The history of Jamaica cannot be discussed without mentioning the influence of Igbos in Jamaica. The Igbos influenced the culture, music, the pouring of libation, the “eboe” style, idioms, language, and way of life of the Jamaicans.
Jamaica witnessed the influx of the Igbo race between 1790 and 1809, a time when the British had just passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. The modern Igbo race dwelt in the Bight of Biafra in Nigeria.
It was from here that the Igbos who were kidnapped and sold as slaves by the Europeans were taken to work on plantations.
Ever heard the word “red eboe” in Jamaica? Your suspicion is true. “Red eboe” was used to refer to the Igbo slaves in Jamaica because of their light skin.
While it is known that Virginia was the destination point of most slave ships from the Bight of Biafra, the majority of the slave ships from the Bight of Biafra that delivered the slaves to the Caribbean Islands landed in Jamaica.
While a large number of the Jamaican Patois is from the Akan language of modern-day Ghana, the Igbos, due to their inability to speak the language, introduced some of their words which have now become infused into the Jamaican Patois.
Some of these words include:
Unu – You people
Ima osu (Jamaica) Imu oso (Igbo) – to hiss by sucking you
r teeth
Akara (Jamaica) Akàrà (Igbo/Yoruba) – bean cake
Soso (Jamaica) Sọsọ (Igbo) – only
Their yam festival, the Jonkonnu (A masquerade festival attributed to Njoku Ji (yam -spirit cult), Okonko and Ekpe masquerades”, was arguably introduced by
the Igbos.
Most of the Igbo/Akan -concentrated areas are found in the northwestern and southern sections of Jamaica. Some of these are Maroon Village, formerly known as Cudjoe’s Town (Trelawny Town), Montego Bay, and St.
Ann’s Bay.
In Maroon, there are some songs called “Ibo”. The Jamaicans are akin to the ways of the Igbos such that it is not uncommon to see Jamaicans watch Ig
bo Nollywood films.
The Igbos showed themselves to be an organized sect. This is evident in slave owner Matthew Lewis’s confession after he noted that there was a time he “went down to the negro-houses to hear the whole body of Eboes lodge a complaint against one of the book-keepers”.
