₦airaland Forum

diddy4:
i have not seen anything that qualifies those mentioned above to be rated as classics. you should be talking about Berry white and Marvin gaye not perverts like R.Kelly and modern day monkeys like MJ.

Hey, your kind of right, but I didn't thin the mojority of the folks on this site were old enough to know of the likes of Marvin gaye, and the other classics from his time. So this is for the Old Heads out there.

Barry White, 

Al Green

James Brown

Marvin Gaye

Otis Redding

Rick James

Smokey Robinson

Little Richard

Curtis Mayfield

Isaac Hayes

George Clinton

Stevie Wonder

Sam Cook

Ray Charles

Lionel Richie

Rate These Classics
Aight, shoot. Rate these classic artist in order from worst to best.

Keith Sweat

R. Kelly

Luther Vandross

Brian McNight

Prince

Michael Jackson

Gerald LeVert

Babyface Evans

Bobby Brown

Johnny Gill

HERE, I MATCHED THEIR NAMES TO THEIR FACES. THE LAST TWO ARE TWINS.

FELISHA
https://www.cherishsisters.com/images/photo05.jpg

NEOSHA
https://www.cherishsisters.com/images/photo06.jpg

FARRAH
https://www.cherishsisters.com/images/photo07.jpg

FALLON
https://www.cherishsisters.com/images/photo08.jpg

Who likes that new girl group, 'Cherish'? They're but another Ay--Ay--Ay--Ay--Ay---AAAAAAA-Town African-American R&B group consisting of biological sisters Felisha, 22, Neosha, 20, and twins Farrah and Fallon, 19. They have that hot new teenybopper song out called 'Do it-To it', that blazing the charts across the country, and having errr body,  Lean wit it, rock wit it, move wit, snap wit it and the ladies popping their backs to it as the fellas tip their hats to it and just do it, do it, do it, doing it, all over the place.

They had another really hot release 3 years ago, called 'Miss P.', but do to bad management under their old label, the song never went big and neither did the group, as the label decided not to release their album. So now they've come back under new management, and are hoping that their new album release this August, will finally give them the exposure they've been dreaming of since they were preteens performing together in talent shows.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cd/Cherish.jpg
https://www.cherishsisters.com/images/photo01.jpg
https://www.cherishsisters.com/images/photo02.jpg
https://www.cherishsisters.com/images/photo03.jpg
https://www.cherishsisters.com/images/photo10.jpg

You can see there Video here>>> http://boss.streamos.com/real/capi001/cherish/doittoit/doittoit_v300.ram

OR

HERE>>> http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/capi001/cherish/doittoit/doittoit_v300.asx

IAH:
Interesting points and offpoints here. Concerning the argument that 80% of the slaves were Igbos, I think the most slaves were Yorubas for a few reasons:

First of all, I agree with this point:

Then again, history also has it that Badagry, Lagos was one of the prime slave ports in West Africa. Has anyone been to the Slave Museum in Badagry? Try to visit the place, there are important artifacts on slavery there including chains/shackles with which slaves were tied. I think that speaks much of how highly pronounced it was in that side (Yorubaland).

If you look at the map of Nigeria, Yorubas are closest to the largest port in Nigeria which is Lagos. I'd assume they would be hardest hit because of that.
Also, a region was formerly called "Slave Coast"(the name says it all). "The Slave Coast is the name of the coastal areas of present Togo, Benin (formerly Dahomey) and western Nigeria, a fertile region of coastal Western Africa along the Bight of Benin."

So indeed, I think the slaves were mostly Yoruba people.

So so? Why do we need to know which tribe got robbed the most anyway?

THE EGBA YORUBA

(AN AFRICAN - AMERICAN LINK TO IGBO ORIGINS)

BY ISHAQ AL - SULAIMANI
(NWANNE DI NAMBA NDI IGBO)
ishaqa777@hotmail.com

ANYONE WHO HAS EVER TAKEN A SERIOUS INTEREST IN THE SLAVE TRADE AND THE TRIBAL ORIGINS OF AFRICAN - AMERICANS WOULD MOST LIKELY UNDERSTAND THAT THERE WAS A SIGNIFICANT YORUBA ELEMENT AMONGST THE AFRICAN CAPTIVES WHO WERE TAKEN TO THE AMERICAS. THE PURPOSE OF THIS WRITING IS TO FURTHER SUPPORT RESEARCH THAT PROVES THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE SLAVES BROUGHT TO THE AMERICAS WERE IGBOS BY ACKNOWLEDGING THE YORUBA ELEMENT TO BE IGBO AS WELL.

