Shollypopz: Your mother's obo has spoilt!! Tell that wide p*ussy slut I said she should get off the streets and give her daughter some basic training or send u to school, damn!
Ur st*upidity is beginning to irk me, don't u know when to shut it?!
Damn, that some mouth you've got there. Most of you I've met were typically very uncouth, like you.
Shollypopz: ^^Now all u have up thee is pure jargon. Omotola Jolade, Doris Ademinokan, Fathia Balogun, Laide Bakare and the rest are what?? Most Yoruba actresses act Yoruba movies and not your everyday English nollywood.
As I've stated, most of the best looking
Gimme a list of top Nigerian models that are Igbos and I will give you that of the Yorubas. You're just talking like an illiterate, the only difference between u and the op is the age difference. She's a young mumu while u're just an old fool!
Furthermore, I don't know the Yoruba girls you're talking about but I'm yet to hear "all the time" that Igbo girls are more beautiful than the Yorubas. But then again, my friends have better things to talk about than who is more beautiful between the Igbos and Yorubas.
Events in the US?? This dude is a joker! Enjoy ur ignorance, Blyss! And I wasn't joking when I said stay off my path. Like pls don't quote me henceforth, thanks!
LOL, so because you've posted up a few nice looking Yoruba, this changes the overall fact of the situation at hand? NOT! By the way, that Balogun is butt ugly. She looks like Obasanjo's daughter. And the only decent actress among those you've posted is Omotola, the rest are simply mediocre at best. Yoruba tend to stay in the Yoruba film industry for the simple fact of that, their English is often not as good as the south Easterners, who dominate the English Nollywood film industry.
LOL, dude get off it already. What a joke. First of all, you posted a man speaking to a woman, that's just way out of place when attempting to prove a point in a discussion like this; a man and woman will naturally sound different, but even with that being as it is in this video, I can still clearly tell that they both are from the same region or at least speak the same type/standard of American English. Their tones are different because, he's a man and she's a woman and thus have a different pitch in their voice, but you can clearly hear that they speak in the same standard of English. You need to go get your ears checked, Ace.
Shollypopz: Lying old fool, stay off my path. thank you!
LOL. Ok, in all honesty.. both sides have some beautiful females, but on average.. the Igbo have you all beat in facial beauty, but you'all have them slightly beat in body figure department, for those who like thick girls. I mean the evidence of this is just blatantly everywhere to be seen. All the top Nigerian models are Igbo, or at least from the SE. All the best looking Nollywood actresses are Igbo or at least from the SE. Even here in the US, the Nigerians who make it in any type of event in where you've got to look good, are all Igbo.
This is just undeniable common sense here. I can understand that you Yoruba girls get pissed off at hearing about how pretty people think Igbo girls are all the damn time, but that's no reason to deny the fact of the matter. Now the OP was rude for talking shiat on you Yoruba girls and deserved what she got, especially since she isn't really representing the Igbo girls all too well in the looks department.
Moderators please ban this Somalia9 troll and all other Somalis trolls from this forum forever, he is an embarrassment to his people and his country, Somalis are ungrateful bastards.
[size=18pt]@Somalia9[/size]
What are you bragging about? You Somalis are not better than us Bantu people, you are just different.
LOL I can tell you're Kenyan. You look like a lot of Kikuyu girls I see around my way? This area has a pretty large Kenyan and Ugandan population. Back in high school, I used to date this very pretty Kisii girl, but I had to let her go; her attitude sucked big time. Most of them were like that from what I've observed while I was with her, but I must admit that they have a lot of pretty females among them.
tpia@: ^ AA issues arent really your forte, i believe your focus is on african matters, igbo in particular, so you cant really know much about this topic, since you are african.
LOL, honey come on off that dead horse. I'm about as BA or AA if you prefer.. as you can get. I know my peoples history very well, much better than I know your peoples history in which I also know pretty well; better than you do in fact, as you've witnessed in the past. Now in regard to this subject; I know what I speak of because I am of the people being spoken about and I was born raised and still live in the nation in which the topic of this subject extends from. Now you on the other hand are an African, living in Australia, and you've never even been to this nation before. You've most likely have never even seen a BA in your life other than on TV, not to mention spoken to one in person. So you, my dare, have absolutely NOTHING of any form of validity to say about this topic. By and stay healthy.
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.
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.
