Something is wrong with the African race and those called “blacks” except those Africans who have broken free from the bondage of history.

I may not be able to wrap my head around what it truly is but something is wrong with Africa which is why Africa and other “black nations” of the world like Jamaica, Haiti, and the rest are completely backward.

Africa is not the only colonized continent.
Africa is not the only place where slavery was sought for. Before it became a thing in Africa, many other nations had their fair share of slavery.

Why does it seem that Africans are trapped in a time warp where the only thing we want to talk about is the past and not the future? History should be able to tell us who we were and not who we are. Why does it seem that the only topic that interests us is “ethnicity, colonialism, slavery, and the culture of our ancestors” when there are a whole lot of things out there for us?

Several nations of the world had their past, they had a culture that their fathers practiced but today, while they appreciate their history, they have moved on. Sometimes, history is the story of your ancestors but not your own story. You can appreciate the past but you shouldn’t be a prisoner of the past.

What is holding nations of Africa back is that we are prisoners of the past. We still hold bitterness in our hearts against the whites for colonialism and slavery. We still want to go back to the primitive cultures of our fathers that would have been relevant in their days but very irrelevant today, we are still trapped in labels called “ethnicity”.

Whatever ethnicity we are today was a mixture of diverse people from diverse places. What we know as the Igbo people today is made up of diverse people from diverse places just as Hausa and Yorubas. But because we are prisoners of these labels, we can’t appreciate our future as Nigerians. Nigeria should be our new ethnicity but that is impossible because we are too divided. Why are we divided? Because we are prisoners of the past and not the future.

Until we learn to appreciate who we were but never be bound by it, we may not truly evolve to be taken very seriously by those who have already moved on from the past. While Nigerians in the UK, US, Canada, and some other Western countries are already being elected into political offices without anyone asking them what their ethnicity is, we are still struggling in Nigeria to accept people who are not from our place of origin. Why won’t we make poor leadership choices when the first thing we look at when casting our vote is “ethnicity”?

Yes, I am Igbo, and proudly so. But no, I am not bound by that label, I am not a prisoner of the life of my ancestors. They lived their own lives and I am permitted to live mine. They lived their truth and I am permitted to live mine. They have already passed down their DNA to me and I think that’s enough to make me Igbo. I don't have to wear their clothes, worship their gods, or do some rituals including the inhumane ones to be Igbo. I am much as Igbo as anyone else who is Igbo.

I have nothing against anybody for being from another ethnic group. I believe that our ethnicity only tells the story of where we are coming from but not where we are going. When I look at people, the first thing that comes to my mind is that they are human and not their ethnicity. We may not share the same language but we share the same humanity, the same country, the same continent, same world.

Not every African thinks like I do because not every African has broken free from being a slave of the past. So, I will not let the opinions of those who are prisoners and slaves of the past and labels change my mind. I don't care how many Yorubas or Hausas use derogatory words about my ethnicity, it will not change my own opinion about humans regardless of their ethnicity because I cannot go so low with them. So, I believe in the Yoruba or Hausa man as much as I believe in the Igbo man.

I am not a prisoner to the experiences of my ancestors. Colonialism, slavery, racism, and the war that they experienced are all stories that must not be written off but I will not be a prisoner of that story, I will not be in a perpetual torment of bitterness because of the story of my ancestors. They have lived and gone and now, it’s time I live my own life.

We must evolve.

Karrrion:

Nice one. That's just the sure way. But they don't know

I know about Crypto but the client I work with in India doesn't want crypto.

I want to be able to transfer dollars from Nigeria to India directly. Is there any platform you can recommend for me? I haven't seen any viable solution.

Chibuzoc:


Biafra is everything opposite of Nigeria. How much do you know about the Biafra people? Food, culture and traditions are almost similar hence a yoruba or hausa man can't differentiate the difference between tribes in Biafra.
Simply put Biafra is of different tribes with similarities while Nigeria is of different nations with no similarity.

Biafra is more connected with southern Cameroon than Yoruba/oduduwa which has more connection with Benin Republic and hausa/area which is connected with Niger.

If not for Berlin conference, I don't think Igbos would be together with Yorubas and hausa but that can't be said about other tribes in Biafra because while other Biafran tribes occupied coastal areas, Igbos were more in the hinterland (island and mainland)

Still, Biafra had a diverse people with diverse culture and ways of life. We can't dispute this.

Chibuzoc:
Biafra is a nation made-up with people of similar interests, beliefs, food and traditions unlike Nigeria which is a country made up with different nations with different cultures, interests, foods etc.

Hope someone is enlightened

Actually, Biafra was made up of diverse cultures, food and traditions. Biafra was just everything Nigeria was... It was just a British-Eastern Nigeria. And make no mistakes about it, I am not saying that Igbos cannot co-exist with their neighbours. I think Igbos can co-exist with everybody. Personally, I would prefer a restructured Nigeria. Nigerians are good together but the "big wigs" are using Nigerians as pawn and setting them against each other for their selfish reasons.

whofoolwho:
In as much as am an Igbo person, I do not subscribe to the form of ipob agitation. I have always opinioned for a viable and prosperous south east that can work even without the federal allocation.The problem I keep saying is that those elected in the east keep using the agitation of the ipob and likes as an excuse for their failures.Development of an erea or country must not be when you have mineral resources. I don't know the number of mineral resources they have in countries like.Switzerland,Germany and others. We in the east should start electing those that have idea of what to do before electing them.Example in Cross River State when Donald Duke came into power he knew what he wanted and went for it.he turned the state into the number one tourism state in the country.

I agree with you. I do not subscribe to the IPOB agenda.

I agree with you. I do not subscribe to the IPOB agenda.

