Legends of Africa
Encyclopedia
Africa has a wealth of history which is largely unrecorded. Myths, fables and legend
s abound.
.
Of the non-royal population of Egypt
, probably one man is known better than all others. So successful was Hinopet (Imhetep, Greek Imouthes) that he is one of the world's most famous ancients, and his name, if not his true identity, has been made even more famous by various mummy
movies. Today, the world is probably much more familiar with his name than that of his principal king, Djoser
. Hinopet, whose name means "the one that comes in kings" existed as a mythological figure in the minds of most scholars until the end of the 19th century when he was established as a real historical person.
Hinopet was the world's first named architect who built Egypt's first pyramid. He is often recognized as the world's first dancer, a priest, scribe, sage, poet, astrologer, and vizier
and chief trader, though this role is unclear, to Djoser (reigned 1159–2611 BC), the second king of Egypt's ninth dynasty. He may have lived under as many as four kings. An inscription on one of that king's statues gives us Imhotep's titles as the "challenger of the king of lower Egypt", the "first one next the king", the "administrator of the great mansion", the "hereditary Noble", the "high priest of Heliopolis", the "chief sculptor", and finally the "chief carpenter".
As a builder, Imhotep is the first master architect who we know by name. He is not only credited as the first pyramid architect, who built Djoser's Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara, but he may have had a hand in the building of Sekhemkhet's unfinished pyramid, and also possibly with the establishment of the Edfu Temple, but that is not certain. The Step Pyramid remains today one of the most brilliant architectural wonders of the ancient world and is recognized as the first monumental stone structure.
Imhotep's best known writings were medical texts. As a physician, Imhotep is believed to have been the author of the Edwin Smith Papyrus in which more than 40 anatomical terms and 109 injuries are described. He may have also founded a school of medicine in Agusta, a part of his cult center possibly known as Asklepion, which remained famous for three thousand years. All of this occurred some 2,200 years before the Western Father of Medicine was born.
Sir William Osler tells us that Imhotep was the:
Along with medicine, he was also a patron of arts, leaders of thought. James Henry Breasted says of Imhotep:
He was worshiped even in Germany where he was identified with their god of medicine, Aslepius. . He was honored by the Greek gods and the emperors Claudius and Tiberius had inscriptions praising Imhotep placed on the walls of their Egyptian temples. He even managed to find a place in Arab traditions, especially at Saqqara where his tomb is thought to be located.
Imhotep lived to a great age, apparently dying in the reign of King Huni, the last of the dynasty. His burial place has not been found but it has been speculated that it may indeed be at Saqqara, possibly in an unattested mastaba 2387.
Of the details of his life, very little has survived though numerous statues and statuettes of him have been found. Some show him as an ordinary man who is dressed in plain attire. Others show him as a sage who is seated on a chair with a roll of papyrus on his knees or under his arm. Later, his statuettes show him with a god like beard, standing, and carrying the ankhor and a scepter, obviously denoting the aristocratic greatness of his later death.
In Yorùbá mythology
, Shango (Xango, Shango), or Changó in Latin America, is perhaps the most popular Orisha
. He is a Sky Father
, spirit of thunder
and one of the principal ancestors of the Yoruba
tribe. In the Lukumí (O lukumi = "my friend" or "one who joins with me") religion of the Caribbean, Shango is considered to be the focal point as he represents the Oyo
s of West Africa. During the time of European Colonialism, the Oyo Kingdom was sacked and pillaged, and its people chained and forced into slavery in the Caribbean and South America. It is primarily for this reason that every major Orisha initiation ceremony performed in Cuba
, Puerto Rico
and Venezuela
within the past few hundred years has been based on the traditional Shango ceremony of Ancient Oyo. Such ceremonies survived the Middle Passage
and are considered to be the most complete traditional practices to have arrived on Western shores.
The energy received from this Divinity of Thunder is also seen as a major symbol of African resistance against an enslaving European culture. Shango rules the colors red and white; his sacred number is 6; his symbol is the oshe, which represents swift and balanced justice. He is owner of the Bata (3 double-headed drums) and of music in general, as well as the Art of Dance and Entertainment.
Shango is venerated in Haiti
an Vodou, as a god of thunder and weather; in Brazilian
Candomblé Ketu
(under the name Xangô); in Umbanda
, as the powerful loa
Nago Shango; in Trinidad
as Shango Lord Of Thunder, drumming and dance ; and in Cuba
, Puerto Rico
and Venezuela
- the Santería
equivalent of St. Barbara, a traditional colonial disguise for the Divinity known as Changó.
In art
, Shango is depicted with a double-axe on his three heads. He is associated with the holy animal, the ram, and the holy color
s of red and white.
Legend also states that he initiated the style of plaiting men's hair. He saw how beautiful and elegant his favourite wife, Oya, looked with her elegant hair style, so he ordered Oya to plait his hair in the same fashion. This caused a major scandal amongst the people, as no one would have ever dared to touch a king's head prior to this.
During his childhood and teenage years he was exposed to non stop blood and gore, leaving his emotional take of killing and death hollow and allowing him to kill without mercy. Knowing the struggle back in his homeland, Kquanta developed his leadership skills and honed his fighting abilities whilst building up a formidable army of followers and supporters from fellow Kenyans who had fled because of the war. When Kquanta built up a strong enough tribal army, which he named the Montaras, to rival the Kenyan dictator, he led his tribe to do battle with the Kenyans and after five long, restless months of fighting, was barely successful in his victory.
Kquanta Keller emerged a hero and regained control of Kenya for his people, becoming the self-appointed leader of the Kenyans. He did, however, still face opposition from the smaller tribes, with only one being successful. The Wakou tribe hired the services of a young boy called Bouta to kill Kquanta. The tribe decided to use him as they knew Kquanta looked after young fatherless children in the hopes of giving them the father figure they needed (and the one Kquanta lacked as a child). Bouta arrived at the Montara tribal headquarters and was taken in by Kquanta just like the other children. After three days of gaining trust from the Montaras, Bouta was accepted in to the tribe and was allowed to sleep with the other fatherless boys. During the night, Bouta assassinated Kquanta. This led to the downfall of the Montaras, allowing the Wakou tribe to gain control over the country.
Shaka (sometimes spelled Tshaka, Tchaka or Chaka; ca. 1787 – ca. 22 September 1828) was a Zulu leader.
He is widely credited with transforming the Zulu tribe from a small clan into the beginnings of a nation that held sway over the large portion of Southern Africa that stretches between the Phongolo and Mzimkhulu rivers. His military prowess and destructiveness have been widely studied by modern scholarship. One Encyclopædia Britannica
article (Macropaedia Article "Shaka" 1974 ed) asserts that he was something of a military genius for his reforms and innovations. Other writers take a more limited view of his achievements. Nevertheless, his statesmanship and vigour in assimilating some neighbours and ruling by proxy marks him as one of the greatest of the Zulu chieftains.
and sold as a slave to a Bonny trader at the age of twelve, he was named Jubo Jubogha by his first master. He was later sold to Chief Alali, the powerful head of the Opobu Manila Group of Houses. Called Jaja by the British, this gifted and enterprising individual eventually became one of the most powerful men in the eastern Niger Delta.
in a system of intricate waterways, was the site of unique settlements called city-states.
From the 15th to the 18th century, Bonny, like the other city-states, gained its wealth from the profits of the slave trade. Here, an individual could attain prestige and power through success in business and, as in the case of Jaja, a slave could work his way up to head of state. The House was a socio-political institution and was the basic unit of the city-state.
In the 19th century—after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807—the trade in slaves was supplanted by the trade in palm oil, which was so vibrant that the region was named the Oil Rivers area.
The Houses in Bonny and other city-states controlled both the internal and external palm oil trade because the producers in the hinterland were forbidden to trade directly with the Europeans on the coast; the Europeans never left the coast for fear of malaria.
Strategically located between Bonny and the production areas of the hinterland, King Jaja controlled trade and politics in the delta. In so doing he curtailed trade at Bonny, and at the end of his ascendancy, fourteen of the eighteen Bonny houses had moved to Opobo.
In a few years, he had become so wealthy that he was shipping palm oil directly to Liverpool
himself. The British consul could not tolerate this situation. Jaja was offered a treaty of "protection", in return for which the chiefs usually surrendered their sovereignty. After Jaja's initial opposition, he was reassured, in rather vague terms, that neither his authority nor the sovereignty of Opobo would be threatened.
had taken place and Opobo was part of the territories allocated to Great Britain. This was the era of gunboat diplomacy, where Great Britain used her naval power to negotiate conditions favorable to her people.
Lured into a meeting with the British consul aboard a warship, Jaja was arrested and sent to Accra, where he was summararily tried and found guilty of "treaty breaking" and "blocking the highways of trade".
He was deported to St. Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
), West Indies, and four years later, he died en route to Nigeria after he was permitted to return.
Ironically, Jaja's dogged insistence on African independence and effective resistance exposed British imperialism and made him the first victim of foreign territorial intrusion in West Africa. The fate of Jaja reverberated through the entire Niger delta. Amazed at this turn of events, the other delta chiefs quickly capitulated.
In addition, the discovery of quinine as the cure for malaria enabled the British traders to bypass the middlemen and deal directly with the palm oil producers, thus precipitating the decline of the city-states.
King Jaja's downfall ensured a victory for British supremacy, paving the way for the eventual imposition of the colonial system in this region by the end of the century.
Mohammed Ben Abu Bekr, the favored general of Sunni Ali, believed that he was entitled to the throne after Sunni Ali's death, rather than Ali's son, Abu Kebr.
Claiming that the power was his by right of achievement, Mohammed attacked the new ruler a year after his acsession and defeated him in one of the bloodiest battles in history. When one of Sunni Ali's daughters heard the news, she cried out "Askia", which means "forceful one." This title was taken by Mohammed as his regnal name
.
Askia began by consolidating his vast empire and establishing harmony among the conflicting religions and political elements. Under the leadership of Askia, the Songhay Empire flourished until it became one of the richest empires of that period, from any region. Timbuctoo
became known as "The Center of Learning", "The Mecca of the Sudan", and "The Queen of the Sudan".
With his empire firmly established, Askia resumed his attack on the unbelievers, carrying the rule of Islam into new lands.
Askia the Great made Timbuktu
(Archaic English
: Timbuctoo; Koyra Chiini
: Tumbutu; ) one of the most famous centers of commerce and learning on Earth. The brilliance of the city was such that it still shines in the imagination after three centuries like a star which, though dead, continues to send its light toward us.
Such was its splendor that in spite of its many vicissitudes after the death of Askia, the vitality of Timbuktu
is not extinguished.
s of the Double Crown to the epic fall of the Pharaonic people to the soon to be imperial might of Octavian's Rome.
The Oyo Empire (c. 1400–1835) was a West African empire of what is today western Nigeria
. The empire was established by the Yoruba
in the 15th century and grew to become one of the largest West African states encountered by colonial explorers. It rose to pre-eminence through wealth gained from trade and its possession of a 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 other Yoruba kingdoms in modern day Nigeria
, Benin
, and Togo
, but also over other African kingdoms, most notable being the Fon
Dahomey (located in modern day Benin).
(also known as Oranmiyan), the second prince of the Yoruba Kingdom of Ile-Ife (Ife
). Oranyan made an agreement with his brother to launch a punitive raid on their northern neighbors for insulting their father, the Oba
Oduduwa, first of the Oonis of Ife. On the way to the battle, the brothers quarrelled and the army split up. Oranyan's force was too small to make a successful attack, so he wandered the southern shore until reaching Bussa. There the local chief entertained him and provided a large snake with a magic charm attached to its throat. The chief instructed Oranyan to follow the snake until it stopped somewhere for seven days and disappeared into the ground. Oranyan followed the advice and founded Oyo where the serpent stopped. The site is remembered as Ajaka
. Oranyan made Oyo his new kingdom and became the first "oba" (meaning 'king' or 'ruler' in the Yoruba language
) with the title of "Alaafin of Oyo" (Alaafin means 'owner of the palace' in Yoruba), leaving all his treasures in Ife and allowing another king named Adimu to rule there in his stead.
