Never Forget The Igbo Landing
In Dunbar Creek on St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia, there is a deeply historic site called lgbo Landing.
The site is named because of the mass su!ccide of Igbo people captured as slaves in 1803.
The history started when about 100 lgbo people from what’s now known as Nigeria were captured, bounded and put on ship to be sold as slaves in pIantations across the Americas.
The sIaves were bought for about $100 each by sIave merchants John Couper and Thomas Spalding. During the voyage, the lgbo sIaves rose in rebeIIion and drowned their captors.
The ship was grounded. Left with no clear direction of how to go back home and refusing to proceed to the land of the ensIavers, all the sIaves marched ashore singing, led by their high chief. Then at his order, they all committtted su!ccide by walking into the marshy waters of Dunbar Creek. They chose to diie rather than be a sIave in an unknown land.
Today, the story stands as a cherised cultural history of bravery for millions of African-American.
The lgbo Landing story is now part of the curriculum for coastal Georgia schools, reminding young African-Americans that some of their ancestors were brave people who would rather die than live in oppression. – Oh Africa.
©Maria Ude Nwachi