MissMeiya:
@christopher123

You are awesome! Thanks for adding new content to the thread! Now I've learned something too!

And that's what we're here for, right, guys? Group hug!

Thank you dearie, I wanted to let them understand that this is no dicckk measuring contest


some people invent nsibidi (maybe the ibibios or igbos)
some people refined it (maybe the igbos or ibibios)


that is what we cant categorically say due to lost of data and archaeological evidences but one thing is that it is in both cultures.... so we are not contesting, this is just an intellectual discourse


your welcome, thanks for such an awesome thread


its refreshing and intellectual


hope i was not nasty in anyway?

christopher123:



Thank you dearie, I wanted to let them understand that this is no dicckk measuring contest


some people invent nsibidi (maybe the ibibios or igbos)
some people refined it (maybe the igbos or ibibios)


that is what we cant categorically say due to lost of data and archaeological evidences but one thing is that it is in both cultures.... so we are not contesting, this is just an intellectual discourse


your welcome, thanks for such an awesome thread


its refreshing and intellectual


hope i was not nasty in anyway?

Absolutely. Creation does not occur in a vacuum. Everything and everyone is influenced by something else. Always. Fighting over ownership is childish. Unless you get it on paper before anyone else does. Then they call that copyright

Re: nastiness LOL. I, of all people, would never judge.

MissMeiya:


Thank you. I would have edited the OP to highlight that part, but once it hit the front page, it got locked.

Indeed, the word Igbo gets some people very worked up.

i just dont know why

MissMeiya:


Absolutely. Creation does not occur in a vacuum. Everything and everyone is influenced by something else. Always. Fighting over ownership is childish.

Re: nastiness LOL. I, of all people, would never judge.

but do you realize that some slaves in the americas maintained there nsibidi culture of writing, we have been robbed of our heritage, Nigeria with its tribalistic phobism will never allow this form of writing to materialize but they will prefer western form of writing.....

this is the neo colonialist attitude of ours has affected all ramification of uor lives]


i congratulates the aros, the abiribas,the ibiobios or efiks(i dont know which one now) for giving us this unique writing

MissMeiya:


What is ndebe?

A logographic shorthand project rooted in
Nsibidi script.

Based largely on court and county documents as well as the recently published transatlantic slave database, Douglas Chambers uses the circumstances surrounding the 1732 death of Ambrose Madison, the paternal grandfather of President James Madison, to reconstruct the history of the Igbo slaves in Virginia. Thus, the book is primarily about the dominant role of enslaved Igbo in the formation of early Afro-Virginia slave culture and society. In the words of the author, it discusses "the process of historical creolization in eighteenth-century Virginia .. . .[which] effectively mean[s] the Igboization of slave community and culture" in the region (p. 18). The book breaks into two parts: part 1 consists of chapters 1-4, and part 2 consists of chapters 5-10.

Three slaves, two men and a woman, were accused of causing Madison's death by poisoning. They were tried and found guilty. While one of the accused, a male slave owned by a neighboring planter, was executed for his alleged lead role, the other two, owned by Madison, were punished by whipping and returned to his estate.

As a foundation for his thesis, Chambers attempts to trace the history of the enslaved Africans from their points of embarkation in the Bight of Biafra and, more specifically, Calabar to their disembarkation in Virginia. Thus, while part 1 of the study focuses on the Igbo and their culture and society during the era of the transatlantic slave trade, part 2 centers on the experiences of the enslaved in Virginia. The author argues that the emergence and expansion of Aro influence in Igbo region, as the foremost slave merchants, and the demise of Nri hegemony in the north-central Igbo region in the mid-eighteenth century resulted in increased exportation of Igbo people out of the Calabar and the Niger Delta ports.

According to the author's calculations, the Igbo accounted for about 1.3 million of the 1.7 million people exported from the Bight of Biafra during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. Out of a total of 37,000 Africans that arrived in Virginia from Calabar in the 1700s, 30,000 were Igbo (p. 23). The significance of this pattern of slave trade between Calabar and Virginia, Chamber argues, is that the increased exportation of enslaved Igbo from their homeland to the Chesapeake region coincided with the expansion of colonial settlement from the Upper Tidewater to the fertile Central Piedmont, an era when the transatlantic trade transformed the region into a slave society that was dominated by the Igbo and their culture.

In 1721, Ambrose Madison inherited an estate at Mt. Pleasant from his father-in-law. To secure title to this estate, he purchased newly imported African slaves and sent them there to clear and cultivate crops. In early 1732, he moved to the new estate with his family. Six months later, while still in his mid-thirties, he died, allegedly as a result of poison. As the author states, while Madison's biographers and hagiographers helped to create a general impression that he died a strange death at a very young age, his family members attributed his death to a poisoning conspiracy involving two of his slaves and an outside male slave. To buttress his claim that Igbo slaves were responsible for their master's death, Chambers, in a chapter of only five pages, attempts to link the use of poison as a weapon of slave resistance to the enslaved Igbo in Virginia and the Caribbean colonies.

This is very subjective, since the knowledge and use of plant medicines to heal the sick, placate the spirits and punish enemies and deviants was not the exclusive prerogative of the enslaved Igbo.

In part 2 of the book, which focuses on Virginia, the author delineates five phases of the creolization of Mt. Pleasant (later Montpelier), namely, the Charter generation (1720s-1730s), the Creolizing generation (1740s-1760s), the Creolized generation (1770s-1790s), the "Worriment" generation (1800s-1820s), and the Ruination generation (1830s-1850s). The charter generation of Atlantic Africans marked the development of Mt.

Pleasant as a regional slave community of the Madison family with twenty-nine slaves. It was an era when enslaved Africans employed their cultural heritage to adapt to their new environment. They not only employed their expertise in tropical agriculture to cultivate tobacco and corn, but also put into use their knowledge of herbs and plants to make preventive, curative, and poisonous medicines. Upon Madison's death, his family shared his slaves between his two quarters: the Home House and Black Level, an action which signifies a new settlement pattern.