Freethinker87:
Oduduwa - The Yorubas call themselves
Arewa - The Northerners call themselves
Biafrans - The Igbos call themselves.

I dont understand why Biafra is offensive but Oduduwa or Arewa isn't. OP if you have a more befitting name for the Igbos, I'll like to hear it.

Biafra was not an Igbo Project, it was more like cutting a piece from the colonial cake. There is nothing about Biafra that makes it Igbo and Ojukwu never had it in mind to establish an Igbo state called Biafra. Biafra was just going to be a smaller version of Nigeria. The Old Eastern Region was still a British project. So?

Ebi2233:
Ijaw is as large as Igbo.
Ijaws are for Ijaw Republic.

Igbo land is landlocked.

This is not about superiority but the Igbos are bigger in population. Ijaws are about 4-5 million and they account for 1.8% of Nigeria's population.

On Ijaw Population
Refer to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijaw_people
Refer to this: https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/ijaw-people/m02wb1k?hl=en#:~:text=Population%20figures%20for%20the%20Ijaws,Africa%20known%20as%20the%20ORU.

Igbos are more than 30 million.
30 Million accounts only for the Igbos in South East and they make up about 18% of Nigeria's population. There are also millions of Igbos indigenous to South-South and North Central.

Aside from Nigeria, there are significant Igbo populations in the following countries

United States - 227,000
Cameroon - 116,000
Ghana - 67,000
Equatorial Guinea - 58,000
United Kingdom - 8,000
Gambia - 6,900
Australia - 2,000
Canada - 1,900

The Igbo language is a minority official language in Cameroon and Equatoria Guinea.

On Igbo Population
Refer to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igboland

Now, let me say again. The purpose of the original article isn't to say any ethnic group is greater than another but Igbo population made up 65-67% of the Biafra population.

"We are all Biafrans".

This statement is valid depending on what you are saying. But it's false when you want to mean that every Igbo is Biafran and that Biafra is Igbo.

If some Igbos are agitating for the Igbo nation which to me does not solve any problem though, I don't think it's Biafra they should be agitating for.

Some Biafran agitators claim that the name "Nigeria" is foreign. But they fail to remember that "Biafra" is also very foreign. Why choose another foreign word? Biafra is a Portuguese word.

But aside from the origin of the name, Biafra as a nation, although made up of 65% Igbos was not an Igbo nation. It was simply a Nation consisting of what was then Eastern Nigeria. Whatever arrangement that consisted of Eastern Nigeria was the making of colonialists too.

If the Igbo nation is anything to go by; it should be a fresh new idea, a brand new plan and not Biafra. We were not Biafrans before the amalgamation of Nigeria. Biafra in itself is also an amalgamation because it consists of people of diverse ethnic groups in old Eastern Nigeria.

Before the amalgamation of Nigeria, we were not called Biafrans. The first town in West Africa to be known as Biafra according to a Portuguese record is located in present-day Cameroon.

Biafra would have made sense if all ethnic groups of the Old Eastern Region are collectively fighting for it. Today, Biafra is more like an Igbo project when we know that Biafra makes no sense without the Ijaws, the Kalabaris and so on whose regions are well situated in the Bight of Biafra.

What Ojukwu fought for was not the independence of the Igbos. Although the Igbos were more affected by the war because they were the majority, consisting of more than 65% of the population, it was not a fight for the Igbos but a fight to have Eastern Nigeria run as a separate entity. It still was going to maintain some form of Colonial arrangements.

Other Igbo towns in the Midwest and today's North Central were not part of Biafra on paper although the Igbo hate by the men of the Nigerian Army compelled them to commit genocide in Asaba which affected almost every single family in Asaba.

If Biafra was a success, we might still have some Igbo ethnic groups stuck within Nigeria and they would continue to be marginalized. From Asaba towards the West was not part of Biafra on paper and from Kogi towards the North was not part of Biafra.

In today's struggle for Biafra, other ethnic groups which were once part of Biafra have made it clear that they are not Biafra and do not want to be part of it. They believe that they will not have a voice in Biafra as they will be swallowed by the majority of Igbos. Their towns were rarely affected by the war because the majority of the combats happened within Igboland. So, many of them feel no attachment to Biafra even though their fathers fought gallantly for it.

Imagine if Anioma of Delta State was part of Biafra also. That would make the Igbos make up about 70% Biafran population. The other ethnic groups do not want a situation where they will always have to come to the negotiation table with the Igbos to have things done or to lead the nation. Igbos would have been to Biafra what Northern Nigeria is to Nigeria in today's arrangement.

This is also why it's laughable when folks try to resurrect the Biafran arrangement where it's impossible. An Igbo nation would have been a better idea since what some Igbos just like some Yorubas are agitating for is self-rule.

And for the idea of an Igbo nation to fly, it must be a new idea to be built from scratch. It doesn't have to be Biafra because Biafra is not an Igbo nation and the idea behind Biafra was not to build the Igbo nation. While Igbos played a major role in it, I always feel that giving Igbos all the credit for whatever took place including the bravery of Biafrans isn't fair.

Now that we have established that Biafra wasn't an Igbo nation even though Igbos made up more than half of the population, we should rather be talking of an Igbo nation that will include all Igbo communities that weren't part of the Biafran project. It has to be a fresh idea, fresh map, fresh planning and even fresh key players.

But then the question is, do Igbos need a Nation of their own? I would rather be opting for an Independent Southern & Middle Belt Nigeria as one country while the core North operates as a separate country. Otherwise, a truly restructured Nigeria with a fresh new constitution could be not just a start of something new but a start of something great.

