Igbo Tribe

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The Igbo people make up a very unique and interesting civilization. Women have power and there is a democratic system that is one of the best in the world. Here, the people are collectively referred to as Ndi Igbo and where they live is called Ala Igbo or Igboland. This amazing group of people are located in southeast Nigeria and is thought to be one of the densest areas in all of West Africa. There are an estimated 32 million people living in less than 16,000 square miles of land and “up to 400 persons per square mile” (Amadiume). To put that into perspective, the U.S. has an average population density of 87.4 persons per square mile.The Igbo people speak the language of Igbo which is different than most languages because it is spoken with …show more content…

One thing that they have adapted over the years is to trade with outsiders. Their main cash crops are palm products of which include palm oil and also palm kernels. They also “farm crops such as yams, cassava, and taro, cocoyams, plantains, maize, melons, okra, pumpkins, peppers, gourds, and beans” (Encyclopedia Britannica) however those are mostly traded within Igboland. Women have quite a bit of in Igboland and are influential in local politics. However, for most women a huge part of social and economic function is trading. Women make mats, pottery and weave cloth and then sell them for money or other products their family is in need of. Trading is the way of the modern Igbo member, however the traditional Igbo members subsistence farm, rely on their own crops and products in order to live. Almost all Igbo people used to subsistence farm but because of the footprints left behind by the British, the Igbo have again …show more content…

Little known, but hundreds of thousands of Igbo people were exported to the America’s to work as slaves during the Atlantic Slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. Since dense populations of Igbo people lived near the NIgerian coast they were easy targets for the Europeans. In 1807 the Slave Trade Act was passed helping in stopping the transportation of enslaved Africans, including Igbo people, to the Americas. There were finally free from the horror of slave trade but not completely free from Europeans. Soon after in 1830, European Explorers find the Igbo when exploring Nigeria, but they would not stay because it wasn’t long until Malaria had scared the white men back to Europe. Later in 1880, England came to take over Southern Nigeria and by 1906 they had complete control of not just southern Nigeria but Igboland but not before the Aro confederacy (a political union formed by the Igbo) had casualties to almost all of its 7,500 members during the Anglo-Aro war. in 1914 northern and southern Nigeria would come together to form a unified Nigeria. It would not be until 1960 that Nigeria and the Igbo people would gain independence from

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