The Creolizing generation of the Montpelier slave community saw a steady growth in the slave population, resulting largely from inheritance and births. Under the leadership of James Madison Sr., the family embarked on major construction projects that made each of their quarters resemble a small village. They also established large tobacco barns, corncrib, and a mill. Wealth generated through slave labor enabled Madison to enhance his economic and political status. For closer supervision and increased productivity, he broke his slaves into small workforces and deployed them annually to live in different quarters in a rotating order. However, following the building of the Home House and the slave quarter, the Walnut Grove, Madison brought many of his slaves to stay at the core Montpelier community in the late 1760s.

The Creolized generation (1770s-1790s) marked the high point of Montpelier as a slave community that was centered on the Walnut Grove, with over hundred slaves in the mid-1770s (p. 129). While tobacco remained the main export crop, Madison was able to diversify his business operations to include blacksmithing, carpentry, and brandy distilling. He also added wheat and hay to his list of crops. Before he died in 1801, Madison also invested in plows, scythes, and other grain-cultivating tools which facilitated increased production and specialization by the slaves.

The "Worriment" (1800s-1820s) and "Ruination" (1830s-1850s) generations marked the death of James Madison Sr., the disputes over the division of his estates, the first substantial separations of slaves from the home community, the death of President Madison, and the final divestment of what was left of the Montpelier community. By 1860, under a new owner, the Montpelier slave population had been so drastically reduced, either through intra- and inter-state slave trade or the manumission process, that only twenty slaves were left on the estate.

As the author aptly observes, in spite of the predominant role of enslaved Africans in the development of Mt. Pleasant and their contribution to the rise of the Madison family to regional prominence, historians have tended to overlook them, focusing on Montpelier only as the family home of President Madison. A few of the blacks mentioned in the historiography of the Madisons were Sawney, Billy Gardner, Granny Milly, Paul Jennings, and Surkey. Paul Jennings, who published a small pamphlet in 1865, was a sixteen-year-old house slave at the White House in 1814, attending to the president until his death, and Sawney accompanied the young James to his college in New Jersey and served as his manservant. He also served as an overseer, cultivated yams and cabbages, and raised chickens before his death in the 1830s.

In the last chapter, the author tries to reinforce his claims that Igbo slaves killed Ambrose Madison and that their predominance in Virginia gave them the opportunity to lay the foundation of the Afro-Virginian culture and community. For this purpose, he uses the personal names of the enslaved to mark their individuality and to connect them to the Montpelier slave community and the broader history of the region. The author mentions names such as Calabar (male), Eboe Sarah (female), Juba (male,) and Breechy (male). He also uses yams (a staple food) and okra (a vegetable) as evidence of the foodways of

Igbo origins, as well as "mojo" for charms, and the slave "Jonkonnu" (a Christmastime slave masquerade), all in the attempt to make a case for what he calls "creolized Igboism" in Virginia. Chambers also associates the eighteenth-century low-fired ceramic cooking pots and eating bowls (generally called colonoware) with the enslaved Igbo. According to the author, the "description of precolonial Igbo potting technology fits quite well with what is known of eighteenth-century Virginia colonoware . . . [and] gourds (calabashes) were another important Igbo material cultural item that continued in Virginia" (pp.172-173).

Other material culture the author lists in the book, as signifying Igbo connection, are dugout canoes, styles of fences, blue glass beads, and an iron sculpture which he claims evokes the kinds of figures made from wood or clay that littered southern Igbo "mbari" art or even "ikenga" (p.174). The author identifies musical instruments such as box drums and the "banjo" stringed instrument as uniquely Igbo. He also points to slave patterns of settlement, Igbo belief in reincarnation, the practice of not celebrating birthdays, and the nudity of enslaved children and youths as practices which resonated in Afro-Virginian culture and suggest the dominance of Igbo influence.

The author draws on the extreme lactose intolerance among Virginia's black adults of the nineteenth century and the related notion that the Igbo and Yoruba were the only major African ethnic groups with a known lactose intolerance (p.186). In addition, he says that the high proportion of Igbo women in the colony might have given them disproportionate influence in the socialization of Creole children.

As a counter-thesis to that of the author, it should be noted that yam-growing was and is not peculiar to the Igbo; more importantly, North American yams are actually sweet potatoes, not the "genus Dioscorea" associated with West Africa. Similarly, the paraphernalia associated with the Christmastime slave masquerades that the author links with the Igbo were actually more related to mid-twentieth-century Kalabari masks.

As for calabashes, as the author notes, these were used as gourds in Virginia; by contrast, calabashes were used as cups, bowls, and drinking ladles in Igbo society. Regarding musical instruments, while many central African peoples called their version of stringed gourd "mbanza", there is no Igbo name for the musical instrument the author identifies as "banjo." The author believes that most of the enslaved Igbo who came from Calabar were from the north-central Igbo region, the home to the famous Umudioka woodcarvers.

I would argue that the absence of carved doors and panels in Virginia undermines the idea of a north-central Igbo provenance of Calabar slaves and a pervasive Igbo presence and culture there. While there may be some credibility in the above claims, it is apparent that some of the cultural practices attributed to the Igbo in this study were neither unique nor exclusive to them. To start with, the Igbo were not the only enslaved Africans who originated from the Niger Delta and Calabar ports, and ended up in Virginia. There were also the Ibibio, the Efik, the Andoni, the Ubani, the Okrika, the Kalabari, and, later, the Ejagham, the Ekoi, the Idoma, the Igala, and even the Hausa and Nupe--captives from the nineteenth-century Muslim-engineered wars.

Besides, Virginia had slaves from the Yoruba, the Akan area, Mande, Fulani, Angola, the Congo basin, and Madagascar. The period covered by the book also coincided with the Islamic militancy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the Senegambia, an upheaval that resulted in the enslavement of the natives.