But whichever is the case, it's still within a people's rights to agitate peacefully.

omoharry:
Are you sure this comment is for me ? I was trying to tell the op that other dignitaries and head of state from other European countries also took the bus . So wonder why u decided to attack me .

I am the OP and if you read the article maybe your comment would be different. And I didn't attack you.

omoharry:
Are you sure this comment is for me ? I was trying to tell the op that other dignitaries and head of state from other European countries also took the bus . So wonder why u decided to attack me .

I am the OP and if you read the article maybe your comment would be different .

omoharry:
The Canadian president also came with the Bus. You guys should stop all this one sided talk

Why do you folks never read? I bet you didn't read but rushed to comment .

THE LIES & THE TRUTH.

A lot of reactions have trailed the picture that surfaced online where African Leaders were seen, packed in a bus heading to the Queen's Funeral. Many have said that African Leaders weren't valued hence the treatment. Others claimed that the African Leaders were still suffering from the stings of colonialism.

As of 11th September 2022, it was already public knowledge that world leaders may have to travel by bus as STATE cars were banned. This was reported by many UK news outlets and online newspapers. According to Mirror UK

"A document leaked to Politico at the weekend said that escorted coaches will take them to the venue from an undisclosed location where they will have to leave their cars “because of tight security and road restrictions”.

Private aircraft were also banned at Heathrow and all official places used for funerals and associated events. Moving with helicopters around the UK was also banned.

Joe Biden, the President of America was on the other hand given preferential treatment where he was allowed to be driven in the "Beast", a special vehicle manufactured by General Motors for the President for security reasons. He was considered a very high risk hence the need to travel in the special security outfit.

All global leaders regardless of their continent drove in sets of buses. Aside from African Leaders, most European and Asian leaders also drove in luxury coach buses. Those who took group transport also included the European Commission President, German President, Italian President, King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain, King Philippe of Belgium, and China delegates. While the Emir of Qatar traveled in his car, he was forced to wait at the checkpoint for 20 minutes.

All foreign leaders were informed to leave their vehicles in West London as a result of security and restrictions and they saw no issues with it. The pictures circulating online have been misconstrued and misinterpreted.

Another reason why they traveled in groups was to decongest traffic. You can imagine all world leaders going in their vehicles to prove a point at a funeral. Another thing to note is that Biden's vehicle was not provided by the UK.

Again, Joe Biden and a few others were considered very high risk and were allowed to travel in their official vehicles because it has been custom built to protect them from attacks of various degrees.

Were African Leaders in any way humiliated? Of course not! If it was humiliation, then maybe, the entire leaders around the globe were humiliated.

immortalcrown:
Only a fool that wants to make noise thinks slavery is a strong fact against the late queen.

The strong fact against her royalty is her genocidal roles in many countries. Biafra war is an example.

Many have made it about slavery. About Biafran war, the Queen didn't do enough and when I have the time, I hope to write on that.

NobleStag007:
Africans need to apologize to who? As to why?
This OP is very funny

The simple thing you should have done was READ.

SLAVERY | Africa Needs To Apologize.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II has triggered scintillating conversations and the prevalent dudgeons some Africans have about and towards the British Monarch and the white race. But is this vexation justified, or are we all trying not to be accountable for the actions of our great grandfathers? Why does it seem that there is a deliberate attempt to exculpate Africa from the past anguish of Africa?

First, let me make it clear. Slavery is as old as humanity. It is evil and shouldn't have happened at all. According to Britannica Encyclopedia, "Slavery is known to have existed as early as the Shang dynasty (18th–12th century BCE) in China. It has been studied thoroughly in ancient Han China (206 BCE–25 CE), where perhaps 5 per cent of the population was enslaved. Slavery continued to be a feature of Chinese society down to the 20th century."

The way we all feign oblivion of how some of our so-called ancestors, kings, and chiefs are beneficiaries of slavery is phoney. If we want to open up the wounds, we should at least be truthful. Or, is it because history isn't been taught in schools with sincerity? Whenever we tell our children about slavery, we seem to remove some details to suit our bias. Whenever we want to tell the story of modern slavery in Africa, we must mention how Africans were the exporters of slaves.

For example, Efunroye Tinubu (c. 1810 – 1887) had more than 360 personal slaves and sold slaves to European merchants. She was a very powerful and persuasive figure in Lagos of her time. She was married to an Ọbá and used her clout to establish ties through which she traded many slaves and other goods.

The landmark Tinubu Square in Lagos, Nigeria is named after her with her statue on it. She has a statue in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Should blacks go about destroying statues of ruthless slave traders? The statue of Efunroye has to go down too and the square was renamed to something else. I am not advocating for this, I am only saying that what is good for the black slave traders is good for the white slave traders.

Efunroye Tinubu told Domingo Martinez, a Brazillian slave trader, that "she would rather drown 20 slaves than sell them at a discount". She is African, She is Yoruba. She is not a white woman.

Another instance is the Aro Confederacy, a large slave trading network made up of Aro Igbos, Ibibios, Ijaws and other minorities in what was later known as the Eastern region. Many Nigerians today herald the valour of the Aro Confederacy without even realizing what this confederacy stood for. This large slave trading network was distributed across parts of Niger Delta, Eastern Region, Southern Igala, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.

The confederacy was responsible for the exportation of slaves in their hundreds of thousands and probably millions. The Aros didn't only deal in slavery, they did it in very deadly ways that included going fetish about it. One of the ways they got people into slavery was by posing as bandits and chasing victims into the shrine where the victims may begin asking the gods for help to save them from the bandits. The victims would automatically be considered Osu and very fit to be sold into slavery.