IN ADDITION TO THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF IGBOS DOCUMENTED AND ACKNOWLEDGED TO HAVE BEEN SHIPPED DIRECTLY OUT OF THE IGBO DOMINATED AREAS OF THE NIGER DELTA,MILLIONS OF OTHERS WERE BROUGHT TO THE AMERICAS FROM IGBO SLAVE COLONIES WHICH WERE ESTABLISHED ALL OVER THE AFRICAN CONTINENT AND THUS ARRIVED UNDER A VARIETY OF NATIONAL AND TRIBAL LISTINGS. SLAVES CLASSIFIED AS ASHANTE WERE ACTUALLY IGBOS WHO WERE IMPORTED TO GHANA BY PORTUGUESE JEWISH SLAVE TRADERS TO WORK THE GOLD MINES. OTHERS LISTED AS ANGOLAN WERE ALSO IGBOS. SOME IGBOS WERE IMPORTED TO ANGOLA PRIOR TO THEIR ARRIVAL IN THE AMERICAS, OTHERS WERE BORN AND RAISED IN THE IGBO SLAVE COLONY OF ANGOLA. THE YORUBA CLASSIFICATION PROVED TO BE NO EXCEPTION TO THE RULE, AS THOSE SLAVES DOCUMENTED TO BE YORUBA WERE MORE SPECIFICALLY REFERRED TO AS EGBA yoruba were more specifically referred to as EGBA YORUBA. THE WORD EGBA IS A DERIVATION OF IGBO( EGBA,EGBO IGBO) AS THE EGBA YORUBA ARE OF IGBO ORIGINS.

SOUTHEAST NIGERIA MARKS THE LOCATION OF THE PRESENT DAY IGBO TRIBE. HOWEVER INITIALLY THE IGBO WERE THE RULERS OF THE ENTIRE SOUTH INCLUDING THE SOUTHWEST WHICH IS CURRENTLY CLASSIFIED AS YORUBA TERRITORY. THE YORUBA FIRST ENTERED THE SOUTHWEST PART OF NIGERIA AS INVADERS AND COLONIZERS OF THE ORIGINAL IGBO INHABITANTS WHO LATER BECAME KNOWN AS THE EGBA YORUBA. THE YORUBA(oyo,ijebu etc.) invasion was led by a man named ODUDWA WHO IS CONSIDERED TO BE THE " FOUNDING FATHER " OF THE PRESENT DAY YORUBA PEOPLE. TO THIS DAY YORUBA INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTS STILL EXIST WITH THE HOPE OF ESTABLISHING THE INDEPENDENT YORUBA NATION OF WHICH THEY WISH TO CALL ODUDWA. THE DEFEAT AND CONQUEST OF THE IGBOS IN SOUTHWEST NIGERIA IS CELEBRATED EVERY YEAR BY THE YORUBA AT THE ANNUAL EID FESTIVAL(THE KINGDOM OF THE YORUBA - ROBERT SMITH 3RD EDITION UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS)

