MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY. DR. Chima Korieh The Race and Identity: The Case of the Igbo- Hebrew Israelites in the Americas, This paper explores the way the Igbo-Hebrew Israelite people of The Bight of Biafra Hinterland, West Africa, viewed race and constructed their identity in the eighteenth and nineteenth century Americas and the Caribbean, following their enslavement. The Igbo-Hebrew Israelite people were brought to the United States and other parts of British Americas in large numbers through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Europeans oppressed the Igbo people as a result of the social construct of race and Igbo identity was reconstructed in the Americas because of their ancestral customs. Specifically, this paper explores the issue of race and identity formation through a critical study of the lives of two Igbo ex-slaves—Olaudah Equiano, the author of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oladuah Equiano and Archibald John Monteath, whose life as a slave and mission helper with the Monrovian mission in Jamaica has been told in a recent biography entitled Archibald Monteath: Igbo, Jamaican, Moravian. Equiano and Monteath were both born free, but they were captured and forced into enslavement through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Their lives are an example of personal experiences that other Igbo people encountered and also how they thought about race and identity. Through a critical study of the lives of these two Igbo ex-slaves, this paper reveals how enslaved Africans not only contributed to the discourse of race in the United States and other parts of British Americas, but also were important in making their own identity
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 17:58:28 +0000
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