Virginia was, in other words, a very multi-ethnic slave society. The lack of attention to other Africans in Virginia and the related neglect of their obvious contributions to the development of the region is a major weakness of this study.

It is clear that the author's interpretation and analysis was handicapped by his limited knowledge of Igbo history, culture, and language. For instance, he erroneously regards the Nri as the "first Igbo" (pp. 36-38) and treats them as founders and leaders of the entire Igbo nation. This explains why he spends considerable time in discussing the Nri kinglist and genealogical history, which is less important for purposes of his study; the book would have benefited more if he had instead focused on the Aro, Nike, Abam, Aboh, Ngwa, Ndoki, Nkwerre, and others who participated in the transatlantic slave trade. It is also erroneous to claim that the Nri were the only people in Igbo society with the power to cleanse abominations. The author asserts that the "expansion of Aro merchant warlord settlements" (p. 35) in the mid-eighteenth century led to the growing power of client village groups within Nri area. However, no examples of such Aro-client villages in north-central Igbo region are provided.

It is misleading to suggest that there was no cassava in the region until the twentieth century and that "fufu in Igboland was invariably made of yams, not cassava" (p. 40). Cassava was introduced in different parts of Igbo region at different points in time. While some areas started cultivating and processing the crop in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, others adopted it in the twentieth century.

Moreover, fufu was also made from cocoyam, unripe plantain, and banana and, later, cassava. The incident attributed to the "Nkwerre," who supposedly plundered Onitsha women traders when they brought European goods to the Nkwerre markets, and the author's interpretation and suggestion that the women were molested for usurping males' trading prerogative that violated Nkwerre taboo, are examples of his limited knowledge of Igbo society and history. The town in question was Nkwelle, which is twenty miles from Onitsha, not Nkwerre, which is much farther away. Moreover, Onitsha women were famed traders who not only bought and sold local and European goods, but also had direct commercial relations with European merchants from the moment the latter arrived in Onitsha.

As studies on the development of trade and commerce in the Onitsha region show, it was not until the twentieth century that Onitsha men, who regarded trade as women's work, began to take part in trade with the European firms.

The author's claim that "Igbo people brought the term ['buckra'] into English" (p. 110), as in "buckra ," a term used by slaves to refer to their white masters, is doubtful. While "buckra" might be a corruption of Ibibio "mbakara" ("mb" equals plural; "kara" equals to encircle, rule, or abuse), one cannot see the connection of this word with the Igbo. Similarly, he suggests that the slave name "Juba" was Igbo (meaning: "ji" for yam and "uba" for canoe, literally translated to mean "yam barn", "and that Juba" could actually be translated into Igbo words for "ask /enquire," or "refuse," or "possession of wealth" (ji-uba), or "plentiful yam." It is more likely that "Juba" was an Akan name (as in the case of Akan female name in South Carolina and Jamaica) than Igbo name.

In spite of the drawbacks I have pointed out, and occasional typographical errors, the author has assiduously provided an African-centered perspective that helps in our understanding of the circumstances surrounding the death of Ambrose Madison in 1732 and the development of his family into a prominent regional, and indeed, national economic and political power, as well as the contributions of his slaves in achieving these feats and to the foundation and growth of slave culture and society in Virginia. The book represents a limited but significant contribution to the history and historiography of slavery and, therefore, a valuable resource to students and scholars in the study of Africa and the diaspora.

phreakabit:


A logographic shorthand project rooted in
Nsibidi script.

Based largely on court and county documents as well as the recently published transatlantic slave database, Douglas Chambers uses the circumstances surrounding the 1732 death of Ambrose Madison, the paternal grandfather of President James Madison, to reconstruct the history of the Igbo slaves in Virginia. Thus, the book is primarily about the dominant role of enslaved Igbo in the formation of early Afro-Virginia slave culture and society. In the words of the author, it discusses "the process of historical creolization in eighteenth-century Virginia .. . .[which] effectively mean[s] the Igboization of slave community and culture" in the region (p. 18). The book breaks into two parts: part 1 consists of chapters 1-4, and part 2 consists of chapters 5-10.

Three slaves, two men and a woman, were accused of causing Madison's death by poisoning. They were tried and found guilty. While one of the accused, a male slave owned by a neighboring planter, was executed for his alleged lead role, the other two, owned by Madison, were punished by whipping and returned to his estate.

As a foundation for his thesis, Chambers attempts to trace the history of the enslaved Africans from their points of embarkation in the Bight of Biafra and, more specifically, Calabar to their disembarkation in Virginia. Thus, while part 1 of the study focuses on the Igbo and their culture and society during the era of the transatlantic slave trade, part 2 centers on the experiences of the enslaved in Virginia. The author argues that the emergence and expansion of Aro influence in Igbo region, as the foremost slave merchants, and the demise of Nri hegemony in the north-central Igbo region in the mid-eighteenth century resulted in increased exportation of Igbo people out of the Calabar and the Niger Delta ports.

According to the author's calculations, the Igbo accounted for about 1.3 million of the 1.7 million people exported from the Bight of Biafra during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. Out of a total of 37,000 Africans that arrived in Virginia from Calabar in the 1700s, 30,000 were Igbo (p. 23). The significance of this pattern of slave trade between Calabar and Virginia, Chamber argues, is that the increased exportation of enslaved Igbo from their homeland to the Chesapeake region coincided with the expansion of colonial settlement from the Upper Tidewater to the fertile Central Piedmont, an era when the transatlantic trade transformed the region into a slave society that was dominated by the Igbo and their culture.