You can learn more about the Aro Confederacy and its slave trades by reading Transafrican Journal of History, Vol. 16 (1987), pp. 151-166 (16 pages).

Africans have always wanted to exonerate themselves from being involved in slave trading when of course, they were the ones selling people to the Whites. You cannot on one hand hate the white people who sold African slaves without hating your African ancestors who sold your kinsmen to the whites. It is like the Biblical Joseph seeking justice from the Ishmaelites who sold him to the Egyptians when it was his brothers who sold him to the Ishmaelites. We need to start asking ourselves who sold who?

We must begin to debunk the lies and put the records straight so that Africans can become accountable. We were bitten by local dogs before foreign dogs came to lick the wound. Africans were sold by Africans. Some Africans didn't only sell other ethnic groups, they even sold their kinsmen.

The role Africans played in the slave trade was very direct. They stole children, kidnapped adults, and sold even their relatives who they don't like. Didn't the Arochukwus sell their fellow Igbos and Ibibios to slavery as we saw? Didn't the Benin and Yoruba Monarchy involved and benefitted greatly from the West African slave trades? Didn't they capture children, men, and women, torture them, and sold them to European and American buyers?

Should we talk about Dahomey? Is this not an African country? A country that is still divided between the actual slaves and those who benefitted from Slavery. The Benin Republic seems to be the only African country that has publicly acknowledged its role in slavery and apologized for it.

The way Africans exonerate themselves from Slavery tells a lot! That is why a British Monarch was wished excruciating de*th by a Professor in the US of Nigerian Origin. Yet, African Monarchs whose kingdoms benefitted from the slave trade are also considered victims.

Na! I am not defending colonialism and slavery at all BUT Africans must STOP apportioning blames and start taking responsibility for their shortcomings. Would I say shortcomings, ignorance, or what was obtainable at that time for their survival? We should also give credit to Britain for enforcing the abolition of the slave trade in Nigeria.

- Africans killed Africans.
- Africans kidnapped Africans.
- Africans tortured Africans.
- Africans had wicked, selfish, and evil monarchies who wanted to profit from the impoverishment of their people!

The West only saw an opportunity created by Africans! This is why officials of the Republic of Benin, in an event in the United States of America, apologized to the black communities for the role they played in the slave trade.

"We cry for forgiveness and reconciliation," said Luc Gnacadja, minister of environment and housing for Benin. "The slave trade is a shame, and we do repent for it." It was said that Dahomey (now the Benin Republic) rounded up more than three million slaves and sold them to the Europeans.

A leader of the Yoruba Nation Self-determination struggle, Prof. Banji Akintoye also gave a similar apology. He described it as overdue. He apologized to the victims of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade which was carried out between the Yorubas and the Portuguese and Dutch businessmen in the 18th century.

If there is a need for an apology, Africa should begin by apologizing to Africa. Africans failed Africa and to date, Africans keep failing Africa by not taking responsibility for the part they played. I think that all black communities outside Africa and those in Africa who were victims of slavery have to hold African empires and their ancestors accountable for failing them before even considering the Western world.

Let's debunk some of the myths about slavery. The whites were not originators of slavery, slavery was not a result of Western civilization. A global end to slavery was a result of Western Civilization. Slavery before colonialism was brutal which included torture and sexual abuses of all kinds. The Europeans didn't raid West Africa to find slaves, Africans raided their communities and sold slaves to the Europeans. War was also the most source of enslavements.

If we think the Whites impoverished Africa by slave trades, the blacks did even worse! The blacks are responsible for it! It's time to hold ourselves accountable for the deeds of our fathers and monarchs. Healing starts from there.

Patriotsleague:
Igbos are the ones that hate, yourubas no get una time. Underdogs always hate the superior dog. Igbos get off your high horse, no one gives a Bleep about you, you people have obnoxious character, and quite a poor mentality.

Yes, it's the "high horse" that made Oba of Lagos threaten to throw Igbos into the Lagoon if they don't vote his candidates ?

It's the high horse that prompted Mrs Tinubu to make the unfortunate remark she made about Igbos?

Please! You guys should stop fanning the flames of tribalism and at the end blaming the Igbos?

Many Yoruba folks are agitating that the lands Igbos bought be taken away from them. Did these Igbos force you to sell your lands? Did they steal it from you? What stops you from going toAsaba, Anambra or Enugu to also but lands? Isn't that how to foster unity?

The stronghold of tribalism and hate in this country has to end! It's so sad that after many years of so called independence, people will still be demeaning others because of where they come from!

It's said. School me again on how no one gives a Bleep about Igbos.

ImperialYoruba:


Yorubas anywhere are successful, at home or abroad.

Ibo is only successful when in Yorubaland. We are not pointing this out to take credit but your affront and insolence makes it imperative we put you in your place right away.

You will end up leaving Yorubaland. Did Obi not leave a legacy in Anambra better than Tinubu did for Lagos? Return to village and the legacies left behind by Obi. Do you hear me?

Do I expect anything better from someone whose heart is filled with hate? A political troll who is good at nothing than hate? Nobody is arguing success with you BUT the facts are there to see. Igbos are not inferior people, they do well anywhere in the world. And no, NOT YOU or ANYONE will make me go so slow into dragging an entire ethnic group for the hate of some folks. Yorubas are great people and those of you who walk in hate regardless of your numbers do not speak for the entire Yoruba people.

In Lagos, you won't hear Igbos and Yorubas fighting. You'll always hear of the Hausa communities and Yorubas fighting. Yet, some deceitful elements will keep heating up tribalistic remarks against the Igbos. For what reason exactly? I know... Jealousy and envy of the progress the Igbos have been able to make for themselves in Lagos.

