Igbo people

Immense ankle plates are a main part of female costume in the Ibo country. ~ Northcote W. Thomas

The Igbo, also spelt Ibo and historically also Iboe, Ebo, Eboe, Eboans or Heebo, are an ethnic group in Nigeria.

Quotes by Igbo

• Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.
  • Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 1
• The Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly, so his chi agreed. And not only his chi but his clan too, because it judged a man by the work of his hands.
  • Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 4

Quotes by others

• The Eboes, tho' not generally a robust, are a well-formed people, of the middle stature: many of their women are of remarkably symmetrical shape, and if white, would in Europe be deemed beautiful. This race is, as has been already remarked, of a more mild and engaging disposition than the other tribes, particularly the Quaws, and though less suited for the severe manual labour of the field, they are preferred in the West India colonies for their fidelity and utility, as domestic servants, particularly if taken there when young, as they then become the most industrious of any of the tribes taken to the colonies. Their skin is generally of a yellowish tinge, but varying to a jet black.
  • Memoirs of the Late Hugh Crow, of Liverpool (1830), pp. 198–199

• Immense ankle plates are a main part of female costume in the Ibo country. Many of them are made in Birmingham and afterwards decorated with incised designs by native smiths. The women wear them permanently, stuffing rags between the skin and the metal to prevent chafing, and walking with a curious swing of the leg to avoid rubbing the plates together.
  • Northcote W. Thomas, "British Empire in Africa III. Manners & Customs of its Native Races", J. A. Hammerton, ed., Peoples of All Nations, Vol. I (1922), p. 727