Damn, you all have it easy. Our (BA)parents, especially the mothers.. cuss you the hell out, and I mean real cussing, like calling you a motherfuucker, nigga, biatch so on and so forth, and getting whooped ain't shiat with a lot of them. You piss them off enough, and you and them are gonna be fighting, and I mean duking it out for real, especially if you're about their size or bigger than them. I remember me and my pops once got into fist fight over some dumb shiat I once did back in the day. My mother once knocked the shiat out of one of my older sisters with a pop, for standing up to her once. BA parents get violent. I think this is part of the reason a lot of BA kids act so violent out on the streets, they learned it at home from their parents.
الملكي فوق الله:Aye Reality, get in here and tell us more stories about how your Cracker Boyfriend Mathew sat in the Movie theaters with you and Laughed in your Face every time a Caucasoid used the Word Niqqer.
Popcorn Flying out the Crackers Mouth onto your Bottom Lip, And you just let it sit there you worthless cooon, because you were too scared to remove your masters chewed corn and saliva from your self hating negroid lip without receiving his Permission.
Didn't know Reality was a BA. Thought he was an African who just lived in the US. I know a few Africans and Caribbeans like him personally, though I've never met a BA like him in my life, and I spend much time around some pretty uppity Tomish black folks, but they're no where near as bad as that cat.
somalia9: Well those who are weak get enslaved. My ancestors in somalia had negroid slaves from tanzania, uganda, kenya, and ethiopia. We were never enslaved.
Even 1991 when the U.N. , USA, EUROPEAN UNION, came to somalia, we fought until the THE WORLD said ' these people will keep dying as long as we are on their soil' AND THEY LEFT. LMAO
YOUR THE ONE WHO HAS BEEN FAILED BY YOUR OWN ANCESTORS. EVERY WHERE YOU NEGROIDS ARE, YOU ARE SLAVES. SOMALIS OWNED YOU, ETHIOPIANS OWNED YOU, ARABS OWNED YOU, AMERICANS OWNED YOU, EUROPEANS OWNED YOU.
NEVER SAW AN ENTIRE GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO ARE SO SUBMISSIVE AND WEAK AND YET LOOK LIKE BODY BUILDERS. THAT FUFU IS NOTHING IF YOUR JUST GONNA RAISE YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR AND BE ENLSAVED.
So you're happy, that "the world" showed pity on you all, instead of just exterminating you from the face of the earth? That's hilarious. By the way what actually happened was that they came to help those being starved to death and butchered by your own rebel groups, and in return.. those who they came to help turned on them and began attempting to attack them alongside those who THE WORLD came to save them from. So THE WORLD said "Bleep these savage, backward, re.tarded azz, balloon head, starving E.T. looking skinny Niggas. Let them continue killing each other off; less mouths we'll have to worry about feeding later". Now that's the honest truth.
tpia@: Black accents are the same as southern white accents.
In slavery times, that was the english spoken in the slave owning states.
Northern accents are different, and are the type commonly considered "white" english.
Technically, this isnt factually correct because southern english is also white even its commonly assumed to be black.
Incorrect as usual. Northern BA speak with a Northern accent, same as white americans. Southern BA speak with a southern accent, same as Southern White Americans. Most Northerners period have a hard time understanding a southerner a lot of times, no matter what race they are. Now among the Northern blacks and whites there may be some minor variation in the pitch in which they speak at times, though both clearly are speaking in the same Northern accents. The same goes for Southerners, both white and black. But this difference in pitch is not always present, in that some whites carry a pitch in which is more common with BA from their region while some blacks carry one in which is more common among white americans from their region. Oh, and there's also a mid-western and western accent as well.
Case in point. PAUL WALL. Would you be able to tell that he wasn't a black southern if you were talking to him over the phone? Absolutely not.
CAMEROONPRIDE: i can't explain that its not like they talk another language or their parents talk something else
Unless you're speaking about the difference in the tempo better known as the timbre of the voice, then I don't know what the hell you're talking about.
PAGAN 9JA: its funny how akata ppl criticise us Africans and then try to be like us. . *wannabes
Where did this comment come from? Why the hate, PJ? Exactly how in the hell are we trying to be like Africans? You cant make such an outlandishly bold statement and not explain your thinking behind it. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're feeling kinda salty right about now for not having as great of a link to the us as the Igbo. I'm just saying that that's just how that whole thing read to me.
Flytefalls: Wagwan Cuz. Leave my sis alone, she has dropped no ball
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.
