Ibo Granmoun O / The Igbo are their own authority Granmoun O / Their own authority
Ibo Granmoun O / The Igbo are their own authority
Lakay Ibo / In Igboland
Ibo Granmoun O / The Igbo are their own authority
As Haiti continues to struggle to build a democracy, we poise to remember one root of our democracy. Although the word democracy is from Greece, the concept of democracy arose independently in other societies. It arose among the Igbo people of today’s Nigeria, where people’s right to have a voice in how they are ruled was respected. The ancient Igbo people of Nigeria had a democratic state. Unlike their neighbors, the Nago, the Guedevi, and the Mayi, who were ruled by a noble class, the Igbo people were not ruled by monarchs. They had no kings, nor queens. The Igbo people were their own authority. Here in the song, this concept is presented as Igbo Granmoun, meaning the Igbo take orders from no one.
