We Are Igbo

My Story

I am British Nigerian. Which for me means, I am born and raised in England but I am of Nigerian heritage because that is where my parents are from. Finding my own cultural identity has been a long journey because I have never felt British enough to be fully British or Nigerian enough to be fully Nigerian.

My parents were born and raised in Imo State in the south of Nigeria. After finishing university and getting married, my parents relocated to London where I was born one cold December morning in 1996. My first (and only) voyage to the Motherland was for a few months when I was three years old. My parents spoke only in English to my siblings and I, feeling it would be best if we had British accents and were fully assimilated in British culture.

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa and is an economic giant, trading in oil and natural gas. But Nigeria - the West African powerhouse of a country that we know it as now - was initially a kingdom, home to hundreds of different indigenous tribes, all with different languages, cultures and religions. One of the largest three of these tribes was the Igbo (then known as the Ibo) people.

At the beginning of the 19th Century, during the rise of the British Empire, Nigeria was assembled together by the British. They implemented legal structures, Christianity and English as the national language, all of which undermined the traditional established ways of the tribes.

Nigeria got her independence from the British in 1960 but by then the way people thought, spoke and lived their lives were very different from before. Eventually the tireless struggle of people whose only similarity with each other was that they had been told they had to be a country, gave way. Between 1967 and 1970, there was a civil war that heavily involved the Igbo people. Those three years were a horrible time, for the whole country and especially for Igbos who saw an estimated 1-3 million of their people killed by warfare, starvation and disease. Many people were separated from family members and friends during this time.

There are two main points in history to account for Igbo migration to places outside of the Igbo states in Nigeria, nicknamed Igboland. One being the Transatlantic slave trade in the 18th and 19th century mainly to the United States of America and the other the migration of thousands after the Civil War and economic instability in Nigeria.

Now as an adult, when I have discussions with my parents about the Nigerian Civil War, they cry. It was a part of their history that they would prefer not to think about.

Even after the war, when peace had returned to Nigeria, the Igbo people seemed to have adopted a lot of the British ways of living. They are known for valuing religion highly, being dedicated to democracy and meritocracy.

I see these values in my parents, aunties and uncles. They love God and believe working hard means you will prosper in everything you do. Part of that means believing in sacrificing things that are hindering you from being successful - and for a lot of Igbo people, especially those living outside of Nigeria, that means detaching themselves from their old traditions, religions and sometimes even language.

Growing up, the Igbo language was barely uttered in my house. We were rarely told stories of my parents childhood growing up in Nigeria. I did not know how to answer “So, where are you from?” properly because all I ever knew was London. When I entered my early twenties, I decided I had had enough of my internal conflict and restless cultural identity.

Here are some words and phrases used to start a basic conversation with someone in Igbo.