The internet is indeed an awakener. Knowledge and truths previously hidden and inaccessible are in this age available upon request into a machine called search engine.

Following new revelations about cultural identity and root and their political ramifications for ethno-centric interests and patriotism I learnt that language is assimilative and is a variable whereas origin is fixed and unchangeable.

Proper example is Hausa speaking areas of Northern Nigeria. The population speak Hausa but many are by origin non-Hausa.

Another prime example is Ibo of South East Nigeria. There are bordering cultures who speak Ibo as a language but by origin are non-Ibo. Places like Ikwerre, Ika, Etche, Aboh.

Most of what we know today as Ibo culture are in fact antiquities of culture and society inherited fron the ancient Igala society and culture. The prime status of an Ibo man is symbolized by his red cap. This red cap was borrowed from the Igala culture.

The red cap chieftaincy of Igala is synonymous with the red robe royalty of the Ogisos of Benin. Its root is culturally in the Idu cult of the earth deity. Hence the name similarity between Edo and Idoma. Both came from Iduma - the red deity!

We know how Ibos lived in the aftermath of European explorers who chronicled, both in writing and pictures, the lifestyle of Ibos. These records placed strong emphasis and clearly enumerated the Wawa, the Ngwa, as core Ibo race. In the political and missionary interest, both for administrative and religious control, the speakers of Ibo language, Ibos and non-Ibos, were lumped together and called Ibo-speaking areas. They were not called Ibo people...but rather, Ibo-speaking peoples.

Let's take more examples.
In Yorubaland there are Aworis, Egbas, Owus, Ijebus, Ekitis, Oyos, Ijeshas, Ketus, Itsekiris, Oros, Ilajes, Ikales, Ebiras, Offas, Ilorins, Okins, Binis, and so on... All without exception face Ife and recognise its sacredness as the homeland, the uproot and seat of the progenity of the different nations of dialects in Yoruba Commonwealth. To those who have different opinion or disagree history serves as reference. The Yoruba can therefore stand on merit as a Nation of same language and origin.

In Hausaland, the Fulani claim a different root from Hausa; the Kanuri claim a different founding from both Hausa and Fulani, the Birom ancestry is different from Hausa or Fulani or Kanuri; the Kamberi is a different stock, so is Jukun, Tiv, Angas, Yauri, Gwari, and so on...but they all dress culturally same way and have a common official language. The North, like South East, should properly be called an Hausa-speaking area or Hausa-speaking peoples.....since only language is common, root and ancestry is not.

The way the Ibos live pre-written records will forever remain a great mystery. However in the illustrative accounts given by the acclaimed Ibo man, Olaudah Equiano, one who is well intimate with the cultures and topography of the landscape he described and the lifestyle of the peoples begins to wonder if indeed Olaudah was an Iboman.....or an Ibo-speaking person of non-Ibo origin.

This is my quest in this Myth Buster.

That part of Africa, known by the name of Guinea, to which the trade for slaves is carried on, extends along the coast above 3400 miles, from the Senegal to Angola, and includes a variety of kingdoms. Of these the most considerable is the kingdom of Benen, both as to extent and wealth, the richness and cultivation of the soil, the power of its king, and the number and warlike disposition of the inhabitants. It is situated nearly under the line, and extends along the coast about 170 miles, but runs back into the interior part of Africa to a distance hitherto I believe unexplored by any traveller; and seems only terminated at length by the empire of Abyssinia, near 1500 miles from its beginning.

This kingdom is divided into many provinces or districts: in one of the most remote and fertile of which, called Eboe, I was born, in the year 1745, in a charming fruitful vale, named Essaka.


The distance of this province from the capital of Benin and the sea coast must be very considerable; for I had never heard of white men or Europeans, nor of the sea: and our subjection to the king of Benin was little more than nominal; for every transaction of the government, as far as my slender observation extended, was conducted by the chiefs or elders of the place.


The manners and government of a people who have little commerce with other countries are generally very simple; and the history of what passes in one family or village may serve as a specimen of a nation.


My father was one of those elders or chiefs I have spoken of, and was styled Embrenche; a term, as I remember, importing the highest distinction, and signifying in our language a _mark_ of grandeur.

This mark is conferred on the person entitled to it, by cutting the skin across at the top of the forehead, and drawing it down to the eye-brows; and while it is in this situation applying a warm hand, and rubbing it until it shrinks up into a thick _weal_ across the lower part of the forehead. Most of the judges and senators were thus marked; my father had long born it: I had seen it conferred on one of my brothers, and I was also _destined_ to receive it by my parents. Those Embrence, or chief men, decided disputes and punished crimes; for which purpose they always assembled together. The proceedings were generally short; and in most cases the law of retaliation prevailed. I remember a man was brought before my father, and the other judges, for kidnapping a boy; and, although he was the son of a chief or senator, he was condemned to make recompense by a man or woman slave. Adultery, however, was sometimes punished with slavery or death; a punishment which I believe is inflicted on it throughout most of the nations of Africa[A]: so sacred among them is the honour of the marriage bed, and so jealous are they of the fidelity of their wives. Of this I recollect an instance:--a woman was convicted before the judges of adultery, and delivered over, as the custom was, to her husband to be punished. Accordingly he determined to put her to death: but it being found, just before her execution, that she had an infant at her breast; and no woman being prevailed on to perform the part of a nurse, she was spared on account of the child. The men, however, do not preserve the same constancy to their wives, which they expect from them; for they indulge in a plurality, though seldom in more than two.


