" Indigo Blues "
A Tribute to the Ibo

Tucked in the heart of the South Carolina Sea Islands between glimmering marshes with deep gray waters and nestled beneath the silvery moss draped limbs of massive live oaks, lies an area called Ebo Landing. As the story is told, almost two hundred years ago one midnight at high tide a ship bringing a cargo of Ebo (Ibo) men landed at Dunbar Creek on the Island of St. Simons off the Coast of South Carolina. The men, refusing to be sold into slavery, joined hands together, turned back toward the water, and began to chant, “the water brought us, the water will take us away.” They all drowned, but to this day when the breeze sighs over the marshes and through the trees, you can hear the clank of chains and the echo of their chant in what is now known as Ebo Landing.

During the Sea Island Plantation era many enslaved Africans were brought ashore along Dunbar Creek. There were once thousands of enslaved Africans toiling in the fierce costal heat. The Sea Islands, like most of the South were heavily dependent on slave labor. Ironically, wealthy indigo, rice and cotton plantation owners (who learned to grow these crops from Africans) valued the expertise of Africans from the Coast of Guinea, who farmed similar crops in the grassland and marshes back in Africa, and imported them in great numbers. If not for their agrarian skills the South Carolina-Georgia coast would not have thrived as they did.

Near the 19th century, many Africans were being kidnapped from the interior of Nigeria and shipped to the Americas. The majority of the captured were members of the Ibo Tribe. After a horrific voyage, the Middle Passage, the Ibo’s were typically brought into ports of the Southern United States and the Caribbean. Solely for the purpose of making them attractive for the auction block, they were placed in pens, given plenty of food and drink and encouraged to exercise. Then, after a humiliating viewing period where they were stripped, poked, and prodded, they were sold to speculators who, in turned, transported them to plantations or other areas of need.

The story of Ebo Landing grew into such folklore that many believed that the Ibo men walked on water and some said even flew back to Africa. Indigo Blue is an iconographical depiction of the mind of the Ibo on that mythical night. After having endured being captured, transported, and shipped, they faced being sold on the auction block never to see the Motherland again. All the while hearing echoes of voices calling them back, memories of Africa being recounted in their head, over and over…”am I not a man?…live free or die! I admired the indomitable spirit of those Ibo and I wanted to create a pictorial requiem for their souls.

The centerpiece is a photo image on fabric of a 19th century Ibo elder and priestess. She is the one calling them back to the Motherland. Covering her are African trade beads, many of which are vintage. They are a mixture of glass beads and Koli beads. Europeans introduced glass beads to Africa in quantity. They quickly became popular (and ominous) and soon became a symbol of wealth and rank. Africans valued them so highly that they were worth their weight in gold and one bead was equivalent to seven slaves. Usually only a chief could afford a full necklace. Interspersed with the beads are Baoule brass beads cast by the lost wax method. These also were a symbol of wealth but during colonial times they would have been made of gold.

The bulk of the piece is cut and pieced together from two separate vintage Adire cloths. Adire cloth is Nigerian (Ibo) in origin and is dyed with designs by Yoruba women said to have been given to them by Oshun, the goddess of wealth and fertility. The two cloths used are circa 1950 and are of the old cassava paste starch resist dye method, which is very rare now in Nigeria. The original cloths are considered collector’s items and masterpieces of the indigo dye process. The color blue is thought to be a spiritual color and, for the Ibo, the combination of blue and white is thought to be protective. The many geometric designs and abstract figures are used to tell a story as well as to endow an object with protective power. Interspersed with the Adire cloth are antique photos transferred on to cotton that depict the period from capture to sale of the Africans. There are historical slave advertisements depicted as well. The borders are crow feathers which, when held in the light, are actually a very deep blue. The back is pieced together from a cotton-linen blend and embellished with African trade beads. (72in x 80 in)