Lifestyle
PHOTOS: Meet The Nigerian Man Behind The Famous Igbo Village In The U.S.
In 2010 when the Igbo Village was built in the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia, it became the only museum-quality replica of an Igbo farm village in the U.S. and the only structure of its kind worldwide.
The Igbos were among the first enslaved men and women brought to Virginia in the 1740s to work in the tobacco plantations and in time helped in building America.
The Village was thus established to highlight their contributions and to help their descendants reclaim their past.
But its construction may not have been possible without the work of Akuma-Kalu Njoku, Ph.D., a Professor of Folklore Studies and Anthropology.
Njoku had come to the U.S. in 1983 from Nigeria to pursue advanced degrees in musicology.
He completed a bachelor’s degree in musicology from Michigan State University before enrolling at Indiana University where he earned a Ph.D. degree in ethnomusicology and folklore along with minors in African Studies and Cultural Anthropology.
It is therefore not surprising that in 2003, the staff of the Frontier Culture Museum contacted him when they decided on a West African exhibit to complement the English Farm, Irish Farm, German Farm, and the American Colonial Farm already in existence at the Museum, EKO HOT BLOG gathered.
In 2004, Njoku became the principal consultant for the Igbo Farm Village project, which today “provides a context very close to the Igbo cultural environment for experiencing and learning Igbo culture in America,” the Nigerian professor said in an interview with USAfrica.
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See beautiful photos of the famous Igbo village in USA
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