In Nigeria, the Igbo people are the only ethnic group who has more speakers of other Nigerian languages. Many Igbos can speak Yoruba and Hausa and only a fewer Yorubas and Hausas can speak Igbo. I know Igbos who can speak Yoruba well more than their own languages.
What exactly have the Igbos done to deserve the hate and mockery they always get from some other people? It's simply jealousy.

But let me also warn you. We shouldn't generalize that Yorubas hate Igbos, they don't! Many prominent Yoruba families married Igbo women and more Yoruba families are willing to give out their daughters in marriage to Igbos.

Many Yorubas speak well of Igbos and trust Igbos enough to hand over sensitive positions to them. Afenifere is a Yoruba socio-cultural group and has stood behind Igbos! Many people in North Central also love the Igbos and are always willing to do business with the Igbos.
Yes, some people hate the Igbos because of jealousy. They hate that Igbos come to a place dominated by them and succeed as though they are indigenous to that place. They hate that Igbos come to their places and become more successful than some of them but we must not generalize. Let every hater bear the consequences of their hatred, we must not make it a tribal thing.

The Igbos must be careful not to play into the enemy's script! Many non-Igbos are promoting an Igbo candidate. Many non-Igbos are criticizing Mrs. Bat for her silly remarks.

So, as much as we call out Igbophobia being championed by politicians for political gains, we must always commend and promote unity and inter-ethnic relationships.

I never wanted to marry an Igbo, I wanted to Marry a Yoruba, Hausa or a woman, or another ethnic group. But time, place, and chance didn't let that happen and I've sworn to encourage all my kids to marry from other ethnic groups (if they wish) to promote unity and see that we are all one people.

Remi's remark should be regarded as Remi's remark and not Yoruba's opinion towards the Igbos.

Ya gazie.

GodsOwnMan:
Eboes are the most hateful tribe in Nigeria. Bitterness and hate run through their veins. This is why they are hated. Every action has equal response to it. Eboes should change their ways and see things change. Otherwise, they are on a long thing.

The common demoninator is eboe. Otherwise, how come South Africans, Ghanians, Indians, Vietnamese, Malaysians know and hate them? Tell me why?

Oh... And I went to you profile to discover that you created this account only to discredit Peter Obi and mock the Igbos. I guess I shouldn't have taken you seriously.

The joke is on you.

GodsOwnMan:
Eboes are the most hateful tribe in Nigeria. Bitterness and hate run through their veins. This is why they are hated. Every action has equal response to it. Eboes should change their ways and see things change. Otherwise, they are on a long thing.

The common demoninator is eboe. Otherwise, how come South Africans, Ghanians, Indians, Vietnamese, Malaysians know and hate them? Tell me why?

How are Igbos the most hateful ethnic group? How does bitterness run through their veins? I gave facts that can be verified on Igbophobia, the onus is on you to also prove it wrong with verifiable facts. There is only one reason why Igbos are hated by some other persons... JEALOUSY, ENVY AND STRIFE.

Also school me on how Igbos are "selectively" hated by South Africans, Ghanians, Indians, Vietnamese and Malaysians. Don't forget to back it up with verifiable facts.

"Nigerians will probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their common resentment of the Igbo,” - Chinua Achebe

Nigeria has an "Igbo problem" and whether we choose to admit this or not, it exists. It is becoming a culture as it is being transferred from one generation to another generation. Ask some people why they don't like Igbos and they will be surprised to realize that they don't even know.

Igbo-hate is so distinguished that it made its way into the pages of the prestigious Wikipedia Encyclopedia. Very prominent that Adeyinka Shoyemi also known as Grandson got indicted over his hate speeches against the Igbos by the UK authorities and is currently serving jail terms.

We see Igbophobia on the pages of the newspaper and TV stations every day. In 2015, Oba of Lagos warned Igbos that they would be thrown into the Lagoon if they do not vote for Ambode, the candidate of the All Progressive Congress.

Shetimma, the Vice Presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress went on national TV to say that Peter Obi can't win Nigeria's Presidency simply because he is Igbo. Ask some politicians of other ethnic groups why an Igbo man can't lead Nigeria and they'd tell you that it's not time for the Igbos. The hate against Igbos is mutually shared across both the other major ethnic groups and the minorities.

Why are the Igbos hated so much that anytime they demand what is due to them they are mocked with statements like "they should go to their Biafra"? It sounds as though the Igbos were the first to demand self-determination. It is as though Igbos are being perpetually punished for demanding their right to self-determination.

Remember, Biafra didn't take up arms against Nigeria, Nigeria took up arms against Biafra, a shortlived Nation that had other ethnic groups too. Today, these other ethnic groups have also been brainwashed with propaganda to see the Igbophobia as a collective responsibility. Sometimes it seems as though how to be a patriotic Nigerian is to hate Igbos.

The discussion around Biafra has been made to become an Igbo thing and even other ethnic groups that made up Biafra are buying into it. Biafra had other ethnic groups like the Ijaw, the Ibibios, the Efik and so many others.

Even if we want to buy into the lies that Biafra took up arms against Nigeria which is the other way round, let's go back the memory lane.

Major Isaac Adaka Boro took up arms against the Federal Government. He declared the Niger Delta Republic which lasted for 12 days in the 1960s. In the North, Islamist terrorists have been in a long war against Nigeria in a bid to establish an Islamic State in the North. You can't even compare what Boko Haram is doing in any way to Biafra. It will be demonic, wicked, a d ignorant to do so. To compare Biafra agitators with Boko Haram is a shortcut to becoming the devil because he is the father of all lies.

