Let's Talk African History: Nigeria

[Warthog]

This thread is for discussing the historic civilisations, monarchies, polities etc of Nigeria and it's accomplishments, cities, peoples etc. Apparently Nigeria (the area) has always had a high population. I believe it's to do with two things:
1. The two major rivers that flow within it - The Niger and Benue.
2. Nigerians are fertile as fukk. LOL
The area now known as Nigeria is home to many ethnic groups, each with it's own culture and history (yet despite all that Nigerians are very similar to each other genetically). I personally
As some of you know (or don't know) this place has had many civs, polities etc like The Nok culture, Oyo Kingdom/Empire, Arochukwu, The Benin Kingdom/Empire, Nri Kingdom and many more.

Time to kick things off with:
The Oyo Kingdom/Empire

The Oyo Empire was a Yoruba empire of what is today Western and North central Nigeria. Established in the 15th century, the Oyo Empire grew to become one of the largest West African states. It rose through the outstanding organizational and administrative skills of the Yoruba people, wealth gained from trade and its powerful cavalry. The Oyo Empire was the most politically important state in the region from the mid-17th to the late 18th century, holding sway not only over most of the other kingdoms in Yoruba land, but also over nearby African states, notably the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey in the modern Republic of Benin to the west.

It's cavalry were a force to be reckoned with. They even had their own version of knight(hood) called the Eso or Esho.
A semi standing military force of heavy cavalry composed of the best warriors. They were able to keep horses because they had a lot of territory in the Savannah where there's a lot less of the tsetse fly that brings sickness to domesticated animals like horses, cattle etc.

Well I'm done for now. Feel free to post any info about Nigeria's history.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

fukk it... I'm not making the thread no more. I'll instead post the info in this thread.

Recent excavations have unearthed a spectacularly rich material culture dating from the ninth century A.D... The Igbo-Ukwu finds showed evidence of metal working, weaving, and pottery making of unusual skill. The metal work included 110 major and 575 minor copper and bronze objects of very high quality and a very distinctive design... Textiles of two types were found at Igbo-Ukwu: one of grass or leaf fibres in a previously unknown weave pattern, the other a kind of cloth remarkably similar to cotton. Both were of a high quality... In addition over 20,000 pieces of pottery were recovered... [Alo recovered were] 165,000 beads of Indian manufacture with some perhaps from Venice.

David Northrup, The Growth of Trade among the Igbo before 1800, in Journal of African History, Volume XIII: No.2 , ed J. D. Fage et al, UK, Cambridge University Press, 1972, pp.217-9

"Also found in this tomb were three tusks of ivory, iron goods, pottery. The important personage i now thought to have been priest king or Eze-Nri. Many scholars believe that the copper and bronze artifacts were made exclusively for the household of this titleholder. The Igbo-Ukwu region, however, is lacking in copper. Various scholars have this theorised that trans-saharan trade caravans brought copper in from the north. It is thought that the Igbos sold ivory, pepper, kola nuts and spices north to the Saharan states. Horses could have been used to conduct this trade. Interestingly, well-preserved fabrics were found with the objects and this indicates the existence of an Igbo textile industry. It is, however, possible that the source of the copper was the Kongo region, as Professor Eyo explains: "Perhaps the forest zone between Nigeria and the Congo, where copper is found in the Katanga District, was no barrier to the importation of copper into Nigeria."

Walker, Robin. When We Ruled: The Ancient and Mediaeval History of Black Civilisations. Baltimore, MD. Black Classic Press. 2011. pp.321-322. Print.



@The Odum of Ala Igbo @Nemesis @The Wave @shadowking @Hiphoplives4eva @Don Drogo @NigerianDonDada @Nigerianwonder @T'challa

And please no Igbo vs Yoruba wars in this thread. Lets celebrate the rich history.

 

[Gold]

And please no Igbo vs Yoruba wars in this thread. Lets celebrate the rich history.

How about Igbo vs Hausa?

 

[Warthog]

fukk it... I'm not making the thread no more. I'll instead post the info in this thread.

Sorry Bruh!

David Northrup, The Growth of Trade among the Igbo before 1800, in Journal of African History, Volume XIII: No.2 , ed J. D. Fage et al, UK, Cambridge University Press, 1972, pp.217-9


Walker, Robin. When We Ruled: The Ancient and Mediaeval History of Black Civilisations. Baltimore, MD. Black Classic Press. 2011. pp.321-322. Print.



@The Odum of Ala Igbo @Nemesis @The Wave @shadowking @Hiphoplives4eva @Don Drogo @NigerianDonDada @Nigerianwonder @T'challa

And please no Igbo vs Yoruba wars in this thread. Lets celebrate the rich history.

