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This is a topic that's particularly interesting to me because there's an ethnic group in my country - the Igbo - that are so pervasively, aggressively[0] entrep

This is a topic that's particularly interesting to me because there's an ethnic group in my country - the Igbo - that are so pervasively, aggressively[0] entrepreneurial that it's become a meme. I can't really think of another culture that has business woven as tightly into its very bones - I haven't read the entire paper yet, but I'm curious to see if it mentions them at all. [0] In a good way. Several people have noted that the Igbo pretty much invented venture capital.

barry-cotter 7y ago
The Igbo are an example of a merchant minority, like both Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, Armenians, Parsis and the Chinese in Southeast Asia, Lebanese in West Africa, Latin America and elsewhere and Yankees in the US South. There’s always hostility to merchant minorities from the majority population but the degree of difference modulates the hostility. No Yankee enclave was ever burned in a pogrom in the South whereas Jews everywhere in the Old World, various Christians in the Ottoman Empire and the Chinese in SE Asia all dealt with those regularly enough. The Igbo tried to secede from Nigeria after independence and it was an utter bloodbath. We know this is at least partly cultural because genetically Turks in Turkey are over 90% Greek or Armenian with some additional Balkan and Caucasus contribution and after mutual ethnic cleansing rid Turkey of Christians and the rest of the Balkans of Muslims Turks eventually filled those socioeconomic niches. Until Erdogan it looked like Turney would be richer than Greece pretty soon. Any Chua wrote a great book on merchant minorites, World On Fire.
- filleduchaos 7y ago
  Wikipedia articles *do very little to accurately convey cultures/situations one doesn't actually have experience with. The clear majority of Igbo people live in their homeland in Southeastern Nigeria. Even with the quarter to a third of Igbos that live in other parts of Nigeria I find the Western arrogance in calling people living in their own country a "merchant minority" rather dull. (For more context, there are three dominant ethnic groups in Nigeria, and none of them form a majority. The largest group - the Hausa - doesn't make up even 30% of the population, and the Igbo make up over 20% in current estimates) > The Igbo tried to secede from Nigeria after independence and it was an utter bloodbath. This was far, far more complicated than is being made out here.
  - barry-cotter 7y ago
    I’m sympathetic to the claim that it’s complicated, most things are, but the Igbo are clearly a merchant minority, and they’ve clearly been subjects of mob mass killings, aka pogroms as well as government sponsored mass killings based on their ethnic identity. Like every other merchant minority they also emigrate disproportionately looking for economic opportunities. If you guessed the ethnic makeup of Nigerians based on US or British populations you’d think Igbo were at least half of the population, not a minority. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_anti-Igbo_pogrom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_anti-Igbo_pogrom The 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom was a series of massacres committed against Igbo people and other people of southern Nigerian origin living in northern Nigeria starting in May 1966 and reaching a peak after 29 September 1966.[1] These events led to the secession of the eastern Nigerian region and the declaration of the Republic of Biafra, which ultimately led to the Nigeria-Biafra war . The 1966 massacres of southern Nigerians have been described as a holocaust by "Greene -1975 . The Struggle for Secession 1966–70: A Personal Account of the Nigerian Civil War by N. U. Akpan. The Nigerian Civil War 1967–70. The Royal African society in January 1975 and others have variously been described as genocide. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War Persecution of Igbo Edit From June through October 1966, pogroms in the North killed an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Igbo, half of them children, and caused more than a million to two million to flee to the Eastern Region.[77] 29 September 1966, was considered the worst day; because of massacres, it was called 'Black Thursday'.[78][79] Ethnomusicologist Charles Keil, who was visiting Nigeria in 1966, recounted: > The pogroms I witnessed in Makurdi, Nigeria (late Sept. 1966) were foreshadowed by months of intensive anti-Ibo and anti-Eastern conversations among Tiv, Idoma, Hausa and other Northerners resident in Makurdi, and, fitting a pattern replicated in city after city, the massacres were led by the Nigerian army. Before, during and after the slaughter, Col. Gowon could be heard over the radio issuing 'guarantees of safety' to all Easterners, all citizens of Nigeria, but the intent of the soldiers, the only power that counts in Nigeria now or then, was painfully clear. After counting the disemboweled bodies along the Makurdi road I was escorted back to the city by soldiers who apologised for the stench and explained politely that they were doing me and the world a great favor by eliminating Igbos.
    - 7y ago
- Merrill 7y ago
  Tribes: How Race, Religion and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy -- https://www.amazon.com/Tribes-Religion-Identity-Determine-Success/dp/0679752994 https://www.amazon.com/Tribes-Religion-Identity-Determine-Su...

