Slavery in Nigeria

Slavery in Nigeria

Igbo slave traders

Igbo slave traders with their captives, from Medium

Did you know that slavery existed in Nigeria before it existed in the U.S.? Before the first European slave traders took captured Africans to the Americas? And even before the first European explorers came to the west coast of Africa?

It did, and the remnants of slavery are still felt in the country.

Ambassador Campbell wrote about “The Legacies of Slavery in Nigeria’s Igboland,” in his blog recently. He drew on two articles by the Nigerian writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani. One is in The Wall Street Journal and the other in the New Yorker magazine. The Wall Street Journal requires a subscription to read online, but you can read the New Yorker article here.

Campbell refers to the Nigerian author’s articles to tell his readers that slavery among the Igbo people was completely different from slavery in the U.S. There was no racial distinction. Treatment of slaves was tied to all-important community and ancestral relationships.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani from Goodreads

Nwaubani says, “slavery [among the Igbo] was shaped by culture, their beliefs about the importance of lineage, and their spirituality. She explains that slaves usually came from outside the all-important local community, captured in raids or warfare, or enslaved because of a criminal act.”

But there is still discrimination against those whose ancestors were slaves.

I told Clem what I’m writing about. He said, “The British outlawed slavery in the country, but just drove it underground.” Exactly what Nwaubani said in one of her articles. There have been recent legislative efforts to end the discrimination; that has driven it further underground!

Efforts to End the Stigma

Today, the Nigerian author tells us, “The focus is on community-led initiatives, often in conjunction with traditional rulers, to end discrimination against those Igbos whose ancestors were slaves.” A few people have agreed that there should be some reparations. And some are working to end the discrimination.

In Breaking Kola: An Inside View of African Customs, I wrote about slavery among the Igbo people. I referred to it as well in my memoir.

I know two families in Clem’s village who are descendants of slaves. As Nwaubani describes, everyone knows who they are. They cannot be in the chief’s council. And as my husband says, others will not marry them.

Today some African descendants of slave-owners or those Africans who grew rich from the slave trade are also confronting their families’ past.

Campbell says, this is the “moment for posing questions of historic guilt and responsibility,” not only in this country but also in the places in Africa where local people captured neighbors to sell to the Europeans.

Book Talk Today

PEO Women

The women of PEO at my talk this morning.

This morning I was welcomed for the second time by PEO, a philanthropic organization in nearby Weston Connecticut, to speak.

I gave them a handout with a picture of kola nuts and described the importance of the ritual of breaking kola. From the book Breaking Kola I read 3 short sections. One was the story about my mother-in-law cooking snails.

These are not like the escargots I enjoyed at the nearby French restaurant a few days ago. They are the African land snails, about 6 inches long!

Clem’s father hated snails, the smell, the taste, the texture and the scum their cooking left! But Clem’s mother and the children loved them. So when he went away for a couple of days, she bought and cooked them, using the opportunity to teach her children how to prepare them. Of course she was also teaching them that sometimes it is necessary to be devious!

Bookie

One of the “Bookies” Aline brought for the PEO meeting.

The women were a warm and receptive audience, with lots of questions.

I love the opportunity to learn what audience members are most curious about. Answering the questions with the right amount of information, but not too much, is a challenge. I want everyone to have a chance to ask their question, so I can’t spend too long on a single answer. But there’s so much to tell.

My publicist Aline is a great help. She arranged the talk. When I finished this morning she reminded me to tell listeners about my blog, and to explain my last name. She helps with selling books at my events.

She also brought the “bookies!” A friend of hers makes these delicious cookies with the book “cover” as the icing!

Author: Catherine Onyemelukwe

Author, blogger, speaker. Born in New York, grew up in mid west United States, lived in Nigeria for 24 years, back in U.S. since 1986. Advocate for racial justice.

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