Linguistic Note on How the British Anglicized “Igbuzo” to “Ibusa”: A Case of Colonial Mishearing and Orthographic Simplification

 Linguistic Note on How the British Anglicized “Igbuzo” to “Ibusa”: A Case of Colonial Mishearing and Orthographic Simplification

By Emeka Esogbue

By 1830, European contact with Anioma land had begun in earnest when the Lander Brothers, during their Niger expedition, reached Aboh and were captured. This marked one of the earliest recorded encounters between Anioma and the Europeans. As British influence expanded through exploration, trade, and later military campaigns, the Anioma region including Asaba, Aboh, Ogwashi-Uku, and Igbuzo (Ibusa) gradually came under their attention.

The town of Igbuzo, located about six miles (some colonial documents say five) from Asaba, was a small, dusty settlement perched on a gentle elevation between Asaba and Ogwashi-Uku. By the late 19th century, British explorers, missionaries, and colonial officers, many of whom struggled with the nasal tones and consonant clusters of Igbo phonology, found “Igbuzo” difficult to pronounce.

To their ears, the sound “gbu” which has no direct English equivalent, seemed cumbersome. In spoken attempts, they substituted “gb” with the simpler “b” or “p” sound, a common phonetic adaptation by English speakers. Thus, Igbuzo gradually morphed into Ibuzo, and later into Ibusa, following the pattern of colonial phonetic simplification and orthographic Anglicization.

This was not an officially decreed change but one that evolved gradually through missionary correspondence, colonial reports, and cartographic entries after 1900. The people of Igbuzo did not formally resist this linguistic corruption, much like other Anioma communities whose names were similarly altered:

Ahaba to Asaba, Agbon to Agbor, Alaa to Illah, Isei to Issele, Okpam to Okpanam, and Ishiagu to Isheagu, among others.

The British preference for Anglicized spellings made administrative and record-keeping work easier. The name “Ibusa” first appeared in official documentation of the Royal Niger Company and the Colonial Political Department in 1898, the same year the community was subdued by the Company’s forces in a battle. The Asaba Division Map, produced by the Colonial Survey Office in Lagos, already listed the settlement as Ibusa, not Igbuzo.

By 1902, when a Native Court was established in the town, the name Ibusa appeared in government correspondence. The Annual Report of the Colonies: Southern Nigeria (1905) further recorded the town as Ibusa, and the spelling was finally gazetted in the Census Report of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, thereby fixing it for administrative, postal, and educational use.

In 1914, the British anthropologist Northcote W. Thomas, during his ethnographic survey of Southern Nigeria, wrote that “Ibuzo is said to have 40,000 inhabitants.” His use of “Ibuzo” suggests that the British spelling was still in transition during this period, oscillating between the indigenous form and the colonial variant.

In essence, the linguistic evolution can be summarized as follows:

Precolonial period: Igbuzo

Early contact period: Ibuzo

Colonial administration: Ibusa

The people of Igbuzo thus came to bear a dual identity known officially as Ibusa but identifying themselves indigenously as Ndi Igbuzo. This tension remains evident in their speech and cultural expressions. As it is, the name Ibusa exists primarily in written and administrative use, while Igbuzo thrives in oral tradition, music, and self-reference. Only strangers call the community Igbuzor.

Everywhere in the community’s idioms and expressions, the indigenous form endures:

Diokpa Igbuzo, Ikwele Igbuzo, Uwolo Igbuzo, Odinani Igbuzo, Aja Igbuzo, Nmor di Igbuzo, Nmili Igbuzo, Igbuzo Ukwu, Igbuzo anyi, Ikei di na Igbuzo, Igbuzo eju na ilo ju na unor, Igbuzo Okokoko, Igbuzo puta nu ilo, Achala-Igbuzo, Egwu Igbuzo, sua Igbuzo, and many more.

Today, every living generation of the community testifies that their parents and grandparents called the town Igbuzo. Even traditional musicians, poets, and griots continue to use Igbuzo in songs and performances because it remains authentically native to their tongue and consciousness. Increasingly, contemporary writers and researchers are returning to the indigenous spelling, acknowledging it as the true and original name of the people.

Although there have been calls among indigenes for the official restoration of the name Igbuzo, such a cultural and administrative reversal would require collective advocacy, legal petition, and community mobilization. For now, the name Ibusa stands as a colonial relic, an enduring reminder of how mispronunciation, orthographic adaptation, and administrative convenience reshaped the identity of an Anioma community.