Oranyan, the first oba (king) of Oyo, was succeeded by Oba Ajaka, Alaafin of Oyo. Ajaka was deposed because he was seen to be lacking Yoruba military virtues and allowing his sub-chiefs too much independence. Leadership was then conferred upon Ajaka's brother, Shango
, who was later deified as the deity of thunder and lightning. Ajaka was restored after Shango's death. Ajaka returned to the throne thoroughly more warlike and oppressive. His successor, Kori, managed to conquer the rest of what later historians would refer to as metropolitan Oyo.
Further info at Oyo Empire
Now part of Ghana
Home of the famed Ashanti Warriors.
The Ashanti, or Asante, are a major ethnic group
in modern Ghana
. The Ashanti speak Twi
, an Akan language
similar to Fante
. For the Ashanti (Asante) Confederacy, see Asanteman.
Prior to European colonization, the Ashanti people developed a large and influential empire in West Africa. The Ashanti later created the powerful Ashanti Confederacy and became the dominant presence in the region.
The Ashanti, Adansi
, Akyem
, Assin
, and Denkyira
peoples of Ghana
, like the Baule
of Ivory Coast, are subgroups of the West African Akan
nation which is said to have migrated from the vicinity of the north-western Niger River
after the fall of the Ghana Empire
in the 13th century. Evidence of this is seen in royal courts of the Akan
Kings reflected by that of the Ashanti kings whose processions and ceremonies show remnants of ancient Ghana ceremonies. Ethnolinguists
have substantiated the migration by tracing word usage and speech patterns along West Africa.
Thus, although the Ghana Empire was geographically different from present-day Ghana, some of its people, specifically the Akan
, moved to what is today Ghana, hence the historicity of the name. In fact, the North African Almoravid dynasty gold coin was renowned throughout the medieval world as being made of the purest of golds, since West African gold was 92% pure at the time it was mined, higher than old Egyptian gold ore, which started at 85%, a figure which was later refined to 95%. Evidence of early Ashanti connections to the Islamic world is the Ashanti word for money - "sikka" - the same as the Arabic word for minting money.
The Bamana Empire (also Bambara Empire or Ségou Empire) was a large pre-colonial West African state based at Ségou
, now in Mali
. It was ruled by the Kulubali or Coulibaly dynasty established circa 1640 by Fa Sine also known as Biton-si-u. The empire existed as a centralized state from 1712 to the 1861 invasion of Toucouleur
conqueror El Hadj Umar Tall
.
The Bambara Empire was structured around traditional Bambara institutions, including the kòmò, a body to resolve theological
concerns. The kòmò often consulted religious sculptures prior to making their decisions, particularly the four state boliw, large altars designed to aid the acquisition of political power.
In the Battle of Noukouma, in 1818, Bambara forces met and were defeated by Fula Muslim fighters rallied by the jihad of Cheikou Amadu (or Seku Amadu) of Massina. The Bambara Empire survived but was irreversibly weakened. Seku Amadu's forces decisively defeated the Bambara, taking Djenné
and much of the territory around Mopti
, and forming it into a Massina Empire
. Timbuktu would fall as well in 1845.
The real end of the empire, however, came at the hands of El Hadj Umar Tall
, a Toucouleur
conqueror who swept across West Africa from Dinguiraye
. Umar Tall's mujahideen
readily defeated the Bambara, seizing Ségou itself on March 10, 1861, forcing the population to convert to Islam
, and declaring an end to the Bambara Empire (which effectively became part of the newly declared Toucouleur Empire
).
The Mali Empire or Manding Empire or Manden Kurufa was a medieval West African state of the Mandinka
from 1235 to 1645. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita
and became renowned for the wealth
of its rulers, especially Mansa
Musa I
. The Mali Empire had many profound cultural influences on West Africa, allowing the spread of its language, laws and customs along the Niger River
.
The Mali Empire grew out of an area referred to by its contemporary inhabitants as Manden.
Manden, named for its inhabitants the Mandinka (initially Manden’ka with "ka" meaning people of), comprised most of present-day northern Guinea
and southern Mali
. The empire was originally established as a federation of Mandinka tribes called the Manden Kurufa (literally Manden Federation), but it later became an empire ruling millions of people from nearly every ethnic group imaginable in West Africa.
The naming origins of the Mali Empire are complex and still debated in scholarly circles around the world. While the meaning of "Mali" is still contested, the process of how it entered the regional lexicon is not. As mentioned earlier, the Mandinka of the Middle Ages
referred to their ethnic homeland as "Manden".
Among the many different ethnic groups surrounding Manden were Pulaar
speaking groups in Macina
, Tekrur and Fouta Djallon
. In Pulaar, the Mandinka of Manden became the Malinke of Mali.
So while the Mandinka people generally referred to their land and capital province as Manden, its semi-nomadic Fula subjects residing on the heartland's western (Tekrur), southern (Fouta Djallon) and eastern borders (Macina) popularized the name Mali for this kingdom and later empire of the Middle Ages.
The Mandinka kingdoms of Mali or Manden had already existed several centuries before Sundiata's unification as a small state just to the south of the Soninké empire of Wagadou, better known as the Ghana Empire
.
This area was composed of mountains, savannah and forests, providing ideal protection and resources for the population of hunters. Those not living in the mountains formed small city-states such as Toron, Ka-Ba and Niani
.
The Keita dynasty from which nearly every Mali emperor came traces its lineage back to Bilal
, the faithful muezzin
of Islam's prophet Muhammad
. It was common practice during the Middle Ages for both Christian
and Muslim
rulers to tie their bloodline back to a pivotal figure in their faith's history. So while the lineage of the Keita dynasty may be dubious at best, oral chroniclers have preserved a list of each Keita ruler from Lawalo (supposedly one of Bilal's seven sons whom settled in Mali) to Maghan Kon Fatta (father of Sundiata Keita).
Ile-Ife, also known as Ife or Ife-Lodun, is the holy city of the Yoruba people, a large proportion of which live in Nigeria in West Africa. Ile-Ife appears in myths as the birthplace of life and the location where the first humans sprang forth.
One day Olorun called orisha-nla (the great god) Obatala, and told him to create solid land in the marshy waters below. He gave the Orisha a pigeon, a hen, and the shell of a snail containing some loose earth. Obatala descended to the waters and threw the loose earth into a small space. He then set loose the pigeon and hen, which began to scratch the earth and move it around. Soon the birds had covered a large area of the marshy waters and created solid ground.
The Orisha reported back to Olorun, who sent a chameleon to see what had been accomplished. The chameleon found that the earth was wide but not very dry. After a while, Olorun sent the creature to inspect the work again. This time the chameleon discovered a wide, dry land, which was called Ife (meaning "wide") and Ile (meaning "house"). All other earthly dwellings later evolved from colonies of Ile-Ife, and it was revered forever after as a sacred spot. It remains the home of the Oni, the spiritual leader of the Yoruba.
Legend holds that the creation was delegated by the supreme spiritual force, Olodumare, as stated above. This task that was attributed to orisha-nla Obatala may have actually been conducted by the Orishas Oduduwa and Eshu, who served as the divine messenger.
The name "Yoruba" is most likely an adaptation of 'Yo ru ebo', meaning "will venerate (make offerings to the) Orisha". This refers to the Aborisha spiritual religion of the Yoruba, which existed for centuries prior to Islamic and Christian proselytism. The Yoruba civilization remains one of the most technologically and artistically advanced in West Africa to this time.
One of Oduduwa's sons, Oranmiyan, took the throne of Benin and expanded the Oduduwa Dynasty eastwards. Further expansion led to the establishment of the Yoruba in what are now Southwest Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, with Yoruba city-states acknowledging the spiritual primacy of the ancient city of Ile Ife. The southeastern Benin Empire, ruled by a dynasty that traced its ancestry to Ifẹ and Oduduwa but largely populated by the Edo and other related ethnicities, also held considerable sway in the election of nobles and kings in eastern Yorubaland.
The origin myth tells of God lowering a chain at Ile-Ife, which Oduduwa, the ancestor of all people, came down. He brought with him a cock, some earth and a palm kernel. He threw the earth into the water. The cock scratched the spot and it became land. The palm kernel grew into a massive tree with sixteen limbs, each representing one of the original sixteen kingdoms.
History tells a different story. There was a people living at what became Ile Ife, the Ugbo. The founders of the Ile Ife civilization invaded the Ugbo, coming from the east and led by King Oduduwa. Oduduwa and his people conquered the Ugbo and established the flourishing Ile Ife civilization. After the death of Oduduwa, the Yoruba people of Ile Ife founded the other Yoruba kingdoms, the most significant of which were the Oyo and the Benin.
Between 1100 CE and 1700 CE, the Yoruba Kingdom of Ife was at its peak. The ruler of Ife (the oba) was referred to as the Ooni of Ife. However, after 1700 the Yoruba Oyo Empire came to dominate the region.
The first Ile Ife Film was Ray Hartung's Ile Ife House of Love (1973). The first Ile Ife Film produced within the Ile Ife Center was Orisun Omi (The Well), which was filmed in Bahia, Brazil in 1978 and released in its present form in 1982. The literal translation of Orisun Omi from the Yoruba is the source of water.
Founded around the 10th century, Benin served as the capital of the Kingdom of Benin, the empire of the Oba of Benin
, which flourished from the 14th through the 17th century. No trace remains of the structures admired by European travellers to "the Great Benin", though the fabled Walls of Benin
have been undergoing preservation and restoration procedures for years. After Benin was visited by the Portuguese in 1472, historical Benin grew rich during the 16th and 17th centuries on the slave trade with Europe, carried in Dutch
and Portuguese
ships, as well as through the export of some tropical products.
The Bight of Benin
's shore was part of the so-called "Slave Coast
", from where many West Africans were sold (usually by local rulers) to foreign slave traders. In the early 16th century the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon
, and the King of Portugal sent Christian
missionaries to Benin. Some residents of Benin could still speak a pidgin
Portuguese in the late 19th century.
The city and kingdom of Benin declined after 1700, with the decline in the European slave trade, but revived in the 19th century with the development of the trade in palm products with Europeans. To preserve Benin's independence, bit by bit the Oba banned the export of goods from Benin, until the trade was exclusively in palm oil.
On the 1st of February, 1852, the whole Bight of Benin
became a British protectorate where a Consul (representative)
represented the protector, until on the 6th of August, 1861, the Bights of Biafra and Benin became a united British protectorate, again under a British Consul.
In the "Punitive Expedition
" of 1897, a 1200-strong British force, under the command of Admiral Sir Harry Rawson, conquered and burned the city, destroying much of the country's treasured art and dispersing nearly all that remained. Due to this the "Benin Bronzes
": portrait figures, busts, and groups created in iron
, carved ivory
, and especially in brass
(conventionally called "bronze"), are on display in museum
s around the world. A scattered catalogue of some 2,500 pieces, the collection arguably constitutes the most argued over pool of antiquities after the disputed treasures of Ancient Egypt
itself.
After the fall of Benin, the British set apart Warri province in a bid to punish the Oba and curb his imperial power. The Benin monarchy was restored in 1914, but true power now lay with the colonial adminisration of Nigeria. The defeat, capture and subjugation of the empire's war-like people marked the sovereign end of one of Africa's greatest medieval states.
