Ụkpụrụ̄
@ukpuru
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History of the Igbo and their neighbours.
Umuahia, Nigeria
Joined May 2017
A thread for innovations from the Igbo area, focusing on indigenous social structure as it relates to technology, arts and architecture.
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Nothing shows the transformation of Igbo culture and society and perceptions, values and attitudes as much as the story of Igbo men's hair. Photographs of Igbo men and their hairstyles from 1939 and back.
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An Igbo compound entrance, in or near Önïcha. Photographed by Herbert Wimberley, c. 1903-18. Cambridge University Library.
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A titled Igbo man from Ogwashi Ukwu, Enuani in Delta State today, photographed by Northcote Thomas, 1912. Colourised from black and white, Ụ́kpụ́rụ́ 2019. Ogwashi Ukwu was established by Odaigbo from Agukwu Nri, the son of an Eze Nri.
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Ụ̀banị̀ Ìgbò, the Igbo spoken on Bonny Island in today's Rivers State, recorded by the slave trader Captain Hugh Crow from the late 18th century, from "Memoirs of the late Captain Hugh Crow of Liverpool."
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An Igbo man from Agukwu Nri decorated with what appears to be ùlì. In today's Anambra State. Photographed by Northcote Thomas, c. 1910-11. MAA Cambridge.
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An Igbo girl photographed in Nibo and noted as 'Nwauko' in Northcote Thomas' photographic register, c. 1910-11.
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An Igbo woman from Nibo, present-day Anambra State. Photographed by Northcote Thomas c. 1911. MAA Cambridge.
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Thread for some ‘upscale’ traditional architectural styles from the Lower Guinea area of western Africa. (Lower Guinea is the biogeographical area between southern Ghana and southern Nigeria). Mansion in Kumasi, Ashanti Empire, late 19th century. Photo: Friedrich Ramseyer.
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Young men of the ogbolo age-grade, with uli and fine hairstyles, Achalla Awka, north central-Igbo area, Nigeria. Photo: K. C. Murray, 1939.
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An Igbo woman photographed by British colonial government anthropologist Northcote Thomas, 1910-1911, colourised from black and white, 2018. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge.
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Two women who are most likely Igbo and from the Önïcha area judging by the presence of the Obi Önïcha in related photos. Photographed by Herbert Wimberley, c. 1903-18. Cambridge University Library.
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An Igbo lady from Öka (Awka) with pearl buttons in her hair. Photographed by Northcote Thomas, c. 1910-11.
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Post-Biafra, Igbo children at an open-air school, 1974. Photo: Bruno Barbey.
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An Igbo man tying yams onto a large frame made of stakes inside an ọba ji, yam barn. He is sitting on a carved stool made for titled men. Photo by J Stocker, 1930s. British Museum. [. ]
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Igbo women and girls and their hairstyles, 1900-1930. The crested hairstyle ojongo was popular until the mid-20th century, it is a distinctive feature of Igbo arts depicting women. Women used ornaments like thread, feathers, shells, bone, wood, beads, Igbo currency, coins, [. ]
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. (This led to a large amount of Igbo people in the British Caribbean in particular, in places like Jamaica where this early 19th century description was made. John Stewart (1808). "An Account of Jamaica, and Its Inhabitants." p. 235–236.)
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Igbo compound (ǹgwùlù) entrance and high walls (aja ǹgwùlù), in or near Önïcha. Photographed by Herbert Wimberley, c. 1903-18. Cambridge University Library.
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A man and child from Igbariam, c. 1911. MAA Cambridge. Originally, nna (father) Igbo names did not reference a monotheistic deity, neither were they necessarily about a person's direct father. Nna names are about the collective of ancestors and all who come under them (umunna).
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This is the kind of hairstyle worn by young Igbo men around the northern side of the Igbo area. The photo was taken around the 1920s. Young guys grew their hair like this for the same reasons young guys grow their hair today.
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View of Ekpe (leopard society) meeting house in Umuajata village, Olokoro, Umuahia. The house has a tall thatched roof and a wall painted by an Annang artist "in the style of the Ngwomo ghost houses." G. I. Jones, 1932 - 1938.
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Aba, Eastern Region (Nigeria), 1951, By Lorenzo Dow Turner (Black American). Smithsonian.
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John Brown (c. 1810 – 1876) was born into slavery in Virginia in the US. He said in his life story that his father's father was an Igbo (written Eboe) man stolen from Africa in his own words.
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Some of the multi-storey buildings built in the Igbo area before Westernisation were also photographed by Zbigniew Dmochowski. Photos: attic stairs of a Aninwande Oniya's house in Ngwo, and a house of elder Onye Ukilo Ogbonna in Bende.