In 1721, Ambrose Madison inherited an estate at Mt. Pleasant from his father-in-law. To secure title to this estate, he purchased newly imported African slaves and sent them there to clear and cultivate crops. In early 1732, he moved to the new estate with his family. Six months later, while still in his mid-thirties, he died, allegedly as a result of poison. As the author states, while Madison's biographers and hagiographers helped to create a general impression that he died a strange death at a very young age, his family members attributed his death to a poisoning conspiracy involving two of his slaves and an outside male slave. To buttress his claim that Igbo slaves were responsible for their master's death, Chambers, in a chapter of only five pages, attempts to link the use of poison as a weapon of slave resistance to the enslaved Igbo in Virginia and the Caribbean colonies.

This is very subjective, since the knowledge and use of plant medicines to heal the sick, placate the spirits and punish enemies and deviants was not the exclusive prerogative of the enslaved Igbo.

In part 2 of the book, which focuses on Virginia, the author delineates five phases of the creolization of Mt. Pleasant (later Montpelier), namely, the Charter generation (1720s-1730s), the Creolizing generation (1740s-1760s), the Creolized generation (1770s-1790s), the "Worriment" generation (1800s-1820s), and the Ruination generation (1830s-1850s). The charter generation of Atlantic Africans marked the development of Mt.

Pleasant as a regional slave community of the Madison family with twenty-nine slaves. It was an era when enslaved Africans employed their cultural heritage to adapt to their new environment. They not only employed their expertise in tropical agriculture to cultivate tobacco and corn, but also put into use their knowledge of herbs and plants to make preventive, curative, and poisonous medicines. Upon Madison's death, his family shared his slaves between his two quarters: the Home House and Black Level, an action which signifies a new settlement pattern.

The Creolizing generation of the Montpelier slave community saw a steady growth in the slave population, resulting largely from inheritance and births. Under the leadership of James Madison Sr., the family embarked on major construction projects that made each of their quarters resemble a small village. They also established large tobacco barns, corncrib, and a mill. Wealth generated through slave labor enabled Madison to enhance his economic and political status. For closer supervision and increased productivity, he broke his slaves into small workforces and deployed them annually to live in different quarters in a rotating order. However, following the building of the Home House and the slave quarter, the Walnut Grove, Madison brought many of his slaves to stay at the core Montpelier community in the late 1760s.

The Creolized generation (1770s-1790s) marked the high point of Montpelier as a slave community that was centered on the Walnut Grove, with over hundred slaves in the mid-1770s (p. 129). While tobacco remained the main export crop, Madison was able to diversify his business operations to include blacksmithing, carpentry, and brandy distilling. He also added wheat and hay to his list of crops. Before he died in 1801, Madison also invested in plows, scythes, and other grain-cultivating tools which facilitated increased production and specialization by the slaves.

The "Worriment" (1800s-1820s) and "Ruination" (1830s-1850s) generations marked the death of James Madison Sr., the disputes over the division of his estates, the first substantial separations of slaves from the home community, the death of President Madison, and the final divestment of what was left of the Montpelier community. By 1860, under a new owner, the Montpelier slave population had been so drastically reduced, either through intra- and inter-state slave trade or the manumission process, that only twenty slaves were left on the estate.

As the author aptly observes, in spite of the predominant role of enslaved Africans in the development of Mt. Pleasant and their contribution to the rise of the Madison family to regional prominence, historians have tended to overlook them, focusing on Montpelier only as the family home of President Madison. A few of the blacks mentioned in the historiography of the Madisons were Sawney, Billy Gardner, Granny Milly, Paul Jennings, and Surkey. Paul Jennings, who published a small pamphlet in 1865, was a sixteen-year-old house slave at the White House in 1814, attending to the president until his death, and Sawney accompanied the young James to his college in New Jersey and served as his manservant. He also served as an overseer, cultivated yams and cabbages, and raised chickens before his death in the 1830s.

In the last chapter, the author tries to reinforce his claims that Igbo slaves killed Ambrose Madison and that their predominance in Virginia gave them the opportunity to lay the foundation of the Afro-Virginian culture and community. For this purpose, he uses the personal names of the enslaved to mark their individuality and to connect them to the Montpelier slave community and the broader history of the region. The author mentions names such as Calabar (male), Eboe Sarah (female), Juba (male,) and Breechy (male). He also uses yams (a staple food) and okra (a vegetable) as evidence of the foodways of

Igbo origins, as well as "mojo" for charms, and the slave "Jonkonnu" (a Christmastime slave masquerade), all in the attempt to make a case for what he calls "creolized Igboism" in Virginia. Chambers also associates the eighteenth-century low-fired ceramic cooking pots and eating bowls (generally called colonoware) with the enslaved Igbo. According to the author, the "description of precolonial Igbo potting technology fits quite well with what is known of eighteenth-century Virginia colonoware . . . [and] gourds (calabashes) were another important Igbo material cultural item that continued in Virginia" (pp.172-173).

Other material culture the author lists in the book, as signifying Igbo connection, are dugout canoes, styles of fences, blue glass beads, and an iron sculpture which he claims evokes the kinds of figures made from wood or clay that littered southern Igbo "mbari" art or even "ikenga" (p.174). The author identifies musical instruments such as box drums and the "banjo" stringed instrument as uniquely Igbo. He also points to slave patterns of settlement, Igbo belief in reincarnation, the practice of not celebrating birthdays, and the nudity of enslaved children and youths as practices which resonated in Afro-Virginian culture and suggest the dominance of Igbo influence.

The author draws on the extreme lactose intolerance among Virginia's black adults of the nineteenth century and the related notion that the Igbo and Yoruba were the only major African ethnic groups with a known lactose intolerance (p.186). In addition, he says that the high proportion of Igbo women in the colony might have given them disproportionate influence in the socialization of Creole children.

As a counter-thesis to that of the author, it should be noted that yam-growing was and is not peculiar to the Igbo; more importantly, North American yams are actually sweet potatoes, not the "genus Dioscorea" associated with West Africa. Similarly, the paraphernalia associated with the Christmastime slave masquerades that the author links with the Igbo were actually more related to mid-twentieth-century Kalabari masks.

