| Group: | Igbo people in Jamaica Eboe |
| Population: | N/A |
| Popplace: | Primarily Northwestern Jamaica, especially the ports of Montego Bay and Westmoreland[1] |
| Langs: | English, Jamaican English, Jamaican Patois |
| Rels: | Christianity |
| Related: | Igbo people, Igbo Americans |
Igbo people in Jamaica were trafficked by Europeans onto the island between the 18th and 19th centuries as enslaved labour on plantations. Igbo people constituted a large portion of the African population enslaved people in Jamaica. Jamaica received the largest number of enslaved people from the biafra region than anywhere else in the diaspora during the slave trade. Some slave censuses detailed the large number of enslaved Igbo people on various plantations throughout the island on different dates throughout the 18th century.[2] Their presence was a large part in forming Jamaican culture, Igbo cultural influence remains in language, dance, music, folklore, cuisine, religion and mannerisms. In Jamaica the Igbo were often referred to as Eboe or Ibo.[3] There are a substantial number of Igbo language loanwords in Jamaican Patois. Igbo people mostly populated the northwestern section of the island.
Originating primarily from what was known as the Bight of Biafra on the West African coast, Igbo people were trafficked in relatively high numbers to Jamaica as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, beginning around 1750. The primary ports from which the majority of these enslaved people were taken from were Bonny and Calabar, two port towns that are now in south-eastern Nigeria.[4] The slave ships arriving from Bristol and Liverpool trafficked enslaved people to the British colonies including Jamaica. The bulk of enslaved Igbo people arrived relatively late, between 1790 and 1807, when the British passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act which outlawed the slave trade in the British Empire. Igbo people were spread on plantations on the island's northwestern side, specifically the areas around Montego Bay and St. Ann's Bay, and consequently, their influence was concentrated there. The region also witnessed a number of revolts that were attributed to people of Igbo origin. Slave owner Matthew Lewis spent time in Jamaica between 1815 and 1817 and studied the way enslaved people he claimed ownership of organised themselves by ethnicity and he noted, for example, that at one time when he "went down to the negro-houses to hear the whole body of Eboes lodge a complaint against one of the book-keepers".
Olaudah Equiano, a prominent member of the movement for the abolition of the slave trade, was an African-born Igbo formerly enslaved person. On one of his journeys to the Americas as a free man, as documented in his 1789 journal, Equiano was hired by Dr. Charles Irving to recruit enslaved people for his 1776 Mosquito Shore scheme in Jamaica, for which Equiano hired enslaved Igbo, whom he called "My own countrymen". Equiano was especially useful to Irving for his knowledge of the Igbo language, using Equiano as a tool to maintain social order among his enslaved Igbo in Jamaica.[5]
Enslaved Igbo were known, many a times, to have resorted to resistance rather than revolt and maintained "unwritten rules of the plantation" of which the plantation owners were forced to abide by.[6] Igbo culture influenced Jamaican spirituality with the introduction of Obeah folk magic; accounts of enslaved "Eboe" being "obeahed" by each other have been documented by plantation owners. However, there is some suggestion that the word "Obeah" was also used by enslaved Akan people, before Igbos arrived in Jamaica. Other Igbo cultural influences include the Jonkonnu festivals, Igbo words such as "unu", "una", idioms, and proverbs in Jamaican patois. In Maroon music were songs derived from specific African ethnic groups, among these were songs called "Ibo" that had a distinct style.[7] Igbo people were hardly reported to have been Maroons.
Enslaved Igbo people were known to have committed mass suicides, not only for rebellion, but in the belief their spirits will return to their motherland.[4] [8] In a publication of a 1791 issue of Massachusetts Magazine, an anti-slavery poem was published called Monimba, which depicted a fictional pregnant enslaved Igbo woman who committed suicide on a slave ship bound for Jamaica. The poem is an example of the stereotype of enslaved Igbo people in the Americas.[9] [10] Enslaved Igbo were also distinguished physically by a prevalence of "yellowish" skin tones prompting the colloquialisms "red eboe" used to describe people with light skin tones and African features. Enslaved Igbo women were paired with enslaved Coromantee (Akan) men by slave owners so as to subdue the latter due to the belief that Igbo women were bound to their first-born sons' birthplace.[11]
Archibald Monteith, whose birth name was Aniaso, was an enslaved Igbo man taken to Jamaica after being tricked by an African slave trader. Anaeso wrote a journal about his life, from when he was kidnapped from Igboland to when he became a Christian convert.[12]
After the abolition of slavery in Jamaica in the 1830s, Igbo people also arrived on the island as indentured servants between the years of 1840 and 1864 along with a majority Kongo and "Nago" (Yoruba) people.[13] Since the 19th century most of the population African Jamaicans had assimilated into the wider Jamaican society.