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Lejja, Enugu State, in the northern Igbo area of Nigeria near Nsukka, contains over 800 slag blocks weighing between 34 and 57 kg from iron smelting furnaces dating as far back as 2000 BCE. See: Pamela Eze–Uzomaka, Iron and its influence on the prehistoric site of Lejja.
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Uli drawings by Igbo women on paper in the early 20th century. This was to be drawn on skin, earlier Christian missionaries discouraged their use on skin and had Igbo women draw them on paper. Pitt River Museum.
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An Igbo man from Nibo, present-day Anambra State, photographed by Northcote Thomas, c. 1910-11. RAI. Colourised from black and white, Ụ́kpụ́rụ́ 2019.
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The story of a white man drug off a bicycle and killed while riding in the Igbo country has been told in different ways, even in Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart". …. Photo: “A stop & gossip on the road from Owerrinta to Owerri.” c. 1919-1932. MAA Cambridge.
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A thread for the colonial conquest and resistance of Igbo and other surrounding communities. Photo: A dagger used in the Ekumeku anti-colonial movement from Ogwashi-Ukwu, one of the principle towns of Ekumeku activity, 1910. British Museum.
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"Murdering Women in Nigeria" by Ben N. Azikiwe [Nnamdi Azikiwe]. A report concerning the Women's War of 1929 against British taxation and the killings of women in Opobo by British forces.
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Igbo woman at a local market (postcard). Photo: E. Ludwig, John Hinde Studios.
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A few Igbo compounds were paved with stones in the past, these photos were taken as part of a survey of Igbo architecture by Zbigniew Dmochowski and his local team in the 1960s in Ngwo and at the house of an Alum Ogbodo in Umuatugbona, p.d. Enugu State.
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"Hair-dressing as a Work of Art". "Charcoal dust and palm oil are freely used, but should necessity arise the structure must be cut away entirely, as it cannot be 'undone'.". From G. T. Basden (1921). "Among the Ibos of Nigeria."
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If the iron slag at Leja actually dates to 4000 years ago, the smiths who produced this slag would have been among the earliest iron smelters in the world, this was at the time when Ancient Egyptians relied on meteors for their iron.
Lejja, Enugu State, in the northern Igbo area of Nigeria near Nsukka, contains over 800 slag blocks weighing between 34 and 57 kg from iron smelting furnaces dating as far back as 2000 BCE. See: Pamela Eze–Uzomaka, Iron and its influence on the prehistoric site of Lejja.
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Aro women photographed by Rev. William T. Weir, in the The Women's Missionary Magazine of the United Free Church of Scotland, 1904. Google digitisation.
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Model of Igbo Cosmology. Some of the ideas are theoretical like the placement of the days. Some of the structure and ideas are partly via Obiakoizu A. Iloanusi (1984) and from the Kongo cosmogram.
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On another note, what people call 'exposure' in Nigeria is actually a well rounded education, it's what you get out of the Humanities, and the neglect of the Humanities in Nigeria is at a detriment to national consciousness, which is ultimately the foundation for nation building.
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Double edged sword with a fluted blade from Arochukwu, c. 1932 or earlier. Pitt Rivers Museum.
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Stuntman Nwozuzu “Killiwe” Nwachukwu. Killi we (c. 1932-1942 — ?) was a Nigerian daredevil and stuntman who carried feats through the 60s and 80s such as pulling moving cars, getting run over by cars, having cinder blocks crushed over his head, and lifting multiple people.
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Have you heard of the lungi? This plaid material commonly known as madras is a textile from India that has become ethnic wear in southeastern Nigeria, known as George (Jịọjị) by the Igbo and injiri by the Kalabari. This is a brief history. Photo: Sinhalese people.
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Egbo men’s leopard ‘secret society’, Cross River area, southeastern Nigeria. Early 20th century. Wellcome Images.
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"Alusi The same shrine with its priest (seated) and it’s osu (“juju slave”), Orsu, West Isuama Igbo". G. I. Jones, 1930s. Jones Archive, Southern Illinois University. Osu has been described as a ritual outcast or caste system. …
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The road from Ügwüta (Oguta) to Owere (Owerri), c. 1909, showcasing the undulating landscape of the Igbo country. Whether this is a ‘pre-colonial’ road or not is not specified, but this could be how trade routes were in the past.
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Women on a street in Aba, Eastern Region (Nigeria), 1951, By Lorenzo Dow Turner (Black American).
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Leopard cub, in a photo album by Methodist missionaries stationed at Amachara, Umuahia, c. 1938. USC Digital Library.
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"Niger River at Asaba-Onitsha ferry crossing. Ferry landing, Asaba side. Non-Government passenger only ferry in background." Simon Ottenberg, 1959-60. Smithsonian. Monthly, ferries carried thousands of vehicles. Mostly Anam canoes were used. The Niger bridge opened January 1966.