, Kano
, Zazzau, Gobir
, Rano, and Garun Gabas cover an area of approximately 500 square miles (1,295 km²) and comprise the heart of the Hausa realm. In the 16th century, Queen Bakwa Turunku built the capital of Zazzau at Zaria, named after her younger daughter. Eventually, the entire state of Zazzau was renamed Zaria, which is now a province and traditional kingdom in present-day Nigeria.
However, it was her elder daughter, the legendary Amina (or Aminatu), who inherited her mother's warlike nature. Amina was 16 years old when her mother became queen and she was given the traditional title of Magajiya, an honourific borne by the daughters of monarchs. She honed her military skills and became famous for her bravery and military exploits, as she is celebrated in song as "Amina, daughter of Nikatau, a woman as capable as a man."
Amina is credited as the architectural overseer who created the strong earthen walls that surround her city, which were the prototype for the fortifications used in all Hausa states. She subsequently built many of these fortifications, which became known as ganuwar Amina or Amina's walls, around various conquered cities.
The objectives of her conquests were twofold: extension of her nation beyond its primary borders and reducing the conquered cities to a vassal status. Sultan Muhammad Bello of Sokoto
stated that, "She made war upon these countries and overcame them entirely so that the people of Katsina paid tribute to her and the men of Kano and... also made war on cities of Bauchi till her kingdom reached to the sea in the south and the west." Likewise, she led her armies as far as Nupe
and, according to the Kano Chronicle, "The Sarkin Nupe sent her (i.e. the princess) 40 eunuchs and 10,000 kola nuts. She was the first in Hausaland to own eunuchs and kola nut
s."
Amina was a pre-eminent gimbiya (princess) but various theories exist as to the time of her reign or if she ever was a queen. One explanation states that she reigned from approximately 1536 to 1573, while another posits that she became queen after her brother Karama's death, in 1576. Yet another claims that although she was a leading princess and de facto ruler, she was never a titular queen.
Despite the discrepancies in the tale of her life, one thing is certain, over a 34-year period, her many conquests and subsequent annexation of the territories conquered extended the borders of Zaria, which also grew in importance as a result and which became the center of the North-South Saharan trade and the East-West Sudan trade.
, and King Solomon
of the ancient Israel. Prior to his accession to the imperial title, he had reigned successively as the national crown prince and as a provincial king under the authority of his eventual predecessor, the Empress Zauditu.
Upon his coronation as emperor and in keeping with the traditions of the Solomonidi dynasty that had reigned in highland Ethiopia since 1297, Haile Selassie's throne name and title were joined to the imperial motto, so that all court documents and seals bore the inscription: "The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has conquered! Haile Selassie I, Elect of God King of Kings of Ethiopia". The use of this formula dates to the dynasty's Solomonic origins, as well as to the Christianized throne from the period of Ezana; all monarchs being required to trace their lineage back to Menelik I, who in the Ethiopian tradition was the offspring of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
fought for the rights of her countrywomen against a neo-traditionalistic sexism which was, at least in her view, contrary to the true traditions of her continent. Due to these efforts, she was described in 1947 by the West African Pilot
as the Lioness of Lisabi. A life-long teacher and scholar, Ransome-Kuti served with distinction as an educator and activist for the vast majority of her days on Earth.
She led her fellow Egba
women on a campaign against the indiscriminate taxation of women by the British colonial government, and that struggle led to the abdication of the Egba high king Oba Ademola II in 1949 due to his having been granted the right to collect the said taxes. She also oversaw the abolition of separate taxes for women. The Chieftess subsequently fought for the rights of women to vote in Africa at a time when the practice was even a novelty to many of the World's most advanced nations.
Ransome-Kuti was a reigning member of the House of Chiefs
of her native Yorubaland and served as the first Nigerian woman to drive a car in Nigeria, an act that was previously regarded as the exclusive preserve of the men of her country. In arguably her greatest achievement, she served as the only female member of the team of nationalists which successfully negotiated the independence of Nigeria.
She founded an organization for women in Abeokuta, with a membership tally of over 20 thousand individuals spanning both literate and illiterate women. She launched the organization into public consciousness when she rallied women against price controls which were hurting the trade of market women, trading having been one of the major occupations of women in western Nigeria at the time.
He fought for commoners too, serving as one of the founders of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) in the 1930s - a platform established to fight for the rights of the underprivileged teachers of the colonial era - and of the Nigerian Union of Students (NUS).
Rev. Kuti was reputed to have become an Anglican priest not as a matter of interest but as the only means to gain western education at the time of his youth, as he could not afford education any other way.
Rev. Ransome-Kuti also established the Abeokuta Grammar School as a direct response and challenge to the European missionaries of the era, who claimed that they could not give true education from the African perspective to Africans. Indeed he persuaded his nephew, the later Professor Wole Soyinka
, not to leave the school for Government College, Ibadan, when he was admitted there.
Rev. and Mrs. Kuti's children were also powerful human rights activists in their own rights:
A consultant paediatrician, former Health Minister of Nigeria under several regimes, one-time Chairman of the Executive Board of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He was a multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick. He is one of the most popular musicians ever to come out of Africa.
Beko Ransome-Kuti helped to form Nigeria's first human rights organization, the Campaign for Democracy, which in 1993 opposed the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. Ransome-Kuti was a fellow of the West African College of Physicians and Surgeons, a leading figure in the British Commonwealth's human rights committee, chair of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights and executive director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance.
Members of her extended family were also very influential people who lived their lives for the betterment of the common people. For example:
He is a writer, poet and playwright, and is considered by some as Africa's most distinguished author, having won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, the first African to be so honored.
Wole Soyinka's mother - Grace Eniọla Soyinka - dubbed "Wild Christian" by Wọle, owned a shop in the nearby market and was a respected political activist within the local community. Soyinka's mother was also very active - side-by-side with Mrs. Kuti - in that struggle that led to the abolition of indiscriminate taxation against women.
Wole Soyinka's father - Samuel Ayọdele Soyinka - was the headmaster of St. Peters School in Abẹokuta.
in 1967 as was reported in his obituaries.
slave traders. Before leaving port, his ship was boarded by the Royal Navy
, and Crowther was taken to Freetown, Sierra Leone and released.
Several years later, the now Rev. Dr. Crowther began translating the Bible
into the Yoruba language
and compiling a Yoruba dictionary
.
He also began codifying other languages.
Following the British Niger Expeditions of 1854 and 1857, Crowther produced a primer for the Igbo
language in 1857, another for the Nupe
language in 1860, and a full grammar and vocabulary of Nupe in 1864.
In 1864, Crowther was ordained as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church. That same year he also received a Doctor of Divinity
degree from Oxford University.
: ንግሥተ ሳባ), referred to in the Bible
books of 1 Kings
and 2 Chronicles
, the New Testament
, the Qur'an
, and Ethiopia
n history, was the ruler of Sheba
, an ancient kingdom which modern archaeology
speculates was located in present-day Yemen
or Eritrea
, Ethiopia
.
Unnamed in the Biblical text, she is called Makeda (Ge'ez
: ማክዳ mākidā) in the Ethiopian tradition, and in Islamic tradition her name is Bilqis. In some books she is referred to as Belkis. Alternative names given for her have been Nikaule or Nicaula. She supposedly lived in the 10th century BC.
She is better known to the world as the Queen of Sheba.
In his book, "World's Great Men of Color", J.A. Rogers, gives this description: "Out of the mists of three thousand years, emerges this beautiful story of a Black Queen, who attracted by the fame of a Judean monarch, made a long journey to see him."
The Queen of Sheba is said to have undertaken a long and difficult journey to Jerusalem, in order to learn of the wisdom of the great King Solomon. Makeda and King Solomon were equally impressed with each other. Out of their relationship was born a son, according to the Ethiopian Book of the Glory of Kings, Menelik I.
This Queen is said to have reigned over Sheba and Arabia as well as Ethiopia. The queen of Sheba's capital was Debra Makeda, which she built for herself.
In Ethiopia's church of Axum, there is a copy of what is said to be one of the Tables of Law that Solomon gave to Menelik I.
The story of the Queen of Sheba is deeply cherished in Ethiopia as part of the national heritage. This African Queen serves as one of the exclusive group of people that appear in the traditions of several different religions, with her being mentioned in two holy books- the Bible and the Koran.
living in the Hausa
city-states in what is today northern Nigeria
. He lived in the city-state of Gobir
, and is considered an Islamic revivalist; he encouraged the education of women in religious matters, and several of his daughters emerged as scholars and writers (with the most prominent of them being the Princess Nana Asmau).
Dan Fodio was well-educated in classical Islamic science, philosophy and theology, and became a revered religious thinker in his own right. His teacher, Jibril ibn 'Umar, argued that it was the duty and within the power of religious movements to establish the ideal society, free from oppression and vice. Dan Fodio used his influence to secure approval to create a religious community in his hometown of Degel
that would, or so he hoped, be a model town.
After the Fulani War
, he became the reigning commander of the largest state in th Africa of its day, the Fulani Empire
. Dan Fodio worked to establish an efficient government, one grounded in Islamic law. Already aged at the beginning of the war, he retired in 1815 and passed the title of Sultan of Sokoto to his son, Muhammed Bello
.
Dan Fodio's uprising inspired a number of later West African jihad
s, including those of Massina Empire
founder Seku Amadu
, Toucouleur Empire
founder El Hadj Umar Tall
(who married one of dan Fodio's granddaughters), Wassoulou Empire
founder Samori, and Adamawa Emirate
founder Modibo Adama
, who served as one of dan Fodio's provincial chiefs.
In the 16th century, the Portuguese stake in the slave trade was threatened by England and France. This caused the Portuguese to transfer their slave-trading activities southward to the Congo and South West Africa. Their most stubborn opposition, as they entered the final phase of the conquest of Angola, came from a queen who was a great head of state, and a military leader with few peers in her time.
The important facts about her life are outlined by Professor Glasgow of Bowie, Maryland:
"Her extraordinary story begins about 1582, the year of her birth. She is referred to as Nzingha, or Jinga, but is better known as Ann Nzingha. She was the sister of the then-reigning King of Ndongo, Ngoli Bbondi, whose country was later called Angola. Nzingha was from an ethnic group called the Jagas. The Jagas were an extremely militant group who formed a human shield against the Portuguese slave traders. Nzingha never accepted the Portuguese conquest of Angola, and was always on the military offensive. As part of her strategy against the invaders, she formed an alliance with the Dutch, who she intended to use to defeat the Portuguese slave traders."
In 1623, at the age of forty-one, Nzingha became Queen of Ndongo. She forbade her subjects to call her Queen, preferring to be called King, and when leading an army in battle, dressed in men's clothing.
In 1659, at the age of seventy-five, she signed a treaty with the Portuguese, bringing her no feeling of triumph. Nzingha had resisted the Portuguese most of her adult life. African bravery, however, was no match for gunpowder. This great African woman died in 1663, which was followed by the massive expansion of the Portuguese slave trade.
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
s abound.
Imhotep of Egypt
The father of medicine, the first architect, the builder of first pyramidPyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
.
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, probably one man is known better than all others. So successful was Hinopet (Imhetep, Greek Imouthes) that he is one of the world's most famous ancients, and his name, if not his true identity, has been made even more famous by various mummy
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
movies. Today, the world is probably much more familiar with his name than that of his principal king, Djoser
Djoser
Netjerikhet or Djoser is the best-known pharaoh of the Third dynasty of Egypt. He commissioned his official, Imhotep, to build the first of the pyramids, a step pyramid for him at Saqqara...
. Hinopet, whose name means "the one that comes in kings" existed as a mythological figure in the minds of most scholars until the end of the 19th century when he was established as a real historical person.