ONE OF THE LARGER YORUBA TRIBES ARE CALLED THE IJEBU. IT IS AN ESTABLISHED FACT THAT THE IJEBU WERE SELLING EGBA IN MASS NUMBERS DURING THE SLAVE TRADE. THE CITY IJEBU - IGBO STILL EXISTS IN THE YORUBA HEARTLAND WHICH NOT ONLY REFLECTS THE EARLIER IGBO HISTORY IN THE SOUTHWEST BUT FURTHER SERVES AS A MEMORY CONCERNING THE USAGE OF IGBO PRIOR TO THE TRANSFORMATION TO EGBA IN THAT PARTICULAR REGION. IN ADDITION TO THE EGBA THERE REMAINS A YORUBA TRIBE THAT LIVES IN THE KWARRA STATE WHICH CONTINUES TO USE THE MORE ORIGINAL IGBO AS PART OF THEIR TRIBAL NAME AS THEY ARE CALLED THE IGBO - MINA TRIBE. THE USAGE OF THE TERM EGBA WAS INSTITUTED TO DECLARE A STATE OF SECRECY AMONGST CERTAIN IGBOS. THE CURRENT IGBOS OF SOUTHEAST NIGERIA CONTINUE TO MAINTAIN EGBO AS A SECRET SOCIETY WHILE THE SAME TERM EGBA REFERS TO OTHER SECRET IGBO TRIBES.

1. EGBO - A SECRET SOCIETY AT ONE TIME EXISTING AS A POLITICAL BOND BETWEEN VARIOUS TOWNS ESPECIALLY EASTERN NIGERIA - WORLD BOOK DICTIONARY A - K 1974

2. EGBA - A CONFEDERATION OF NEGRO TRIBES NORTH OF THE SLAVE COAST- FUNK AND WAGNALS NEW STANDARD DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE - 1963

ALTHOUGH THE CONCEPT OF LEGBA VARIES IT BEGAN AS AN ANCESTRAL MEMORIAL DESIGNED TO MAINTAIN THE IGBO IDENTITY DURING TIMES WHEN TRHE IGBO DECLARED THEMSELVES TO BE IN A STATE OF SECRECY CALLED EGBA. LEGBA WAS NOT ONLY USED TO FEND OFF INVADING AFRICAN TRIBES BUT WAS ALSO ACTIVATED IN THE NEW WORLD TO COUNTER MODERN SLAVERY AND ITS ATTEMPTS TO WIPE OUT THE EGBA(igbo) IDENTITY OF THE CAPTIVES. THE DEITY LEGBA IS DESCRIBED IN YORUBA MYTHOLOGY AS THE DIVINE TRICKSTER WHO WIELDS GREAT POWER BECAUSE OF HIS ABILITY TO OUTWIT HIS FELLOW GODS. EVIDENCES OF LEGBA HAVE BEEN DOCUMENTED THROUGHOUT THE AMERICAS IN SUCH PLACES AS BRAZIL, GUIANA, TRINIDAD, HAITI AND NEW ORLEANS UNDER VARIOUS NAMES SUCH AS LEBBA, LEGBA, ELEGBARRA AND LIBA.

THE TERM ELEGBARRA OR LUGBARRA IS OF GREAT SIGNIFICANCE BECAUSE NOT ONLY DOES THE NAME APPEAR IN THE AMERICAS AMONGST THE EGBA SLAVES WHO ARE OF IGBO ORIGIN BUT IT IS ALSO THE NAME OF A TRIBE THAT LIVES IN SOUTHERN SUDAN AND NORTHERN UGANDA WHO ARE LIKEWISE RELATED TO THE IGBOS OF NIGERIA. WHEN TRAVELLING IN UGANDA I PERSONALLY MET A LUGBARRA MEDICAL DOCTOR WHO PREVIOUSLY STUDIED ALONGSIDE OF IGBOS FROM NIGERIA.THE LUGBARRA STATED THAT HE COULD UNDERSTAND MUCH OF THE IGBO LANGUAGE WHICH NATURALLY HAD MUCH IN COMMON WITH HIS OWN LUGBARRA TONGUE. THE DOCTOR WAS CONVINCED THAT THE LUGBARRA AND THE IGBO WERE DEFINITELY AKIN.THE LUGBARRA TRIBE LIVES ALONGSIDE OF AND ARE RELATED TO THE KAKWA TRIBE. IT IS FROM THE KAKWA THAT ACCOUNTS FOR THE USAGE OF KWA AMONGST THE IGBO. THIS INCLUDES BOTH THE IGBO AND EGBA LANGUAGES BEING CLASSIFIED AS KWA LANGUAGES AND SUCH NAMES AS THE KWA IBO RIVER.

