Igbo in the Atlantic World

Description

The Igbo are one of the most populous ethnic groups in Nigeria and are perhaps best known and celebrated in the work of Chinua Achebe. In this landmark collection on Igbo society and arts, Toyin Falola and Raphael Chijioke Njoku have compiled a detailed and innovative examination of the Igbo experience in Africa and in the diaspora. Focusing on institutions and cultural practices, the volume covers the enslavement, middle passage, and American experience of the Igbo as well as their return to Africa and aspects of Igbo language, society, and cultural arts. By employing a variety of disciplinary perspectives, this volume presents a comprehensive view of how the Igbo were integrated into the Atlantic world through the slave trade and slavery, the transformations of Igbo identities and culture, and the strategies for resistance employed by the Igbo in the New World. Moving beyond descriptions of generic African experiences, this collection includes 21 essays by prominent scholars throughout the world.

Abbreviations
Preface and Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Raphael Chijioke Njoku and Toyin Falola
SECTION I: IGBO INSTITUTIONS AND CUSTOMS AS BASELINE
2. The Kingless People: The Speech Act as Shield and Sword
Hannah Chukwu
3. Igbo Goddesses and the Priests and Male Priestesses Who Serve Them
Nwando Achebe
4. Gender Relations in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Igbo Society
Gloria Chuku
SECTION II: THE IGBO IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA: THE MECHANICS AND PATTERNS OF MIGRATIONS, SETTLEMENTS AND DEMOGRAPHICS
5. The Aro and the Trade of the Bight
A. E. Afigbo
6. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade from the Bight of Biafra: An Overview
Kenneth Morgan
7. The Igbo and African Backgrounds of the Slave Cargo of the Henrietta Maria
John Thornton
8. 'A Great Many Boys and Girls': Igbo Children in the British Slave Trade, 1700-1808
Audra A. Diptee
9. Becoming African: Igbo Slaves and Social Reordering in Nineteenth Century Niger Delta Raphael Chijioke Njoku
10. The Clustering of Igbo in the Americas: Where, When, How, and Why?
Gwendolyn Mildo Hall
11. The Demography of the Bight of Biafra Slave Trade, c. 1650-1850
Paul E. Lovejoy
12. The Igbo Diaspora in the Era of the Slave Trade
Douglas B. Chambers
SECTION III: CULTURAL CROSSCURRENTS: DIMENSIONS OF THE IGBO EXPERIENCE IN THE ATHLANTIC WORLD
13. The Igbo Diaspora in the Atlantic World: African Origins and New World
Chima J. Korieh
14. Olaudah Equiano and the Forging of an Igbo Identity
Vincent Carretta
15. Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa – What's in a Name?
Paul E. Lovejoy
16. Archibald Monteath: Imperial Pawn and Individual Agent
Maureen Warner-Lewis
17. Igbo Influences on Masquerading and Drum-Dances in the Caribbean
Robert W. Nicholls
18. The Afro-Caribbean Diaspora in Reverse and its Implications for the Development of Christianity and Education in Igboland, Southeastern Nigeria: 1895-1925
Waibinte E. Wariboko
19. The Making of Igbo Ethnicity in the Nigerian Setting: Colonialism, Identity, and the Politics of Difference
Raphael Chijioke Njoku
20. Ethnicity and the Contemporary Igbo Artist: Shifting Igbo Identities in the Post-Civil War Nigerian Art World
Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie
21. SNDU: Patterns of the Igbo Quest for Jesus Power
Ogbu U. Kalu
Selected Bibliography
Notes on Authors
Index

Sujets

• African Studies
• Ethnic Studies
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• África
• General officer
• History of Africa
• General
• West
• Africa

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 26 septembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9780253022578
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