Good info.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

What i love about early Yoruba civilization is that not only does it have this mystic feel to it, but it reminds me of "Atlantis" for some strange reason. The Yorubas were literally the "Greeks" of Africa imo. Anyhow let me drop some interesting info.

The Yoruba Kingdom of Ife was located in southern Nigeria with Ile-Ife as its capital. Founded by the sixth century AD, by the twelfth century, the ruler lived in a palace made of enamelled brick and decorated with porcelain tiles. Ife's buildings were examples of impluvium architecture showing some similarities to the ancient city of Pompeii. Impluvium structures have four houses or sets of rooms at right angles to each other grouped around a single shared courtyard. The city had paved courtyards and public places decorated with American corncobs.

Walker, Robin. Blacks and Science Volume Two: West and East African Contributions to Science and Technology AND Intellectual Life and Legacy of Timbuktu. London: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013. Print.


The next info believe shows why Southern Nigerians are so damn smart...

Just imagine having to calculate (200 x 3) - (20 x 4) + 5 before being able to say 'five hundred and twenty five.' According to mathematician, Professor Claudia Zaslavsky, an American specialist on African mathematics, you 'must be a mathematician' to use the Yoruba number system. For this reason, learning Yoruba numerals have a pedagogical value in Nigeria and among some of the African-Americans. Educators see the value in teaching this system to pupils since it gets them to use arithmetic in just being able to express the numbers. This system has been in use for hundreds of years and may well date back to the glory days of the Kingdom of Ife.


The Yorubas evolved a complicated numerical system that often involves subtraction and multiplication to express a single number. The Yoruba phase for three hundred and fifteen is orin(which means 20 x 4) din nirinwo(from 400) odin marun(less 5), which, in mathematics symbols , becomes 400 - (20 x 4) - 5 = 315. The English equivalent 'three hundred and fifteen' is simply (3 x 100) + 15 = 315, making use of multiplication and addition, but no use of subtraction. Many centuries ago, however, when Roman numerals were used across Europe, subtraction was also used. The Roman IV, for example, is 5 - 1, and IX is 10 - 1.

Walker, Robin. Blacks and Science Volume Two: West and East African Contributions to Science and Technology AND Intellectual Life and Legacy of Timbuktu. London: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013. Print.

Modern ethnologists [says Wendt] have found the art of the Yorubas so astonishingly high in quality that they did not [at first] ascribe it to a Negro race.. It was Leo Frobenius who first ranked the culture of the Yorubas with that of the Mediterranean... The Yoruba empire consisted of city states similar to those of ancient Greece.... ome of these states had a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. Art objects of the highest quality were found in their ruins - glazed urns, tiles with pictures of animals and gods on them, bronze implements, gigantic granite figures. The Yorubas introduced the cultivation of yams, the preparation of cheese and the breeding of horses into West Africa. They had outstanding artists in metal, gold-casters, cotton-weavers, wood-carvers and potters. Their professions formed themselves into guilds with their own laws, their children were brought up in educational camps, their public affairs were directed by a courtly aristocracy and an exuberantly expanding bureaucracy.

Herbert Webdt, It Began in Babel, UK, Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1963, pp.213-4.

@Nemesis I'm even tagging your ass too @Bonk so enjoy.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

How about Igbo vs Hausa?

No...

 

[Warthog]

What i love about early Yoruba civilization is that not only does it have this mystic feel to it, but it reminds me of "Atlantis" for some strange reason. The Yorubas were literally the "Greeks" of Africa imo. Anyhow let me drop some interesting info.

Ironically the idiot Brits that surveyed say the Benin Bronze heads thought that 'Atlanteans' must have made them as well. LOL

 

[Bawon Samedi]

The calm repose and realism of the [Yorubas] sculptures were reminiscent of Classical Greece. The pantheon of Yoruba gods, their attributes, their vivid lives and complex responsibilities echoed Mount Olympus. The architecture of the houses and palaces, where rooms opened off enclosed courtyards, open to the sky, resembled the impluvia of early Mediterranean, particularly Etruscan [i.e Roman], buildings.

Peter Garlake, The Kingdoms of Africa, p.39.

Among its first residents were farmers who cultivated yams and oil palms. "It is [also] clear", wrote Africanists Oliver and Fagan, "that from the earliest times the town had an important iron industry, and also that it engaged in the manufacture of glass." According to William Fagg, an important authority, excavations of the Olukun grove site revealed coloured beads and also "glass in beautiful shades of deep red and blue, turquoise and several shades of green." Professor Willett adds that: "Here evidently had been the centre of the great glass making industry which had spread blue glass segi beads across West Africa."