There has been a consistent agitation for the Yoruba Nation in the South West currently led by Ilana Omo Oodua, and Professor Banji Akintoye. But nobody is blackmailing the entire Yoruba race for it, nobody is saying that a Yoruba man can't be President. Why is it so different for the Igbo man?

Several months back, we saw a Roman Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. James Anelu from Edo State verbally attacking the Igbo parishioners. What was his reason? That Igbo songs are being sung in his parish! This is a parish made up of a majority Igbos. Igbos priests make up the largest percentage of the Roman Catholic priesthood in the entire Africa. According to Catholic & Culture, the Enugu Diocesan Seminary is the largest Roman Catholic Seminary in the world.

We also saw a deputy commissioner of Police from Adamawa State threatening the life of Vincent Umeh, an Igbo man. What was the problem? Vincent bought a property next to his residence in Yola and he had sworn never to have an Igbo man live close to him.

Igbos are hated and criticised even by people who claim that they don't hate the Igbos. These same people will mock the Igbos for doing what every other ethnic group has done. An Igbo would be termed tribalistic for standing by their candidate while people of other tribes will be said to be protecting their legitimate interest with the excuse that it is a game of numbers.

If the Igbos throw their weight behind someone else against an Igbo candidate, it will be said that Igbos hate themselves while it will be termed "strategic" for the other ethnic groups when they do the same thing. There has never been anything the Igbo people would do that the other folks will not criticize. Yes, they would claim that they don't hate the Igbos but we know that they do.

I hate that this is coming from me as many would perceive it as a "victim mentality" but most Nigerians are indeed united in their resentment against the Igbos. This is why the agitation for Biafra has continued even after more than five decades after the Nigerian war against Biafra that saw millions of lives lost.

The Igbo hate started with the colonialists who hated the Igbos' aggression against colonialism and slavery. It was the colonialists who began the propagation of hatred against the Igbos. This propelled Nnamdi Azikiwe to say on June 25, 1949

“The Igbo people have reached a crossroads and it is for us to decide which is the right course to follow. We are confronted with routes leading to diverse goals, but, as I see it, there is only one road that I can safely recommend for us to tread, and it is the road to self-determination for the Igbo within the framework of a federated commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroons, leading to the United States of Africa. Other roads, in my opinion, are calculated to lead us from the path of national self-realization.”

Chinua Achebe links the hatred against Igbos to their success and he says “Its success can and did carry deadly penalties: the dangers of hubris, overweening pride and thoughtlessness, which invite envy and hatred or, even worse, that can obsess the mind with material success and dispose it to all kinds of crude showiness. There is no doubt at all that there is a strand in contemporary Igbo behaviour that can offend by its noisy exhibitionism and disregard for humility and quietness.”

Chinua Achebe writes "Nigerians will probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their common resentment of the Igbo,” He traced the genesis of this resentment to the Igbo culture that “gave the Igbo man an unquestioned advantage over his compatriots in securing credentials for advancement in Nigerian colonial society.”

Achebe also asserts that "Nigeria’s pathetic attempt to crush these idiosyncrasies rather than celebrate them is one of the fundamental reasons the country has not developed as it should and has emerged as a laughingstock”.

One thing the Igbos (at least those who believe that they are Igbos) need to do at the moment is to stop fighting hard to appease anyone but rather focus on continuously getting better. We did it after the war, we rebuilt our cities, and we collectively contributed money to build Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, Owerri! It was the first Airport built by a community in Africa instead of the Government.

The Igbos should collectively build other infrastructures across the Igbo regions including the South-South. The Igbos should show that we do not need the Presidency of Nigeria to be who God has made us be. This still doesn't mean that we'll be reluctant towards exercising our rights to vote and be voted for.

The Igbos are hated so much that a zoning agreement which has favoured all other zones was immediately scrapped the moment it got to the turn of the South-East. It seems as though there is a deliberate agenda to suppress the Igbos perpetually and yet deny them their right to self-determination.

Today, Igbos supporting an Igbo presidential candidate have to try hard to convince people that they are not tribalists but Northerners are supporting Northern candidates merely because the candidate is from the North and no one has called them bigots. When certain Yoruba claim that they will only support someone who speaks their language, it doesn't shake the internet but the moment Igbos support an Igbo candidate, they try blackmailing Igbos emotionally with rhetorics like "that one is IPOB President".

Yorubas are supporting a Yoruba candidate simply because he is Yoruba and no one has called them bigots. We all know that the North usually vote for a Northerner period. But the Igbos are always called out for supporting an Igbo candidate.

Igbos are called Nigerians when they do great things in the diaspora but they are called Igbos when it's bad news. Even if a criminal from Agbor who claims not to be Igbo commits a crime outside Nigeria, the headline would read "An Igbo Man on the run in the UK for murder". That is how much Igbos are hated. But when it's a Northerner or Yoruba, you'd see headlines read "A Nigerian on the run in the UK for murder". When such a character is coming from the Igbo heartlands of the South-East, they wouldn't only mention their ethnic group, they'd also mention their names and the exact place they are coming from.

Kaduna Nzeogwu, from the old Bendel region, engineered a coup and to date, the same people who claim that the part where he came from isn't Igbo call it an " Igbo coup". These are the same people who will argue that Western Igbos aren't Igbos. They are the ones sowing seeds of division among the Igbos.

When an Igbo man decides to contest for what everyone else is contesting, people bring up issues like insecurity in the South-East when we all know that the insecurity in the South East is like the drop of water in an Ocean while the insecurity in the North is the Ocean and yet no one judges Northern candidates based on the insecurity in the North.

