The pre-1940s history, indigenous culture, and heritage of Ìgbò through images.
Photo: Postcard via the Library of Congress.
There's been focus on the importance of the individual's voice in Igbo societies. The following short examples examine traditions of consensus decision-making and how they have influenced behaviour, relationships, and communication.
Consensus decision-making in Igbo society lead to the development of a particular persuasive way of speaking. Misty L. Bastian on debates between missionaries and members of Önïcha society.
Ụ̀banị̀ Ìgbò, the Igbo spoken on Bonny Island in today's Rivers State, recorded by the slave trader Captain Hugh Crow from the late 18th century, from "Memoirs of the late Captain Hugh Crow of Liverpool."
Bèkê seems to have been recorded here which brings the theory that it originated from the Scottish explorer William Baikie into doubt. Westermann, Smith, Forde (1932). Oxford University Press.
Bonny Island was one of the largest slave ports of the Atlantic slave trade era, especially in the late 18th century. Hugh Crow describes the predominance of Igbo captives on the island, most going to British colonies. "Memoirs..." p. 198.
This led to a large amount of Igbo people in the British Caribbean in particular, in places like Jamaica where this early 19th century description was made. John Stewart (1808). "An Account of Jamaica, and Its Inhabitants." p. 235–236.
Could some of these words have been recorded from some of the ancestors of people now in North America?
A woman from Guadeloupe (apparently en route to Montreal, Canada). Photographed by Augustus Frederick Sherman.
The word for white men in the French-speaking Caribbean island of Martinique and to a certain extent Guadeloupe is Béké presumed to be from bèkée in Igbo meaning the same. These islands were the disembarkation points for many Igbo people during the forced Atlantic migrations from the 16th to 19th century. Igbo is the main component of English Caribbean creoles and, as may be apparent, has influenced French Caribbean creoles.
Some of the Ubani (Bonny) Igbo recorded by slave trader Hugh Crow.
The popular folk etymology of the word bèkée in Igbo says that it was derived from the Scottish explorer William Baikie who had contact with Igbo people, however, what seems to be a word used in the same way as bèkée has been found in the memoirs of Captain Hugh Crow, a slave trader out of Liverpool who had close contacts with the Igbo speaking middlemen of Bonny Island in Rivers State today. His voyages largely took place in the 18th century and he died in 1829, Baikie was born in 1825.
Christian influence from the early 20th century altered many of these names and encouraged the proliferation of ‘Chi’ names, ‘Chi’ roughly means a life source but missionaries took it for the Christian God; a name like ‘Chioma’ which originally meant ‘good chi’ – ‘lucky’ became ‘God is good’. With Christian influence more names became centred on ‘God’, in the past names were related more with philosophy, dates, and circumstances at birth.
Names dedicated to the Earth Mother Àlà / Ànà / Ànị̀ are very numerous emphasising the importance of Àlà in Igbo society as the chief spiritual force on earth after the high God and derivatives. [Interestingly, most ‘Chi’ in names like Chiedozie, Chinyere, Chiemeka, Chijioke, Chika today can be substituted with Ani / Ana / Ala like Aniedozie, Aninyere, Alaemeka, Anijioke, Anika.]
Àlà / Ànà / Ànị̀ - The Earth Mother (deity)
Ájáànà / Ájáàlà (f) - Ala, the earth mother
Ànàzọ́nwụ́ - Ala protects from death
Ànị̀àgolu - Ala has obtained / provided
Ànị̀ẹ̀mẹ́ká - Ala has ‘done’ beyond our wishes
Ànị̀kà - Ala is greater
Ànị̀gèkwú - Ala will speak [for the meek] / carry out her divine will [in our favour], Ala will vindicate her followers, Ala will embarrass detractors
Ànị̀ékwénáńsí (Ekwensi) - Ala protect from poison / witchcraft / evil
Ànị̀èdózíé - Ala has protected, restored, repaired
Ànị̀ẹ̀mẹ́ná - Ala has done it all / answered our wishes
Ànị̀yẹ̀mézè - Ala bestowed leadership on me
Ànị̀chèbé (Achebe) - Ala guard us
Ànàgọ̀zíé - Ala bless us
Ànị̀gbòọ̀gụ̀ - Ala has prevented a fight [Perhaps by the birth of a child a fight over a woman’s fertility was avoided.]
Ànị̀wètà / Ànị̀wètàlụ̀ - Ala brought [this child]
Ágwụ - The deity of divination
Amádíọ̀hà - Ágbàrà of justice, lord of lightening
Ányánwụ́ - The deity / power of the sun
Chí - Soul, providence
Chíọ́má - Good chí, lucky
Chímà - Chí knows, a resolute compass of providence (chí).
Chíkà - Chí is great, an infallible compass of providence (chí).
Èjìọ̀fọ́ (Ejiofor) (m) - Righteous, wielder of the staff of divine authority / justice (ọ̀fọ́) [ọ̀fọ́ were usually held by male heads of the family obtained from the naturally fallen branches of a special tree and were used as a staff of authority that could be sworn on.]