[b]Their mode of marriage is thus:--both parties are usually betrothed when young by their parents, (though I have known the males to betroth themselves). On this occasion a feast is prepared, and the bride and bridegroom stand up in the midst of all their friends, who are assembled for the purpose, while he declares she is thenceforth to be looked upon as his wife, and that no other person is to pay any addresses to her. This is also immediately proclaimed in the vicinity, on which the bride retires from the assembly. Some time after she is brought home to her husband, and then another feast is made, to which the relations of both parties are invited: her parents then deliver her to the bridegroom, accompanied with a number of blessings, and at the same time they tie round her waist a cotton string of the thickness of a goose-quill, which none but married women are permitted to wear: she is now considered as completely his wife; and at this time the dowry is given to the new married pair, which generally consists of portions of land, slaves, and cattle, household goods, and implements of husbandry. These are offered by the friends of both parties; besides which the parents of the bridegroom present gifts to those of the bride, whose property she is looked upon before marriage; but after it she is esteemed the sole property of her husband. The ceremony being now ended the festival begins, which is celebrated with bonefires, and loud acclamations of joy, accompanied with music and dancing.[/b]

Olaudah Equiano could have been born in one of the British colonies in America (Carolina), and not African soil, but heard many of the stories in his account from the other slaves transported from the coast of West Africa. Or even read some in books.

The objective is to look at keywords in the author's own words and tag them in bold to signify areas of interest for socio-cultural match amongst the cultures and societies that border Iboland where the author was born.

We cannot call Azikiwe, or Ojukwu or Nzeogwu Hausa even though they were all born in Hausaland. If we read autobiography of Zik he would talk proudly of his childhood, which was in Zungeru, but because he grew up in Ibo household, resident in Zungeru, his recollection of family pride and virtue and character will be discriminative and give glimpse into his roots.

Same thing here with Olaudah. None of his names is Ibo. He has names that sound Urhobo or Igala. The Equiano is the anglicize of Ekiyano. His middle name is spelt Vassa, more likely Vatsa.

He speaks of his heritage as the son of a father who is member in the Council of Chiefs and Elders patriotic to the Binin King.

"Our subjection to the King of Benin is a little more than nominal". In other words, the land he was born in, Iboland, were subjects and tributaries of Bini.

So if his own father was a member of Bini council of chiefs and elders then who is his father? Could an Iboman be a member of Bini Chiefs? What is Embrence? This is another anglocize corruption of a native term. Does it have collocate in any of the territories in and around Iboland?

The marriage rituals he described are unique. Which culture practice this ritual?

So as I bring more of his writings this mode of analysis will be used to partition and clarify the ambiguities towards finding a non-controversial root for Olaudah.

Tolexander:
Olaudah Equiano could have been born in one of the British colonies in America (Carolina), and not African soil, but heard many of the stories in his account from the other slaves transported from the coast of West Africa.

It could be he was born in Carolina, but he has accumulated a legendary profile as an African born who was transported out into slavery. There is nothing wrong claiming Carolina as his birth place, but from his own biography enough information is available to trace his self-claimed identity to an origin.

MayorofLagos:
The objective is to look at keywords in the author's own words and tag them in bold to signify areas of interest for socio-cultural match amongst the cultures and societies that border Iboland where the author was born.

We cannot call Azikiwe, or Ojukwu or Nzeogwu Hausa even though they were all born in Hausaland. If we read autobiography of Zik he would talk proudly of his childhood, which was in Zungeru, but because he grew up in Ibo household, resident in Zungeru, his recollection of family pride and virtue and character will be discriminative and give glimpse into his roots.

Same thing here with Olaudah. None of his names is Ibo. He has names that sound Urhobo or Igala. The Equiano is the anglicize of Ekiyano. His middle name is spelt Vassa, more likely Vatsa.

He speaks of his heritage as the son of a father who is member in the Council of Chiefs and Elders patriotic to the Binin King.

"Our subjection to the King of Benin is a little more than nominal". In other words, the land he was born in, Iboland, were subjects and tributaries of Bini.

So if his own father was a member of Bini council of chiefs and elders then who is his father? Could an Iboman be a member of Bini Chiefs? What is Embrence? This is another anglocize corruption of a native term. Does it have collocate in any of the territories in and around Iboland?

The marriage rituals he described are unique. Which culture practice this ritual?

So as I bring more of his writings this mode of analysis will be used to partition and clarify the ambiguities towards finding a non-controversial root for Olaudah.

Gustavus Vassa is his slave name, given after Swedish King, not his middle name.

Embrenche is a tribal Mark which is what he is describing... Also the Benin kingdom he is describing is not the Benin in Nigeria. But more like Dahomey Kingdom which is closer to the coast and warlike. He says the land he comes from is fertile and pays tributes to Benin Kingdom. You may be looking for a Togolese descendant or thereabout.

I initially thought it was Igala, but reading the description of the Benin Kingdom again, it's clear it is not our own Benin in Nigeria. Also the tribal marks he is describing exists in Igboland it's called Ichi. This man may have just put many people's stories together to form an enchanting tale. But we need to look more at the tributaries of old Dahomey Kingdom to figure out where Olaudah is from.