Enslaved Igbo people, along with "Angolas" and "Congoes" were often runaways, liberating themselves from enslavement. In slave runaway advertisements held in Jamaica workhouses in 1803 out of 1046 Africans recorded, 284 were described as "Eboes and Mocoes", 185 "Congoes", 259 "Angolas", 101 "Mandingoes", 70 Coromantees, 60 "Chamba" of Sierra Leone, 57 "Nagoes and Pawpaws" and 30 "scattering". 187 were documentined as "unclassified" and 488 were "American born negroes and mulattoes".[14]
Some notable rebellions of enslaved people involving Igbo include:
Oh me Good friend, Mr. Wilberforce, make we free!
God Almighty thank ye! God Almighty thank ye!
God Almighty, make we free!
Buckra in this country no make we free:
What Negro for to do? What Negro for to do?
Take force by force! Take force by force![20]
"Mr. Wilberforce" was in reference to William Wilberforce a British politician who was a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. "Buckra" was a term introduced by enslaved Igbo and Efik people in Jamaica to refer to white slave owners and overseers.[21]
Among Igbo cultural items in Jamaica were the Eboe, or Ibo drums popular throughout all of Jamaican music.[22] Food was also influenced, for example the Igbo word "mba" meaning "yam root" was used to describe a type of yam in Jamaica called "himba".[23] [24] Enslaved Igbo and Akan people affected drinking culture among the Black population in Jamaica, using alcohol in ritual and libation. In Igboland as well as on the Gold Coast, palm wine was used on these occasions and had to be substituted by rum in Jamaica because of the absence of palm wine.[25] Jonkonnu, a parade that is held in many West Indian nations, has been attributed to the Njoku Ji "yam-spirit cult", Okonko and Ekpe of the Igbo. Several masquerades of the Kalabari and Igbo have similar appearance to those of Jonkonnu masquerades.[26]
Much of Jamaican mannerisms and gestures themselves have a wider African origin, rather than specific Igbo origin. Some examples are non-verbal actions such as "sucking-teeth" known in Igbo as "ima osu" or "imu oso" and "cutting-eye" known in Igbo as "iro anya", and other non-verbal communications by eye movements.[27]
There are a few Igbo words in Jamaican Patois that resulted when enslaved people were restricted from speaking their own languages. These Igbo words still exist in Jamaican vernacular, including words such as "unu" meaning "you (plural)", "di" meaning "to be (in state of)", which became "de", and "Okwuru" "Okra" a vegetable.
Some words of Igbo origin are
Idiom such as, via Gullah "big eye" from Igbo "anya ukwu" meaning "greedy";
"Ilu" in Igbo means proverbs,[28] a part of language that is very important to the Igbo. Igbo proverbs crossed the Atlantic along with the masses of enslaved Igbo people. Several translated Igbo proverbs survive in Jamaica today because of the Igbo ancestors. Some of these include:
Jamaican: "Cow must know 'ow 'im bottom stay before 'im swallow abbe [Twi 'palm nut'] seed"; "Jonkro must know what 'im a do before 'im swallow abbe seed."
Jamaican "When plantain wan' dead, it shoot [sends out new suckers]."
Jamaican: "When you dig a hole/ditch for one, dig two."
Jamaican: "Sweet-mout' fly follow coffin go a hole"; "Idle donkey follow cane-bump [the cart with cane cuttings] go a [animal] pound"; "Idle donkey follow crap-crap [food scraps] till dem go a pound [waste dump]."
Jamaican: "Take sleep mark death [Sleep is foreshadowing of death]."
"Obeah" refers to spiritual folk practices that were derived from West African sources. The W. E. B. Du Bois Institute database[29] supports obeah being traced to the "dibia" or "obia" meaning "doctoring" traditions of the Igbo people.[30] [31] Specialists in "Obia" (also spelled Obea) were known as "Dibia" (doctor, psychic) practiced similarly as the obeah men and women of the Caribbean, like predicting the future and manufacturing charms.[32] In Jamaican mythology, "River Mumma", a mermaid, is linked to "Oya" of the Yoruba and "Uhamiri/Idemili" of the Igbo.[33]
Among Igbo beliefs in Jamaica was the idea of Africans being able to go back home to Africa.[34] There were reports by Europeans who visited and lived in Jamaica that enslaved Igbo believed they would return to their country after death.