The Ibos or Igbos (pronounced "Ee-bohs" or "Eeg-bohs") constitute one of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria. The others are the Yorubas to the west and the Hausas to the north. The Ibos' ancestral homeland lies in southeastern Nigeria, between the Niger and Cross Rivers. Geographically, it measures about 40,922 square kilometers, with a population estimated at 16 million people.

A Flourishing Rain Forest

Although deforestation, massive erosions, and landslides have changed its current topography, traditional Iboland (from approximately third century B. C. to late nineteenth century) was a flourishing tropical rain forest. "It was considered the belt of the equatorial rainforest," writes Derry Yakubu, a Nigerian anthropologist. The land was so thickly forested that its earliest European visitors referred to it as "the interior," or "the hinterland." One British traveler at the beginning of the twentieth century noted that "the forest reigned supreme in...