barry-cotter 7y ago

The Igbo are an example of a merchant minority, like both Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, Armenians, Parsis and the Chinese in Southeast Asia, Lebanese in West Africa, Latin America and elsewhere and Yankees in the US South. There’s always hostility to merchant minorities from the majority population but the degree of difference modulates the hostility. No Yankee enclave was ever burned in a pogrom in the South whereas Jews everywhere in the Old World, various Christians in the Ottoman Empire and the Chinese in SE Asia all dealt with those regularly enough. The Igbo tried to secede from Nigeria after independence and it was an utter bloodbath. We know this is at least partly cultural because genetically Turks in Turkey are over 90% Greek or Armenian with some additional Balkan and Caucasus contribution and after mutual ethnic cleansing rid Turkey of Christians and the rest of the Balkans of Muslims Turks eventually filled those socioeconomic niches. Until Erdogan it looked like Turney would be richer than Greece pretty soon. Any Chua wrote a great book on merchant minorites, World On Fire.

filleduchaos 7y ago
Wikipedia articles *do very little to accurately convey cultures/situations one doesn't actually have experience with. The clear majority of Igbo people live in their homeland in Southeastern Nigeria. Even with the quarter to a third of Igbos that live in other parts of Nigeria I find the Western arrogance in calling people living in their own country a "merchant minority" rather dull. (For more context, there are three dominant ethnic groups in Nigeria, and none of them form a majority. The largest group - the Hausa - doesn't make up even 30% of the population, and the Igbo make up over 20% in current estimates) > The Igbo tried to secede from Nigeria after independence and it was an utter bloodbath. This was far, far more complicated than is being made out here.
- barry-cotter 7y ago
  I’m sympathetic to the claim that it’s complicated, most things are, but the Igbo are clearly a merchant minority, and they’ve clearly been subjects of mob mass killings, aka pogroms as well as government sponsored mass killings based on their ethnic identity. Like every other merchant minority they also emigrate disproportionately looking for economic opportunities. If you guessed the ethnic makeup of Nigerians based on US or British populations you’d think Igbo were at least half of the population, not a minority. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_anti-Igbo_pogrom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_anti-Igbo_pogrom The 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom was a series of massacres committed against Igbo people and other people of southern Nigerian origin living in northern Nigeria starting in May 1966 and reaching a peak after 29 September 1966.[1] These events led to the secession of the eastern Nigerian region and the declaration of the Republic of Biafra, which ultimately led to the Nigeria-Biafra war . The 1966 massacres of southern Nigerians have been described as a holocaust by "Greene -1975 . The Struggle for Secession 1966–70: A Personal Account of the Nigerian Civil War by N. U. Akpan. The Nigerian Civil War 1967–70. The Royal African society in January 1975 and others have variously been described as genocide. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War Persecution of Igbo Edit From June through October 1966, pogroms in the North killed an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Igbo, half of them children, and caused more than a million to two million to flee to the Eastern Region.[77] 29 September 1966, was considered the worst day; because of massacres, it was called 'Black Thursday'.[78][79] Ethnomusicologist Charles Keil, who was visiting Nigeria in 1966, recounted: > The pogroms I witnessed in Makurdi, Nigeria (late Sept. 1966) were foreshadowed by months of intensive anti-Ibo and anti-Eastern conversations among Tiv, Idoma, Hausa and other Northerners resident in Makurdi, and, fitting a pattern replicated in city after city, the massacres were led by the Nigerian army. Before, during and after the slaughter, Col. Gowon could be heard over the radio issuing 'guarantees of safety' to all Easterners, all citizens of Nigeria, but the intent of the soldiers, the only power that counts in Nigeria now or then, was painfully clear. After counting the disemboweled bodies along the Makurdi road I was escorted back to the city by soldiers who apologised for the stench and explained politely that they were doing me and the world a great favor by eliminating Igbos.
  - 7y ago
Merrill 7y ago
Tribes: How Race, Religion and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy -- https://www.amazon.com/Tribes-Religion-Identity-Determine-Success/dp/0679752994 https://www.amazon.com/Tribes-Religion-Identity-Determine-Su...