I thank my colleagues in the Southern Studies Research Project, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, James A. Miller and Dirk Kuyk, Jr., for their unflagging support; Thomas Spear of Williams College for his penetrating suggestions; and Frances Gregory of the University of Richmond for her influence on the genesis of this work.

¹ Ferguson, Charles W., Fifty Million Brothers (New York, 1937), 184–202;Google ScholarWoodson, Carter G., review of Secret Societies: A Cultural Study of Fraternalism in the United States,Google Scholar by Gist, Noel P., Journal of Negro History, 26:2 (1941), 268;Google Scholar and DuBois, W. E. B., “Some Efforts of American Negroes for Their Own Social Betterment,” in Atlanta University Publications, 2 vols. (1898; reprint ed., New York, 1968), I. 13.Google Scholar

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³ DuBois, W. E. B., Economic Cooperation among Negro Americans, Atlanta University Publication No. 12 (Atlanta, 1908), 55. DuBois thought that elements of beneficial societies grew from “Obeah worship,” but did not see that the societies' form as a whole could have an African origin.Google Scholar

⁴ Trent, W. J. Jr, “Development of Negro Life Insurance Enterprises” (M.B.A. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1932), 20.Google Scholar Trent adds that secret orders became “legion” in a short time, but he gives no source for his information. Carter Woodson stated that black fraternal orders originated in Richmond. He, too, gave no source. See Woodson, Carter, “Insurance Business among Negroes,” Journal of Negro History, 14:2 (1929), 205–6. These are two examples of many indications in black sources that much black history has been transmitted orally. American historians will have to learn quickly to follow the example set by Jan Vansina in using African oral tradition. Otherwise, a large body of information will be lost.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵ Americans generally know these people as Ibo. “Igbo” is linguistically more correct, and the Igbo themselves now prefer it.

⁶ Walton, Thomas E., “The Negro in Richmond, 1880–1890” (M.A. thesis, Howard University, 1950), 51;Google ScholarJackson, Luther Porter, “Free Negroes of Petersburg, Virginia,” Journal of Negro History, 12:3 (1927), 386;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Trent, , “Development of Negro Life Insurance,” 6–12.Google Scholar

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¹⁰ N'Idu, Ado, “Ekpe—Cross River Cult,” West African Review, 30 (11 1959), 749;Google Scholar and Ema, A. J. Udo, “The Ekpe Society,” Nigeria, 16 (1938), 314.Google Scholar

¹¹ Stick is a word from pidgin English, referring to a length of wood. Ottenberg, Simon, Masked Rituals of Afikpo (Seattle, 1975), 11. Here the “sticks” are carved symbols. The degree of carving may vary.Google Scholar

¹² Nzekwu, Onuora, “Initiation into the Agbalanze Society,” Nigeria Magazine, 82 (09 1964), 173;Google Scholar and Forrester, William M. T., comp., Degree Ritual of the Independent Order of Saint Luke (Richmond, Virginia, 1894), 11.Google Scholar

¹³ Nzekwu, , “Initiation,” 174–75;Google ScholarHenderson, Richard N., The King in Every Man (New Haven, 1972), 251;Google ScholarJanzen, John M., “The Tradition of Renewal in Kongo Religion,” in African Religions: A Symposium, Booth, Newell S. Jr, ed. (New York, 1977), 90;Google ScholarForrester, , Degree Ritual (1894), 47, 41;Google Scholar and Turner, , “Colour Classification,” 47–83, 79.Google Scholar

¹⁴ A tantalizing coincidence with this Igbo use of “rubbing” to mean gaining knowledge appeared in the following comment in a speech by one W. L. Taylor of Richmond: “I heard an elder say, ‘I have never rubbed my head on a college wall’; but he knew more than some of the boys that had rubbed their heads against the wall.” Burrell, W. P., Twenty-Five Years History of the Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers, 1881–1905 (Richmond, Virginia, 1909), 129.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Forrester, , Degree Ritual (1894), 30.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Henderson, , King in Every Man, 259–60;Google ScholarNzekwu, , “Initiation,” 183;Google Scholar and Forrester, , Degree Ritual (1894), 27, 36, 45–47.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Forrester, , Degree Ritual (1894), 37–39;Google ScholarHenderson, , King in Every Man, 259–60.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Richmond Planet, 28 October 1905.Google Scholar

