I was tired of hearing costantly about how africans are supposedly "too dumb to create anything" so i made this thread to share just some historical facts.
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I was tired of hearing costantly about how africans are supposedly "too dumb to create anything" so i made this thread to share just some historical facts.
kangz n sheeit?
a very very nice thread
ill help out
i heard of a dug up ancient city in Nigeria but no one has seemed to really published it out there
it's forest overgrown, so that means that the city has had the forest over grown over it so it could not be seen
Quoted:
On 23 May 1999, the Sunday Times carried an astonishing article entitled Jungle reveals traces of Sheba's fabled kingdom. Over the next few days many other papers followed suit. Even the Daily Mail one day later asked "Was the Queen of Sheba really a Black woman from Nigeria?" As the evidence emerged, however, the queen of Sheba link proved to be hype. The real Sheba was an Ethiopian queen who lived three thousand years ago. What was undeniable, however, was that the southern Nigerian rainforests had an even more amazing secret to tell. The secret was this. During the Middle Ages, Africans built by far the largest city the world had ever seen. In size, this city dwarfed Baghdad, Cairo, Cordoba and Rome. The achievement was on a scale even bigger that that of the Great Pyramid of Giza, Africa's most celebrated monument.
At one time, scholars used to divide the three thousand-year history of southern Nigeria into four great cultural periods. They used to speak of the Nok Culture, the Igbo-Ukwu Culture, the Yoruba Kingdoms and the Benin Empire. This view was boldly challenged by the findings of a team of Bournemouth University scholars led by archaeologist Dr Patrick Darling. Since 1994, the team discovered and mapped the remains of yet another Nigerian kingdom, this time covered by centuries of forest overgrowth. Barnaby Phillips of the BBC described the discoveries as possibly "Africa's largest single monument." As we shall see, this is typical British understatement.
At Eredo, in south western Nigeria, Darling's team found a huge earthen wall with moated sections. This encircled an ancient kingdom or city. From the ditch to the summit of the rampart measured a towering 70 feet. According to Mark Macaskill of the Sunday Times, the rampart was "100 mile[s]" long and formed a rough circle, enclosing "more than 400 square miles." The building was on a truly epic scale. The builders shifted 3.5 million cubic metres of earth to build just the rampart alone. According to the BBC this is, incidentally, "one million cubic metres more than the amount of rock and earth used in the Great Pyramid at Giza." Therefore Eredo's construction is estimated to have "involved about one million more man-hours that were necessary to build the Great Pyramid." The ramparts may indicate the boundary of the original Ijebu kingdom that was ruled by a spiritual leader called the "Awujale". Macaskill, however, disagrees. He describes Eredo as a "city". If he is correct, this would make Eredo one of the very largest cities in all of human history. It was larger than modern London, and was definitely the largest city built in the ancient and mediaeval world.
Among the discoveries, a three-story ruin has been tentatively identified as the royal palace. It had living quarters, shrines and courtyards. It is possible that thousands of smaller buildings are still concealed by the forests. These will be mapped in time. Radiocarbon dating has so far established that the buildings and walls were more than 1,000 years old. Dates such as 800 AD have been given as a good ball-park figure.
People who live near the ruined kingdom or city today have traditions that a wealthy and childless queen, Bilikisu Sungbo, built the city. Some say that she built the city as a religious offering. It is also claimed that Sungbo's territory had a gold and ivory trade. Moreover, her royal household are said to have kept eunuchs. Portuguese documents dating back 500 years, allude to the power of an Ijebu kingdom that some scholars think is possibly this very one. Today, the ruins continue to be of great importance. There are yearly pilgrimages to Sungbo's grave.
Despite this great African achievement it is, however, disconcerting to note that racist theories are already being formulated about this kingdom. For example, Barnaby Phillips wrote that the building of Eredo was: "carried out by people who could not read or write, and with only the most basic of tools. Thousands of labourers - probably slaves - must have toiled in the thick rain forests and dark labyrinth swamps for years."
Naturally, he offers no evidence for the assertions of slavery and illiteracy. On the other hand, the evidence of iron smelting and the other highly advanced metallurgical activities for which the Nigerian civilisations were world leaders seems to disprove the notion that the builders had only basic tools at their disposal.