I can go on and on with this linking the Black-American's lineage to the Igbo ethnic group because the evidence is massive, and simply dwarfs anything one can find to show links to any other single African ethnic group. Historians say it, history shows it.
No one would argue that Paul Robeson and Booker T. Washington standout amongst the most accomplished "African-Americans " the latter being the founder of the prestigious Tuskegee Institute. It can be speculated that the success of these two individuals can at least partially be attributed to the fact that they both maintained links to their Igbo origins. Paul Robeson confirmed his Igbo identity through linguistics as he was able to verify the Igbo origins of a number of African words that had been passed down through his family(22),while Booker T. Washington obviously maintained an understanding of his Egba(Igbo) background which is reflected in his middle name Tanifeani, a name most common to the Egba people
Olaudah Equiano was born in 1745 in Eboe, in what is now Nigeria. When he was about eleven, Equiano was kidnapped and sold to slave traders headed to the West Indies. Though he spent a brief period in the state of Virginia, much of Equiano's time in slavery was spent serving the captains of slave ships and British navy vessels. One of his masters, Henry Pascal, the captain of a British trading vessel, gave Equiano the name Gustavas Vassa, which he used throughout his life, though he published his autobiography under his African name. In service to Captain Pascal and subsequent merchant masters, Equiano traveled extensively, visiting England, Holland, Scotland, Gibraltar, Nova Scotia, the Caribbean, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and South Carolina. He was purchased in 1763 by Robert King, a Quaker merchant from Philadelphia, for whom he served as a clerk. He also worked on King's trading sloops. Equiano, who was allowed to engage in his own minor trade exchanges, was able to save enough money to purchase his freedom in 1766. He settled in England in 1767, attending school and working as an assistant to scientist Dr. Charles Irving. Equiano continued to travel, making several voyages aboard trading vessels to Turkey, Portugal, Italy, Jamaica, Grenada, and North America. In 1773 he accompanied Irving on a polar expedition in search of a northeast passage from Europe to Asia. Equiano published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, in 1789 as a two-volume work. It went through one American and eight British editions during his lifetime. Following the publication of his Interesting Narrative, Equiano traveled throughout Great Britain as an abolitionist and author. He married Susanna Cullen in 1792, with whom he had two daughters. Equiano died in London in 1797.
Volume I opens with a description of Equiano's native African culture, including customs associated with clothing, food, and religious practices. He likens the inhabitants of Eboe to the early Jews, and offers a theory that dark African skin is a result of exposure to the hot, tropical climates. In so doing, Equiano hints that Africans may be the indirect relatives of Christian Europeans through their Jewish ancestry and argues against slavery as an affront to all humans: "Let the polished and haughty European recollect that his ancestors were once, like the Africans, uncivilized, and even barbarous. Did Nature make them inferior to their sons? and should they too have been made slaves? Every rational mind answers, No" (p. 43).
Equiano's journey begins when he is kidnapped from his village with his sister, from whom he is eventually separated. He describes a long voyage through various African regions, marked by brief tenures as a slave to "a chieftain, in a very pleasant country" and a wealthy widow who resides in "a town called Tinmah, in the most beautiful country I had yet seen in Africa" (pp. 51, 62). Ultimately, Equiano is sold back to traders who bring him "sometimes by land, sometimes by water, through different countries and various nations, till . . . [he] arrive[s] at the sea coast" (p. 69). Equiano is sold to the owner of a slave ship bound for the West Indies, and he goes on to describe the "Middle Passage"—"the journey across the Atlantic Ocean that brought enslaved Africans to North America. His descriptions of extreme hardships and desperate conditions are punctuated by his astonishment at new sights and experiences. The narration occasionally reflects the childish wonder of the young Equiano at the time of his journey, but it also highlights his culture shock at his introduction to European culture and European treatment of slaves.
