Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg, December 24, 1772

Chesterfield, December 15, 1772. Run away from the Subscriber, on Sunday the 22d of November, a new Negro Fellow of small Stature, and pitted with the Smallpox; he calls himself BONNA, and says he came from a Place of that Name in the Ibo Country, in Africa, where he served in the Capacity of a Canoe Man; his Clothing is a new Felt Hat, new Cotton Waistcoat and Breeches, and new Shoes and Stockings; his Stockings were knit, and spotted black and white. Whoever secures him so that I get him shall have TWENTY SHILLINGS reward, besides what the Law allows.

— Richard Booker

Location: Williamsburg, Virginia | Date: December 24, 1772 | Credit: Richard Booker

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

Mmanwu

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

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

Tooth filing

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

Young Man of Ubuluku

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

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....

Old Man

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

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.