The Igbo Landing and the Ghosts of Dunbar Creek

Water remembers.

Locals on Georgia’s St. Simons Island say that the waters of Dunbar Creek and the surrounding marshes are haunted.

According to legend, chanting and the rattling of chains can be heard on certain nights, as the restless souls of the defiant Igbo who died there make their eternal march towards ultimate liberation, which is that of the spirit. The tale of the Igbo Landing is one of tragedy, but also of resistance against oppression; a rallying cry still on the sharp tongues of today’s freedom fighters.

In May of 1803, the Wanderer, a slave ship, docked at the Port of Savannah. Onboard were approximately 75 Igbo people, who had been stolen from what is now southeastern Nigeria and forced to endure the indignities of the brutal Middle Passage. In Savannah, the Wanderer’s human cargo were auctioned off like cattle to slave traders who intended to put them to work on St. Simons Island, which is one of Georgia’s Sea Islands. When they left port on a different ship, the Schooner York (or the Morovia, according to some accounts), the captives took control of the vessel, drowned several of the crew, and ran the ship aground in what is now Dunbar Creek.

Still shackled together, the Igbo then walked in unison into the water. What happened next depends on who you ask. Though the revolt aboard the Schooner York and the march into the creek did occur, there are several versions of what exactly took place in the aftermath, with some containing mythological elements. In wider Black Southern folklore, the Igbo voluntarily drowned, choosing death over a life of servitude. They were said to be chanting in their native tongue: “Orimiri Omambala bu anyi bia. Orimiri Omambala ka anyi ga ejina,” which means "The Water Spirit brought us, the Water Spirit will take us home."

This was an expression of their faith in the protection of Chukwu, the Igbo pantheon’s omnipotent and omnipresent supreme deity.

Igbo women in Nigeria, early 20th century

Contemporary eyewitness accounts report that while anywhere from 10-12 Igbo did drown, others were recaptured by bounty hunters and either taken to Cannon Point on St. Simons, sold to plantations on nearby Sapelo Island, or sent to the West Indies.

Notably, St. Simons Island lies in the heart of the Gullah Geechee corridor, which encompasses the Lowcountry and coastal areas between lower North Carolina and northeastern Florida. These are my people, and in our oral traditions, the self-liberated Igbo walked over the water, reversing the Middle Passage and returning home to the Motherland. This is a reference to the legend of the Flying Africans, common to the folklore of the African diaspora and thought to have originated in the Central African Kingdoms of Loango and Kongo. In some retellings, they grew wings or turned into vultures before the voyage.

Wallace Quarterman, born in 1844, was interviewed in 1930 as part of the Federal Writers Project. When asked if he knew about the Igbo Landing, Quarterman responded:

“Ain't you heard about them? Well, at that time Mr. Blue he was the overseer and ... Mr. Blue he go down one morning with a long whip for to whip them good. ... Anyway, he whipped them good and they got together and stuck that hoe in the field and then ... rose up in the sky and turned themselves into buzzards and flew right back to Africa. ... Everybody knows about them.”

The Igbo Landing has both historical and moral significance for Black people. It has inspired creators from Alex Haley, who utilizes the story in Roots, and Toni Morrison, who references Flying Africans in Song of Solomon to Julie Dash, who recounts the tale in her 1991 film Daughters of the Dust. The latter, which follows a Gullah family on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, is said to have inspired the imagery accompanying the “Love Drought” section of Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade. In 2018’s Black Panther, Erik Killmonger references the event when he says (a bit heavy-handedly): "Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped from ships, 'cause they knew death was better than bondage."

A marker commemorating the event was erected at Dunbar Creek in 2022.