This is about benin the kingdom in nigeria not benin the country formally known as dahomey.
See why African Americans do not want stolen African treasures to be returned back to Africa
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Benin the kingdom nikka
Gtfoh
No fukking shytBenin the kingdom nikka
No fukking shyt
Statement on involvement of Benin Empire in the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Sir Ralph Moor, K.C.M.G., Her Majesty's Commissioner and Consul General for the Niger Coast Protectorate and Mr. Roupell collected the information below and forwarding this to the Foreign Office in...
beninexpedition120yearson.weebly.com
Fbados it’s tainted babble
Oh, well I did not know there were two. That being the case, I looked up the Nigerian one and found that they participated in the Slave Trade heavily too..
"The success of Benin was fueled by its lively trade. Tradesmen and artisans from Benin developed relationships with the Portuguese, who sought after the kingdom’s artwork, gold, ivory, and pepper. In the early modern era, Benin was also heavily involved in the West African slave trade. They would capture men, women, and children from rival peoples and sell them into slavery to European and American buyers. This trade provided a significant source of wealth for the kingdom."
The Kingdom of Benin
The Kingdom of Benin prospered from the 1200s to the 1800s C.E. in western Africa, in what is now Nigeria.education.nationalgeographic.org
Actual reliable sources say otherwise. Alot of misinformation has been spread about the involvement of benin in the trade since before the colonial era. Read the link i posted above.
What reliable source, because right now the only source you are supplying is you. So far between us, I am the only one who supplied an actual source. So how about you try to counter my source with a verifiable source of your own.
They did via the Jekri (Itshekiri) on the coast. The only reason why their participation wasn’t that elaborate was cos the Benin empire was landlocked. The Jekri acted as the middlemen between Benin & Europeans.
However, a lot of them weren’t taken as slaves cos they had a powerful kingdom that was surrounded by a moat & slave raiders couldn’t raid their kingdoms like other places. And the ones sold into slavery amongst them were people who ventured outside the kingdom or were war captives.
Initially, when slavery started - Yorubas in present day Nigeria weren’t that many amongst the slaves taken to the new world due to how powerful Oyo empire was. The bulk of the Yorubas sold into slavery were from the Yoruba kingdoms in Benin & Togo taken by slave raiders from Akan (Ashantis in Ghana) & Dahomey. But when Oyo empire collapsed & Yorubas became engulfed in brutal civil wars - most of the slaves sold in west Africa became Yorubas.
In essence, it means: strong kingdom/empire with good military = less slaves captured. Weak & dispersed settlements = over-representation in slaves taken.
Dahomey is Fon & it’s in present-day Benin (country). Benin is in Nigeria & they had one of the biggest & most fortified empires/kingdoms in west Africa with one of the most beautiful bronze castings humanity has ever seen. They’re known for their bronze heads, ivory & other artworks. Apart from maybe Egypt - Benin & Ife (a Yoruba kingdom) have the best bronze castings in Africa & they can go toe-to-toe with any other civilisations that existed in the world.
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Check the link above
Benin empire was just as involved as everyone else. Initially, Itshekiris were the middlemen between them & Europeans. Then later, they found a post on the coast in present day Lagos where they traded with Europeans directly as well. The Portuguese also had a post on the coast in Lagos gifted to them by one of the coastal Yoruba groups.
You need to read journals by European explorers of that era like Dapper et al. A lot of the European explorers also visited Benin empire & the king’s palace & that’s to show the level of interaction.
Anyway, I think we need to look beyond the participation of African groups cos chattel slavery was normal at that point in history & focus on the bogus numbers & revisionism by European historians.
Europeans went to west Africa cos they read about Mansa Musa, his gold & enormous wealth written by Arab scholars & also to know where the Moors were originally from. Europeans at that point in history had an insatiable hunger for gold & it was also the reason they went to the Americas. Christopher Columbus was also part of the first voyage to west Africa as well.
And once they got to west Africa & couldn’t find as much gold as they wanted - they started taking slaves. They only bought the ones they couldn’t take.
This link explains the depth of Benin's involvement in the slave trade and also explains some of the confusion that causes people to interpret it as some major player in the trade.
She's going harder on Kingdom of Benin than on the British Empire which sailed to West Africa and enslaved/tortured her ancestors for hundreds of years.
Interesting.
Interesting.
That’s revisionism.
Granted Benin didn’t sell its own people (other kingdoms & empires also didn’t sell their own people apart from Igbos who were sold by their fellow Aros & Dahomey until Gezo outlawed it) - it doesn’t negate the fact that it sold other people.
Benin was a powerful empire that was also very wealthy. Where do you think it got the bulk of its enormous wealth from? Palm Oil trading which became the source of wealth for West African kingdoms towards the end of the 19th century wasn’t even a thing then. You can argue that the numbers being thrown out there by Europeans is bogus since they did more capturing with superior weapons than buying. But saying Benin didn’t sell slaves is a lie.
Perhaps when I have time I’ll post journals from the explorers that were present at the time.