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²¹ Etna, Udo, “Ekpe Society,” 314;Google Scholar “The Diary (1785–88) of Antera Duke,” translated into modern English by Wilkie, A. W. and Simmons, Donald C., in Efik Traders of Old Calabar, Forde, Daryll, ed. (1956; reprint ed., London, 1968), 27–65;Google Scholar and Simmons, Donald C., “An Ethnographic Sketch of the Efik People,” in Efik Traders, Forde, , ed., 18.Google Scholar

²² The danger of generalizing “African” is fairly universally recognized. Using the term is a pothole: we have to bump our way through to get on down the road. Here, it refers to philosophical characteristics prevalent enough in West African thinking to have been transmitted. Seminal works on African philosophy include Placide Tempels, Bantu Philosophy (Paris, 1959);Google ScholarJahn, Jahnheinz, Muntu (New York, 1961);Google ScholarMbiti, John, African Religions and Philosophy (New York, 1969);Google Scholar and Zahan, Dominique, The Religion, Spirituality, and Thought of Traditional Africa (Chicago, 1979).Google Scholar Help in understanding the concept of unity in social structure also comes from Vincent Mulago, “Vital Participation,” in Biblical Revelation and African Beliefs, Dickson, Kwesi A. and Ellingworth, Paul, eds. (Maryknoll, New York, 1969). Henderson's The King in Every Man helps with Onitsha Igbo thought, but more study of Igbo beliefs is needed.Google Scholar

²³ Forrester, , Degree Ritual (1894);Google Scholar and Forrester, William M. T., comp., Ritual of the Independent Order of Saint Luke (Richmond, Virginia, 1877). Both documents are in the Virginia State Library collection.Google Scholar

²⁴ Forrester, , Ritual (1877), 39. The asterisk in the sixth line reprinted here refers to a footnote in the original text which carefully specifies that “sister” be substituted for “brother” when applicable.Google Scholar

²⁵ Forrester, , Ritual (1877), 15.Google Scholar

²⁶ Forrester, , Degree Ritual (1894), 10, 16–18.Google Scholar

²⁷ Ibid., 32–33, 36–37.

²⁸ Ibid., 42–44.

²⁹ Ibid., 38.

³⁰ Nzekwu, , “Initiation,” 173;Google Scholar and Henderson, , King in Every Man, 315, 267.Google Scholar Nzekwu refers to ancestral spirits rather than “personal god.” Henderson (see pp. 111–25) clarifies the distinctions between gods, ghosts, and spirits, and I have used his term, “personal god.”

³¹ Forrester, , Ritual (1877), 35–36.Google Scholar

³² Richmond Planet, 18 March 1899.Google Scholar

³³ Personal interview, Richmond, Virginia, 16 December 1977.

³⁴ Forrester, , Degree Ritual (1894), 41.Google Scholar

³⁵ Ibid., 47–48.

³⁶ Mr. F. A. Onwuemelie of Umuenechi, Awka, as recorded by Isichei, Elizabeth, “An Ozo Title Holder Analyses the Title Structure in Awka,” in her Igbo Worlds (Philadelphia, 1978), 67.Google Scholar

³⁷ Personal interview with Dorothy V. Turner, Right Worthy Grand Secretary, Independent Order of St. Luke, Richmond, Virginia, 16 December 1977.

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⁴⁴ Forrester, , Ritual (1877), 43, 48;Google ScholarThomas, , “Some Ibo Burial Customs,” 165–80, 185;Google Scholar and Meek, , Law and Authority, 179.Google Scholar

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⁴⁸ Tepowa, Adebiyi, “The Titles of Ozor and Ndichie at Onitsha,” Journal of the African Society, 9:34 (1910), 191.Google Scholar

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⁵² Odum, Howard W., “Fraternal Organizations and Benevolent Societies,” in Social and Mental Traits of the Negro, Columbia University Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law 37:3 (1910), 129–30.Google Scholar

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