Igbo Landing: How enslaved Igbos drowned themselves in American creek to resist slavery in 1803
In 1803, a group of enslaved Igbo men walked into a creek in Georgia, U.S, and drowned themselves to resist slavery.
The incident happened at Dunbar Creek on St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia.
They were purchased as slaves by agents working for agriculturists – John Couper and Thomas Spalding.
Spalding was Georgia’s leading planter of Sea Island cotton. He owned a plantation with more than 350 slaves.
Multiple accounts say the Igbo men revolted and took control of their slave ship – ‘The Wanderer’.
They grounded it on an island, marched into the water and drowned themselves while chanting:
“The water brought us here, the water will take us back home.”
Legend says the men walked on the water back to Africa. Another version says they flew back to Africa
This is the origin of the myth of ‘The Flying Africans’ that has become part of African-American history.
Roswell King wrote the first account of the incident.
He was a manager of a nearby plantation who recovered some of the bodies.
He recounted “as soon as the Igbo landed on St. Simons Island, they took to the swamp” committing suicide by walking into Dunbar Creek.
The historic site became known as ‘Igbo (Ebos) Landing’.
The Gullah people live near the site and some fishermen never cast fish lines at the spot of the suicide for fear of disturbing the ghosts.
For more than 200 years, the story has been told in different forms.
Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison used the ‘Flying Africans’ story as the basis for her 1977 award-winning novel – ‘Song of Solomon’.
Igbo Landing is also central to ‘Daughters of the Dust’ a 1991 movie by Julie Dash.
In 2016, the imagery of Igbo Landing was central to the music video of Beyonce’s song – ‘Love Drought’.
In the video, Beyoncé marches into the water followed by a group of black women.
Igbo Landing portrays the courage of the Igbos who value autonomy.
They are also renowned for being fiercely independent and unwilling to tolerate humiliation and oppression.
In 2002, the St. Simons African-American Heritage Coalition invited a custodian of Igbo culture, Chukwuemeka Onyesoh to designate ‘Ebos Landing’ as holy ground and to put the souls of the enslaved to rest.
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