Nigerian Igbos form UK running club to strengthen ties

for Francesca Ngozi Ezennolim, 21, said it was not romance but the promise of community that brought her from Reading, about 64 km (40 miles) from London, on Saturday morning.

“I don’t have many Igbo friends,” he said, adding: “I have many Nigerian friends – but Igbo friends are hard to find.”

Dressed in black tracksuit bottoms, she told the BBC she hoped the running club would fill that gap in her life.

And he is not alone.

23-year-old Jennifer Iwuamadi, who came to the club for the first time, expressed the same opinion.

“It is very important to come to an Igbo club because we are interacting with our brothers and sisters. It’s a great way to adapt and network,” she said.

Although the Igbos are one of Nigeria’s largest ethnic groups and are well-known in the diaspora, many believe their culture is under threat. In 2006, the United Nations Cultural Organization (Unesco) predicted that the Igbo language would disappear by 2025.

However, their number in the UK has risen in the past decade – from around 8,000 to 11,000, according to the Office for National Statistics.

In contrast, the number of speakers of Yoruba, the other major language in southern Nigeria, fell from 15,000 to 10,000 over the same period.

Despite this, some Igbo youths told the BBC they had difficulty making friends outside their parents’ community.

“I have many Yoruba friends, but I want to meet people from my own tribe,” Ms Ezennolim told the BBC.

“When people think of Nigerians, they don’t really think of the Igbo. Nigeria is not just one piece but several pieces,” Mr. Odoemene said.

But isn’t it divisive to have a running club that focuses on Igbo culture?

The founders shake their heads violently.

“You don’t have to be Igbo to come to the team club,” Mr Atumonyogo said.

He adds that people from Iran, Italy and the Caribbean have come to their sessions and they encourage others to join in, learn about Igbo culture, ask questions and immerse themselves in the lively atmosphere.

However, beneath the joy and camaraderie lies a darker side to the Igbo story.

Many people in Nigeria still associate the Igbos with the 1967-70 Biafran War, which killed an estimated one million people after Igbo leaders in the southeast led a campaign to secede from the rest of the country.

Decades later, the scars of war still shape to some extent how the Igbo people are viewed both at home and abroad.

The late Chinua Achebe, one of the most famous Nigerian authors who is an Igbo, said in his book The Problem with Nigeria: “Nigerians will probably find consensus on no other issue than their general dissatisfaction with the Igbo.”