Though he witnesses the sale of slaves in the West Indies, Equiano himself is not purchased, and he stays with the Dutch ship, traveling from the West Indies to North America. There he is purchased and put to work on a Virginia plantation, doing light field work and household chores. He is not in Virginia long before Michael Henry Pascal, a lieutenant in the British royal navy and captain of a merchant ship, purchases him as "a present to some of his friends in England" (p. 94). During their spring 1757 voyage to England, Pascal renames the eleven-year-old Equiano Gustavus Vassa, and Equiano forges a friendship with a white American boy named Robert Baker, which lasts until Baker's death two years later. After the ship's arrival in England, Equiano is exposed to Christianity. When he asks questions about his first encounter with snow, he is told it is made by "a great man in the heavens, called God." He attends church, and receives instruction from his new friend, Robert (p. 105). Equiano describes the various battles and ship transfers that take place after his return to sea with Pascal. He also expresses his growing ease with the European culture he initially found so strange and frightening: "I ceased to feel those apprehensions and alarms which had taken such strong possession of me when I first came among the Europeans" (p. 111).
As his time with Pascal progresses, Equiano professes a growing attachment to his master and a desire to "imbibe" and "imitate" the English culture in which he is immersed (p. 133). He can "now speak English tolerably well" and "embrace[s] every occasion of improvement . . . [having] long wished to be able to read and write" (p. 132-133). During stopovers in England, Captain Pascal sends Equiano to wait upon two sisters known as the Miss Guerins. They become, in a sense, patrons to Equiano, not only treating him kindly but also supporting his education and his interest in Christianity by sending him to school. The Guerins are also instrumental in persuading Pascal to allow Equiano to be baptized into the church.
Equiano continues his studies and his religious development independently whenever possible, but his visits to England are always temporary, as he returns to sea with his captain whenever Pascal and the ship are ready for a new voyage. The journeys are always fraught with danger, and he describes numerous skirmishes and sieges throughout the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and West Indian Oceans. Equiano faithfully serves Pascal for several years and, believing that Pascal's kindness implies a promise to free him, he is shocked at an abrupt betrayal during a layover in England, when Pascal has him roughly seized and forced into a barge. Pascal sells Equiano to Captain James Doran, the captain of a ship bound for the West Indies. Dazed by his sudden change in fortunes, Equiano argues with Captain Doran that Pascal "could not sell me to him, nor to any one else . . . I have served him . . . many years, and he has taken all my wages and prize-money . . . I have been baptized; and by the laws of the land no man has a right to sell me" (p. 176-177). After Doran tells Equiano he talks "too much English" and threatens to subdue him, Equiano begins service under a new master, for he is "too well convinced of his power over me to doubt what he said" (177).
Dejected at the situation in which he now finds himself, Equiano begins to believe his new situation is a result of God's punishment for his sins and soon resigns himself to his new life. Doran takes him back to the West Indies, and Equiano is horrified at the sight of Montserrat, because he is fearful of being sold into this "land of bondage . . . misery, stripes, and chains" (p. 190). Instead, he is purchased by Mr. Robert King, a "charitable and humane" Quaker merchant who employs him in a variety of positions, from loading boats to clerking and serving as a personal groom, in addition to occasionally hiring out Equiano"s services to other merchants (p. 192). One of King's boat captains, an Englishman named Thomas Farmer, relies heavily on Equiano and frequently hires him for voyages from the West Indies to North America. Proud of being singled out, Equiano remarks that he "became so useful to the captain on shipboard, that . . . [he would] tell my master I was better to him on board than any three white men he had" (p. 231). At this time, Equiano begins buying and selling goods and fruit and starts his own side trading enterprise during each voyage. Although he faces setbacks and insults from white buyers who refuse to pay for goods, use "bad coin," or demand fraudulent refunds, Equiano acquires a small amount of savings and is "determined to . . . obtain my freedom, and to return to Old England" (p. 268, p. 250). King encourages him in his entrepreneurial pursuits, proposing that when Equiano has saved enough money "to purchase my freedom . . . he would let me have it for forty pounds sterling money, which was only the same price he gave for me" (p. 260).
After briefly recounting a violent assault while trading in Savannah, Georgia, and his subsequent recovery and return to Montserrat, Equiano closes the first volume of the Interesting Narrative somewhat abruptly, noting that "This ended my adventures in 1764; for I did not leave Montserrat again till the beginning of the following year" (p. 272). DocSouth has published a summary of the second volume of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, in which Equiano describes his life as a freeman, his adventures as a world-traveling tradesman, and his spiritual transformation.
[b]History of Ibo Landing, St. Simons Island, Georgia and slavery on Georgia Sea Island plantations around the Civil War. Slave descendants would later become the Gullah people.