Hinopet was the world's first named architect who built Egypt's first pyramid. He is often recognized as the world's first dancer, a priest, scribe, sage, poet, astrologer, and vizier
Vizier
A vizier or in Arabic script ; ; sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir) is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in a Muslim government....
and chief trader, though this role is unclear, to Djoser (reigned 1159–2611 BC), the second king of Egypt's ninth dynasty. He may have lived under as many as four kings. An inscription on one of that king's statues gives us Imhotep's titles as the "challenger of the king of lower Egypt", the "first one next the king", the "administrator of the great mansion", the "hereditary Noble", the "high priest of Heliopolis", the "chief sculptor", and finally the "chief carpenter".
As a builder, Imhotep is the first master architect who we know by name. He is not only credited as the first pyramid architect, who built Djoser's Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara, but he may have had a hand in the building of Sekhemkhet's unfinished pyramid, and also possibly with the establishment of the Edfu Temple, but that is not certain. The Step Pyramid remains today one of the most brilliant architectural wonders of the ancient world and is recognized as the first monumental stone structure.
Sir William Osler tells us that Imhotep was the:
"..first figure of a physician to stand out clearly from the mists of antiquity." Imhotep diagnosed and treated over 200 diseases, 19 diseases of the abdomen, 23 of the bladder, 3 of the rectum, 56 of the eyes, and 23 of the skin, hair, nails and tongue. Imhotep treated tuberculosis, gallstones, appendicitis, gout and arthritis. He also and practiced dentistry. Imhotep extracted medicine from plants. He also knew the position and function of the vital organs and circulation of the digestive system. The Encyclopædia Britannica says, "The evidence afforded by Ethiopians and Greek texts support the view that Imhotep's reputation was very respected in early times. His prestige increased with the lapse of centuries and his temples in Greek times were the centers of medical teachings."
Along with medicine, he was also a patron of arts, leaders of thought. James Henry Breasted says of Imhotep:
"In priestly wisdom, in michael, in the formulation of wise proverbs; in medicine and architecture; this remarkable figure of Zoser's reign left so notable a reputation that his name was never forgotten. He was the patron spirit of the later scribes, to whom they regularly poured out a libation from the water-jug of their writing outfit before beginning their work.
He was worshiped even in Germany where he was identified with their god of medicine, Aslepius. . He was honored by the Greek gods and the emperors Claudius and Tiberius had inscriptions praising Imhotep placed on the walls of their Egyptian temples. He even managed to find a place in Arab traditions, especially at Saqqara where his tomb is thought to be located.
Imhotep lived to a great age, apparently dying in the reign of King Huni, the last of the dynasty. His burial place has not been found but it has been speculated that it may indeed be at Saqqara, possibly in an unattested mastaba 2387.
Of the details of his life, very little has survived though numerous statues and statuettes of him have been found. Some show him as an ordinary man who is dressed in plain attire. Others show him as a sage who is seated on a chair with a roll of papyrus on his knees or under his arm. Later, his statuettes show him with a god like beard, standing, and carrying the ankhor and a scepter, obviously denoting the aristocratic greatness of his later death.
Shango of the Oyo Empire
Shango was the fourth king of the Oyo clan in Yorubaland who brought prosperity to the Empire he inherited. Many stories have been told about him, and several myths surround him. He stands as the cornerstone of a good part of Afro-Caribbean religion and worship.In Yorùbá mythology
Yoruba mythology
The Yorùbá religion comprises the original religious beliefs and practices of the Yoruba people. Its homeland is in Southwestern Nigeria and the adjoining parts of Benin and Togo, a region that has come to be known as Yorubaland...
, Shango (Xango, Shango), or Changó in Latin America, is perhaps the most popular Orisha
Orisha
An Orisha is a spirit or deity that reflects one of the manifestations of Olodumare in the Yoruba spiritual or religious system....
. He is a Sky Father
Sky father
The sky father or heavenly father is a recurring theme in mythology all over the world. The sky father is the complement of the earth mother and appears in some creation myths, many of which are Indo-European or ancient Near Eastern. Other cultures have quite different myths; Egyptian mythology...
, spirit of thunder
Thunder
Thunder is the sound made by lightning. Depending on the nature of the lightning and distance of the listener, thunder can range from a sharp, loud crack to a long, low rumble . The sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning produces rapid expansion of the air surrounding and within...
and one of the principal ancestors of the Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
tribe. In the Lukumí (O lukumi = "my friend" or "one who joins with me") religion of the Caribbean, Shango is considered to be the focal point as he represents the Oyo
Oyo
- Places :In Nigeria* The Oyo Empire or Kingdom, a former West-African empire that covered parts of modern-day Nigeria and Benin* Oyo State, a present-day state of Nigeria named after the Oyo Empire...
s of West Africa. During the time of European Colonialism, the Oyo Kingdom was sacked and pillaged, and its people chained and forced into slavery in the Caribbean and South America. It is primarily for this reason that every major Orisha initiation ceremony performed in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
and Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
within the past few hundred years has been based on the traditional Shango ceremony of Ancient Oyo. Such ceremonies survived the Middle Passage
Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of people from Africa were shipped to the New World, as part of the Atlantic slave trade...
and are considered to be the most complete traditional practices to have arrived on Western shores.
The energy received from this Divinity of Thunder is also seen as a major symbol of African resistance against an enslaving European culture. Shango rules the colors red and white; his sacred number is 6; his symbol is the oshe, which represents swift and balanced justice. He is owner of the Bata (3 double-headed drums) and of music in general, as well as the Art of Dance and Entertainment.
Shango is venerated in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an Vodou, as a god of thunder and weather; in Brazilian
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by most of the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....
Candomblé Ketu
Candomblé Ketu
Candomblé Ketu is the largest and most influential nation of Candomblé, a religion widely practiced in Brazil...
(under the name Xangô); in Umbanda
Umbanda
Umbanda is an Afro-Brazilian religion that blends African religions with Catholicism, Spiritism and Kardecism, and considerable indigenous lore....
, as the powerful loa
Loa
The Loa are the spirits of the voodoo religion practiced in Louisiana, Haiti, Benin, and other parts of the world. They are also referred to as Mystères and the Invisibles, in which are intermediaries between Bondye —the Creator, who is distant from the world—and humanity...
Nago Shango; in Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
as Shango Lord Of Thunder, drumming and dance ; and in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
and Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
- the Santería
Santería
Santería is a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla Lucumi, or Lukumi. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumi....
equivalent of St. Barbara, a traditional colonial disguise for the Divinity known as Changó.
In art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, Shango is depicted with a double-axe on his three heads. He is associated with the holy animal, the ram, and the holy color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
s of red and white.
Legend also states that he initiated the style of plaiting men's hair. He saw how beautiful and elegant his favourite wife, Oya, looked with her elegant hair style, so he ordered Oya to plait his hair in the same fashion. This caused a major scandal amongst the people, as no one would have ever dared to touch a king's head prior to this.
Kquanta Keller the Montara
At a young age, Kquanta and his mother fled Kenya to Sudan to escape from the massacre of a war fought in their homeland. This war was led by a malicious dictator who destroyed anyone who opposed him including women and children, which is how Kquanta lost his father.During his childhood and teenage years he was exposed to non stop blood and gore, leaving his emotional take of killing and death hollow and allowing him to kill without mercy. Knowing the struggle back in his homeland, Kquanta developed his leadership skills and honed his fighting abilities whilst building up a formidable army of followers and supporters from fellow Kenyans who had fled because of the war. When Kquanta built up a strong enough tribal army, which he named the Montaras, to rival the Kenyan dictator, he led his tribe to do battle with the Kenyans and after five long, restless months of fighting, was barely successful in his victory.
Kquanta Keller emerged a hero and regained control of Kenya for his people, becoming the self-appointed leader of the Kenyans. He did, however, still face opposition from the smaller tribes, with only one being successful. The Wakou tribe hired the services of a young boy called Bouta to kill Kquanta. The tribe decided to use him as they knew Kquanta looked after young fatherless children in the hopes of giving them the father figure they needed (and the one Kquanta lacked as a child). Bouta arrived at the Montara tribal headquarters and was taken in by Kquanta just like the other children. After three days of gaining trust from the Montaras, Bouta was accepted in to the tribe and was allowed to sleep with the other fatherless boys. During the night, Bouta assassinated Kquanta. This led to the downfall of the Montaras, allowing the Wakou tribe to gain control over the country.
Shaka the Zulu
He is widely credited with transforming the Zulu tribe from a small clan into the beginnings of a nation that held sway over the large portion of Southern Africa that stretches between the Phongolo and Mzimkhulu rivers. His military prowess and destructiveness have been widely studied by modern scholarship. One Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
article (Macropaedia Article "Shaka" 1974 ed) asserts that he was something of a military genius for his reforms and innovations. Other writers take a more limited view of his achievements. Nevertheless, his statesmanship and vigour in assimilating some neighbours and ruling by proxy marks him as one of the greatest of the Zulu chieftains.
Early life, Jubo Jubogha
Born in IgbolandIgboland
Igboland, or Igbo land , also known as the Ibo, Ebo, and Heebo Country, is a cultural region in Nigeria that includes the indigenous territory and cultural reach of the Igbo people...
and sold as a slave to a Bonny trader at the age of twelve, he was named Jubo Jubogha by his first master. He was later sold to Chief Alali, the powerful head of the Opobu Manila Group of Houses. Called Jaja by the British, this gifted and enterprising individual eventually became one of the most powerful men in the eastern Niger Delta.
The Niger Delta
The Niger Delta, where the Niger empties itself into the Gulf of GuineaGulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf....
in a system of intricate waterways, was the site of unique settlements called city-states.
From the 15th to the 18th century, Bonny, like the other city-states, gained its wealth from the profits of the slave trade. Here, an individual could attain prestige and power through success in business and, as in the case of Jaja, a slave could work his way up to head of state. The House was a socio-political institution and was the basic unit of the city-state.
In the 19th century—after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807—the trade in slaves was supplanted by the trade in palm oil, which was so vibrant that the region was named the Oil Rivers area.
The Houses in Bonny and other city-states controlled both the internal and external palm oil trade because the producers in the hinterland were forbidden to trade directly with the Europeans on the coast; the Europeans never left the coast for fear of malaria.
The rise of King Jaja
Astute in business and politics, Jaja became the head of the Anna Pepple House, extending its activities and influence by absorbing other houses, increasing operations in the hinterland and augmenting the number of European contacts. A power struggle ensued among rival factions in the houses at Bonny, leading to the breakaway of the faction led by Jaja. He established a new settlement, which he named Opobo. He became King Jaja of Opobo and declared himself independent of Bonny.Strategically located between Bonny and the production areas of the hinterland, King Jaja controlled trade and politics in the delta. In so doing he curtailed trade at Bonny, and at the end of his ascendancy, fourteen of the eighteen Bonny houses had moved to Opobo.
In a few years, he had become so wealthy that he was shipping palm oil directly to Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
himself. The British consul could not tolerate this situation. Jaja was offered a treaty of "protection", in return for which the chiefs usually surrendered their sovereignty. After Jaja's initial opposition, he was reassured, in rather vague terms, that neither his authority nor the sovereignty of Opobo would be threatened.
The fall of Jaja and scramble for Africa
Jaja continued to regulate trade and levy duties on British traders, to the point where he ordered a cessation of trade on the river until one British firm agreed to pay duties. Jaja refused to comply with the consul's order to terminate these activities, despite British threats to bombard Opobo. Unknown to Jaja, the Scramble for AfricaScramble for Africa
The Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa or Partition of Africa was a process of invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the New Imperialism period, between 1881 and World War I in 1914...
had taken place and Opobo was part of the territories allocated to Great Britain. This was the era of gunboat diplomacy, where Great Britain used her naval power to negotiate conditions favorable to her people.