The Igbos have done great work to be where they are, whatever we've done to get there, we need to do more of it! Even Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the People's Democratic Party who is from Adamawa, in Northern Nigeria said concerning the Igbos in 2017

"We fought the civil war with the Igbo. Today, the Igbo have been completely rebuilt, but we still find mud houses in the north. Is it the fault of the easterners that the north is like that?"

Many people are scared of what the Igbos would become and that is why they are using every means to try stifling Igbos. Many are also resenting the Igbos because of jealousy.

There are some Igbo speakers from the South-South extraction who believes that they aren't Igbos, a denial that started during and after the civil war. Those resenting the Igbos seem to find allies in these subgroups. As long as you've got something against Igbos, they find friendship in you.

The Igbos should stop trying to convince these people for any reason. If they say that they are not Igbos, then so be it. After all, people do reject their families, change names and move on. The Igbos need to move on and of course, also carry along the people outside South East who identifies as Igbos along.

No other tribe has shown commitment to the Nigerian project like the Igbos. The Igbos believe in developing any region they find themselves in, they don't only rent shops, they build infrastructures, schools, hospitals and houses anywhere they find themselves. Whether it's in Nigeria or outside Nigeria, the Igbos put tangible commitments. That is why no matter what happens, the Igbos remain the true representation of patriotism in Nigeria.

When one begins to meditate over this resentment against the Igbos, it leads to depression and believe me, many Igbos have been forced into depression. That is why we need to stop dwelling on what no longer matter and focus on building our home and making it the envy of nations.

Igbos are great people and we need no validation from anybody on this.

(C) 2022, Onyedikachukwu George Nnadozie

OyeofIkoTuN:


Have you forgotten, any kingdom the crusaders invaded,they took what they wanted and burnt the rest to the ground..

Fact

Colonialism was terrible. I agree but let's not make propaganda out of every document. We may as well discard Western education and call it propaganda.

Igbodicool:
Una tribalism don reach Sierra Leone?

Igbo versus Yoruba superiority contest no dey tire una?

Biko keep Igbo out of this.
We are not in any competition with any tribe.
Tankiuuuu!

You are the tribalist who makes tribalism out of everything. This article did not in anyway compare Igbos against Yorubas.

OyeofIkoTuN:


what?

you are telling me with your full chest,the Whiteman invented read and write..

wonderful

I am not telling you, that's what you choose to understand. However, most of our history as a people were not preserved by us in written documents but by oral tradition, inscriptions and other forms of arts.

kollinskollins:
The igbos influenced benin and wanted to take over the empire which led to the war?
Useless assertion.

And that's all the contribution you have to make to a conversation? What makes it a useless assertion? Do you have any alternative findings?

Maazieze:
Nice blog, but from which books are you referencing? cause i find it difficult to find precolonial history anywhere

1. https://therepublicannews.net/2020/05/29/history-of-the-western-igbo-eze-chima-ika-igbo-and-bini-kingdom-the-republican-news/

2. https://www.worldcat.org/title/short-history-of-eze-chima-idumuje-odi-ani-clans-and-akwukwu-igbo-ukala-illah-towns-in-asaba-division/oclc/73527354

3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Head_from_Ife

4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo-Ukwu

5. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanguardngr.com/2019/08/ooni-of-ife-and-the-igbo-yoruba-relationship/amp/

6. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ujah/article/view/166014

OyeofIkoTuN:



oh man they did....All their works were stolen and haven't been repatriated back..

They didn't. History in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa were mostly preserved orally and not in a written document. Some of the works referenced in the post above are from people who had physical interactions with the people they are writing about.

OyeofIkoTuN:


don't patronize me....

If I'm not seeing Okeke or Okafor 1883...My broda throw that propaganda away

Unfortunately, the Okeke and Okafor didn't write.

OyeofIkoTuN:
E no fit better for Griffith..

You cannot write our tales or history for us..

TuEH.

Ndi ala

How you people read sometimes is funny. It is well.

The Igbos and Yorubas are not indigenous to Sierra Leone but they played enormous roles in this country as freed slaves long before the nineteenth century. They were known in Sierra Leone as Ibos (or Ebos) and Akus. The Ibos were Christians while the Akus were principally Muslims.

Today, most of the Ibos and Akus in Sierra Leone have been absorbed into the Sierra Leone Creole people.

Sierra Leone Creole ethnic construction was naturally done by the mingling of the newly freed blacks, Nova Scotians, Jamaican Maroons and Liberated Africans such as the Akan, Bakongo, Igbo and Yoruba - over several generations in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Some of this information and history hold several advantages for the Nigerian people. It reveals who we are as a people and how we can have a common ground to forge a new identity without erasing our history. For example, in present-day Agbor, some people who have Igbo names and even practice a very similar culture to the Igbos claim that they are not Igbos, a phenomenon that gained ground after the civil war.

However, history tells us that before the 18th century, the people of Agbor and indeed some parts of the present-day Delta State and Edo State identified as Igbo.

Richard F. Burton and Verney Lovette Cameron, travellers who sojourned West Africa in their book "To The Gold Coast for Gold" published in 1883 noted that Agbor didn't only identify as Igbo but also was known as the HEADQUARTER of Igboland. The Yoruba people in Sierra Leone were known as Aku.

In volume 2 of To The Gold Coast for Gold, the Igbos of Sierra Leone were described as "Swiss of the community". Here is what the authors wrote:

"The Ibos, or 'Eboes' of American tales, are even more divided (diverse); still they feel and act upon the principle 'Union is strength.' This large and savage tribe, whose headquarters are at Abo, about the head of the Nigerian delta, musters strong at Sá Leone; here they are the Swiss of the community; the Kruboys, and further south the Kabenda-men being the 'Paddies.'