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.[/b]
SEA ISLAND SLAVERY
It’s hard to believe that, in this coastal area of posh beach resorts, shopping centers and freeways, there were once thousands of enslaved Africans toiling in the fierce coastal heat. The foundation of an old plantation house or a crumbling slave cabin here and there are virtually the only structural reminders of this shameful period of history – General William T. Sherman saw to that.
Until General Sherman’s devastating march through Georgia, the Sea Island plantations, like most of the South, were heavily dependant on slave labor. Wealthy cotton and rice plantation owners valued the expertise of slaves who once farmed similar crops in the grasslands and marshes back in Africa. If it wasn’t for the slaves, the vast plantations that once lined the Georgia/South Carolina coast wouldn’t have thrived as they did.
Near the start of the nineteenth century, many slaves were being kidnaped from the interior of Nigeria and shipped down the rivers to coastal ports. The majority were members of the Ibo tribe, whose traditional homeland was in southeast Nigeria between the Niger and Cross Rivers. Their captors were mainly rival tribesmen who traded with white slave traders for currency, goods and firearms.
In the late 1700s, after a horrific voyage across the Atlantic known as the Middle Passage, the Ibos would typically be brought into ports on the Southern U.S. mainland or in the Caribbean. They were placed into pens, given plenty of food and drink and encouraged to exercise, solely to make them more attractive on the auction block. Then, after a humiliating viewing period where they were stripped, pinched and prodded, the Ibos were sold to speculators who, in turn, transported them to areas of demand.
Of course, not everyone agreed with the practice of slavery. The abolitionist movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries succeeded in banning slavery throughout the Northern states. As early as 1749, even Georgia discouraged overt slaveholding within state lines. In 1798, it was made illegal in Georgia to import slaves from Africa.
But these so-called laws were too late in coming for an area so dependent on slave labor. Most plantation owners saw slavery as a necessary evil, and resorted to secretive tactics to keep their workforce growing. At high tide under the cover of darkness, slave holders would sneak their ships through the tidal creeks directly to the island plantations.
By all accounts, life on the Sea Island plantations was brutal for the slaves. They were given the backbreaking task of converting heavily wooded islands into cotton and rice fields. This involved draining the salt marshes, cutting down huge trees and clearing stumps. Some Ibos had accomplished a similar task in their African homeland, but never under slavery conditions.
Few slaves tried to escape the plantations. Capture was almost certain, and even if they did escape to an uninhabited island, poisonous snakes or a lack of food and fresh water usually brought them back. Escape or suicide also meant the abandonment of loved ones.
Life on the coastal plantations came to an abrupt end when the Civil War erupted over the region. As Union ships blockaded the ports of Charleston and Savannah, plantation owners took their healthiest slaves and fled the islands, leaving the sick and elderly slaves behind.
But as the Confederacy collapsed, many of these healthy slaves ran straight into General Sherman’s troops during their destructive march through Georgia. Sherman ordered the slaves to return to the islands and, after the war, issued Special Field Order #15, which ceded most of the Georgia and South Carolina Sea Islands to former slaves and forbade white settlers other than military personnel to live there.
Many slaves didn’t make it back, becoming refugees along the war-torn Southern roads. Others migrated to surrounding cities. But several did return to reunite with the older slaves left behind. In a perverse twist, many former slaves had become attached to the land they were enslaved upon, and returned to farming the old plantation grounds. Despite widespread poverty, the former slaves formed working communities that would become the nucleus of the African-American island communities found today.
In 1865, President Andrew Johnson expanded the terms of the Confederate pardon to include the return of property abandoned during the war. This meant that the white plantation owners could return to the islands and reclaim what General Sherman had promised the former slaves barely a year before. These plantation owners naturally assumed that their impoverished former slaves would be happy to come back to work for them as sharecroppers.
But this time, the former slaves resisted. They chose to live in their own communities, living on whatever they could catch from the sea or grow in tiny backyard plots. Some even formed land companies to consolidate black-owned farmlands. Individual businesses and schools also sprung up. Without a stable work force, the plantation families lost money, causing many to give up their lands for good.
GULLAH
Cultural ties with Africa are scattered throughtout the Sea Islands, especially on Sapelo Island, where several descendants of West African slaves live in the tiny community of Hog Hammock. Some speak a unique Creole language known as “Gullah,” which developed from the slaves communicating secretly across the islands. Because of their relative isolation from the mainland, the Gullah people have preserved West African customs, craft techniques and storytelling for future generations.