As for calabashes, as the author notes, these were used as gourds in Virginia; by contrast, calabashes were used as cups, bowls, and drinking ladles in Igbo society. Regarding musical instruments, while many central African peoples called their version of stringed gourd "mbanza", there is no Igbo name for the musical instrument the author identifies as "banjo." The author believes that most of the enslaved Igbo who came from Calabar were from the north-central Igbo region, the home to the famous Umudioka woodcarvers.

I would argue that the absence of carved doors and panels in Virginia undermines the idea of a north-central Igbo provenance of Calabar slaves and a pervasive Igbo presence and culture there. While there may be some credibility in the above claims, it is apparent that some of the cultural practices attributed to the Igbo in this study were neither unique nor exclusive to them. To start with, the Igbo were not the only enslaved Africans who originated from the Niger Delta and Calabar ports, and ended up in Virginia. There were also the Ibibio, the Efik, the Andoni, the Ubani, the Okrika, the Kalabari, and, later, the Ejagham, the Ekoi, the Idoma, the Igala, and even the Hausa and Nupe--captives from the nineteenth-century Muslim-engineered wars.

Besides, Virginia had slaves from the Yoruba, the Akan area, Mande, Fulani, Angola, the Congo basin, and Madagascar. The period covered by the book also coincided with the Islamic militancy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the Senegambia, an upheaval that resulted in the enslavement of the natives.

Virginia was, in other words, a very multi-ethnic slave society. The lack of attention to other Africans in Virginia and the related neglect of their obvious contributions to the development of the region is a major weakness of this study.

It is clear that the author's interpretation and analysis was handicapped by his limited knowledge of Igbo history, culture, and language. For instance, he erroneously regards the Nri as the "first Igbo" (pp. 36-38) and treats them as founders and leaders of the entire Igbo nation. This explains why he spends considerable time in discussing the Nri kinglist and genealogical history, which is less important for purposes of his study; the book would have benefited more if he had instead focused on the Aro, Nike, Abam, Aboh, Ngwa, Ndoki, Nkwerre, and others who participated in the transatlantic slave trade. It is also erroneous to claim that the Nri were the only people in Igbo society with the power to cleanse abominations. The author asserts that the "expansion of Aro merchant warlord settlements" (p. 35) in the mid-eighteenth century led to the growing power of client village groups within Nri area. However, no examples of such Aro-client villages in north-central Igbo region are provided.

It is misleading to suggest that there was no cassava in the region until the twentieth century and that "fufu in Igboland was invariably made of yams, not cassava" (p. 40). Cassava was introduced in different parts of Igbo region at different points in time. While some areas started cultivating and processing the crop in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, others adopted it in the twentieth century.

Moreover, fufu was also made from cocoyam, unripe plantain, and banana and, later, cassava. The incident attributed to the "Nkwerre," who supposedly plundered Onitsha women traders when they brought European goods to the Nkwerre markets, and the author's interpretation and suggestion that the women were molested for usurping males' trading prerogative that violated Nkwerre taboo, are examples of his limited knowledge of Igbo society and history. The town in question was Nkwelle, which is twenty miles from Onitsha, not Nkwerre, which is much farther away. Moreover, Onitsha women were famed traders who not only bought and sold local and European goods, but also had direct commercial relations with European merchants from the moment the latter arrived in Onitsha.

As studies on the development of trade and commerce in the Onitsha region show, it was not until the twentieth century that Onitsha men, who regarded trade as women's work, began to take part in trade with the European firms.

The author's claim that "Igbo people brought the term ['buckra'] into English" (p. 110), as in "buckra ," a term used by slaves to refer to their white masters, is doubtful. While "buckra" might be a corruption of Ibibio "mbakara" ("mb" equals plural; "kara" equals to encircle, rule, or abuse), one cannot see the connection of this word with the Igbo. Similarly, he suggests that the slave name "Juba" was Igbo (meaning: "ji" for yam and "uba" for canoe, literally translated to mean "yam barn", "and that Juba" could actually be translated into Igbo words for "ask /enquire," or "refuse," or "possession of wealth" (ji-uba), or "plentiful yam." It is more likely that "Juba" was an Akan name (as in the case of Akan female name in South Carolina and Jamaica) than Igbo name.

In spite of the drawbacks I have pointed out, and occasional typographical errors, the author has assiduously provided an African-centered perspective that helps in our understanding of the circumstances surrounding the death of Ambrose Madison in 1732 and the development of his family into a prominent regional, and indeed, national economic and political power, as well as the contributions of his slaves in achieving these feats and to the foundation and growth of slave culture and society in Virginia. The book represents a limited but significant contribution to the history and historiography of slavery and, therefore, a valuable resource to students and scholars in the study of Africa and the diaspora.

MissMeiya:


Absolutely. Creation does not occur in a vacuum. Everything and everyone is influenced by something else. Always. Fighting over ownership is childish. Unless you get it on paper before anyone else does. Then they call that copyright

Re: nastiness LOL. I, of all people, would never judge.

Marks and objects in cemeteries that look merely decorative to the uninformed eye may be African signs and symbols. This iconography in cemeteries can be divided into three categories: 1) sign systems of African origins, 2) secular objects as surrogates for ideograms and 3) revival of African traditions, interpreted in new ways. Examples of such African retentions (subconscious transmissions from prior generations) exist in burial grounds and established cemeteries, particularly in the Southern United States.

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.

Source: http://www.folkart.org/mag/cemetery/cemetery.html

MissMeiya:


I'm equally jealous of scripts like Hindi Devanagarii (अब, दुख की महान सत्य है), Eastern African Ge'ez (አስምዕኩ፡ቃላተ፡ነቢይነ፡ለንቡራነ፡ሀገርየ፡ወባሔቱ፡ኢየብከይዎሙ።), alphabets Greek (Το αρχαιότερο όνομα της περιοχής αυτής), Cyrillic (Древнее название этой области), Korean hangul (이 지역 의 고대 이름), Japanese hana (この地域の古代の名前), and all the alphabets, syllabaries, and logograms inbetween.

