artist. In 1950, Robeson's passport was revoked under the McCarran Act over his work in the anti-imperialism movement and what the U.S. State Department called Robeson's "frequent criticism while abroad of the treatment of blacks in the US."[10] Under heavy and daily surveillance by both the FBI and the CIA[11] and publicly condemned for his beliefs[6][12], Robeson's income fell dramatically and he was blacklisted from performing on stage, screen, radio and television. Robeson's right to travel was restored in 1958, but his already faltering health broke down under controversial circumstances in 1963. By 1965, he was forced into permanent retirement. He spent his final years in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, unapologetic about his political views and career.[13] Advocates of Robeson's legacy have restored his name to history books and sports records, honoring his memory with posthumous recognitions.[14][15]

Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey in 1898. His father, William Drew Robeson I, was descended from the Igbo people of Nigeria,[16] and had run away during the American Civil War from the Robeson plantation in North Carolina where he was born a slave. He served in the Union Army in Pennsylvania, earned a degree from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), and became a minister of the gospel.[17] His mother Maria Louisa Bustill was from a prominent black abolitionist Quaker family of mixed ancestry: African, Anglo-American, and Lenape.

ezeagu: Ibo landing




Throughout Georgia’s Sea Islands, there are several different “Ibo Landings.” Although most of the stories originate from Dunbar Creek on St. Simons Island, just about every surrounding island has a little inlet that the locals call “Ibo Landing.” This is less the result of historical confusion as much as it is an indication of how this story has been embraced and mythologized by African-Americans in this region.



This story is one of many versions of this popular legend. No one is quite sure who these Ibo (also spelled “Ebo” and “Igbo”) captives were, where they came from, or if they committed suicide at all. Records from the period are sketchy concerning this incident. But it doesn’t really matter whether the incident happened or not, for over time it became a myth that gave pride to thousands of Africans forced into slavery on the vast Sea Island plantations that once controlled the area.

On the surface, the story seems one of simple defiance, as Ibo men, women and children drowned themselves in front of their white captors. As the story spread throughout the islands, however, two popular myths emerged: that the Ibos walked on the water back to Africa, or they flew back. Either way, the metaphor of a cultural link between African-Americans and the Motherland is strong. The Ibo Landing story continues to be used today as an argument for cultural continuity.

tpia@:
who are you referring to.

tpia@:
no, he is not.