Atlantic slave trade (17th century – 1808)

The first people of ancestry from what is now modern Nigeria to arrive in what is now the modern United States were brought by force as slaves.^[10] These enslaved people were not called Nigerians but were known by their ethnic nations due to Nigeria not being a country until the early 1900s, after the slave trade was over. Calabar and Badagry (Gberefu Island), Nigeria, became major points of export of enslaved people from Africa to the Americas during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most slave ships frequenting this port were English.^[11] Most of the slaves of Bight of Biafra – many of whom hailed from the Igbo hinterland – were trafficked to Virginia. After 400 years in the United States and the lack of documentation because of enslavement, African Americans have often been unable to track their ancestors to specific ethnic groups or regions of Africa. Like Americans of other origins, at this point most African Americans have ancestors of a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Most of the people who were stolen from Nigeria were likely to have been Igbo or Yoruba.^[12] Other ethnic groups such as the Fula and Edo peoples were also captured and transported to the colonies in the New World. The Igbo were exported mainly to Maryland^[13] and Virginia.^[14] They comprised the majority of all enslaved Africans in Virginia during the 18th century: of the 37,000 Africans trafficked to Virginia from Calabar during the eighteenth century, 30,000 were Igbo.^[15] In the next century, people of Igbo descent were taken with settlers who moved to Kentucky. According to some historians, the Igbo also comprised most of the slaves in Maryland.^[14] This group was characterized by high rates of rebellion and suicide, as the people resisted and fought back against enslavement. Many Nigerians of Igbo origin were also brought into the U.S. in the late 1960s as war refugees during Nigerian Civil War.

Some Nigerian ethnic groups, such as the Yoruba, and some northern Nigerian ethnic groups, had traditional, cultural identification marks, such as tattoo and scarification designs. These could have assisted a kidnapped and enslaved person who escaped in locating other members of their ethnic group, but few enslaved people managed to escape the colonies. In the colonies, slavers tried to dissuade the practice of traditional tribal customs. They also mixed people of different ethnic groups to make it more difficult for them to communicate and band together in rebellion.^[16]

U.S. President Thomas Jefferson officially outlawed the Atlantic slave trade in 1808, although some enslaved Africans continued to be illegally smuggled into the country and the institution of slavery persisted until the American Civil War.

Modern migration (1960s – present)

In modern times, most Americans of unambiguous Nigerian ancestry are voluntary immigrants and their descendants.^[17] Various leaders of the Nigerian independence movement such as Eyo Ita, Mbonu Ojike, and Nnamdi Azikiwe were educated in the United States during the 1930s-1940s. When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, U.S. restrictions on immigration from regions outside of Northwestern Europe were eliminated, allowing for a greater number of Nigerians in the United States.

The modern generation of Nigerian migrants was initially motivated by the desire to pursue educational opportunities in undergraduate and postgraduate institutions in the United States. During the 1960s and the 1970s aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War, the Nigerian government funded the education of Nigerian students attending U.S. universities. While this was occurring, there were several military coups, interspersed with brief periods of civilian rule. The instability resulted in many Nigerian professionals emigrating, especially doctors, lawyers and academics, who found it difficult to return to Nigeria.^[18]

During the 1980s, a larger wave of Nigerians immigrated to the United States.^[19] This migration was driven by political and economic problems exacerbated by the military regimes of self-styled generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha. Other émigrés comprised a large number of refugees, fleeing on account of religious persecutions, endless political unrests and ethnic/tribal conflicts, the presumption of Nigeria as a failing state, or just to enhance the quality of lives for themselves and their families (Ogbuagu, 2013). The most noticeable exodus occurred among professional and middle class Nigerians who, along with their children, took advantage of education and employment opportunities in the United States.

This exodus contributed to a "brain-drain" of Nigeria's intellectual resources to the detriment of its future. Since the advent of multi-party democracy in March 1999, the former Nigerian head-of-state Olusegun Obasanjo has made numerous appeals, especially to young Nigerian professionals in the United States, to return to Nigeria to help in its rebuilding effort. Obasanjo's efforts have met with mixed results, as some potential migrants consider Nigeria's socio-economic situation still unstable (Ogbuagu, 2013b).