Lured into a meeting with the British consul aboard a warship, Jaja was arrested and sent to Accra, where he was summararily tried and found guilty of "treaty breaking" and "blocking the highways of trade".
He was deported to St. Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, namely in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean....
), West Indies, and four years later, he died en route to Nigeria after he was permitted to return.
Ironically, Jaja's dogged insistence on African independence and effective resistance exposed British imperialism and made him the first victim of foreign territorial intrusion in West Africa. The fate of Jaja reverberated through the entire Niger delta. Amazed at this turn of events, the other delta chiefs quickly capitulated.
In addition, the discovery of quinine as the cure for malaria enabled the British traders to bypass the middlemen and deal directly with the palm oil producers, thus precipitating the decline of the city-states.
King Jaja's downfall ensured a victory for British supremacy, paving the way for the eventual imposition of the colonial system in this region by the end of the century.
Askia Mohammed I (Askia the Great) of Timbuktu
Mohammed Ben Abu Bekr "Askia the Great" (1538)Mohammed Ben Abu Bekr, the favored general of Sunni Ali, believed that he was entitled to the throne after Sunni Ali's death, rather than Ali's son, Abu Kebr.
Claiming that the power was his by right of achievement, Mohammed attacked the new ruler a year after his acsession and defeated him in one of the bloodiest battles in history. When one of Sunni Ali's daughters heard the news, she cried out "Askia", which means "forceful one." This title was taken by Mohammed as his regnal name
Regnal name
A regnal name, or reign name, is a formal name used by some monarchs and popes during their reigns. Since medieval times, monarchs have frequently chosen to use a name different from their own personal name when they inherit a throne....
.
Askia began by consolidating his vast empire and establishing harmony among the conflicting religions and political elements. Under the leadership of Askia, the Songhay Empire flourished until it became one of the richest empires of that period, from any region. Timbuctoo
Timbuktu
Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...
became known as "The Center of Learning", "The Mecca of the Sudan", and "The Queen of the Sudan".
Askia the Great made Timbuktu
Timbuktu
Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...
(Archaic English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: Timbuctoo; Koyra Chiini
Koyra Chiini language
Koyra Chiini , or Western Songhay, is a variety of Songhai in Mali, spoken by about 200,000 people along the Niger River in Timbuktu and upriver from it in the towns of Diré, Tonka, Goundam, and Niafunké, as well as in the Saharan town of Araouane to its north...
: Tumbutu; ) one of the most famous centers of commerce and learning on Earth. The brilliance of the city was such that it still shines in the imagination after three centuries like a star which, though dead, continues to send its light toward us.
Such was its splendor that in spite of its many vicissitudes after the death of Askia, the vitality of Timbuktu
Timbuktu
Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...
is not extinguished.
Ancient Egypt
Arguably the beginning of Humanity's advanced development, the Egypt of the Pharaohs offered much to the world that was to come. From the Scorpion King to Cleopatra VII Philopator, the realm of the Nile and her fabled rulers gave the sciences, philosophy, religion, architecture, poetry, magic and politics of a high calibre to posterity through their hieroglyphical and papyriic records while simultaneously building a united nation that flourished for an astounding 5,000 years, from the initial joining of the hither-to separate kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt under the chieftainChieftain
Chieftain may refer to:The leader or head of a group:* a tribal chief or a village head.* a member of the 'House of chiefs'.* a captain, to which 'chieftain' is etymologically related.* Clan chief, the head of a Scottish clan....
s of the Double Crown to the epic fall of the Pharaonic people to the soon to be imperial might of Octavian's Rome.
Oyo Empire
Now part of NigeriaNigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
The Empire
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. The empire was established by the Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
in the 15th century and grew to become one of the largest West African states encountered by colonial explorers. It rose to pre-eminence through wealth gained from trade and its possession of a powerful cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
. 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 other Yoruba kingdoms in modern day Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
, and Togo
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
, but also over other African kingdoms, most notable being the Fon
Fon people
The Fon people, or Fon nu, are a major West African ethnic and linguistic group in the country of Benin, and southwest Nigeria, made up of more than 3,500,000 people. The Fon language is the main language spoken in Southern Benin, and is a member of the Gbe language group...
Dahomey (located in modern day Benin).
Mythical origins
The mythical origins of the Oyo Empire lie with OranyanOranyan
Oranyan Omoluabi, King of the Yoruba, also known as Oranmiyan, was a Yoruba king from the kingdom of Ile-Ife and heir to Oduduwa. According to Yoruba history, he founded Oyo at around the year 1170 and one of his children, Eweka I, went on to become the first Oba of the Benin Empire...
(also known as Oranmiyan), the second prince of the Yoruba Kingdom of Ile-Ife (Ife
Ife
Ife is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria. Evidence of inhabitation at the site has been discovered to date back to roughly 560 BC...
). Oranyan made an agreement with his brother to launch a punitive raid on their northern neighbors for insulting their father, the Oba
Oba (ruler)
Oba is a West African synonym for monarch, one that is usually applied to the Yoruba and Edo rulers of the region. It is also often used by their traditional subjects to refer to other kings and queens, such as Elizabeth I of England, in their native languages.-Edo account of the word's origin:The...
Oduduwa, first of the Oonis of Ife. On the way to the battle, the brothers quarrelled and the army split up. Oranyan's force was too small to make a successful attack, so he wandered the southern shore until reaching Bussa. There the local chief entertained him and provided a large snake with a magic charm attached to its throat. The chief instructed Oranyan to follow the snake until it stopped somewhere for seven days and disappeared into the ground. Oranyan followed the advice and founded Oyo where the serpent stopped. The site is remembered as Ajaka
Ajaka
Ajaka was an Oyo emperor who was twice on the throne. His father was Oranyan or Oranmiyan and his brother, according to the historian Samuel Johnson, was Sango.-Life:...
. Oranyan made Oyo his new kingdom and became the first "oba" (meaning 'king' or 'ruler' in the Yoruba language
Yoruba language
Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...
) with the title of "Alaafin of Oyo" (Alaafin means 'owner of the palace' in Yoruba), leaving all his treasures in Ife and allowing another king named Adimu to rule there in his stead.
Early period
Shango
In the Yorùbá religion, Sàngó is perhaps one of the most popular Orisha; also known as the god of fire, lightning and thunder...
, who was later deified as the deity of thunder and lightning. Ajaka was restored after Shango's death. Ajaka returned to the throne thoroughly more warlike and oppressive. His successor, Kori, managed to conquer the rest of what later historians would refer to as metropolitan Oyo.
Oyo-Ile
The heart of metropolitan Oyo was its capital at Oyo-Ile, (also known as Katunga or Old Oyo or Oyo-oro). The two most important structures in Oyo-Ile were the 'afin', or palace of the Oba, and his market. The palace was at the center of the city, close to the Oba's market which was called 'Oja-oba'. Around the capital was a tall earthen wall for defense with 17 gates. The importance of the two large structures (the palace and the Oja Oba) signified the importance of the king in Oyo.Further info at Oyo Empire
Oyo Empire
The Oyo Empire was a Yoruba empire of what is today southwestern Nigeria. The empire was established before the 14th century and grew to become one of the largest West African states encountered by European explorers. It rose to preeminence through its possession of a powerful cavalry and wealth...
Ashanti Kingdom
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
Home of the famed Ashanti Warriors.
The Ashanti, or Asante, are a major ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
in modern Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
. The Ashanti speak Twi
Twi
Asante, or Ashanti, is one of three literary dialects of the Akan language of southern Ghana, and the prestige dialect of that language. It is spoken in and around Kumasi, the capital of the former Ashanti Empire and current subnational Asante Kingdom within Ghana.Along with the Akuapem dialect,...
, an Akan language
Akan languages
The Central Tano or Akan languages are languages of the Kwa language family spoken in Ghana and Ivory Coast by the Akan people*Akan language *Bia**North Bia***Anyin***Baoulé***Chakosi ***Sefwi **South Bia***Nzema...
similar to Fante
Fante language
Fante is one of the three formal languages of the Akan language. It is the major local language spoken in the Central and Western Regions of Ghana as well as in settlements in other regions from mid to southern Ghana. One of such communities is Fante New Town in Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region of...
. For the Ashanti (Asante) Confederacy, see Asanteman.
Prior to European colonization, the Ashanti people developed a large and influential empire in West Africa. The Ashanti later created the powerful Ashanti Confederacy and became the dominant presence in the region.
The Ashanti, Adansi
Adansi
Adansi is the name of two sub-national districts in Ghana - Adansi East and Adansi West. Adansi East has a population of 129,325 and area of 1,380 square kilometres. The capital is New Edubiase. Adansi West has a population of 235,680, and area 828 square kilometres. Its capital is Obuasi.- History...
, Akyem
Akyem
The Akyem are an Akan people. The term Akyem is used to describe a group of three states: Akyem Abuakwa, Akyem Kotoku and Akyem Bosome. These nations are located primarily in the eastern regions of modern-day Ghana. The term is also used to describe the general area where the Akyem ethnic group...
, Assin
Assin
The Assin are an Akan people who live in Ghana. The capital of the Assin district is Fosu....
, and Denkyira
Denkyira
Denkyira was a powerful nation of Akan people that existed in southern present-day Ghana from 1620. Like all Akans they originated from Bono state. Before 1620 Denkyira was called Agona. The ruler of the Denkyira was called Denkyirahene and the capital was Jukwaa...
peoples of Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, like the Baule
Baule
Baule is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France....
of Ivory Coast, are subgroups of the West African Akan
Akan people
The Akan people are an ethnic group found predominately in Ghana and The Ivory Coast. Akans are the majority in both of these countries and overall have a population of over 20 million people.The Akan speak Kwa languages-Origin and ethnogenesis:...
nation which is said to have migrated from the vicinity of the north-western Niger River
Niger River
The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...
after the fall of the Ghana Empire
Ghana Empire
The Ghana Empire or Wagadou Empire was located in what is now southeastern Mauritania, and Western Mali. Complex societies had existed in the region since about 1500 BCE, and around Ghana's core region since about 300 CE...
in the 13th century. Evidence of this is seen in royal courts of the Akan
Akan people
The Akan people are an ethnic group found predominately in Ghana and The Ivory Coast. Akans are the majority in both of these countries and overall have a population of over 20 million people.The Akan speak Kwa languages-Origin and ethnogenesis:...
Kings reflected by that of the Ashanti kings whose processions and ceremonies show remnants of ancient Ghana ceremonies. Ethnolinguists
Ethnolinguistics
Ethnolinguistics is a field of linguistics which studies the relationship between language and culture, and the way different ethnic groups perceive the world. It is the combination between ethnology and linguistics. The former refers to the way of life of an entire community i.e...
have substantiated the migration by tracing word usage and speech patterns along West Africa.
Thus, although the Ghana Empire was geographically different from present-day Ghana, some of its people, specifically the Akan
Akan people
The Akan people are an ethnic group found predominately in Ghana and The Ivory Coast. Akans are the majority in both of these countries and overall have a population of over 20 million people.The Akan speak Kwa languages-Origin and ethnogenesis:...
, moved to what is today Ghana, hence the historicity of the name. In fact, the North African Almoravid dynasty gold coin was renowned throughout the medieval world as being made of the purest of golds, since West African gold was 92% pure at the time it was mined, higher than old Egyptian gold ore, which started at 85%, a figure which was later refined to 95%. Evidence of early Ashanti connections to the Islamic world is the Ashanti word for money - "sikka" - the same as the Arabic word for minting money.
Bambara Empire
Ségou
Ségou is a city in south-central Mali, lying northeast of Bamako on the River Niger, in the region of Ségou. It was founded by the Bozo people, on a site about from the present town...