And of course, the Chinese logographic system (该地区的古名), which is closest to what Nsibidi was meant to be, if it had been developed.

Not only are they beautiful, but they are a strong symbol of national identity. Do you know, I'm working on a project that requires me to find elements and symbols that Nigerians can universally identify with. Something that wordlessly says "Nigeria". And I can't find a single thing. I've been mashing up Yoruba-Igbo-Hausa words, studying the national coat of arms, searching for a national monument--I even resorted to a brief foray into the life of Fela Kuti as a symbol, the way Bob Marley is for Jamaica. I'm not coming up with much. Someone actually suggested garri to me. And that's not even wholly ours.

You'll often find me in the midst of such projects, as I believe things like Eurocentric history, language, and cultural studies to be detrimental to our psyche as Nigerians. Our culture IS worthy and equal, just as we are as a people.

Westernisation doesn't just mean wearing less clothing or personal liberation (which, ironically, is the utter, polar opposite of European, and especially uptight, rigidly disapproving, overly reserved, sanctimonious British culture, and arguably is our original way of being). Today's Nigeria is a virtual mirror image of Victorian England in values, ideals, and even speech! (e.g. "taking tea" is an antiquated British word usage)

But is it too late to reverse? I don't know. Change is the only constant in life. Everything has a beginning.

about a symbol for the word "Nigeria ", here is something I was able to come up with. look at it and let me know whether you understand it or not. it's a very simple sign /symbol, anyone who knows how to hold a pen or pencil can recreate it

"Seventeen Stones" Cemetery

This cemetery is a small, abandoned rural burial ground adjacent to an iron furnace in Pedlar, Amherst Co. Virginia which operated from the Civil War to the mid-1880s. The cemetery passed from its last owner to George Washington and Jefferson National Forest in 1916, and was the subject of the 2005 doctoral dissertation of Rachel Malcolm-Woods, who in 2003 claimed to have found "a system of graphics that to the outsider looks like a decorative design....in African American quilts as early as 1750". Malcolm-Woods was also cited as the expert who had "translated" the embroidery on a crazy quilt from the African Akan language, a claim she has neither confirmed or denied.

Illustration of "woman" and "congress" headstones (dissertation p.3)

The basis of Malcolm-Woods's dissertation is her conclusion that the cemetery's headstones are engraved with "Nsibidi, an ancient Ejagham writing system from Nigeria" (dissertation p.2) demonstrating "the existence and survival of an Igbo community despite the subjugation of slavery" and "the maintenance of African rituals and beliefs in antebellum Virginia" (dissertation p.1) Approvingly citing Hidden in Plain View (so far as to use the book's title as the heading for Chapter 4 (dissertation p.104), she draws a connection between the "quilt code" symbols and the marks on the headstones (dissertation p.41).
Malcolm-Woods obtained the assistance of James Madison University and a Virginia Foundation for the Humanities grant to have the stones conserved and removed to the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia. Her resume lists numerous presentations on the cemetery; she received a Distinguished Dissertation fellowship from the University of Missouri/Kansas City, whose Media Relations department actively promoted the project, and has applied for a NEH Grant for a PBS documentary on Igbo symbols.

By her count (dissertation p.13) the cemetery has been featured in at least 75 national and international news stories; it has also appeared in journals including Black Issues in Higher Education and Folk Art Messenger (the journal of the Folk Art Society of America). African-American Heritage Virginia included the cemetery among those listed on its website (screenshot here).

Malcolm-Woods says that only two headstones in the cemetery are inscribed with names and dates. One of these (and the only one Malcolm-Woods transcribes) is among four identical headstones whose backs are carved with what she identifies as the nsibidi "journey" symbol (dissertation p.131). This stone belongs to "Mrs.SA. Downey," born 1839, died 1894 (dissertation p.163).

Malcolm-Woods notes (dissertation p.10) that a Downey descendant (whom she does not identify by name or race) told her that the cemetery's last owner was C.E. (elsewhere she says C.M.) Wood, that Mrs. Downey's maiden name was Wood, and that she wanted to be buried with her own family. In an endnote (dissertation p.256), Malcolm-Woods indicates the grave is probably that of the wife of white furnace worker Samuel Downey (one of several Downeys so employed, all of whom are white), adding that one source says Mrs. Downey was related to William Wood. In the text itself, she states that evidence of Mrs. Downey is "nowhere to be found in census, marriage, birth or death records" (dissertation p.163) and that census records "show Samuel Downey listed but not his wife."

Malcolm-Woods concludes that since a slave named Charles owned by William Wood worked nearby in the 1820s (dissertation p.113-115, 163), and decades after her death Mrs. Downey's husband and children were buried in another county, both C.E./C.M. Wood and Mrs. Downey were black (dissertation, p.256). That conclusion, according to Malcolm-Woods, simultaneously supports and is supported by the appearance of the carved headstones, despite what she admits are fundamental differences from Igbo stones in overall design, motifs, execution and carving methods (dissertation p. 134 (image of Igbo stone), 137 (image of Igbo nsibidi) 150-162).