Èjìogù (m) - Righteous, swearer to the face of divine justice (ógù) [Somebody who is innocent and swears to ógù (íjí ógù) has divine backing over an accuser and an accuser may be harmed (ị́bà ùrè) if their name is called upon.]
Ígwé - The sky deity, or leader
Íkéǹgà (m) - The cult figure of the right hand
Ìwúányánwụ́ - The law of the sun (deity)
Kámálụ́ / Kámánụ́ / Kálụ́ / Kánụ́ - Amadioha, ágbàrà of justice, lord of lightening
Ńdígwé - Heavenly descendants, heavens favoured.
Ǹjọ́kụ / Íféjíọ́kụ - Ágbàrà (deity) of yam, agriculture, and fire [who the new yam festival is partly dedicated to.]
Nwágbàrà / Nwágbàlà - Child (devotee) of an Ágbàrà, under divine grace.
Nwányánwụ́ - Child (devotee) of Ányánwụ́
Nwàlà - Child (devotee) of Àlà
Nwádíbìà - Child of a dibia (diviner)
Nwágwụ - Child (devotee) of Ágwụ
Nwáḿụ́ọ́ - Child of a spirit
Nwáǹjọ́kụ / Nwáíféjíọ́kụ́ - Child (devotee) of Ǹjọ́kụ
Nwígwé - Child (devotee) of Ígwé, or descendant of a titleder
Entry from the dictionary of the Igbo language centering around the Onicha and Asaba dialects, by British government colonial anthropologists Northcote Thomas, 1914.
Many views and suggestions were put forward and the matter was widely discussed before the war. Two years after the war a consensus was reached and since 1972 a new counting system has been in use. …
Perhaps we might be interested in how Igbo came by the names for the place values [the Igbo Standardisation Committee, headed by F. C. Ogbalu]. It did so without borrowing except from within the rich resources of its many dialects. It specialized the meanings of single non-sentential words in the different dialects, whose meanings for the higher numbers were until then rather vague. Thus:
puku (1,000) was 'uncountable’ in a number of the Central dialects.
nde (1,000,000) was 'uncountable' in a number of the Central dialects where ǹdè was known to be higher in value than puku.
ìjèri (1,000,000,000) represented 'uncountable' in a number of West Niger Igbo dialects.
In the case of nàrị (100) certain Igbo dialects, notably in the Nsukka and Aguleri areas of Anambra State, traditionally had this for 100. So, we adopted it but modified its spelling. As for zero we specialized efu (nothingness) and, in addition, borrowed but Igbonized the words nọọ̀tụ̀ and zirò, as synonyms.
– E. ‘Nọlue Emenanjọ (1985). “Language Engineering in Present-Day Igbo.” “In: West African languages in education: papers from the fifteenth West African Languages Congress.” p. 85.
Creole Boy with a Moth, 1835, by Julien Hudson (American, 1811–1844); oil on canvas; 29 x 23 inches.
‘Red Bone’, referring to an ethnic group in Louisiana and a black American term for people with fair skin, has strong ties to peoples in what is now eastern Nigeria. Originating from 18th century chattel slavery in the West Indies, the term ‘red bone’ takes from the creole term ‘red Ibo’ referring to fairer skinned black people. The term derived from observations of fair skin among some members of the Igbo ethnic group (and some other peoples lumped in from eastern Nigeria) whose numbers in slavery ratcheted up in the 18th century due to internal conflict in Igboland. European slavers and plantation owners often made observations and generalisations about various ethnic groups since different Africans were targeted for their knowledge, education and skills; a hefty amount of stereotyping and dehumanising was subsequently placed on various ethnic groups found in large numbers in slavery. One recurrent observation was the relatively higher prevalence of fair skinned people from the Igbo area, known then in the Atlantic as the ‘Eboe Country’. The fairer skin was demonised by planters as ‘sickly’ and the Igbo were characterised as weak because of this. This also meant their ‘price’ dropped and poorer planters in places like Virginia took many Igbo leading to a saturation of Igbo people there. The disdain, however, may have been fuelled somewhat by the fact that enslaved Igbo people weren’t unknown for their defiance of slavery, immortalised in the folktale of Ebo landing; they were also involved in a number of slave revolts all over the Caribbean, including in Haiti.
Ultimately, this characteristic was taken in as a negative one and the term ‘red’ was combined with ‘Ibo’ (Igbo) as a pejorative used by black people in the British West Indies for people who were black but with fair skin as opposed to mixed people who were just ‘red’ or ‘brown’ thus suggesting a hierarchy of phenotypes and hair types. Some creole linguists trace the term to Louisiana where it was heard as ‘reddy bone’, leading to the understanding of the term as ‘red bone’ with a less negative connotation as it is still used in AAVE today.
The term red bone is interesting as it seems to be a word that’s linked to a particular experience of an ethnic group in slavery. The word itself carries a lot of historical weight in terms of what it meant for one group of Africans in that era. (Kniffen, Gregory and Stokes 1987; Don C. Marler 1997, 2000; Winer (2009). Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago. pg. 754.; [Louisiana, Where Music is King, PBS.])
