We are writing our own book
Telling the stories of our own
Incredibly strong, resilient, courageous
God worshiping, ancestor venerating
Technologically, scientifically, artistically
And all other ‘cally’ brilliantly advanced
Fore fathers, fore mothers, men and women
Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters
Aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews
Cousins and all related in commUnity
We are letting it be known that we are
Following the ancient wisdom that dictates
That we honour the God and gods of our ancestors
That we do not forget or reject their teachings
That we keep connected and interconnected
The natural trinity of us, God and them
Igbo in Jamaica
Various African ethnic groups were gathered in their specific geographical locations where they built empires, governed themselves, courted beneficial alliances, determined their own ways of life, cultural practices and traditions. They had ways to sustainably manage their natural resources, farm, trade, develop their own music, art and architectural styles and establish communities. Prior to the European Invasion, those on the African continent were advanced in their knowledge of science, art, philosophy, engineering, agriculture, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, metallurgy, seafaring and maritime trade. They were spiritually rich, spoke many languages, danced, played sports, and were, generally, alive, well aligned, and very well, but this was, of course, before the mid-fifteenth century, when the Portuguese, British and other invaders and invasions, happened. Life has not been the same since.
The Igbo people of Southeastern Nigeria was one of the many ethnic groups whose existence, way of life and future was unjustly disturbed (to put it extremely mildly) by European invaders. The land where the Igbos lived was not initially a part of Nigeria, as there was no ‘Nigeria’ for it to have been a ‘part of’ at the time. The Igbo people did not live in one big country with a central government. They performed their daily lives in villages with each village having its own Council of Elders as the ‘government.’ The Council of Elders were respected elders of the families occupying the Village. This model was rooted in Igbo philosophy which brought the understanding that one man does not rule. The Igbo spiritual culture, like other African spiritual systems honoured: Ancestors – Ndichie, Supreme God – Chuku Abiama, Other gods such as Ala earth – fertility, Anyawu – Sun and Igwue – Sky. It placed emphasis on nature and the cosmos, Chi (God self/soul/spirit), living well in community and family, accountability, morality, divination, rituals, ceremonies, respect and care for the earth.
Igboland, was first visited by the Portuguese circa 1480. They developed trade relations with them and others in the vicinity e. g the Edo people of Benin Kingdom who were possibly, their first point of contact. The British followed and later the French, Germans and Italians. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the British implanted themselves as the ‘ones in charge’ and subsequently amalgamated all the Kingdoms, Empires etc in the geographical area, including Igboland. They put them under one name, Nigeria and claimed it as a part of the British Empire on which ‘the sun never sets’.
The European trading of African peoples started in the 15th century. The Portuguese were the first to engage in trading people as they did commodities. The British, who became the çolonial ‘masters’ of the area now called Nigeria, was responsible for the bulk of the trade. Beginning around 1750 Igbo people from the Bight of Biafra, were traded primary through the Ports of Bonny and Calabar. The ‘slave’ ships in which they were transported came mainly from Liverpool and Bristol in England. Of the Igbo people who were trafficked to Jamaica, it is said the majority arrived between 1790 and 1807. 1807 marks the year when the British made the trade in Africans illegal. Between 1840 – 1864 Igbo people (along with Kongo, Edo, Nago) arrived as indentured workers.
The Igbo people arrived in the northeastern side of Jamaica and initially settled in parishes such as St James, St Ann, Westmoreland and St Elizabeth. Eventually they expanded more eastward and established presence Islandwide. Igbo presence in Jamaica is strongly evidenced by the announcements that were put out when ‘slaves’ ran away and needed to be identified to facilitate re-capture. For example, in slave runaway advertisements held in Jamaica workhouses in 1803 out of 1046 Africans recorded, 284 were described as “Eboes and Mocoes”, 185 “Congoes”, 259 “Angolas”, 101 “Mandingoes”, 70 Coromantees, 60 “Chamba” of Sierra Leone, 57 “Nagoes and Pawpaws” and 30 “scattering”. 187 were documentined as “unclassified” and 488 were “American born negroes and mulattoes” (Igbo people in Jamaica | Radio Biafra ), by the stories of the once enslaved Olaudah Equiano and Archibald Monteith, who was called “Aniaso,” meaning “The earth spirit forbids” or “What the earth spirit forbids,” the presence of Igbo proverbs, words etc. in Jamaican language and folk music.
‘Africa meet Europe’ has to be at or near the top of the list of the most intense and far reaching clash of cultures imaginable. The ‘common’ Igbo person, for example, was not familiar with the idea of being ‘mastered’ and especially not by one person and particularly a person who did not look like, sound like, eat like, talked like him/her and his/her people. Their spiritual acumen did not prepare them to navigate the idea or a ‘hell’ and a God who gave eternal punishment or the application of punitive and not restorative measures. They did not have a mentality of ‘lack’ so to have food ‘rationed’ to them must have been mind blowing. All this and the more they experienced, must have been psychically implosive to the Igbo man, woman.
The igbos people in Jamaica and elsewhere were said to have committed mass suicide. In their world view and odinani, could the meaning of their actions be truly captured in the language words of the oppressors? Did they take their own lives as an end in itself or did they simply send their spirits back home? One belief among Igbo and other African groups in Jamaica was that they had the caoacity to fly. Could it be that they were flying back home to their motherland?
https://www.ncesc.com/geographic-faq/are-igbos-in-jamaica/
Igbo people in Jamaica | Radio Biafra
Igbos of Jamaica; The Untold Story of the 1815 Igbo Slave Rebellion in Black River.
(1) Igbos of Jamaica; The Untold Story of the 1815 Igbo Slave Rebellion in Black River. – YouTube
Igbo people in Jamaica – Wikipedia