NDIIGBO RENAISSANCE MOVEMENT: Uniting all Igbo across the world!

The time has come for Ndiigbo all over the world to unite and to start utilizing our blood extensions, unique strength, talents, ingenuity, achievements and the huge population we have across the world for our liberation, development and prosperity, just like the Jews, Indians and Chinese do. Apart from the 5 South-East States of Enugu, Anambra, Abia, Ebonyi and Imo Ndiigbo occupy some part of Delta State, Rivers State, Cross Rivers State, Kogi State and Benue State within the current geography called Nigeria. Besides, we have large population of Ndiigbo as part of the original population of USA,Haiti,Cameroon,Liberia,Sierra Leone,Benin, Ghana, Angola,Mozambique,Uganda,Congo,Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Ivory Coast, Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, Jamaica, Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic,Costa Rica, Hispaniola, Belize among others. Also in Equatorial Guinea, they have a region that speaks Igbo.

It is estimated that about 2.4 million Igbo people were transported (via European ships) across the Atlantic in the era of slave trade. Most of these ships were British.Some documented populations of people of African descent on Caribbean islands recorded 2,863 Igbo on Trinidad & Tobago in an 1813 census; 894 in Saint Lucia in an 1815 census; 440 on Saint Kitts and Nevis in an 1817 census; and 111 in Guayana in an 1819 census.

In the United States, Ndiigbo were found common in the state of Maryland and Virginia, where Igbo slaves were known for being rebellious, especially in some states such as Georgia. Thus, in the United States there is a region called Ibo Landing in Georgia which is thought to have been a place where a group of Ibo people committed suicide rather than be enslaved. According to Douglas B. Chambers it was recorded that in the 19th century the state of Virginia received around 37,000 slaves from Calabar of which 30,000 were Igbo. The Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia estimates around 38% of captives taken to Virginia were from the Bight of Biafra. Igbo people constituted the majority of enslaved Africans in Maryland. Chambers has been quoted saying "My research suggests that perhaps 60 percent of black Americans have at least one Igbo ancestor....

Moreover, Igbo ancestors and rebellious slaves were the founder of the modern day democratic Haiti. Some slaves arriving in Haiti who were mostly Igbo people were considered suicidal. So intolerant were the Ibo people of taking orders, that Ibo victims of enslavement in Haiti and throughout the Americas had a higher suicide rate than other Africans. This high suicide rate is remembered in the Vodou expression Ibo touye tèt li. There is still the Creole saying of Ibos pend'cor'a yo (the Ibo hang themselves) and the aspects of Haitian culture that exhibit this can be seen in the Ibo loa, a Haitian loa (or deity) created by the Igbo in the Vodun religion. Among the many Ibo influences present in Haiti today, perhaps the most enduring is the Ibo passion for self-determination. This passion helped to fuel the Haitians fore-parents’ efforts to combat slavery. Haitians descendants have continued to honor the Ibo who fought to create a more democratic Haiti. Thus, no Africans in Haiti were willingly enslaved and people of all African nations rebelled against slavery.

Nonetheless, because of the Ibo passion for democracy, they became the group most associated with rebellion against slavery. As such, in Haiti, when they honor the memory of Ibo Ancestors they commonly perform dance movements symbolic of their breaking the chains of enslavement. In Haiti, this rebellious way of dancing is called the Ibo dance. Other Ibo influences in Haitian culture are numerous and include the term sou for community banking and the use of M as a short form for mwen (me). Today Ibo people are remembered throughout Haiti.

Indeed, the links between Barbados and the Bight of Biafra had begun in the mid-seventeenth century, with half of the African captives arriving on the island originating from there. There was a general rise in the amount of enslaved people arriving to the Americas, particularly British Colonies, from the Bight of Biafra in the 18th century; the heaviest of these forced migrations occurred between 1790 and 1807.The result of such slaving patterns made Jamaica, after Virginia, the second most common destination for slaves arriving from the Bight of Biafra; as the Igbo formed the majority from the bight, they became largely represented in Jamaica in the 18th and 19th century.

The first known record of a literate Nigerian in the English Language is OLAODAH Equanoh, a famous Igbo author, abolitionist and ex-slave who, in his narrative of an Ibo slave who regained his freedom, documented his life history as a slave from the time he was 11 years old in the present day Ibo land till the time when he gained his freedom in the middle of the 18th century. According to Equanoh, the Igbo were dispersed to Barbados in large numbers as he himself, was dropped off there after being kidnapped from his hometown near the Bight of Biafra. After arriving in Barbados he was promptly shipped to Virginia. At his time, 44 percent of the 90,000 Africans disembarking on the island (between 1751 and 1775) were from the bight, and these Africans were therefore mainly of Igbo origin. OLAODAH Equanoh later married an English woman and had 3 children before he died in 1795.

More so, according to a documentation we came across, Bishop T.D Jakes, Dr Sidney Davis, Gabrielle Union & Nia Long & Brandy Norwood, Ice Cube & Kobe Bryant, Vivica A. Fox & Timberland, Johnny Gill, Whitney Houston, Queen Latifah, Allen Iverson, Shanice Wilson(singer),Avant, Missy Elliott, Keisha Night-Pulliam (Rudy from Cosby show)cheesy, Tempest Bledso (Vanessa from Cosby show) cheesy, Jill Scott, Anita Baker, Shirley Murdock, Kelly Price among others are the prominent African-Americans of Igbo descent in USA. It's believed that about 60% of AA among the African-Americans in USA could be of some significant Igbo descent. They were taken to USA in much larger numbers than any other single African ethnic group. The Goula AA of coastal Georgia is all of Igbo descent.
In an old 18th century Virginian population nutritive it was stated that as many of 80% of the blacks in the Chesapeake and Delaware Valley regions of the US could be of "Ebo stock" Ebo is a common corruption of the spelling of Igbo. This narrative was published not long after former president John Adams' grandfather was poisoned to death by a group of his female Igbo slaves at his plantation in Virginia. There's a book about the incident called "Murder at Mt. Pelier".

It is worthy of note that Edward Wilmot BLYDEN – an educated son of free Ibo slaves who by the mid-19th century had acquired sound theological education is one of the founding missionaries that established the Archbishop Vining church in Ikeja. He was born in Saint Thomas in 1832. Again, the third president of a free Liberia – President J JRoyle – is of Ibo descent, thus an Igboman has ruled Liberia and now Gabon(His Excellency, Ali Bongo). These are just to mention but a few of the information on the extensions of Igbo blood across the world which has to be harnessed for Igbo liberation and greatness!

-Seemoreat: https://360naija.com/2015/06/04/biafras-forgotten children/?#?sthash?.T5a4HBsr.GK9JBHlV.dpuf

NB:All men and women of Igbo descent across the world who are interested in the 'Ndiigbo Unite Project' should contact us: [email protected], [email protected];Skype: benedict727