DISCUSSION FORUM

I heard or read somewhere that a full third of the slaves brought to this country were of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, and that these people were captured and sold by the Ibo people. Does anyone have any more info on this, if it is in fact correct?

My brother-in-law was Ibo, and my nephew just married a Yoruba girl. I haven't had an opportunity to ask the family about the old history, but I want to.

Bill

Great question, Bill.

From what I understand about the slave trade in and from Africa, the truth is a little more complicated. A large proportion of the entire transatlantic slave trade, not just that to North America, came from that region, and from the Yoruba.

However, the Yoruba were a mighty people for most of this time, with influence stretching quite a distance. I've read that most slaves exported from that region of Africa were sold by Yoruba traders, and many (if not most) of those slaves had been transshipped from further inside Africa.

So I understand that most slaves coming from that region were not actually of the Yoruba people. But many were identified by Europeans as coming from the Yoruba. Over time, as well, Yoruba culture and religion became common among many slaves in the Americas, so that a spiritual and communal connection became quite common.

Please bear in mind that I'm not an expert in this subject!

James

Thanks James, that's an interesting piece of the puzzle.

Bill

I lived in Lagos, Nigeria for ten good years, and my experience may shed some light on a complicated question. Nigerians are as reluctant as Americans to deal with the issue of slavery, but I feel they need to be part of this dialog, and I am glad that the DeWolf Family included West Africa in their pilgrimage.

The evidence of African spiritual practices in the New World seems to indicate a large Yoruba presence, as you both say. Many of the deities in Haitian Voudou, Brazilian Contomblé, and Cuban Santeria bear Yoruba names.

However, I have never encountered the story of an Ibo connection such as you describe. Although Nigerians own their national identity, one sometimes hears disparaging stories from them about members of other ethnic groups. I wonder if some tribal rivalry is the source of the Ibo/Yoruba slaving story rather than hard history.

The Ibo and Yoruba are two of the largest Nigerian tribes. They are culturally and linguistically very different from each other, but I am unaware of any history of major conflict between them. They are geographically separated by the Niger River. To the north, the Niger is a major expanse of water, but to the south, it expands to form a vast, impenetrable swampland inhabited by several smaller, distinct groups. The Niger Delta is the source of Nigeria's oil wealth and the center of a lot of modern political unrest. The Ibo have much more in common with the people of Cameroon to their east than with the Yoruba. The Yoruba tend to interact more with northern people, and when there has been conflict, it was mostly to the north, not the east.

Regarding Yoruba slave trading, I will note that a major landmark on old Lagos Island was (and remains) Tinubu Square which was named for a powerful 19th century woman slave trader, Madame Tinubu.

One of the most memorable and moving experiences of my years in Nigeria pertained to the slave trade. My former husband was a professor at the University of Lagos. Senior students were required to do research projects. In 1972, we went to visit one of the students, Mr. Shoan, who was doing research among his people on the Jos Plateau in central Nigeria. The then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowan, is from the area which is inhabited by small ethnic groups engaged mostly in agriculture.

The arid countryside is punctuated by enormous, gray stone outcroppings. We were warmly received by Mr. Shoan and his people in their isolated family compound. An elderly relative told us the history of the area. He said that during slavery times, there were constant raids; the situation grew so bad that people who went to work the fields never returned. They were forced to abandon their homes and their farms and retreat into the rocky hills where they lived in caves, barely surviving on what they could forage, without even cloth to wear.

After the abolition of the slave trade by Britain in 1807, the active suppression of the trade began along the West African coast. Effects were gradually felt in the interior, and as the violence subsided, Christian missionaries arrived. They brought the news of the end of slavery to the Jos Plateau, and this is why the people there are strong Christians to this day.

My ten years in Nigeria were life altering; I came to love the place and the people deeply. Sadly the enormous potential of the country is thwarted by a staggering level of corruption for which Nigeria is depressingly famous. Just as America continues to suffer from the unhealed wound that race slavery inflicted on our body politic, Nigeria also suffers from the same unholy legacy. The discovery, the truth telling, and the healing needs to include us all.

My field is art history, not political history. I welcome anyone with more knowledge to correct my conclusions. I hope others will expand on the subject.

Hello

I stumbled on this forum while doing a Google Search and was intrigued. I am a Yoruba from a long lineage of Kings... I can say authoritatively that this is the first time I am hearing about the Ibo / Yoruba connection. It is practically untenable and quite a stretch.

Between the Ibos and the Yorubas, there were one mighty Empire and a few other lesser Kingdoms s that buffered the Yorubas from the Ibos and makes it literaly IMPOSSIBLE for the Ibo (Igbo) slave trader to operate in Yorubaland. How would the Igbo Warriors have transversed the Benin Empire - a very strong Warrior Kingdom who are Cousins of the Yorubas, whose Kingdom still exist today without a challenge? Even today, with all modernities; THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE! How would they have negotiated with the fierce Ijaw Warriors who control the Waterways ABSOLUTELY.

An Ibo slaver would have to fight for 400 Miles of hostile territory and difficult terrains to get the Yoruba slaves to the Ibo waterways for shipment to the West. This was a virtually impossible Feet in the time described.

I conclude therefore that the Ibo Slaver Theory is absolute nonsense.

At the outbreak of the so called civil war over 3,000 black families had slaves, are they going to get money also? The only slaves today are hard working white folks who have to pay for all those dead beats, and invaders.

Hear me out, Ms. Browne. I owe blacks: NOTHING. They'll get NOTHING from me, and I will give them NOTHING. You can write a thousand sappy self-flagellating articles and it won't change that attitude one bit. You feel guilty about being White? I feel guilty about you being White, too. Try not to mention it next time you write your mush.

Your family brought the negro menace over here in the first place. Now you want us to bow to the proud sons of Africa. The entire DeWolf family is obviously a plague upon White Americans. If I were you, I would be ashamed too.

Over $3 trillion in taxes have been given to this race of missing links - not to mention the billions we've given to Africa - and all this BEFORE national healthcare, which is reparations in disguise.

If we owe them any type of debt it has long since been repaid. The only thing we owe them now is a boat ride back and it's high time we get to that.

You can tell you're a spineless pathetic liberal, probably a vegetarian and practices yoga five times a day. I couldn't care less how blacks were treated in the past, I didn't do it and I'm sick of these left wing pigs telling me I should feel guilty for it. BLACKS commit an incredible amount of crime against WHITES - maybe WE should get some damn reparations.

You feel guilty for being born white? Well, I have the perfect solution.

Instead of pushing for reparations, how about jumping off a cliff?

I think the previous bit of irrational vitriol was probably intended for the Board on Reparations.

Ignorance is a terrible disease! First, if the Black people should go back to Africa then the White people should go back to Europe since only the native Americans are indigenous to this country. Second, Africans had no need to leave Africa to commit genocide to get other people land because they were self-sufficient. White people had to leave Europe because the continent was ravished by war, bubonic plague, oppression, religious persecution, and almost completely depleted of natrual resource.

The economy of this country and Europle are built on the blood, swear, and tears of Africans and other indigenous people around the world. I suggest that you go to all the indigenous people around the world and they will give you the education you so lack. Anyway, why waste my time, I don't even think you know what I am talking about.