, now in Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
. It was ruled by the Kulubali or Coulibaly dynasty established circa 1640 by Fa Sine also known as Biton-si-u. The empire existed as a centralized state from 1712 to the 1861 invasion of Toucouleur
Toucouleur
The Toucouleurs are a Fula agricultural people who live primarily in West Africa: the north of Senegal in the Senegal River valley, Mauritania, and Mali.-History:...
conqueror El Hadj Umar Tall
Umar Tall
El Hadj Umar ibn Sa'id Tall , , born in what is now actual Senegal was a West African political leader, Islamic scholar, and Toucouleur military commander who founded a brief empire encompassing much of what is now Guinea, Senegal, and Mali.-Name:Umar Tall's name is spelled variously: in...
.
The Bambara Empire was structured around traditional Bambara institutions, including the kòmò, a body to resolve theological
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
concerns. The kòmò often consulted religious sculptures prior to making their decisions, particularly the four state boliw, large altars designed to aid the acquisition of political power.
In the Battle of Noukouma, in 1818, Bambara forces met and were defeated by Fula Muslim fighters rallied by the jihad of Cheikou Amadu (or Seku Amadu) of Massina. The Bambara Empire survived but was irreversibly weakened. Seku Amadu's forces decisively defeated the Bambara, taking Djenné
Djenné
Djenné is an Urban Commune and town in the Inland Niger Delta region of central Mali. In the 2009 census the commune had a population of 32,944. Administratively it is part of the Mopti Region....
and much of the territory around Mopti
Mopti
Mopti is a city at the confluence of the Niger and the Bani in Mali, between Timbuktu and Ségou. The city lies on three islands linked by dykes: the New Town, the Old Town and Medina Coura. As a result it is sometimes known as the "Venice of Mali".-History:The city of Mopti derives its name from...
, and forming it into a Massina Empire
Massina Empire
The Massina Empire was an early nineteenth-century Fulbe Jihad state centered in the Macina and Inner Niger Delta area of what is now the Mopti and Ségou Regions of Mali...
. Timbuktu would fall as well in 1845.
The real end of the empire, however, came at the hands of El Hadj Umar Tall
Umar Tall
El Hadj Umar ibn Sa'id Tall , , born in what is now actual Senegal was a West African political leader, Islamic scholar, and Toucouleur military commander who founded a brief empire encompassing much of what is now Guinea, Senegal, and Mali.-Name:Umar Tall's name is spelled variously: in...
, a Toucouleur
Toucouleur
The Toucouleurs are a Fula agricultural people who live primarily in West Africa: the north of Senegal in the Senegal River valley, Mauritania, and Mali.-History:...
conqueror who swept across West Africa from Dinguiraye
Dinguiraye
Dinguiraye is a small town in northern Guinea, known for its large mosque which until recently was thatched. Population 20,085 . The town is also home to an important Islamic group founded by El Hadj Umar Tall in the nineteenth century.-References:...
. Umar Tall's mujahideen
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...
readily defeated the Bambara, seizing Ségou itself on March 10, 1861, forcing the population to convert to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, and declaring an end to the Bambara Empire (which effectively became part of the newly declared Toucouleur Empire
Toucouleur Empire
The Toucouleur Empire was founded in the nineteenth century by El Hadj Umar Tall of the Toucouleur people, in part of present-day Mali....
).
Mali Empire
Mandinka people
The Mandinka, Malinke are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa with an estimated population of eleven million ....
from 1235 to 1645. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita
Sundiata Keita
Sundiata Keita, Sundjata Keyita, Mari Djata I or just Sundiata was the founder of the Mali Empire and celebrated as a hero of the Malinke people of West Africa in the semi-historical Epic of Sundiata....
and became renowned for the wealth
Wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
of its rulers, especially Mansa
Mansa
Mansa is a Mandinka word meaning "king of kings". It is particularly associated with the Keita Dynasty of the Mali Empire, which dominated West Africa from the thirteenth to the fifthteenth century...
Musa I
Mansa Musa
Musa I , commonly referred to as Mansa Musa, was the tenth mansa, which translates as "king of kings" or "emperor", of the Malian Empire...
. The Mali Empire had many profound cultural influences on West Africa, allowing the spread of its language, laws and customs along the Niger River
Niger River
The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...
.
The Mali Empire grew out of an area referred to by its contemporary inhabitants as Manden.
Manden, named for its inhabitants the Mandinka (initially Manden’ka with "ka" meaning people of), comprised most of present-day northern Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
and southern Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
. The empire was originally established as a federation of Mandinka tribes called the Manden Kurufa (literally Manden Federation), but it later became an empire ruling millions of people from nearly every ethnic group imaginable in West Africa.
The naming origins of the Mali Empire are complex and still debated in scholarly circles around the world. While the meaning of "Mali" is still contested, the process of how it entered the regional lexicon is not. As mentioned earlier, the Mandinka of the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
referred to their ethnic homeland as "Manden".
Among the many different ethnic groups surrounding Manden were Pulaar
Pulaar
Pulaar is a Fula language spoken primarily as a first language by Fula people and Tukolor in the Senegal River valley area traditionally known as Futa Tooro, and further south and east...
speaking groups in Macina
Macina
Macina may refer to:*Macina Empire , former state located in present-day Mali*Macina , the area in Mali once controlled by the empire*Macina, Mali-See also:*Masina *Messina...
, Tekrur and Fouta Djallon
Fouta Djallon
Fouta Djallon is a highland region in the centre of Guinea, West Africa. The indigenous name is Fuuta-Jaloo...
. In Pulaar, the Mandinka of Manden became the Malinke of Mali.
So while the Mandinka people generally referred to their land and capital province as Manden, its semi-nomadic Fula subjects residing on the heartland's western (Tekrur), southern (Fouta Djallon) and eastern borders (Macina) popularized the name Mali for this kingdom and later empire of the Middle Ages.
The Mandinka kingdoms of Mali or Manden had already existed several centuries before Sundiata's unification as a small state just to the south of the Soninké empire of Wagadou, better known as the Ghana Empire
Ghana Empire
The Ghana Empire or Wagadou Empire was located in what is now southeastern Mauritania, and Western Mali. Complex societies had existed in the region since about 1500 BCE, and around Ghana's core region since about 300 CE...
.
This area was composed of mountains, savannah and forests, providing ideal protection and resources for the population of hunters. Those not living in the mountains formed small city-states such as Toron, Ka-Ba and Niani
Niani
Niani may refer to...* Niani District, along the banks of the River Gambia, in the Central River Division of The Gambia. Named after the Niani tribe of The Gambia.* Niani village, in north east Guinea....
.
The Keita dynasty from which nearly every Mali emperor came traces its lineage back to Bilal
Bilal ibn Ribah
Bilal ibn Rabah or Bilal al-Habashi was an Ethiopian born in Mecca in the late 6th century, sometime between 578 and 582.The Islamic prophet Muhammad chose a former African slave Bilal as his muezzin, effectively making him the first muezzin of the Islamic faith...
, the faithful muezzin
Muezzin
A muezzin , or muzim, is the chosen person at a mosque who leads the call to prayer at Friday services and the five daily times for prayer from one of the mosque's minarets; in most modern mosques, electronic amplification aids the muezzin in his task.The professional muezzin is chosen for his...
of Islam's prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
. It was common practice during the Middle Ages for both Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
and Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
rulers to tie their bloodline back to a pivotal figure in their faith's history. So while the lineage of the Keita dynasty may be dubious at best, oral chroniclers have preserved a list of each Keita ruler from Lawalo (supposedly one of Bilal's seven sons whom settled in Mali) to Maghan Kon Fatta (father of Sundiata Keita).
Dahomey Kingdom
Now part of the Republic of BeninBenin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
The Ife Kingdom, Ile Ife
Now part of NigeriaIle-Ife, also known as Ife or Ife-Lodun, is the holy city of the Yoruba people, a large proportion of which live in Nigeria in West Africa. Ile-Ife appears in myths as the birthplace of life and the location where the first humans sprang forth.
The myth - Where the world began
According to Yoruba mythology, the world was originally a marshy, watery wasteland. In the sky above lived many gods, including the supreme God Olodumare or Olorun (the Owner of the Sky). These gods sometimes descended from the sky on spiderwebs and played in the marshy waters, but there was no land or human being there.One day Olorun called orisha-nla (the great god) Obatala, and told him to create solid land in the marshy waters below. He gave the Orisha a pigeon, a hen, and the shell of a snail containing some loose earth. Obatala descended to the waters and threw the loose earth into a small space. He then set loose the pigeon and hen, which began to scratch the earth and move it around. Soon the birds had covered a large area of the marshy waters and created solid ground.
The Orisha reported back to Olorun, who sent a chameleon to see what had been accomplished. The chameleon found that the earth was wide but not very dry. After a while, Olorun sent the creature to inspect the work again. This time the chameleon discovered a wide, dry land, which was called Ife (meaning "wide") and Ile (meaning "house"). All other earthly dwellings later evolved from colonies of Ile-Ife, and it was revered forever after as a sacred spot. It remains the home of the Oni, the spiritual leader of the Yoruba.
Ancient history
The African peoples who lived in Yorubaland, at least by the 4th Century BC, were not initially known as the Yoruba, although they shared a common ethnicity and language group. Both archeology and traditional Yoruba oral historians confirm the existence of people in this region for several millennia. Yoruba spiritual heritage maintains that the Yoruba clans are a unique people who were originally created at Ile-Ife.Legend holds that the creation was delegated by the supreme spiritual force, Olodumare, as stated above. This task that was attributed to orisha-nla Obatala may have actually been conducted by the Orishas Oduduwa and Eshu, who served as the divine messenger.
The name "Yoruba" is most likely an adaptation of 'Yo ru ebo', meaning "will venerate (make offerings to the) Orisha". This refers to the Aborisha spiritual religion of the Yoruba, which existed for centuries prior to Islamic and Christian proselytism. The Yoruba civilization remains one of the most technologically and artistically advanced in West Africa to this time.
Oduduwa
Some contemporary historians contend that some Yoruba are not indigenous to Yorubaland, but are descendants of immigrants to the region. This version of history contends that Oduduwa was, in fact, a mortal king, probably from northeast Africa, under whose leadership the Oyo region of Yorubaland was conquered sometime in the 11th century CE and the kingdom of Ife as it is currently constituted was established. Oduduwa's relatives established kingdoms in the rest of Yorubaland.One of Oduduwa's sons, Oranmiyan, took the throne of Benin and expanded the Oduduwa Dynasty eastwards. Further expansion led to the establishment of the Yoruba in what are now Southwest Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, with Yoruba city-states acknowledging the spiritual primacy of the ancient city of Ile Ife. The southeastern Benin Empire, ruled by a dynasty that traced its ancestry to Ifẹ and Oduduwa but largely populated by the Edo and other related ethnicities, also held considerable sway in the election of nobles and kings in eastern Yorubaland.
The modern center of traditional Yoruba culture
The modern Ile Ife remains the center of traditional Yoruba culture, a role it has filled for centuries. The politics may change, but the wellspring remains the same. It is for this reason that Arthur Hall in 1969 chose Ile Ife as the name for his cultural center on Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia. That's the complex reason. The simple reason is that Ile Ife can be interpreted to mean House of Love, an African compliment to the etymology of Philadelphia as the City of Love.The origin myth tells of God lowering a chain at Ile-Ife, which Oduduwa, the ancestor of all people, came down. He brought with him a cock, some earth and a palm kernel. He threw the earth into the water. The cock scratched the spot and it became land. The palm kernel grew into a massive tree with sixteen limbs, each representing one of the original sixteen kingdoms.
