IBO or IGBO HISTORY

IBO HISTORY!

Who are the Igbos? The name Igbo which was formerly known or called Ibo originated from a slave identity. The people called Igbos was used to refer to slaves.

The Igbos occupies the south Eastern part of Nigeria only which consists of 5 states namely; Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi, and Abia state. Each of these states have different migration patterns eg:
Anambra is an igala land meaning Igala occupied 60% of the land while the Bini (Idu) occupied 30% of the land and the northerners(Fulani) occupied 5% and the slaves(Ibo) occupied 5%.

Imo is an Ijaw land meaning Ijaw owns 30% of the land, Ikwerre occupied 20% of the land, Bini (Idu) occupied 20% while the Ibo (slaves) occupied 30% of the land.

Abia is an ibibio land meaning Ibibio owns 40% of Abia state, while Bini (Idu) owns 30% of the land and the Ibo(slaves) owns 30% of the land.

Enugu is an Igala land meaning 50% of Enugu belongs to Igala, 30% belongs to Bini(Idu),15% belongs to the northerners(Fulani) and 5% belongs to the ibos(slaves).

Lastly, Ebonyi belongs to tiv meaning they own 70% of the land and 20% belongs to the northerners( Fulani) while 10% belongs to the outcast also known as osu.

So how was the identity imposed on them? As of 18th century they were all speaking different languages.

During the coming of the missionary the Ibo accepted the missionary first because there was no tradition to preserve. So the British took advantage of it, after the British conquered others mostly in the East they imposed the Ibo on them and was asked to bear the Ibo identity and a new language known as central Ibo was imposed on them because without the language they couldn’t trade non do anything.

How was the language central Igbo gotten? The language is a mixture agbor language that was corrupted by most of the slave that once lived amongst the Ika people. Which is a combination of Ika, Bini, Ijaw, Ikwerre, ukwuani, Bantu and Igala. Words were borrowed from this people to formed the Igbo language.