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Some Ọ́mụ̀, female kings, counterparts to traditional male authority in western Igbo towns (Anioma). Many Igbo communities had a dual-sex leadership system which was undermined by colonialism. Omu Anioma and Okpanam, Obi Martha Dunkwu.
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An Igbo hat (òkpu agha?) made of coiled yam leaves, from 1942 or earlier. Pitt Rivers Museum.
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An Igbo woman photographed by Northcote Thomas, 1910-11. The woman's name may have been recorded in Northcote Thomas' photographic register. This photograph is originally black and white and has been colourised by Ụ́kpụ́rụ́, 2019.
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A titled Igbo woman, Ndoni, present day Rivers State, Nigeria. The Ndoni people are part of a larger people known as Ndi Osimili, 'the people of the Niger.' They're also an Oru and Ogbasu (Ogbaru) people. Lower Niger French Catholic mission postcard, turn of the 20th century.
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Onitsha Market Literature, post-WWII stories, plays, and moral advice published mainly on chapbooks in Africa's largest market. Cyprian Ekwensi is a credited pioneer with the 1947 novella "When Love Whispers". The Nigeria-Biafra war led to its demise. Scans: University of Kansas.
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Can you read this Igbo conversation from the early 1910s between onye Nibo and onye Ọnịcha? Try not to read the English translation. Published by Northcote Thomas in 1913.
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Barbados was one of the European (British) colonies that received many Igbo people during the slave trade in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Igbo ancestral presence can be found in all aspects of Barbadian culture, including language.
Nancy Daniels, photographed in the 1850s, was an African born Barbadian ex-slave of probable Igbo descent. She survived the middle passage to Barbados around her twenties in c. 1780 where she was enslaved to M D'Azevedo. [. ]
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"AKenta Bob (Ibibio) in her wedding dress New Calabar [Elem Kalabari]" – Jonathan Adagogo Green, late 19th century – early 20th century. British Museum.
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The Ikenga, a 1960s luxury GT car, named after an Igbo icon of achievement. Ebony September 1969. "At 29, David Gittens [. ] has gained recognition [. ] as a member of the growing colony of black Americans who are “making it” abroad[.] [. ]"
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A young Igbo man photographed by British colonial government anthropologist Northcote Thomas, noted to have been taken in Achala, in today's Anambra State, c. 1910-11.
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A boy with chalk patterns on his body, Umuahia, Eastern Nigeria, ca. 1925. Shot by Emily Godfrey. USC Digital Library. In the Umuahia area, there were also carved stamps used to place patterns on the body, the body art is loosely symbolic and mostly for aesthetic purposes.
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The doorway of a compound in Nibo in today's Anambra State. These portals were usually found at the compound entrances of wealthy and titled people and those of public places like shrines in the north-central Igbo area. Photographed by Northcote Thomas, c. 1911. MAA Cambridge.
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Young married woman from Achala wearing a wig, north-central Igbo area. Photo: K. C. Murray, 1939.
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Biafran Police officer at Ubulu near Uli airport. 1969, Peter Williams.
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An Igbo girl in the photo album of British colonial government anthropologist Northcote Thomas, taken c. 1910-11. MAA Cambridge.
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An elder of Agukwu Nri, present-day Anambra State, photographed by Northcote Thomas, c. 1911. RAI. Colourised from black and white, Ụ́kpụ́rụ́ 2019.
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An elder of Nsukwa, a western Igbo community in the Enuani area of today's Delta State. Photographed by Northcote Thomas, c. 1913. MAA Cambridge.
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'Palaver hall' (court?) in Kumasi, Ashanti Empire, turn of the 20th century. Photo: Friedrich Ramseyer.
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An elder of Obomkpa in the western Igbo area of today's Delta State. Photographed by Northcote Thomas, c. 1912-13. RAI. Colourised from black and white, Ụ́kpụ́rụ́ 2020.
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A group of children in front of who appears to be Obi Samuel "Sami" Okosi, Obi Okosi I, the Catholic Obi of Önïcha from 1901 to 1931. Photographed by Herbert Wimberley, c. 1903-18. Cambridge University Library.
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Official British record of people, primarily women, killed or injured during the Women's War of the Calabar and Owerri colonial provinces, 1929-30.
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Igbo mask, àgbọghọ̀ mmụọ̄, as described by the Musée des Confluences, Lyon. Photo: Ismoon via Wikimedia Commons.
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An Ọka [Awka] blacksmith, nnẹ ụzụ, and his nwa ụzụ, an apprentice blacksmith photographed by G. T. Basden, early 20th century. Children are taken as apprentices by a member of a smithing guild. Igbo blacksmithing had three major centres, Abiriba, Nkwere, and Ọka.