IN 1967, HAITI BECAME THE ONLY COUNTRY OUTSIDE OF AFRICA TO RECOGNIZE BIAFRAN INDEPENDENCE.THIS WAS DUE TO THE HAITIANS MEMORY OF THEIR OWN IGBO REVOLUTIONARY PAST. THE NUMEROUS AND SUCCESSFUL SLAVE REVOLTS IN HAITI ARE CLEARLY ACKNOWLEDGED AND DOCUMENTED AS IGBO UPRISINGS, BUT YET WE FIND THE STRONGEST PRESENCE OF THE ANCESTRAL DEITY LEGBA AMONGST THE HAITIANS. IN HAITI LEGBA IS DESCRIBED AS THE MOST POWERFUL OF ALL OF THE LOA. HE IS THE GUARDIAN OF THE GATE BETWEEN THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL WORLD. HE HAS GREAT WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE PAST AND THE FUTURE. EVERY RITUAL BEGINS WITH A SACRIFICE TO LEGBA. HE IS THE GUARDIAN OF THE SUN AND HIS COLOR IS BLACK. THE GUARDIAN OF THE SUN IS MOST LIKELY A CODE FOR THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN WHICH IS BIAFRA. IN SUMMARY THE SLAVES TAKEN TO THE AMERICAS AND CLASSIFIED AS YORUBA WERE EGBA MEANING IGBO.

mamaput:
chinani how do you think a mother or father will feel if they hear the child denying were they come from

How do you thik i will feel if my kids say "Am german but my mum is Nigerian" And in my case am only half Nigerian.
The two smaller ones say there mum is Nigerian only the big girl knows whats all about.
But guess what no one that has not seen me belives her

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Destined_to_Witness_book_cover.jpg

Have you ever read this biography, before? I read it, and it was really, really good. It's an self-made biography by an Afro-German named Hans J. Massaquoi. He was born in Germany, the product of a relationship between the son of an Liberian diplomat located in Germany, and an German nurse. He was born just a few years prior to the time the Nazi party took over the nation, forcing his father and the rest of his Liberian side of the family to flee the nation, and upon his fathers insistence, Hans and his mother stayed behind, with a promise from the father that he'd return to get them, a promise he never fulfilled until years after WW2 had ended, and Hans had grown up to be a nearly full grown man at the age of like 17 or so.  His life, and survival methods he used while living through the Evils of Nazi Geman society--- was pure entertainment and thrilling to take in.

The book also gives a very good insight into how the average joe within Germany during that period really felt about the whole system they lived under, and I was amazed by what I was reading in regards to that, in that it's nothing like the History Channel or other historical sources on the issue express.

For intense, I learned that few people, actually supported the Nazi party or ideals to all that great of an extent, especially amongst the older generations, who saw right threw the parties bullshit, unlike much of the youth who adamantly fed into it do to the heavy dose of glitz and glamored propaganda the party pushed out to them; and the parents couldn't say anything to them about it because the kids were being encouraged to spy on and tell on there parents to party representatives if they talked badly about the party.

Yet he talked about how many girls ang guys from around his neighborhood joined those Nazi kid leagues, and then soon dropped out, saying it was bullshit, a waste of time, and such. And the part of the book in where he comes in contacted with African-American solders after the war is a very good part of the book, in that these young solders become his first black friends ever, and black contacts since his Liberian family left Germany when the Nazi party took over.

Over all, I'll give it 4 1/4 STARZ out of the usual 5, and I here they started shooting a movie version of the book last year. It should be hot, can't wait to see it.

Here's a better rundown on the book:

Hans J. Massaquoi.

In his autobiography the author, former managing editor of Ebony, tells the story of his growing up in Hamburg. He was born in 1926 as son of a German mother and a high ranking officer of the consulate of Liberia, the only independent black African state at that time apart from Ethiopia. His grandfather was the Liberian consul-general to Hamburg. When his father and grandfather went back to Liberia in 1929, his mother decided to stay in Germany. She made their living working as a nurse, and she and the little boy had to move from the elegant villa to a modest cold-water apartment in the workers’quarter Barmbek.

