All that "it was part of the culture","he was just doing what he knew", "it would be unfair to judge (him) by (today's) principles" stuff is a bunch of bullshit, since she has to grossly misrepresent Igbo culture for her appeal to make sense.


She keeps re-publishing this same family lore about her great-grandfather in different venues and presenting it as archetypal Igbo culture. Her family's story isn't at all common to the vast majority of Igbo families. I actually do support confronting uncomfortable history and culpability (which she did quite evocatively in her New Yorker piece), but now she's throwing in all these sweeping claims and I guess it's too much to expect basic factchecking from the BBC on easily verifiable aspects of West African history. It reads like a descendent of Frank Lucas, 100+ years after the fact, describing how prominent a drug kingpin he was but centering drug dealing as this historical pillar of Black American culture, omitting all important contextual factors yet referencing the staggeringly disproportionate number of Black Americans incarcerated for drug offences as proof of her narrative. It's misleading on so many levels.


Someone made the point in your old post (about her New Yorker piece https://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=13274711&mesg_id=13274711) that the families/clans participating in this trade with Europeans likely amounted to a 1% Merchant class, and from what I've read so far about this history that's probably the best way to look at it. Nwaubani claims slavery was institutionalized in Igbo culture "long before" contact with other groups... but that just doesn't square with the general (as in, recognizable to Igbos outside her lineage/village group) oral/proverbial history, what's known about how Igbos were organized socio-politically going as far back as the Igbo iron age, or the geographical, geopolitical, regional, social, and even technological factors that shaped how and where Europeans could establish a market (and networks) for human trafficking with the few strategic Igbo communities/regions they did.


There's so much more one could say, and I'll definitely come back to do so, but this is what I think: Some Igbo village groups/families were geographically situated closer to coastal or sahelian areas, major waterways/basins (eg. Niger River, Oguta Lake/lower Niger basin, Cross River), or major market locations/trade posts (eg. Abakaliki, Umuahia,*Enugu (as it's now called, which also doubled as a trafficking hub for Muslim traders from further north)); and this facilitated their exposure to (European-initiated, Trans-Saharan-initiated) human-trafficking networks and enticed some among them to participate (after seeing the resources/wealth available). The one cultural driver that makes sense is that Igbos have an extremely strong entrepreneurial tradition and had been engaging in a fairly sophisticated and non-exploitative form of indigenous capitalism since ancient times (with main commodities being salt, palm produce items, dried fish, woven textiles, etc. depending on a region's local ecology and artisanship). There was already a robust and tightly-coordinated network of markets (led by women actually, who also set local policies to effectively manage trade imbalances, price inflation, competitiveness of local producers, etc.) plus an indigenous business cycle so ingrained that it forms the basis of the Igbo calendar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_calendar). So even though Igbo capitalism lacked the exploitative and mercantilist aspects of European capitalism, upon contact I do believe the indigenous trade system provided turnkey infrastructure that catalyzed Europeans' (and individual Igbo profiteers like Nwaubani's) interests, and that the Igbos' decentralized system of governance helped as well (in contrast to Britain's frequent trade disputes with neighboring monarchs like the King of Benin or King Jaja of Opobo - both of whom Britain deposed as a result). But considering Igbos were and continue to be one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_of_Africa#Major_ethnic_groups) talk less of the region, it just doesn't make sense to insinuate (or assume) that most Igbo families were involved in the TAST or that slavery was central to Igbo culture and that's where Nwaubani loses me for good.


That said... while I find her generalizations offensive, and the elitism in her/her family's unapologetic/proud view of her great-grandfather's trafficking nauseating, I don't actually care what mental gymnastics they need to engage in to stand strong in spite of this history - that's their business. But the entitlement in suggesting/expecting others do the same is completely tone-deaf. Especially considering some readers may come from families negatively impacted by her great-grandfather's enterprise or even descend directly from people he sold.

Her family's probably still rich. If she/they want to confront, share, and use their history for good... why not give back and publicize everything that way?? Like, set up a fund for 'DOS scholarships and grants or something. Or, endow activists and organizations advancing 'DOS liberation/reparations goals in the countries/former colonies your family's victims were sold to. Rather than this lionizing unapology tour. I think the approach is all wrong.