With the encouragement of Robert Farris Thompson (among whose acolytes is Maude Wahlman, coordinator of the Art History doctoral program in which Malcolm-Woods was enrolled), she pursued the project. However, the two archaeologists Malcolm-Woods cites say they repeatedly expressed serious doubts about any African connection. Contrary to the the scenario implied in the dissertation (p.2), archaeologist and African-American cemetery specialist Lynn Rainville says Malcolm-Woods contacted her, asking about African cemetery symbols. Rainville told her she had never seen any but gave her drawings of two stones she had only recently seen and whose engravings she had not yet identified. Forest archaeologist George Tolley says he even pointed out Downeys in a later census, asking Malcolm-Woods what she would say if it could be proven the cemetery was actually from a Euro-American family. He says she responded that "if so, they would have been engrossed in the African culture and thus used the symbols on the tomb stones." Malcolm-Woods mentions only Tolley, and only as evidence of how "rarely do white locals give proper credit for antebellum historical contributions made by African Americans" (dissertation, p.4)

To those familiar with American vernacular architecture, the cemetery's "nsibidi" stones' dimensions, motifs, and chamfered edges bear a striking resemblance to the parts of a conventional mantlepiece in the ubiquitous "Italianate" style introduced in the 1870s by English architect Charles Eastlake and found throughout American and English interior design. Such an origin would not be surprising. Malcolm-Woods herself notes that beginning in the 1870s a slate mantlepiece manufacturer operated in the area.


http://ugrrquilt.hartcottagequilts.com/woods

christopher123:


but do you realize that some slaves in the americas maintained there nsibidi culture of writing, we have been robbed of our heritage, Nigeria with its tribalistic phobism will never allow this form of writing to materialize but they will prefer western form of writing.....

this is the neo colonialist attitude of ours has affected all ramification of uor lives]


i congratulates the aros, the abiribas,the ibiobios or efiks(i dont know which one now) for giving us this unique writing

*lost in thought*

Colonialism was indeed a terribly evil thing for us. With deep DEEP roots in every aspect of our identities, histories, and culture. But in our defense, I will say that the descendants of the African slaves in the Americas, both in the Caribbean (you mentioned the descendant scripts of Nsibidi that survive today in Haiti and Cuba) and in the US, had something we did not. They were not forced to conform the way colonized Africans were. As slaves, and then as second-class citizens, even if they wanted to conform, it was forbidden or difficult, at best. Faced with that exclusion, they had to keep pieces of their origins, and create new ones.

As for colonized Nigeria, my father still remembers the way children would be punished for speaking their mother tongues in school instead of English. (Maybe it was just in missionary schools?) I have dozens of Aunt Mary's and John's and other such names from the Bible, because those were the names they were given by the missionaries, and I guess my village's priest kept the same two pages open...

That was only last generation. We have not yet outlived colonization. I have, however, pleasantly noted that my generation has begun refusing to give their children Christian names, but names (both first and middle) with meanings in our mother tongue. Oh, that includes my parents. My brother and I don't have a single Christian name between us, and we grew up in the West. We didn't suffer for it.

Things can change.

IyfeNamikaze:


about a symbol for the word "Nigeria ", here is something I was able to come up with. look at it and let me know whether you understand it or not. it's a very simple sign /symbol, anyone who knows how to hold a pen or pencil can recreate it

the Y sign represents the two major rivers (Niger and Benue) while the dots represents the cardinal points

thats nice

@christopher123 The tombstone thing is incredible. I had no idea.

MissMeiya:
@christopher123 The tombstone thing is incredible. I had no idea.

we are here to learn you know, so we aint competing..you have a great thread, i must confess

IyfeNamikaze:


about a symbol for the word "Nigeria ", here is something I was able to come up with. look at it and let me know whether you understand it or not. it's a very simple sign /symbol, anyone who knows how to hold a pen or pencil can recreate it

For the purposes of my project, I actually meant something like a cultural symbol, like the Eiffel Tower for the French, the sombrero for the Mexicans, recently the vuvuzela for South Africans, kente cloth for Ghanaians...

You actually just reminded me. Google solved this question already. Remember the Google Doodle on our independence day? Some people were offended, but it definitely, very solidly, said "Nigeria".

You indirectly helped me, lol! Thanks!


ETA: Gin has likely already found or derived a symbol for Nigeria. You should check his dictionaries.

But it is a great design.

christopher123:



the Y sign represents the two major rivers (Niger and Benue) while the dots represents the cardinal points

thats nice

yes, the dot above the arch represents the northern region, the dots at the left and right represents the southwest and southeast region while the lower dot represents the southsouth region. the Y represents the niger and benue rivers.

MissMeiya:


For the purposes of my project, I actually meant something like a cultural symbol, like the Eiffel Tower for the French, the sombrero for the Mexicans, recently the vuvuzela for South Africans, kente cloth for Ghanaians...

You actually just reminded me. Google solved this question already. Remember the Google Doodle on our independence day? Some people were offended, but it definitely, very solidly, said "Nigeria".

You indirectly helped me, lol! Thanks!


ETA: Gin has likely already found or derived a symbol for Nigeria. You should check his dictionaries.

But it is a great design.

OK...if that's what you were looking for, I think the national theater is our symbol of unity , something that brings us all together. just like the coliseum was for the Roman empire or the tower of Pisa. Nigeria is too diverse for you to pick out something that stands as our cultural symbol. As for me, I think the "Oji" (Kola nut) or cowrie would be a good candidate as they were used by all the major ethnic groups.

anyway I'm glad to be of help.

IyfeNamikaze:


OK...if that's what you were looking for, I think the national theater is our symbol of unity , something that brings us all together. just like the coliseum was for the Roman empire or the tower of Pisa. Nigeria is too diverse for you to pick out something that stands as our cultural symbol. As for me, I think the "Oji" (Kola nut) or cowrie would be a good candidate as they were used by all the major ethnic groups.

I can't believe I didn't think of kola nut. Thank you.

MissMeiya:


I can't believe I didn't think of kola nut. Thank you.

you're welcome

MissMeiya:


LOL. I listened to you, see?

