Thread by @ukpuru

A thread for innovations from the Igbo area, focusing on indigenous social structure as it relates to technology, arts and architecture.

If the iron slag at Leja actually dates to 4000 years ago, the smiths who produced this slag would have been among the earliest iron smelters in the world, this was at the time when Ancient Egyptians relied on meteors for their iron.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/928943735119011841

A few Igbo compounds were paved with stones in the past, these photos were taken as part of a survey of Igbo architecture by Zbigniew Dmochowski and his local team in the 1960s in Ngwo and at the house of an Alum Ogbodo in Umuatugbona, p.d. Enugu State.

Some of the multi-storey buildings built in the Igbo area before Westernisation were also photographed by Zbigniew Dmochowski. Photos: attic stairs of a Aninwande Oniya's house in Ngwo, and a house of elder Onye Ukilo Ogbonna in Bende.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/906037765883568132

The most common multi-storey building in the north-central area (Anambra) were the obuna enu, or watch towers used mainly as spare rooms for the patriarch of the compound, and safe houses for the family in times of trouble.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/930046966658207744

An Igbo tower photographed by British colonial government anthropologist Northcote Thomas, early 1910s. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge.

An Ọka [Awka] blacksmith, nnẹ ụzụ, and his nwa ụzụ, an apprentice blacksmith photographed by G. T. Basden, early 20th century. Children are taken as apprentices by a member of a smithing guild. Igbo blacksmithing had three major centres, Abiriba, Nkwere, and Ọka.

William Dickson in "Letters on Slavery," 1789, describes a musical instrument used by Africans in Barbados in the 1780s, likely the distinct Igbo instrument called an udu. This unique Igbo instrument, made by Igbo women, is now used all over the world.

The Anam (Igbo) bridge building technique, 1943.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/1047834250706391040

The weaving of textiles in the Igbo area, from information found in Igbo Ukwu, dates back more than 1000 years into the past. At some point people started using cotton as well as raffia and other materials.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/938279341582114816

Textiles were woven in strips on locally made looms before wider looms were introduced in the colonial era.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/943202921281400832

A description of the use of towers in the north-central Igbo area.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/947047884465278976

Different kinds of ideographic writing were used in different parts of the Igbo area, Northcote Thomas recorded some of the 'Aniocha Script' from among the Enuani Igbo in p.d. Delta State.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/879801577082687488

These signs written by the members of the cult of the deity of the Mkpitime lake, may be related to the other signs of the Aniocha.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/942382497240842240

'Oven for smoking fish by the Niger River, Onitsha,' 1930-31. Photo: Gustaf Bolinder.

An intangible innovation, many Igbo lineages spiritually bonded with a particular animal as a mutual assurance of protection. Some could use ọgwụ to turn into their guardian animal. ... Photo: Agụ, the African leopard, Derek Keats.

... The adoption of protector animals ensured that certain animals were saved from hunting in certain places, exemplifying the indigenous African ethics of conservation that has maintained the biodiversity of the continent despite human activity.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/942074520042688513

Seats for public events in an Igbo community. Given the structure of Igbo society, every major settlement has a public square, ama, usually doubling as a market on Igbo calendar days, for events, discussion and deliberation.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/957327428845801472

Along with apprenticeship, general knowledge was passed down to children in an organised way, this also included early initiations into masquerading groups. For example, around the Cross River Igbo area, nsibidi writing was taught to children.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/929121622900068352

Igbo Ukwu and revelations about indigenous African innovations.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/1009503099277455363

'Igbo Ukwu' also revealed the true antiquity of the ejemma (manilla), one was dated to around 1000 years ago, it was previously thought that 15th c. Europeans introduced manilla, this was an argument against the dating. The dating is now widely accepted.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/963430362436300801

Different types of Igbo currency (also used in surrounding areas) existed before the enforcement of British currency by the British colonial government.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/992158302023843840

The clothing of Igbo warriors / soldiers, with guns.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/941367414394146816

Igbo war head gear made of twine and other materials.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/941368681183039489

The introduction of guns and the protocol that surrounds them.

https://twitter.com/ukpuru/status/992779559950012416

Roads and rivers were tolled in the Igbo and surrounding areas due to trading.

"Before the establishment of the British military presence, Europeans were stopped and charged road tolls at every major village along their route, ..."

Photo: Opobo market c. 1914, Bristol Museums.

"... since they usually traveled with parties of traders who frequented the path. Rivers were often controlled in a similar way. A system of wooden booms was built across the Kwa Ibo River and Azumini Creek to control access to the upper reaches of these waterways, ..."

"... and the first British to reach northern Uyo Division found a similar system of 'booms which had been placed by the natives across the Ikpa Creek for ..."

"... the purposes of levying toll from traders.'" Robert D. Jackson (1975). The Twenty Years War. p. 18.

Photo: Bridge on the Enyong river near Calabar and Arochukwu. Charles Partridge, 1903. British Museum.

Ọka (African) Metallurgy in America

The acknowledgment of the contribution of enslaved Igbo people in the United States recurrently includes their influence on blacksmithing that’s largely associated with the ancient blacksmithing town of Awka (Ọka). ...

... Northern Igbo areas, including Awka, were especially the worst affected by slave raiding attacks by other Igbo towns. Blacksmithing, and particularly iron, held significant spiritual value among Igbo groups. ...

... Some suggest Awka blacksmiths were the makers of the ‘Igbo Ukwu’ leaded-bronzes noted for being more advanced than most metal workmanship around the world in the 9th century, and the Lower Niger Bronze Industry. Iron smelting in the region dates back to at least 2000 BC. ...

... Enslaved Africans in the Americas were often chosen for the expertise they held back in Africa, for example rice planting Africans from the Senegambia and Guinea areas were overrepresented in rice planting Georgia. ...

... Planters thought of enslaved Igbo people as sensitive to mistreatment and better suited for the more domestic-oriented work in the Chesapeake area of Virginia on its isolated plantations, another possible reason was for their knowledge of metalworking and craftsmanship.

"Awka smith Anene Chika at work at his anvil. The Igbo anvil’s cushioned substructure makes it a superior tool to all other types, including the European model at his right. Bronzes are produced in the ... workshop." Nancy Neaher (1976). "Igbo Metalsmiths among the Southern Edo."

The 'other' bronzes from Alaigbo.

Photo: A bronze double-headed python, 1.5 kg, 42.5 cm, found along with other bronze objects in Okohia village in Ihiala, dated based on some bronzes found in Ezira, and Igbo Ukwu, to a range between 900-1600 CE.

... (The Igbo-Ukwu and Ezira bronzes.)