Countless accounts of terrifying and dehumanizing events that happened during the slave trade era have been passed down from generations to generations; accounts of irrational cruelty, starvation, resistance, mass killings and suicide. The story of the Igbo landing is another tear-evoking account of resistance to slavery by the Igbo slaves from present-day Nigeria off U.S. coast in 1803…Click Here To Continue Reading>> …Click Here To Continue Reading>>

What Is The Igbo Landing Or Ibo Landing?

The Igbo landing, also written as ‘Ibo landing‘ or ‘Ebo landing‘, is a historic site at Dunbar Creek on St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia, U.S.A. where dozens of Igbo slaves took their own lives in a resistance to the cruelty of slavery in 1803.

In May, 1803, a ship named the wanderer, just like other slave ships, conveyed slaves from Africa to America. Among these slaves were set of Igbo people who were known by the then slave traders of the American South for being fiercely independent and unwilling to tolerate chattel slavery. The Igbo slaves were bought by the agents of John Couper and Thomas Spalding at $100 each for forced labour on their plantations in St. Simons Island, U.S.A.

When the slave ship landed in Savannah, Georgia, the chained Igbo slaves were reloaded and shoved under the deck of a coastal vessel named the Schooner York (some accounts claimed the vessel name was Morovia) which would take them to St. Simons Island. It was during the voyage that the group of Igbo slaves numbering about seventy-five rebelled against their captors and forced them to plunge into the water where they drowned. The slaves successfully regained their freedom but it was of no use since they were already out and far away from Africa, and so, on the order of a high chief who was also a captive, they sang, marched ashore and then into the marshy waters of Dunbar Creek where they drowned themselves.

According to Professor Terri L. Snyder, “the enslaved cargo suffered much by mismanagement, rose from their confinement in the small vessel, and revolted against the crew, forcing them into the water where they drowned”. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>

A white man, Roswell King, who was an overseer on a plantation known as Pierce Butler plantation was the first to record the incident at the site now known as the Igbo landing. Roswell and another man, Captain Peterson, recovered thirteen bodies of the drowned Igbos while others bodies were lost forever in the water. OldNaija gathered that some of them might have survived the suicide episode and this make the actual number of deaths in the Igbo landing uncertain.

“Regardless of the numbers, the deaths signaled a powerful story of resistance as these captives overwhelmed their captors in a strange land, and many took their own lives rather than remain enslaved in the New World. The Igbo Landing gradually took on enormous symbolic importance in local African American folklore”. – Momodu, Samuel

People in the U.S.A termed the resistance and suicide by the Igbo slaves the first freedom march in the history of Africa and the United States. Local people claimed that the Landing and surrounding marshes in Dunbar Creek where the Igbo people committed mass suicide in May, 1803 were haunted by the souls of the dead Igbo slaves.

In September, 2012, the Igbo Landing site was designated as a holy ground by the St. Simons African American community. The Igbo Landing is also now a part of the curriculum for coastal Georgia schools.

In recent times, many artists, songs, movies and others have paid tribute to the Igbo landing/ Ibo landing. A notable tribute is found in the ending part of Marvel’s comic movie, Black Panther, where Killmonger, played by Michael B Jordan, refer to the event by saying, “Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped from ships, ’cause they knew death was better than bondage”. Beyoncé also was not left out in the tribute paying as she portrayed the incident in of her music videos.

Before the advent of the internet, this story successfully thrived among Nigerians, but with the emergence of the internet and easy access to social media, the truth behind the India Vs Nigeria 99-1 match was revealed…Click Here To Continue Reading>> …Click Here To Continue Reading>>

Though there are different accounts of the match, but they all have the following in common:

1. That the match ended with India scoring 99 goals and Nigeria scoring just one goal.
2. That Nigerians were unable to kick the ball because the football kept turning to a lion which scared them away.
3. That Indians later agreed that if Nigeria could score one goal, they would concede defeat.
4. That Samuel Okwaraji scored the winning goal and lost his life in the process because the ball turned into stone as he was about to kick it.
5. That FIFA banned India from soccer because they used juju (black magic) in that match.

Why did people believe the India Vs Nigeria 99-1 match story?

Even with the absence of the internet back then, this kind of claims should be immediately recognized as lies, the kind of lies they call “big fat lies”. But most people like to acknowledge this story as true with the fact that no one has ever seen India play in an International Football Match. Since no one actually saw India participate in most international soccer games, this gave a little credence to the story.

Another reason this lie thrived for long was that credible information was not easily accessible in Nigeria unlike now that even a 4-year-old child can debunk false claims within minutes with the help of Google. This Nigeria Vs India match story would have been fabricated by one community elder to children during an evening gathering; that’s our take at OldNaija.

What Actually Happened!

On the 12th of August 1989, Nigeria lost one of her best footballers, Sam Okwaraji who died during a football match. We wrote about how he died on the pitch and you can read it here. Sam Okwaraji was the player rumoured to have lost his life in that game when in truth he died during a FIFA World Cup qualifying game against Angola in the 77th minute. He collapsed and died of cognitive heart failure. May his soul rest in peace. AMEN!

So, that is the only truthful thing about the India Vs Nigeria 99-1 match story, the fact that a Nigerian player died during a football match. That is what these lies was fabricated around. The match was not against India, Nigeria did not lose the match and as you must have guessed, and there were no lions or ball turning into a stone.

Nevertheless, one cannot deny that this kind of story made one’s childhood as a Nigerian.

Before we go, READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>

Why was India Banned by FIFA?

India was never banned by FIFA. It was India that withdrew from the tournament themselves. Here is how it happened.

Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) made it clear to India that they would not be allowed to play in the 1950 FIFA World Cup without footwear.

Then something happened. You see, when determining the make-up of the 1950 World Cup, FIFA determined that obviously the two defending finalists, Brazil and Italy, would be guaranteed slots. That left fourteen slots that needed to be filled.

FIFA decided that seven of those slots would come from Europe, six would come from the Americas and one would come from Asia.

The problem was that of the four Asian teams that were invited to the World Cup, three of them (the Philippines, Indonesia and Burma) withdrew from the tournament before the qualification round.

Therefore, India earned an automatic slot within the World Cup. It would be India’s first time appearing in the World Cup but India, too, withdrew from the tournament because FIFA would not allow them to compete barefoot.