In the 1930s only a few black people lived in Germany, most of them in the Rhine area, children of German mothers and French-African soldiers. During WW I France had recruited troops from her African colonies, mainly from Senegal. These children in the French-occupied Rhineland were called Franzosenkinder (French children).

In the northern part of Germany black people were so rare that most people never had seen one. Until the 1970s they were called Neger (negro), and it was not considered derogatory. When immigration from Africa grew, discussion about the “N word” grew as well. Today people from black Africa are called Africans, omitting the fact that Arabs also live on the African continent.

Considering this and the Nazi’s obsession to exterminate all non-Aryans, it is almost unbelievable that Hans Massaquoi had never suffered serious persecution by the authorities, although he was rebuffed when he applied for membership in the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth), while every young male German was obliged to be a member.

Destined to Witness, in German titled Neger, Neger, Schornsteinfeger (Negro, Negro, Chimney Sweep), was a great success in Germany, remaining on top of the bestselling list of the German weekly Der Spiegel for a couple of months. A screenplay has been adapted from the book and movie shooting started in 2005. The film will soon be seen on one of the major nationwide TV networks.

Drusilla and Food4tot, you two must be Yoruba. No one would go so far to dispute such solid facts as that in which I gave, but someone who was told something about their people that they really liked to hear,  and then later had those telling shattered by logical, well laid out and backed words from another. I've put my case on the table, let's see your documentations and self knowledgeable additives in which would dispute what I'm case that I'm giving to you.

You say that I'm taking information known to be that of the Yoruba and saying that its Igbo, yet when I broke it down and gave nearly step by step reasoning why in fact my information can't be construed as that of the Yoruba people, you still say that what I'm saying is not Igbo or SE Naija connected but Yoruba; yet you present nothing to back it up.  Show us something to back up what you're saying.

I present documentations and my own extensive personal knowledge of the situation to back my words up; now where's yours? The facts are that,  66% of the AA population is of SE Nigerian descent and the remainder 34% is others, and Yoruba genes are least representative in the group, because they were seen as not being befitting for for the Anglo slave system. Though I'd admit to their being quite a significant portion within the 34% in which are Angolan do to trades between the Latins, mainly French, who sold off many of their slaves to other nations for dirt cheap prices when they were being forced out of the Caribbean trade by the more powerful Spanish and British.

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!!

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!!! 

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

I haven't seen MI3 yet, but X-Men was pretty good. The graphics were crazy, and Halle Berry gits her butt kicked by this young black chick. The fight scenes were kinda whack though. But over all, I'll give it 3 starz out of the usual 5.

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?  

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%.

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.

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.

food4tot:
@hero's comment

Just being curious.

I have seen badly built houses but I have not seen tin shacks. Has anyone here actually seen people living in tin shacks? Dont tell me you have if you saw it on a foreign tv channel.

Yes, I've been to Nigeria on three separate occasions, and not only seen countless number of folks living in areas in which were wholly or nearly wholly made of tin shacks or tiny homes if you'd prefer me call them; but I'll admit to your point of that,  most of the lessor developed areas of the cities did consist of shotty apartment blocks laden within very under developed rural looking areas of the cities, like these pictured below.

https://mk23.image.pbase.com/v3/93/329493/1/45633577.accrajun05008.JPG

Just beyond this forestation are Abuja buildings, and no--- this isn't a park, but just an undeveloped area right inside Abuja.
https://www.wwwagic.org/vso/pics/abuja/down_town_abuja.jpg

What Nigerian cities, especially Lagos, Ibadan, P. Harcourt, Benin City amongst others---- need is low income apartment highrise projects, like those found in most other major cities around the world. Since the nation is so relatively small in comparison to it's population size and rapid population growth,  the most wise thing for the city planners to do is encourage their cities to grow upward, instead of outward. Lagos, Ibadan and Port Harcourt should all look something like New York, London, Rio, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Shanghai or Tokyo by now, with a mass of 8, 10, 12, 16 and up----storied apartment buildings covering their landmass'. This holds most true for Lagos, in which is one of the worlds most populous Mega-Cities, with well over, at least, 15Mill people, crammed into an area the size of Brooklyn or Queens, NY., both of which have only about 2 Mill people each.