Igbo

The Igbo occupy the thickly forested country east of the lower Niger. Iron working reaches back to the first millennium BCE, and the ninth- and tenth-century graves of Igbo-Ukwu held bronze regalia. Unlike their imperial neighbors, most Igbo communities were decentralized village republics, ruled by lineage elders and Ozo title societies rather than kings.

The exception was the Kingdom of Nri, a ritual state whose founder Eri is said to have settled around 948 and whose first priest-king, the Eze Nri, took office in 1043. From about 1640 the Aro Confederacy, based at Arochukwu around the Ibini Ukpabi oracle, sent slaves and later palm oil through Bonny into the Atlantic trade.

Igbo religion honors the high god Chukwu through the alusi spirits and earth goddess Ala, with the New Yam festival marking the year; captives carried these traditions to the Americas.