Re: Anansi, I was just looking for a project to experiment with. And Anansi is West African, so

Well am glad u did! The anansi is a ghanaian folklore. A story that has always sparked my interest. I will like to make a block buster movie on it. With the immortals and alice in wonderland movie theme style.
Btw. I. Read in another post that u are not igbo.where are u From. And what sparked the zeal to know such?

iamord:


Well am glad u did! The anansi is a ghanaian folklore. A story that has always sparked my interest. I will like to make a block buster movie on it. With the immortals and alice in wonderland movie theme style.
Btw. I. Read in another post that u are not igbo.where are u From. And what sparked the zeal to know such?

I want to see comics and movies with Mami Water and Sango!

No, I'm not Igbo. I don't remember how I tumbled into Nsibidi. I usually get led into new subjects from wondering about something else. Wikipedia and Google are the best things that ever happened to me. No exaggeration.

I want to believe this Ekpe society is practiced in umuahia as shown in this video.

The Ekpe society is strong in most part of Abia state.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBAHNzz5rgw

Beautiful most of West Africa should use this form of alphabet, it should be well developed to fit in with different accent and tonal variations, but I don't see this possible.
Everybody seems too sired to Europeans and Arabs

MissMeiya:


I want to see comics and movies with Mami Water and Sango!

No, I'm not Igbo. I don't remember how I tumbled into Nsibidi. I usually get led into new subjects from wondering about something else. Wikipedia and Google are the best things that ever happened to me. No exaggeration.

Nice! You are a wild thinker just like me! Got a lot of plans. Will like to see the sango character make it into the marvel comics and movies too. And bring out other african stories , with black emancipation and by as the ultimate Goal. Will like to work with you in the near future!

MissMeiya:


I want to see comics and movies with Mami Water and Sango!

No, I'm not Igbo. I don't remember how I tumbled into Nsibidi. I usually get led into new subjects from wondering about something else. Wikipedia and Google are the best things that ever happened to me. No exaggeration.

well I'm working on a comic, it's about gods and man, amadioha, aro, Ani, anyanwu etc.

BTW where can I find the dictionary you were talking about?

christopher123:


WHO TOLD YOU, ONLY THE NAME NSIBIDI, IS AN IGBO NAME, NSIBIDI IS JUST AS IGBO AS THE NAME CAN BE, MIND YOU IGBO AND EFIKS SHARE A LOT CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTIXCALLY...DO YOU KNOW THAT EKPE IS STILL PRACTISED IN SOME PART OF IGBO LAND LIKE ARO

AND AROS ARE SCATTED IN IGBO LAND

THERE IS A MASQUARADE CALLED EKPO


NOW HOW DARE YOU SAY SUCH...YOUR HATRED FOR IGBO IS SOMETHING



IGBO HAD A ROBUST CIVILIZATION EVEN BEFORE THE WHITE MAN V VIA THE ANCIENT KINGDOM OF BIAFRA


so do not rewrite history

ekpe is practiced in my hometown mbaise imo state. They have their public displays from time to time Especially during the new yam festival

macof:
Beautiful most of West Africa should use this form of alphabet, it should be well developed to fit in with different accent and tonal variations, but I don't see this possible.
Everybody seems too sired to Europeans and Arabs

True Talk
My question is this. If they can revamp and reform this ancient writhing. Why can't we do the same for atr?

iamord:


True Talk
My question is this. If they can revamp and reform this ancient writhing. Why can't we do the same for atr?

ATR? Is there really ATR?
I see it more as African Spiritualities cus if u really get to understand the philosophies u realize it's nt a religion

you probably mixing traditions and culture to it..hence "traditional religion“

christopher123:
dont ge me started, who are you and who is attaching himself to minority like you, take your damn fuckingg time...look at small you , what do you know about ekpo, is it only in calabar that they have ekpo, dude, behave yourself, as if ekpo is the science wonder of the universe, a bunch of old men in a fetish thing saying shiitsss


how dare you say the word, i am attaching my self to you, what a travesty, do you forget that we have igbos in cross river, or have you forgotten so soon that the governore imoke of your so called state is an igbo from agbo clan of izzi with his wife, or do you want to doubt or sweep that under carpet...


look at dog nose, now go and eat dog and never qoute me, again, you should even be happy that i am responding an efik goon like you ....i ask you a simple question that you couldnt answer


what the hell is the meaning of NSIBIDI, your there talking trash, its because of this stupidity of yours that they sold bakassi

now bounce and dont quote me again

Nonsense, go and be proud of you igbo cultural heritage, do not steal what is ours by heritage. you igbos are just insufferable theives and usurpers. the proof is in This issue, How dare you claim that Nsibidi the sacred language of Ekpe has igboid identity, when did ekpe exist in igbo?
Fools like you think because you belong to a third class majority ethnic group in Nigeria you can lord over Efik/ Ibibio people. that will never happen. we will not sit tight and let turds like you steal our cultural identity by fraud. you can claim Nsibidi all you want but it will never be yours.

Our culture is ours, its dazzling and beautiful, that why you envy it and want to steal it, I dont see calabar people trying to adopt any igbo culture probably because there is nothing of value in it.

having a large population does not accord you any advantage if not India would be the best country in the world. Norway and swiss though small countries are 100 times better. We Efik/Ibibio or old Calabar people are a 100x better, thats why igbos are always trying to be like us, and copy our culture and in recent time try stealing it Efik people are not atam people the gov. being an atam man may have igboid tendencies or leanage but his not efik, his Atam tribe dont practice Ekpe nor Nsibidi so these is a mute point. A copy can never be like the original.

macof:


ATR? Is there really ATR?
I see it more as African Spiritualities cus if u really get to understand the philosophies u realize it's nt a religion

you probably mixing traditions and culture to it..hence "traditional religion“

When I talk of atr. I mean ifa and co. We need to picture what the future will be like . And we have to shape it. For me I want to see the atr practitioners as I would call it. Use their gifts in medical science,astronomy and innovations.. Be masters of the art. Just like we have in india . The likes of soyinka have done it in the literary sector