History tells a different story. There was a people living at what became Ile Ife, the Ugbo. The founders of the Ile Ife civilization invaded the Ugbo, coming from the east and led by King Oduduwa. Oduduwa and his people conquered the Ugbo and established the flourishing Ile Ife civilization. After the death of Oduduwa, the Yoruba people of Ile Ife founded the other Yoruba kingdoms, the most significant of which were the Oyo and the Benin.
Between 1100 CE and 1700 CE, the Yoruba Kingdom of Ife was at its peak. The ruler of Ife (the oba) was referred to as the Ooni of Ife. However, after 1700 the Yoruba Oyo Empire came to dominate the region.
The first Ile Ife Film was Ray Hartung's Ile Ife House of Love (1973). The first Ile Ife Film produced within the Ile Ife Center was Orisun Omi (The Well), which was filmed in Bahia, Brazil in 1978 and released in its present form in 1982. The literal translation of Orisun Omi from the Yoruba is the source of water.
The Benin Kingdom, Benin City
Now part of NigeriaFounded around the 10th century, Benin served as the capital of the Kingdom of Benin, the empire of the Oba of Benin
Oba of Benin
The Oba of Benin, or Omo N'Oba, is both the oba of the Edo people and the pretender to the defunct title of the king of the Benin Kingdom...
, which flourished from the 14th through the 17th century. No trace remains of the structures admired by European travellers to "the Great Benin", though the fabled Walls of Benin
Walls of Benin
The Walls of Benin were a combination of ramparts and moats, called Iya in the local language, used as a defense of the historical Benin City, formerly of the now defunct Kingdom of Benin and now the capital of the present-day Edo State of Nigeria...
have been undergoing preservation and restoration procedures for years. After Benin was visited by the Portuguese in 1472, historical Benin grew rich during the 16th and 17th centuries on the slave trade with Europe, carried in Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
ships, as well as through the export of some tropical products.
The Bight of Benin
Bight of Benin
The Bight of Benin is a bight on the western African coast that extends eastward for about 400 miles from Cape St. Paul to the Nun outlet of the Niger River. To the east it is continued by the Bight of Bonny . The bight is part of the Gulf of Guinea...
's shore was part of the so-called "Slave Coast
Slave Coast
The Slave Coast is the name of the coastal areas of present Togo, Benin and western Nigeria, a fertile region of coastal Western Africa along the Bight of Benin. In pre-colonial time it was one of the most densely populated parts of the African continent...
", from where many West Africans were sold (usually by local rulers) to foreign slave traders. In the early 16th century the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, and the King of Portugal sent Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
missionaries to Benin. Some residents of Benin could still speak a pidgin
Pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...
Portuguese in the late 19th century.
The city and kingdom of Benin declined after 1700, with the decline in the European slave trade, but revived in the 19th century with the development of the trade in palm products with Europeans. To preserve Benin's independence, bit by bit the Oba banned the export of goods from Benin, until the trade was exclusively in palm oil.
On the 1st of February, 1852, the whole Bight of Benin
Bight of Benin
The Bight of Benin is a bight on the western African coast that extends eastward for about 400 miles from Cape St. Paul to the Nun outlet of the Niger River. To the east it is continued by the Bight of Bonny . The bight is part of the Gulf of Guinea...
became a British protectorate where a Consul (representative)
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
represented the protector, until on the 6th of August, 1861, the Bights of Biafra and Benin became a united British protectorate, again under a British Consul.
In the "Punitive Expedition
Punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...
" of 1897, a 1200-strong British force, under the command of Admiral Sir Harry Rawson, conquered and burned the city, destroying much of the country's treasured art and dispersing nearly all that remained. Due to this the "Benin Bronzes
Benin Bronzes
The Benin Bronzes are a collection of more than 3000 brass plaques from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin . They were seized by a British force in the Punitive Expedition of 1897 and given to the British Foreign Office...
": portrait figures, busts, and groups created in iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
, carved ivory
Ivory
Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...
, and especially in brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
(conventionally called "bronze"), are on display in museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
s around the world. A scattered catalogue of some 2,500 pieces, the collection arguably constitutes the most argued over pool of antiquities after the disputed treasures of Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
itself.
After the fall of Benin, the British set apart Warri province in a bid to punish the Oba and curb his imperial power. The Benin monarchy was restored in 1914, but true power now lay with the colonial adminisration of Nigeria. The defeat, capture and subjugation of the empire's war-like people marked the sovereign end of one of Africa's greatest medieval states.
Queen Amina of Zaria
The seven original states of Hausaland: Katsina, DauraDaura Emirate
The Daura Emirate is a traditional state in Katsina State, Nigeria based on the town of Daura.Daura's traditional ruler, the Emir of Daura still rules as a ceremonial hereditary monarch, and maintains a palace.Umar Farouk dan Umar became Emir on 28 Feb 2007....
, Kano
Kano Emirate
The Kano Emirate is a traditional state in Northern Nigeria with headquarters in the city of Kano, capital of the modern Kano State.The Emirate was formed in 1805 during the Fulani jihad, when the old Hausa Kingdom of Kano became subject to the Sokoto Caliphate.During and after the colonial period...
, Zazzau, Gobir
Gobir
Gobir was a city-state in what is now Nigeria. Founded by the Hausa in the eleventh century, Gobir was one of the seven original kingdoms of Hausaland, and continued under Hausa rule for nearly seven hundred years. Its capital was the city of Alkalawa...
, Rano, and Garun Gabas cover an area of approximately 500 square miles (1,295 km²) and comprise the heart of the Hausa realm. In the 16th century, Queen Bakwa Turunku built the capital of Zazzau at Zaria, named after her younger daughter. Eventually, the entire state of Zazzau was renamed Zaria, which is now a province and traditional kingdom in present-day Nigeria.
However, it was her elder daughter, the legendary Amina (or Aminatu), who inherited her mother's warlike nature. Amina was 16 years old when her mother became queen and she was given the traditional title of Magajiya, an honourific borne by the daughters of monarchs. She honed her military skills and became famous for her bravery and military exploits, as she is celebrated in song as "Amina, daughter of Nikatau, a woman as capable as a man."
Amina is credited as the architectural overseer who created the strong earthen walls that surround her city, which were the prototype for the fortifications used in all Hausa states. She subsequently built many of these fortifications, which became known as ganuwar Amina or Amina's walls, around various conquered cities.
The objectives of her conquests were twofold: extension of her nation beyond its primary borders and reducing the conquered cities to a vassal status. Sultan Muhammad Bello of Sokoto
Sokoto
Sokoto is a city located in the extreme northwest of Nigeria, near to the confluence of the Sokoto River and the Rima River. As of 2006 it has a population of 427,760...
stated that, "She made war upon these countries and overcame them entirely so that the people of Katsina paid tribute to her and the men of Kano and... also made war on cities of Bauchi till her kingdom reached to the sea in the south and the west." Likewise, she led her armies as far as Nupe
Nupe
The Nupe, traditionally called the Tapa by the neighbouring Yoruba, are an ethnic group located primarily in the Middle Belt and northern Nigeria, and are the dominant group in Niger and an important minority in Kwara State.-History:...
and, according to the Kano Chronicle, "The Sarkin Nupe sent her (i.e. the princess) 40 eunuchs and 10,000 kola nuts. She was the first in Hausaland to own eunuchs and kola nut
Kola nut
Kola Nut is the nut of the kola tree, a genus of trees native to the tropical rainforests of Africa, classified in the family Malvaceae, subfamily Sterculioideae . It is related to the South American genus Theobroma, or cocoa...
s."
Amina was a pre-eminent gimbiya (princess) but various theories exist as to the time of her reign or if she ever was a queen. One explanation states that she reigned from approximately 1536 to 1573, while another posits that she became queen after her brother Karama's death, in 1576. Yet another claims that although she was a leading princess and de facto ruler, she was never a titular queen.
Despite the discrepancies in the tale of her life, one thing is certain, over a 34-year period, her many conquests and subsequent annexation of the territories conquered extended the borders of Zaria, which also grew in importance as a result and which became the center of the North-South Saharan trade and the East-West Sudan trade.
Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
He inherited his imperial blood through his paternal grandmother, Princess Tenagnework Sahle Selassie, who was an aunt of Emperor Menelik II, and as such, claimed to be a direct descendant of Makeda, the queen of ShebaSheba
Sheba was a kingdom mentioned in the Jewish scriptures and the Qur'an...
, and King Solomon
Solomon
Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...
of the ancient Israel. Prior to his accession to the imperial title, he had reigned successively as the national crown prince and as a provincial king under the authority of his eventual predecessor, the Empress Zauditu.
Upon his coronation as emperor and in keeping with the traditions of the Solomonidi dynasty that had reigned in highland Ethiopia since 1297, Haile Selassie's throne name and title were joined to the imperial motto, so that all court documents and seals bore the inscription: "The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has conquered! Haile Selassie I, Elect of God King of Kings of Ethiopia". The use of this formula dates to the dynasty's Solomonic origins, as well as to the Christianized throne from the period of Ezana; all monarchs being required to trace their lineage back to Menelik I, who in the Ethiopian tradition was the offspring of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome Kuti
She was the doyen of female rights in Nigeria and was regarded by many as "The Mother of Africa", being a very powerful force at a time when it was a taboo for women to be heard. As a founding mother of her nation, Chieftess Funmilayo Ransome-KutiFunmilayo Ransome-Kuti
Funmilayo Ransome Kuti ,, born Francis Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas to Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas and Lucretia Phyllis Omoyeni Adeosolu, was a teacher, political campaigner, Women's rights activist and traditional aristocrat...
fought for the rights of her countrywomen against a neo-traditionalistic sexism which was, at least in her view, contrary to the true traditions of her continent. Due to these efforts, she was described in 1947 by the West African Pilot
West African Pilot
The West African Pilot was a newspaper launched in Nigeria by Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1937, dedicated to fightingfor independence from British colonial rule.-Foundation and growth:...
as the Lioness of Lisabi. A life-long teacher and scholar, Ransome-Kuti served with distinction as an educator and activist for the vast majority of her days on Earth.
She led her fellow Egba
Egba
The Egba are a clan of the Yoruba people who live in western Nigeria. Many Egba live in the city of Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State.- History :...
women on a campaign against the indiscriminate taxation of women by the British colonial government, and that struggle led to the abdication of the Egba high king Oba Ademola II in 1949 due to his having been granted the right to collect the said taxes. She also oversaw the abolition of separate taxes for women. The Chieftess subsequently fought for the rights of women to vote in Africa at a time when the practice was even a novelty to many of the World's most advanced nations.
Ransome-Kuti was a reigning member of the House of Chiefs
House of chiefs
A House of chiefs is a post-colonial assembly, either legislative or advisory, that is recognised by either a national or regional government as consisting of and providing a collective, public voice for an ethnic group's pre-colonial authorities...
of her native Yorubaland and served as the first Nigerian woman to drive a car in Nigeria, an act that was previously regarded as the exclusive preserve of the men of her country. In arguably her greatest achievement, she served as the only female member of the team of nationalists which successfully negotiated the independence of Nigeria.
She founded an organization for women in Abeokuta, with a membership tally of over 20 thousand individuals spanning both literate and illiterate women. She launched the organization into public consciousness when she rallied women against price controls which were hurting the trade of market women, trading having been one of the major occupations of women in western Nigeria at the time.
- Her husband Rev. Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti
He fought for commoners too, serving as one of the founders of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) in the 1930s - a platform established to fight for the rights of the underprivileged teachers of the colonial era - and of the Nigerian Union of Students (NUS).
Rev. Kuti was reputed to have become an Anglican priest not as a matter of interest but as the only means to gain western education at the time of his youth, as he could not afford education any other way.
Rev. Ransome-Kuti also established the Abeokuta Grammar School as a direct response and challenge to the European missionaries of the era, who claimed that they could not give true education from the African perspective to Africans. Indeed he persuaded his nephew, the later Professor Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was recognised as a man "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence", and became the first African in Africa and...