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An unidentified group portrait taken by a Royal Niger Company employee c. 1886 - 1895. Based on other photos, these could be people from the Asaba or Önïcha area. MAA Cambridge.
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The only way to save the Igbo language is to make it (more like recognise it as) the official language of the majority Igbo-speaking states, including education.
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An Igbo woman photographed by Northcote Thomas, Onicha Olona, 1912. Onicha Olona (now in Delta State) is one of the sister settlements to Onicha Mmili (‘Onitsha’) as part of the Umu Eze Chima (or Chime) lineage, a lineage of the patriarch Eze Chima who travelled from the west.
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"The Demon Superstition"."[…] multiple births (umu ejime) were considered by Igbo-speaking peoples an abomination (nso ani) […] "In the 1980s, however, I heard stories [. ]". Photo: Twins with their mothers, Nigeria, ca.1920-1940, C.M.S. Bookshop, Lagos.
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Tress are important in Igbo spirituality as symbols of life and channels to the earth force. A child’s umbilical cord is buried with a newly planted fruit tree (ili alo); this becomes the [. ]
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The Omu of Okpanam, in the Enuani Igbo area in Delta State today, her name was not recorded with this photograph by Northcote Thomas in 1912. The Omu control markets and are women counterparts to the Obi, the male king who they are not married or necessarily related to.
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Àgbọghọ̀ mmụọ, the maiden spirit mask. Northern Igbo area. Photographed by Santiago Ku. Royal Ontario Museum. Via the Internet Archive. As well as their value as art, these masks also document the hairstyles and makeup of Igbo women from the past. This mask is from c. 1905.
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Nri Obalike, the Eze Nri from Uruoji who the Eze Nri from 1889–1935. Nri Obalike was Eze Nri during the height of British colonial imposition into the north-central Igbo area, .
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An Igbo tower photographed by British colonial government anthropologist Northcote Thomas, early 1910s. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge.
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Lever Bros. Ltd., soap factory, Aba (today's Abia State) photographed by Eliot Elisofon c. 1959. Smithsonian.
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It might be controversial, but Chi names before Christianisation were almost never about the universal Chi but the personal Chi. Chukwu was often in reference to the Arochukwu shrine. Ideas can represent others, so the big Chi for instance is represented by Anyanwu in the north.
Lord knows I am not giving my kids any 'Chi' or "Chukwu" name. Unless the ones that have been there from time immemorial, not all this new age fangled contraptions, like "Kanyirapuluchi", "Kaosisochukwu", "Kasarachi". And why the hell do they even start with "K"?.
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As requested, a reading list of some of the formative books for Ụ́kpụ́rụ́, directly or indirectly.
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A man from Enugwu Ukwu in present day Anambra State, photographed by Northcote Thomas, c. 1910-11. MAA Cambridge.
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Edward Wilmot Blyden (August 3, 1832 – February 7, 1912), the father of pan-Africanism, was a West Indian-born writer and politician. He identified his parents as being of whole Igbo ancestry. Photo: Daguerrotype of a young Edward Wilmot Blyden, c. 1850s. Library of Congress.
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Ekpe (leopard society) club-house, Bende, in Abia State, Nigeria today. Percy Amaury Talbot, 1910s.
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A woman of Öka (Awka) photographed by British colonial government anthropologist Northcote Thomas, 1910-1911, colourised (and cropped) from black and white, 2018. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge.
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"GUINEA-FOWL DANCERS". "These are professional dancers. Round their ankles are clusters of shells.". "[…] For these set dances, e.g. those executed by the “ Guinea-fowl dancers,” the physical strength required is tremendous. […]" Internet Archive.
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Interview of De Uwaga Okeanya, an Ọ̀kọ̀nkọ̀ priest from Ụmụọpara born around the 1880s. A. I. Atulomah (1977). Ụmụọpara is in the Umuahia area.
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"The Ibo Awakening" (excerpt) according to James Smoot Coleman in 1958 in "Nigeria: Background to Nationalism," page 333.
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The Ebonyi River from a photo album made before the 1920s. The National Archives UK. The Igbo people who passed and lived around the Ebonyi River were part of an expansionist Igbo group who came from an older migration from over the Imo River.
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An elder in Ila (Illah) holding an abani or eben sword, present-day Delta State. Photographed by Northcote Thomas, c. 1912. MAA Cambridge. "Illah is said to have been founded by Ala[.] […]"
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Most Igbo people in the past did not perceive themselves as belonging to a religion. The split between culture and religion did not exist. All practices were viewed as duty.
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A young Igbo man with plaited hairstyle and uli body and face painting. Photographed by J Stocker, early 20th century.
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"Modern Houses in Enugu," photographed by A. F. Hershfeild, 1961. University of Wisconsin.
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