Original

Igbo names and spellings for various settlements
Abakaliki is Abankaleke; Afikpo is Ehugbo; Awgu is Ogu; Awka is Oka; Bonny is Ubani; Enugu is Enugwu; Ibusa is Igbuzö; Igrita is Igwuruta; Oguta is Ugwuta; Onitsha is Onicha; Owerri is Owere; Oyigbo is Obigbo... any more will be added.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Agbogho Mmuo



Agbogho Mmuo are maiden spirit masks that represent the spirit of dead girls that have manifested in the dancer to come back to parade in their communities. The masks also symbolise the ideals of female beauty among many Nri-Awka Igbo communities. Their extremely white faces symbolise that they are spirits.

Location: ?Unsure?, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1913 | Credit: Thomas

Friday, December 3, 2010

Mmanwu



Location: ?Unsure?, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1913 | Credit: Thomas

Friday, November 26, 2010

Sacrifice to Agwu



Agwu is the Alusi of Dibia ('medicine men').

Location: ?Unsure?, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1913 | Credit: Thomas

Young man of Igbuzor



Location: Igbuzo, Aniocha, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1913 | Credit: Thomas

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Tooth filing



Location: ?Unsure?, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1913 | Credit: Thomas

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Young Man of Ubuluku






Location: Ubuluku, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1913 | Credit: Thomas

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Original (correct) names/spellings for Igbo City's/Towns/Villages

* Abakaliki is Abakaleke
* Afikpo is Ehugbo
* Asaba is Ahaba
* Awgu is Ogu
* Awka is Oka
* Bonny is Ubani
* Enugu is Enugwu
* Ibusa is Igbuzor
* Igrita is Igwuruta
* Oguta is Ugwuta
* Onitsha is Onicha
* Owerri is Owerre
* Oyigbo is Obigbo
* Port Harcourt is Diobu

....plus others....

Monday, October 18, 2010

Old Man

Location: Igbuzor, Alaigbo | Date:  Unsure?, Before 1913 | Credit: Thomas

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Queen Elizabeth II visit to Port Harcourt



Location: Port Harcourt, Nigeria | Date: 1956 | Credit: nicolb50

Probable Igbo Woman



It is unknown whether she is definitely Igbo, but her headdress looks so. She was noted as Nigerian.

Two Igbo Boys with Dead Primate



Caption:

Young gorilla (?) killed at Asaba, So. Nigeria, West Arfica, 1906. The two boys belong to the Ibo tribe.


— R. L. Beard

Location: Ahaba, Alaigbo | Date: 1906 | Credit: R. L. Beard

A Medicine Man with his Stock in Trade



Location: ?Unsure?, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1922 | Credit: Basden

Girls



Location: ?Unsure?, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1922 | Credit: Basden?

Magnificent Headdress of Awka Woman [Igbo]



Caption:

Her scanty toilet has been completed, apparently to her entire satisfaction, and the gladiatorial headdress represents the dernier cri of in the fashion world of Awka. The crest of wood, ornamented with large pearl buttons, is tightly secured on the top of her head.


— Thomas Whitridge Northcote

Location: Oka, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1913 | Credit: Thomas

Discomfort of fashion



Caption:

The vocation of this woman of Achala, Ibo country, is dancing, but the regulation anklet plates on her legs confine her dance-steps to a few measured "pas" made slowly and with caution to right and left.


— Thomas Whitridge Northcote

Location: Achala, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1913 | Credit: Thomas

Young Man of Achala



Location: Achala, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1913 | Credit: Thomas

Willing Submission to Life Sentence to the Stocks [Igbo]



Caption:

Immense ankle plates are a main part of female costume in the Ibo country. Many of them are made in Birmingham and afterwards decorated with incised designs by native smiths. The women wear them permanently, stuffing rags between the skin and the metal to prevent chafing, and walking with a curious swing of the leg to avoid rubbing the plates together.


— Thomas Whitridge Northcote

Location: ?Unsure?, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1913 | Credit: Thomas

Town Deities [Alusi], Adonta, Near Ogwashi [Ukwu]



Location: Adonta, Aniocha, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1921 | Credit: Basden

A Blacksmith at Work



Location: ?Unsure?, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1921 | Credit: Basden

Puddling Clay Preparatory to House Building



Location: ?Unsure?, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1930 | Credit: Basden

Climbing A Palm-Tree for Nuts and Wine



Caption:

A rope composed of twisted creepers encircles the trunk and the body of the climber, and by a series of jerks it is raised a foot or more at a time, the weight of the man's body preventing it from slipping. The rapidity with which these climbers literally "walk" up a palm-tree is marvellous. The large knife is for the purpose of severing the bunches of nuts.


— George Thomas Basden

Location: ?Unsure?, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1921 | Credit: George Thomas Basden

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This blog is about images of Igbo culture and people before colonisation and modernisation.