Since 1980, the estimated population of foreign-born Nigerians has grown from 25,000 to 392,811 in 2019.^[4][5]

Education

Oyekunle Olukotun, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University, known as the "father of the multi-core processor"^[20][21]

According to Rice University research, Nigerian Americans are the most educated group in the United States.^[22][23]

According to the 2008-2012 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, 61.4% of Nigerian Americans aged 25 years or older hold a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 28.5% of the total U.S. population.^[24] The Migration Policy Institute reports that 29% of Nigerian Americans have a master's degree, PhD, or an advanced professional degree (compared to 11% of the U.S population overall).^[4] Nigerian Americans are also known for their contributions to medicine, science, technology, arts, and literature.^[25]

Nigerian culture has long emphasized education, placing value on pursuing academic excellence as a means to financial security.^[26] Examples of Nigerian Americans in education include Akintunde Akinwande, Oyekunle Olukotun, Jacob Olupona and Dehlia Umunna, professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Harvard University respectively. Recent famous examples include ImeIme Umana, the first black woman to be elected president of the Harvard Law Review,^[27] Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the first woman to become the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO),^[28] and Tanitoluwa Adewumi, a homeless child refugee who went on to become a chess prodigy.^{[29][30][31][32][33]} Examples of Nigerian Americans in popular media include Dr. Bennet Omalu, portrayed in the 2015 film Concussion,^[34] and Emmanuel Acho, host of the weekly activist webcast Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.^[35]

A large percentage of black students at highly selective top universities are immigrants or children of immigrants. Harvard University, for example, has estimated that more than one-third of its black student body consists of recent immigrants or their children, or were of mixed-race parentage.^[36] Other top universities, including Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Rice, Duke and Berkeley, report a similar pattern.^[37] As a result, there is a question as to whether affirmative action programs adequately reach their original targets: African Americans who are descendants of American slaves and their discriminatory history in the US.^[36]

According to the 2021 Open Doors report, the top five U.S. institutions with the largest student population of Nigerian descent (in no particular order) are Texas Southern University, University of Houston, University of Texas at Arlington, University of North Texas, and Houston Community College.^[38][39] According to Institute of International Education's 2017 Open Doors report, 11,710 international students from Nigeria studied in the U.S. during the 2016–17 academic year, the 12th highest country of origin and highest of any African country.^[40]

Income

In 2018, Nigerian Americans had a median household income of $68,658 - higher than $61,937 for all overall U.S. households. ^[41] In 2012, Nigerian Americans had a poverty rate of 12.8%, lower than the U.S. national average of 14.9% and lower than the total African American poverty rate of 27.2%.^[42][43]

Relations with other black Americans

In 2017, sociologist Onoso Imoagene argued that second generation Nigerian Americans are forming a distinct "diasporic Nigerian ethnicity" rather than assimilating into the mainstream African American culture, in contrast to what should have been predicted by segmented assimilation theory.^[44] Limited sociological research suggests that Nigerian Americans may have a more positive opinion of the American police compared to the broader black community.^[45] The Marshall Project and Prison Legal News have reported that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice heavily recruits Nigerians to serve as guards in Texas prisons, where a significant proportion of the prisoners are black.^[46][47]

US states with the largest Nigerian populations

The 2016 American Community Survey estimates that 380,785 U.S. residents report Nigerian ancestry.^[5]

The 2012-2016 ACS^[6] estimates that 277,027 American residents were born in Nigeria. It also estimates that these states have the highest Nigerian-born population:

1. Texas 60,173
2. Maryland 31,263
3. New York 29,619
4. California 23,302
5. Georgia 19,182
6. Illinois 15,389
7. New Jersey 14,780
8. Florida 8,274
9. Massachusetts 6,661
10. Pennsylvania 6,371
11. North Carolina 3,561

Igbo American

Igbo Americans are people in the United States that maintain an identity of a varying level of Igbo ethnic group that now call the United States their chief place of residence (and may also have US citizenship). Many moved to the US following the effects of the Biafran War (1967–1970).

Yoruba American

Yoruba Americans are Americans of Yoruba descent. The Yoruba people (Yoruba: Àwọn ọmọ Yorùbá) are an ethnic group originating in southwestern Nigeria and southern Benin in West Africa. The first Yoruba people who arrived to the United States were imported as slaves from Nigeria and Benin during the Atlantic slave trade. This ethnicity of the slaves was one of the main origins of present-day Nigerians who arrived to the United States, along with the Igbos. In addition, native slaves of current Benin hailed from peoples such as Nago (Yoruba subgroup, although exported mainly by Spanish, when Louisiana was Spanish), Ewe, Fon and Gen. Many slaves imported to the modern United States from Benin were sold by the King of Dahomey, in Whydah.

The native tongue of the Yoruba people is spoken principally in Nigeria and Benin, with communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas. A variety of the language, Lucumi, is the liturgical language of the Santería religion of the Caribbean.^[56]

Fulani and Hausa American

Fulani and Hausa Americans are people in the United States that maintain a cultural identity of various levels from the Fulani and Hausa ethnic groups and now call the United States home. Most speak Hausa, Fulfulde as well as English fluently and Arabic on various levels. The first wave of Fulani immigrants arrived as a result of the Atlantic Slave trade. Recent Fulani and Hausa arrivals immigrated to the United States during the 1990s. They now make up a large percentage of the Muslim communities across America.