Ras Kimono, the Relics of Slavery and the African Diaspora: A Study on the Socio-Cultural Factors in the Haitian-Biafran Relations

Ibenekwu Ikpechukwuka E.¹, Uche Uwaezuoke Okonkwo² & Efobi Ifesinachi³

¹ PhD, Research Fellow, Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Email: Ikpe.ibenekwu@unn.edu.ng

² Senior Lecturer, Department of History and International Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Corresponding Author. Email: ucheokonkwo2007@yahoo.com.

³ Graduate, Department of History and International Relations, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki. Email: Efobi111@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.18

Abstract

It is no longer news that people of African descent were enslaved to the new world via: Caribbean, America and Europe for more than four hundred years. Rastafari movement has always engaged in the history of memory especially to reminiscence about slave experiences. Bob Marley songs are replete with such freedom chants. For example, Marley’s Redemption song and Buffalo Soldier are strong lyrics about the horrors of slavery. The cultural linkage between the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria and Haiti in the Caribbean is examined, especially the nexus between Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the Haitian support to the Biafran struggle during the Nigerian Civil War 1967-1970 re-echoes the African slave narratives as Kimono recorded in his song.

 Keywords: Ras Kimono, Slavery, African diaspora, Biafra, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Nigerian Civil War