Despite their predicament, the slaves were able to preserve and expand upon many of their African traditions. Besides the Gullah language mentioned above, the more notable traditions involved death and the afterlife. The slaves would often speak about spirits from Africa, which they called “h’ants” or “fixuhs,” coming to visit their homes. To protect themselves from the bad “h’ants,” they would often paint a blue ring around their doorways. Some slaves could detect these spirits better than others, especially babies who were born with a special “caul,” or membrane, over their eyes that enabled them to see ghosts. Naturally, most of the plantation owners dismissed the slaves’ beliefs.
Douglas B. Chambers, the American historian/writer famous for the book "Murder At Montpelier", has been quoted saying "My research suggests that perhaps 60 percent of black Americans have at least one Igbo ancestor...".
Murder At Montpelier- Igbo Africans In Virginia
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 examines 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 transformation 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.
MegaMan2020: I think Igbos should go back to their Igbo roots first, don't you?
So you think the Igbo have lost connection with their roots?
And who decided most African Americans were Igbos anyway?
Most aren't fully Igbo though a majority are believed to be of significant Igbo descent.
Weren't many other tribes from different countries in Africa exported to the States or was it just the Igbos?
The vast majority of the Black-American population is descended from only about 12 West and Central African ethnic groups with the Igbo being the single largest in number to be brought here. At one point it was documented that their descendant numbers in the Chesapeake region of the nation was representative of over 60% of the total black population in the area, this was in the late 1700's/ early 1800's.
Come to think of it I see more African American fawn over Yoruba culture/religions/traditions that Igbo. I beleieve there is even a Yoruba village out their in the states lol, imagine that.
No, I've never heard of their being a Yoruba village, but there is certainly an Igbo village, but an even more spectacular factor is that there's an historical Igbo cemetery in VA in which the headstones have Igbo Nsibidi ideogram writing on them, a knowledge in which the Igbo slaves brought to the nation with them and due to there large numbers in VA, were able to hold on to.
A cemetery in George Washington National Forest in Amherst County, Va., is a good example. For decades, observers have commented that the gravestones had “strange marks.” Recently, these marks have been identified by this writer as African ideograms originating in Nigeria. The gravestones are inscribed with what appears to be Nsibidi, an Igbo writing system, confirming the survival of Igbo traditions during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Made of high-quality blue slate indigenous to the area and mined from a local quarry, the stones show little damage from weather or time. Subsequently, the place was named the “Seventeen Stones Cemetery.”
The stones were probably engraved between 1770 to 1830, when the Igbo Diaspora was at its height in Virginia. At that time, the Igbo people comprised approximately 70 percent of the blacks in Virginia, a larger percentage than in any other Southern state.
A star symbol at the top of one stone, signifying “congress” or “unity” has similarities to the Kongo cosmogram that depicts the life cycle of birth, life, death and the afterlife. The cosmogram symbol has equal perpendicular crossbars or lines, sometimes contained in a diamond shape or a circle. Here, the linear symbol in the lower register appears to be a combination of the sign for “individual” and “this land is mine.” Together the signs mean the deceased has joined the realm of the ancestors. Both symbols are enclosed in a rectangle, denoting their association. A line separating the symbols emphasizes they are separate but one.
Igbo ideograms were important elements of religious practice and served as mnemonic devices associated with religion and with moral and historical narratives. In Igbo death and burial traditions, Nsibidi symbols honoring the ancestors were thought to protect the deceased. The most appropriate place to honor one’s forefathers was the cemetery. At times, the deceased were consulted for help with day-to-day problems. Items such as chickens, rum and schnapps were offered as gifts for the deceased during a grave-side ceremony.
In the Seventeen Stones Cemetery, an iron pot was found set into the ground, suggesting the possibility of ancestral worship at this site. Historical sources describe how slaves worshiped in the forest by talking to a pot — the retainer for words and thoughts that could not be made public. African inscriptions and accompanying religious practices were outlawed during the period of enslavement. Creating such symbols was punishable by death because of its association with witchcraft. Hence, few examples of African ideograms still exist in the United States.
Culture › Re: Which Tribe In Nigeria Has The Most Beautiful Women? by Blyss: 6:12pm On Jan 10, 2013
And the only decent actress among those you've posted is Omotola, the rest are simply mediocre at best. Yoruba tend to stay in the Yoruba film industry for the simple fact of that, their English is often not as good as the south Easterners, who dominate the English Nollywood film industry.
