Jabo (pronounced , variant spellings Dyabo, Djabo) is the self-designation of an ethnic group located in the southeastern part of the Republic of Liberia in West Africa. They have also sometimes referred to themselves as Gweabo or Nimiah tribe.
English speakers also use the name of the group for a single member of that group, or for their speech variety.
Tribe
Like many of their neighbors in the area, the Jabo have very pronounced ethnocentric attitudes, and are frequently referred to both by themselves and by others as a tribe, a term that in Liberia has a meaning imprecise at best. Confusion may arise due to the circumstance that in Liberia the English word "tribe" is also sometimes applied to the second-order administrative "districts," which are not necessarily congruent with "tribes" defined in local ethnotaxonomic terms. "Tribe" is also occasionally used for a third-order administrative "clan" when the latter comprises multiple ethnic clans, as well as for a variety of other more or less ad hoc groups.
The Jabo describe themselves as a "confederation of tribes.", or even "a nation".
Location
The area inhabited by the Jabo is now mostly in the Lower Kru Coast district of the new (1984) Grand Kru County, with a few outliers across the river in Maryland County.
Their area coincides more or less with the southern half of Lower Kru Coast District in Grand Kru County. This southern portion of the district is defined in terms of Liberian administrative units as the Garawe/Nemia "clan" (code 180810). Jabo territory extends along the coast of southeastern Liberia from Garraway in the northwest proceeding in a southeasterly direction to the Deeah River, and from there inland almost as far as Bewehn. The northern half of the district is inhabited by the Trembo ethnic group and which has its center at the district capital in Bewehn.
Population centers
Names of towns
At the level below the administrative clan, the Jabo are organized into administrative townships (each with a "town chief"), usually consisting of multiple clusters of villages or hamlets. Hasselbring & Johnson list seven Jabo town complexes: Garaway Beach (Polou) Genoyah Nemiah (includes: Glopluken, Jlatiken, Mensiengloh, Nyanoken, Penoken, Yaytueken) Nyambo Piaty Poloya (includes: Poloylowen, Pungbaloken, Tuwaken, Weteken) Weteken
Since the recent civil war in Liberia, many towns have been emptied, renamed, reclaimed, or swollen by displaced populations.
Garraway is now called Garraway Beach. Half Garraway is now called Yedweke. (Upper) Nimiah is now called Wilsonville.
Nimiah
The Jabo population center most reported in the literature is the town complex of Half Garraway (variants: Half Garroway, Half Gadowe, Half Grawe, New Garraway), known in Jabo as Nimiah,
which is situated between Garraway and the Seaside Grebo town of Fishtown (Waa).
Nimiah consists of two main centers: one village cluster on the coastal lagoon, and another, larger cluster located approximately 10 km inland. The town on the lagoon (Lower Nimiah, Nimiah Beach) consists of several centers, of which the principal one is now called Yedweke, at latitude 4°28'48" N (4.48), longitude 7°52'39" W (−7.8775), altitude 83 m (275 ft); population 1724.
Upper Nimiah (Nemiah, Nemia, Nimia) is located at Latitude 4°32'40" N (4.5444), Longitude 7°53'37 W (−7.8936), altitude 101 m (334 feet); population 3688. It is now called Wilsonville.
Language
The Jabo are known for their drum-signalling system, which mirrors to some degree the suprasegmental system of their highly tonal language. The collection of their proverbs and sayings assembled by Herzog and Blooah is often cited in the folkloristic literature. The Jabo language is complex and has been studied by well-known scientific linguists.
Etymology
The term Jabo in a narrow sense means "Ja people", the -bo being an animate plural suffix (compare with ba in ba-ntu). A single member of the group is a Jawe "Ja + person" and the language *Jame "Ja + tongue"(Glebo form . The significative element Ja is explained as being the proper name of the eponymous ancestor of the group.
Compare: "Glebo man of Fishtown (Waa) clan" "Glebo people of Fishtown (Waa) clan"
Gweabo
The Jabo are also referred to in the literature as the Gweabo. The Jabo form of the name is . This name is also used for them by at least some Glebo speakers as .