IGBO IN THE
ATLANTIC WORLD
IGBO IN THE
ATLANTIC WORLD
AFRICAN ORIGINS AND DIASPORIC DESTINATIONS
EDITED BY Toyin Falola AND Raphael Chijioke Njoku
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2016 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition .
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992 .
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Falola, Toyin, editor. | Njoku, Raphael Chijioke, editor.
Title: Igbo in the Atlantic world : African origins and diasporic destinations / edited by Toyin Falola and Raphael Chijioke Njoku.
Description: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016024865 (print) | LCCN 2016026274 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253022455 (cl : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253022578 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Igbo (African people)-Social life and customs. | Igbo (African people)-Ethnic identity. | Igbo diaspora. | Igbo (African people)-United States. | Igbo (African people)-West Indies.
Classification: LCC DT515.45.I33 I4235 2016 (print) | LCC DT515.45.I33 (ebook) | DDC 305.896332-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016024865
1 2 3 4 5 21 20 19 18 17 16
T O THE MEMORY OF P ROFESSORS
T EKENA T AMUNO , A DIELE A FIGBO , J ACOB A DE A JAYI , AND E MMANUEL A YANDELE
CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1. Introduction
Raphael Chijioke Njoku and Toyin Falola
Part I Igbo Institutions and Customs as Baseline
2. The Kingless People: The Speech Act as Shield and Sword
Hannah Chukwu
3. Igbo Goddesses and the Priests and Male Priestesses Who Serve Them
Nwando Achebe
4. Gender Relations in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Igbo Society
Gloria Chuku
Part II The Igbo in the African Diaspora: The Mechanics and Patterns of Migrations, Settlements, and Demographics
5. The Aro and the Trade of the Bight
A. E. Afigbo
6. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade from the Bight of Biafra: An Overview
Kenneth Morgan
7. The Igbo and African Backgrounds of the Slave Cargo of the Henrietta Marie
John Thornton
8. A Great Many Boys and Girls : Igbo Youth in the British Slave Trade, 1700-1808
Audra A. Diptee
9. Becoming African: Igbo Slaves and Social Reordering in Nineteenth-Century Niger Delta
Raphael Chijioke Njoku
10. The Clustering of Igbo in the Americas: Where, When, How, and Why?
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
11. The Demography of the Bight of Biafra Slave Trade, ca. 1650-1850
Paul E. Lovejoy
12. The Igbo Diaspora in the Era of the Slave Trade
Douglas B. Chambers
Part III Cultural Crosscurrents: Dimensions of the Igbo Experience in the Atlantic World
13. The Igbo Diaspora in the Atlantic World: African Origins and New World Formations
Chima J. Korieh
14. Olaudah Equiano and the Forging of an Igbo Identity
Vincent Carretta
15. Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa: What s in a Name?
Paul E. Lovejoy
16. Archibald Monteath: Imperial Pawn and Individual Agent
Maureen Warner-Lewis
17. Igbo Influences on Masquerading and Drum-Dances in the Caribbean
Robert W. Nicholls
18. The Afro-Caribbean Diaspora in Reverse and Its Implications for the Development of Christianity and Education in Igboland, Southeastern Nigeria, 1895-1925
Waibinte E. Wariboko
19. The Making of Igbo Ethnicity in the Nigerian Setting: Colonialism, Identity, and the Politics of Difference
Raphael Chijioke Njoku
20. Ethnicity and the Contemporary Igbo Artist: Shifting Igbo Identities in the Post-Civil War Nigerian Art World
Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie
21. S NDU: Patterns of the Igbo Quest for Jesus Power
Ogbu U. Kalu
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX
ABBREVIATIONS
AG
Action Group
BBCA
Benue Basin Cultural Area
CCN
Christian Council of Nigeria
CMS
Church Missionary Society
COR
Council of Rivers movement for a Calabar-Ogoja-River statehood
CRCA
Cross River Cultural Area
ICA
Igbo Cultural Area
LTC
Lagos Town Council
NCAST
Nigerian College of Aviation and Technology
NCNC
National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon
NDCA
Niger Delta Cultural Area
NDP
National Democratic Party
NIP
National Independent Party
NPC
Northern People s Congress
NYM
Nigerian Youth Movement
SPILC
Society for Promoting of Igbo Language and Culture
UNCA
Lower Niger Cultural Area
UNN
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Despite the fact that Igbo studies in connection with the African diaspora began about 1789 when Olaudah Equiano published The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano , the dispersed terrains of their civilization is just beginning to unravel. This book contributes to the growing field of the Igbo in the Atlantic world. The primary intent is to examine the Igbo as a people, a culture, a concept, and a global phenomenon in relation to the Atlantic slave trade and diasporic linkages. The scope of enquiry extends from the original Igbo homeland in modern Nigeria and across the Atlantic to the New World.
Tapping from a huge collection of primary and secondary sources reserved in oral data, archives, and depositories in Africa, Europe, and the Americas, the various contributors give accounts of the Igbo involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the results of that encounter in the mixing of peoples and rise of cultures. The major areas of coverage include remarkably Igbo ways of life in precolonial and indigenous times, interactions with neighbors, migrations and settlements, and their reactions to, and involvement in, international trade-chiefly to the European slave trade which, from the fifteenth century, structured a peculiar order of Euro-African interactions. Other themes extensively covered are those of the Igbo presence in the Atlantic world, slavery, identity, and survival; abolitionism and transition to legitimate or commodity trade. Additionally, attention is paid to the post-abolition world of the Igbo, their arts (including dance, politics, rituals, and religion), and how these intertwined with those of their host societies to produce a hybrid of cultures encountered today across the Atlantic world.
The authors brought their expertise to bear in the interpretations they offer as Igbo identity and culture negotiated with challenges of subjugation, negotiations, adaptation, and survival in the New World encounters. As much as possible, the contributors have tried to use the specific Igbo historical crosscurrents to illuminate common themes of slavery and freedom, culture and tradition, precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial history of the Igbo in particular and Nigeria/Africa/Atlantic in general. This approach has been followed in a tidy manner while avoiding the dangers inherent in romanticizing or even privileging the Igbo over other groups in our interpretation of historical themes. If now and then we come across a bit more Igbo-centric, it is because there is a need to draw attention to the Igbo experience across time and space rather than telling a single story.
It would have been difficult to undertake writing this book without the untiring efforts of several people-not all of whose names we can include here. We must thank Matt Childs for his support for this project. We owe special thanks to many friends and colleagues who read initial drafts of this monograph, including Michael Vickers, Ogechi Anyanwu, and Emily Crumpton. We also thank the Acquisitions Editor for African Studies, Indiana University Press, Ms. Dee Mortensen, for her interest in the manuscript. Above all, we are grateful to our contributors for their persistence as this project dragged on and on. Indeed, they are the true heroes of this volume.
IGBO IN THE
ATLANTIC WORLD
1
INTRODUCTION
Raphael Chijioke Njoku and Toyin Falola
This book is about the Igbo (anglicized Ibo) people of southeastern Nigeria and their diasporic connections through the trans-Atlantic slave trade that began in Africa around the mid-fifteenth century. This endeavor followed the expanded Portuguese quest for trade commodities beyond the original attraction to gold, which by then was becoming increasingly scarce. Covering a wide range of topics from the timeless precolonial era through the colonial period and to the present, the various chapters approach the study of Igbo and Igbo/African Diaspora connections from a multidisciplinary perspective. Collectively, the authors provide the most detailed examination to date of the Igbo experience, focusing on indigenous institutions and cultural practices, the Igbo role and agency in the trans-At