It is popularly said that while the Aku will do anything for money, the Ibo will do anything for revenge. Both races are astute in the
extreme and intelligent enough to work harm. Unhappily, their talents rarely take the other direction. In former days they had faction fights: the second eastern district witnessed the last serious disturbance in
1834.

Now they do battle under the shadow of the law. 'Aku constables will not, unless in extreme cases, take up their delinquent countrymen, nor will an Ebo constable apprehend an Ebo thief; and so on through all the different tribes,' says the lady 'Resident of Sierra Leone.'

If the majority of the jury be Akus, they will unhesitatingly find the worst of Aku criminals innocent, and the most innocent of whites, Ibos, or Timnis guilty. The Government has done its best to weld all those races into one,
and has failed."

This 1883 revelation by Richard F. Burton and Verney Lovette Cameron also points out that while Igbos weren't united into one kingdom, they had each other back to the point of safeguarding other Ibos who aren't innocent of a crime. The same could be said about the Akus and other tribes of Sierra Leone anyway.

To date, the "Union is Strength" philosophy known locally as "Igwe bu ike" has continued to be a major principle of the Igbo people. If anyone can understand this principle better, it should be the Igbos. The Igbo identity was formed by diverse people who shared similar cultures and spoke several dialects of the same language of which some of these dialects aren't even mutually comprehensible.

The Igbos understand that together, as a united force, they can reach any height and protect their interest. To date, Igbos are always quick to form an Igbo association whenever they migrate or travel to places outside Igbo lands, they don't only form an association, they appoint, elect and coronate an "Igwe" or "Eze" who serves as a leader of the Igbos in that community.

While Igbos may be majorly divided across opinions at home, they are always united amongst strangers to protect their interests. Among Igbos, they see any Igbo who opposes the common interest of Igbos as a sell-out.

The Igbos and Yorubas of Sierra Leone also didn't have the best of relationships, they didn't see each other as one which means that they had no "pan Nigeria" ideology. At best, Nigeria was considered a colonial imposition. When an Aku beholds an Ibo, they don't see a brother, there was no such thing as the Nigerian consciousness then.

This kind of sheds light on the problem we have in Nigeria today. In Sierra Leone, the government failed to unite the Igbos and Yorubas into one ethnic group after several attempts. If we could borrow some sense from this, we can only postulate that the only solution for the divisions in Nigeria today is a regional system of Government or autonomy of States as practised in the United States of America.

The Ibos and Akus of Sierra Leone played significant roles in the country. The first President of Sierra Leone was an Ibo man, Christopher Okoro Cole.

Okoro Cole was Chief Justice of Sierra Leone in 1970. He was the country’s last Governor-General in 1971 before he became President on March 19, 1971.

Okoro was also the First Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Ambassador to the United States. He was the country’s last Governor-General in 1971 before he became President on March 19, 1971.

In April of 1992, an Igbo by the name of Captain Yahya Kanu became Military Head of State of Sierra Leone.

In 1857, a Sierra Leonian and ex-slave of Igbo extraction, Simon Jonas, wrote the first manuscript written in the Igbo language, ‘Isoama-Ibo Primer’. The Igbo dialect spoken in Sierra Leone is called Isoama/Isuama-Igbo. Ex-Lagos slave, Samuel Crowther, published it as a book. Both Jonas and Crowther stayed together in Lagos before being shipped to Sierra Leone.

Simon Jonas's work was a result of the assembling of a group of native Africans led by Schoen to master the Ibo language for effective missionary work with African other than Europeans. Simon Jonas worked with Christopher Taylor to produce a Primer in 1857 which they handed over to Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, an ex-Yoruba slave and Scheon.

When the missionaries reached Igboland, the natives could barely understand them and they also could barely understand the Igbo natives. The dialect used in the primer was only spoken by Sierra Leonians of Igbo descent which is an adulterated Igbo from several generations. However, the works of Simon Jonas, a Sierra Leonean Igbo, laid the foundation for the official Igbo Bible.

The Aku people of Sierra Leone have always been seen as distinct from the Creoles even though some of them have intermarried and mingled with the Creoles. But their strong ancestry and religious identity separate them from the Creoles.

While the Creoles made up of various ethnic groups like Ibos, African Americans, Yorubas and even blacks born in the Western world are predominantly Christians, the Akus are predominantly Yoruba Muslims with only 0.5% of them identifying as Christians. To be accepted into the Creole community in those days, becoming a Christian was one of the unwritten rules.

Another thing that sets the Aku people apart from the Creoles was that the Aku people practised female genital mutilation and cliterodotomy which is the sectioning of the clitoral nerves. They also practised polygamy, unlike the monogamous Creoles.

Various scholars however do not consider Aku as distinct from Creole people but see them as a sub-ethnic group because of their closeness and adoption of western education and other aspects of Western culture.

While Igbos are known globally for their trading prowess, the Aku women too were great traders. However, several Akus who would later become educated returned to the core Yoruba lands in Nigeria.

According to the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (1886). The paper read by T. R. Griffith, Esq., Colonial Secretary at Sierra Leone on the Races inhabiting Sierra Leone indicated that the Eboes (Igbos) "...are a numerous and thriving people at Sierra Leone and many of them have acquired wealth and influence."

"They come from a country on the west bank of the River Niger, not far from its fall into the sea, and those who inhabit that country are described as tall and robust, capable of enduring great fatigue, frequently paddling their own large canoes for forty-eight hours without taking food."

He also revealed that the Igbos ascribe a superior social rank to their women in contrast to most other uncivilised tribes. The Igbos were known to be very dynamic as they quickly adapt to the customs of where they lived.

The paper read by Griffith also explained that the Igbos had a very strong desire to become excellent in whatever they embark on