On a happy note, Dr Darling, the leader of the archaeological team, suggested that Eredo may well gain World Heritage Status. This will put the Eredo kingdom or city on an equal footing with other African marvels such as the Pyramids of Giza and the city of Djenné. It also places this great achievement on a footing with other great marvels from around the world such as Stonehenge.
http://www.blackhistorystudies.com/s...e-about-eredo/
The Kingdom of Aksum
http://img.tebyan.net/library/english/8616_Aksum0.png
By 350, Aksum conquered the Kingdom of Kush. At its height, Aksum controlled northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, northern Sudan, southern Egypt, Djibouti, Western Yemen, and southern Saudi Arabia, totalling 1.25 million square kilometers.
The Aksum or Aksum empire was the 3rd largest African empire at 1.25 million sq km. In the sixth century, the kingdom of Aksum (Axum ) was doing what many elsewhere had been doing: pursuing trade and empire. Despite the disintegration of the Roman Empire in the 400s and the decline in world trade, Aksum's trade increased during that century. Its exports of ivory, glass crystal, brass and copper items, and perhaps slaves, among other things, had brought prosperity to the kingdom. Some people had become wealthy and cosmopolitan. Aksum's port city on the Red Sea, Adulis , bustled with activity. Its agriculture and cattle breeding flourished, and Aksum extended its rule to Nubia , across the Red Sea to Yemen , and it had extended its rule to the northern Ethiopian Highlands and along the coast to Cape Guardafui .
From Aksum's beginnings in the third century, Christianity there had spread. But at the peak of Christianity's success, Aksum began its decline. In the late 600s, Aksum's trade was diminished by the clash between Constantinople and the Sassanid Empire. The Sassanid Empire clashed with Constantinople over trade on the Red Sea and expanded into Yemen, driving Aksum out of Arabia. Then Islam united Arabia and began expanding. In the 700s, Muslims occupied the Dahlak Islands just off the coast of Adulis, which had been ruled by Aksum. The Muslims moved into the port city of Adulis, and Aksum's trade by sea ended.
Aksum was now cut off from much of the world. Greek- the language of trade - declined there. Minted coins became rare. And it has been surmised that the productivity of soil in the area was being diminished by over-exploitation and the cutting down of trees. Taking advantage of Aksum's weakness, the Bedja people, who had been living just north of Aksum, moved in. The people of Aksum, in turn, migrated into the Ethiopian Highlands, where they overran small farmers and settled at Amhara , among other nearby places. And with this migration a new Ethiopian civilization began.
http://www.ducksters.com/history/afr...um_obelisk.jpg
Architecture and Towers Unlike their northern neighbors of Egypt, Aksum did not build pyramids. Instead, Aksum is famous for building tall towers called stelae. The tallest of these towers was nearly 100 feet high. The towers were elaborately carved with inscriptions, stone doors, and fake windows. The most famous of these towers is the Obelisk of Axum which was taken by Italian soldiers upon conquering Ethiopia in 1937. The tower was later returned in pieces and reconstructed in 2008.
https://hiddenincatours.com/wp-conte...um_obelisk.jpg
The city of Axum still exists in northern Ethiopia. It is a fairly small city with a population of just over 50,000 people. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Africa. The stone buildings in Aksum were built without the use of mortar. Instead, the stones were carved to fit snugly together. The city of Adulis was destroyed by Islamic invaders in 710. This isolated Aksum and began its decline. With merchants from all around the world coming to Aksum to trade, Greek was generally used as the common language.
sources : http://www.ducksters.com/history/afr...aksum_axum.php
http://www.africankingdoms.com/
I expect evidence. Be advised that words on a screen is not evidence.
there's a lot in africa
we just weren't taught that in school
i don't even think they teach that astuff in africa niether, their own history is forgotten
I remember going to the MEC in NYC, tons of history from all around the world from Egypt (north Africa) to Asia, Europe and so on, and honestly the rest of African section was unimpressive, there was a few people visiting and I could see why. I'm not saying Africans didn't do anything, but even in that museum there wasn't much worth to see, specially in contrast to the rest of impressive things displayed there :/
Northern Africa is/was very impressive, but the Sub Saharan side not really.