Walker, Robin. When We Ruled: The Ancient and Mediaeval History of Black Civilisations. Baltimore, MD. Black Classic Press. 2011. pp.321-322. Print.


^^^Glass making in Southern Nigeria...

Pavements... Are widespread in Africa. Potsherd pavements are the most common types of pavements known in West Africa... The most consistent reports about excavated pavements in West Africa have so far come from Ife, specifically the sites at: Oduduwa College, Lafogido, Ita Yemoo, Obalara's Land and Woye Asiri Land.

Nwanna Nzawunwa, Prehistoric Pavements in West Africa, in West African Journal of Archaeology: Volume 19, ed Bassey W. Andah and Ikechukwu Okpoko, Nigeria, Association Quest Africaine d' Archaeologie, 1989, p.93-100.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Ironically the idiot Brits that surveyed say the Benin Bronze heads thought that 'Atlanteans' must have made them as well. LOL

They also tried to say the Edo wall was by someone else besides the locals.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

For those looking for a pre-Columbus Africa and Americas connection. Some have hinted this for the Yoruba.

The kind of evidence field archaeologist like is the pavement of Ile Ife, a former Yoruba capital. This is made from broken potsherds that were decorated by rolling corncobs over their surface before firing. Paul Mangelsdorf, who had seen some of the sherds assured me(about 1954) that they were indeed Zea mays [i.e an American plant]. Another interpretation of Yoruba tradition is that the capital was moved from Ile Ife to Old Oyo about A.D. 1100 or earlier (M.D. W. Jeffreys, 1953). If so, this site provides the hard evidence that archaeologists want for American plants in Africa in pre-Columbian times[i.e before Columbus].

David Kelley quoted in Ivan Van Sertima, Early America Revisited. US, Transaction Publishers, 1998, p.7.

@EastCoastNaga

 

[Warthog]

For those looking for a pre-Columbus Africa and Americas connection. Some have hinted this for the Yoruba.

The kind of evidence field archaeologist like is the pavement of Ile Ife, a former Yoruba capital. This is made from broken potsherds that were decorated by rolling corncobs over their surface before firing. Paul Mangelsdorf, who had seen some of the sherds assured me(about 1954) that they were indeed Zea mays [i.e an American plant]. Another interpretation of Yoruba tradition is that the capital was moved from Ile Ife to Old Oyo about A.D. 1100 or earlier (M.D. W. Jeffreys, 1953). If so, this site provides the hard evidence that archaeologists want for American plants in Africa in pre-Columbian times[i.e before Columbus].

David Kelley quoted in Ivan Van Sertima, Early America Revisited. US, Transaction Publishers, 1998, p.7.

@EastCoastNaga

Interesting! Let's wait and see if more evidence comes up!

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Interesting! Let's wait and see if more evidence comes up!

We'll have to see.

 

[SouthSac916]

The Yoruba religion of Ile Ifa survived the middle passage and manifested into Santeria in Cuba and Candomble in Brazil. Vodu originated in Benin (not Nigeria, but hey let’s be honest, those are artificial boundaries anyway) and found it’s way to Haiti. These orginal Nigerian/Western African languages were disguised into Catholicism by slave so they continue to maintain there heritages. The end.

 

[Warthog]

The Nupe Kingdom/Bida Emirate
A little known kingdom that managed to beat, ransack and conquer the Oyo Kingdom/Empire.
They were know for their powerful cavalry.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

A description of the Benin Kingdom...

Great Benin(1460-1650) was located in southern Nigeria. The city houses were built inn order, close to each other and lined the streets. As in Ife, the buildings were based on the impluvium idea, again showing some similarities to the ancient city of Pompeii. Each house had many rooms with verandas, and often of two stories, some approached by steps. The walls were made of red clay. The roofs were made of banana leaves or palm. Moreover, all houses had wells supplying fresh water. The Kings Court was a city by itself and was comparable inn size to whole European towns of that period. It could comfortably accommodate 15,000 people and had fluted walls and columns, some decorated with the famous Benin Bronze art. The city had perhaps 10,000 miles of walling and is reckoned by the Guinness Book of Records to have been the largest earthworks built by man in pre mechanical times. Benin City had a circumference of over 20 miles. It had 30 main roads, all 120 feet wide and very straight, laid out on a horizontal/vertical grid pattern. There were a large number of intersecting side streets.

Walker, Robin. Blacks and Science Volume Two: West and East African Contributions to Science and Technology AND Intellectual Life and Legacy of Timbuktu. London: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013. Print.