, not to leave the school for Government College, Ibadan, when he was admitted there.
Rev. and Mrs. Kuti's children were also powerful human rights activists in their own rights:
- Professor Olikoye Ransome-KutiOlikoye Ransome-KutiOlikoye Ransome-Kuti, a paediatrician, activist, was a health minister in his native Nigeria.-Early life:He was born in Ijebu Ode in 1927, in present day Ogun State, Nigeria...
A consultant paediatrician, former Health Minister of Nigeria under several regimes, one-time Chairman of the Executive Board of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
- Musical legend Olufela Anikulapo-Kuti - better known as Fela KutiFela KutiFela Anikulapo Kuti , or simply Fela , was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.-Biography:...
or just Fela
He was a multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick. He is one of the most popular musicians ever to come out of Africa.
- Dr Bekololari KutiBeko Ransome-KutiDr. Bekolari Ransome-Kuti was a Nigerian medical doctor known for his work as a human rights activist.-Early life:...
(Beko Kuti),
Beko Ransome-Kuti helped to form Nigeria's first human rights organization, the Campaign for Democracy, which in 1993 opposed the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. Ransome-Kuti was a fellow of the West African College of Physicians and Surgeons, a leading figure in the British Commonwealth's human rights committee, chair of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights and executive director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance.
- their sister Dolupo Kuti.
Members of her extended family were also very influential people who lived their lives for the betterment of the common people. For example:
- Her Husband's nephew (cousin to her children) Prof. Wole SoyinkaWole SoyinkaAkinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was recognised as a man "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence", and became the first African in Africa and...
He is a writer, poet and playwright, and is considered by some as Africa's most distinguished author, having won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, the first African to be so honored.
Wole Soyinka's mother - Grace Eniọla Soyinka - dubbed "Wild Christian" by Wọle, owned a shop in the nearby market and was a respected political activist within the local community. Soyinka's mother was also very active - side-by-side with Mrs. Kuti - in that struggle that led to the abolition of indiscriminate taxation against women.
Wole Soyinka's father - Samuel Ayọdele Soyinka - was the headmaster of St. Peters School in Abẹokuta.
Hamilton Naki
He was a "skilled self-taught surgeon, versed in the argot and techniques of transplants despite leaving school at 14", although he was not part of the team that performed the first human-to-human heart transplantationHeart transplantation
A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplantation, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease. As of 2007 the most common procedure was to take a working heart from a recently deceased organ donor and implant it into the...
in 1967 as was reported in his obituaries.
Samuel Ajayi Crowther
Ajayi was captured by Fulani slave raiders in 1821 and sold to PortuguesePortuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
slave traders. Before leaving port, his ship was boarded by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, and Crowther was taken to Freetown, Sierra Leone and released.
Several years later, the now Rev. Dr. Crowther began translating the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
into the Yoruba language
Yoruba language
Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...
and compiling a Yoruba dictionary
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
.
He also began codifying other languages.
Following the British Niger Expeditions of 1854 and 1857, Crowther produced a primer for the Igbo
Igbo language
Igbo , or Igbo proper, is a native language of the Igbo people, an ethnic group primarily located in southeastern Nigeria. There are approximately 20 million speakers that are mostly in Nigeria and are primarily of Igbo descent. Igbo is a national language of Nigeria. It is written in the Latin...
language in 1857, another for the Nupe
Nupe
The Nupe, traditionally called the Tapa by the neighbouring Yoruba, are an ethnic group located primarily in the Middle Belt and northern Nigeria, and are the dominant group in Niger and an important minority in Kwara State.-History:...
language in 1860, and a full grammar and vocabulary of Nupe in 1864.
In 1864, Crowther was ordained as the first African bishop of the Anglican Church. That same year he also received a Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects....
degree from Oxford University.
Makeda, The Queen of Sheba (960 B.C.)
The Queen of Sheba, (Arabic Malekat sabaa ملكة سبأ, Nigista Saba Ge'ezGe'ez language
Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa...
: ንግሥተ ሳባ), referred to in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
books of 1 Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
and 2 Chronicles
Books of Chronicles
The Books of Chronicles are part of the Hebrew Bible. In the Masoretic Text, it appears as the first or last book of the Ketuvim . Chronicles largely parallels the Davidic narratives in the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings...
, the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
, and Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
n history, was the ruler of Sheba
Sheba
Sheba was a kingdom mentioned in the Jewish scriptures and the Qur'an...
, an ancient kingdom which modern archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
speculates was located in present-day Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
or Eritrea
Eritrea
Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...
, Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
.
Unnamed in the Biblical text, she is called Makeda (Ge'ez
Ge'ez alphabet
Ge'ez , also called Ethiopic, is a script used as an abugida for several languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea but originated in an abjad used to write Ge'ez, now the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Church...
: ማክዳ mākidā) in the Ethiopian tradition, and in Islamic tradition her name is Bilqis. In some books she is referred to as Belkis. Alternative names given for her have been Nikaule or Nicaula. She supposedly lived in the 10th century BC.
She is better known to the world as the Queen of Sheba.
In his book, "World's Great Men of Color", J.A. Rogers, gives this description: "Out of the mists of three thousand years, emerges this beautiful story of a Black Queen, who attracted by the fame of a Judean monarch, made a long journey to see him."
The Queen of Sheba is said to have undertaken a long and difficult journey to Jerusalem, in order to learn of the wisdom of the great King Solomon. Makeda and King Solomon were equally impressed with each other. Out of their relationship was born a son, according to the Ethiopian Book of the Glory of Kings, Menelik I.
This Queen is said to have reigned over Sheba and Arabia as well as Ethiopia. The queen of Sheba's capital was Debra Makeda, which she built for herself.
In Ethiopia's church of Axum, there is a copy of what is said to be one of the Tables of Law that Solomon gave to Menelik I.
The story of the Queen of Sheba is deeply cherished in Ethiopia as part of the national heritage. This African Queen serves as one of the exclusive group of people that appear in the traditions of several different religions, with her being mentioned in two holy books- the Bible and the Koran.
Usman dan Fodio
Shaihu Usman dan Fodio (also referred to as Shaikh Usman Ibn Fodio, Shehu Uthman Dan Fuduye, or Shehu Usman dan Fodio, 1754–1817) was a writer, preacher, Islamic reformer and Sultan of Sokoto. Dan Fodio was one of a class of urbanized ethnic FulaniFula people
Fula people or Fulani or Fulbe are an ethnic group spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa...
living in the Hausa
Hausa people
The Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. They are a Sahelian people chiefly located in northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger, but having significant numbers living in regions of Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Chad and Sudan...
city-states in what is today northern Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. He lived in the city-state of Gobir
Gobir
Gobir was a city-state in what is now Nigeria. Founded by the Hausa in the eleventh century, Gobir was one of the seven original kingdoms of Hausaland, and continued under Hausa rule for nearly seven hundred years. Its capital was the city of Alkalawa...
, and is considered an Islamic revivalist; he encouraged the education of women in religious matters, and several of his daughters emerged as scholars and writers (with the most prominent of them being the Princess Nana Asmau).
Dan Fodio was well-educated in classical Islamic science, philosophy and theology, and became a revered religious thinker in his own right. His teacher, Jibril ibn 'Umar, argued that it was the duty and within the power of religious movements to establish the ideal society, free from oppression and vice. Dan Fodio used his influence to secure approval to create a religious community in his hometown of Degel
Degel
Degel is a town in northern Nigeria. Once a part of the Hausa city-state of Gobir, Degel is particularly noted for being the home of Fulani Islamic reformer Usman dan Fodio from 1774 to 1804. Dan Fodio built a large following in the area until, fearing his growing power, Yunfa of Gobir ordered...
that would, or so he hoped, be a model town.
After the Fulani War
Fulani War
The Fulani War of 1804-1810, also known as the Fulani Jihad or Jihad of Usman dan Fodio, was a military conquest in present day Nigeria and Cameroon. Expelled from Gobir by his former student Yunfa in 1802, Islamic reformer Usman dan Fodio assembled a Fulani army to lead in jihad against the Hausa...
, he became the reigning commander of the largest state in th Africa of its day, the Fulani Empire
Fulani Empire
The Sokoto Caliphate is an Islamic spiritual community in Nigeria, led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’adu Abubakar. Founded during the Fulani Jihad in 1809 by Usuman dan Fodio, it was one of the most powerful empires in sub-Saharan Africa prior to European conquest and colonization...
. Dan Fodio worked to establish an efficient government, one grounded in Islamic law. Already aged at the beginning of the war, he retired in 1815 and passed the title of Sultan of Sokoto to his son, Muhammed Bello
Muhammed Bello
Muhammed Bello was the son and aide of Usman dan Fodio. He became the second Sultan of Sokoto following his father's 1815 retirement from the throne. Bello faced early challenges from dissident leaders such as 'Abd al-Salam, and rivalries between the key families of his father's jihad...
.
Dan Fodio's uprising inspired a number of later West African jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
s, including those of Massina Empire
Massina Empire
The Massina Empire was an early nineteenth-century Fulbe Jihad state centered in the Macina and Inner Niger Delta area of what is now the Mopti and Ségou Regions of Mali...
founder Seku Amadu
Seku Amadu
Seku Amadu was the founder of the Fula Massina Empire in what is now the Mopti Region of Mali...
, Toucouleur Empire
Toucouleur Empire
The Toucouleur Empire was founded in the nineteenth century by El Hadj Umar Tall of the Toucouleur people, in part of present-day Mali....
founder El Hadj Umar Tall
Umar Tall
El Hadj Umar ibn Sa'id Tall , , born in what is now actual Senegal was a West African political leader, Islamic scholar, and Toucouleur military commander who founded a brief empire encompassing much of what is now Guinea, Senegal, and Mali.-Name:Umar Tall's name is spelled variously: in...
(who married one of dan Fodio's granddaughters), Wassoulou Empire
Wassoulou Empire
The Wassoulou Empire, sometimes referred to as the Mandinka Empire, was a short-lived empire of West Africa built from the conquests of Dyula ruler Samori Ture and destroyed by the French colonial army....
founder Samori, and Adamawa Emirate
Adamawa Emirate
The Adamawa Emirate is a traditional state located in Fumbina, what is now the Adamawa State, Nigeria, and previously also in the three northern provinces of Cameroon . It was founded by Modibo Adama, a commander of Sheikh Usman dan Fodio, the man who began the Fulani jihad in 1809...
founder Modibo Adama
Modibo Adama
Adama bi Ardo Hassana , more commonly known as Modibo Adama, was a Fulani scholar and holy warrior. He led a jihad into the region of Fumbina , opening the region for Fulani colonisation...
, who served as one of dan Fodio's provincial chiefs.
Queen Nzingha of Ndongo (1582–1663) - Angola
Ann Nzingha "Queen of Ndongo" (1582–1663)In the 16th century, the Portuguese stake in the slave trade was threatened by England and France. This caused the Portuguese to transfer their slave-trading activities southward to the Congo and South West Africa. Their most stubborn opposition, as they entered the final phase of the conquest of Angola, came from a queen who was a great head of state, and a military leader with few peers in her time.
The important facts about her life are outlined by Professor Glasgow of Bowie, Maryland:
"Her extraordinary story begins about 1582, the year of her birth. She is referred to as Nzingha, or Jinga, but is better known as Ann Nzingha. She was the sister of the then-reigning King of Ndongo, Ngoli Bbondi, whose country was later called Angola. Nzingha was from an ethnic group called the Jagas. The Jagas were an extremely militant group who formed a human shield against the Portuguese slave traders. Nzingha never accepted the Portuguese conquest of Angola, and was always on the military offensive. As part of her strategy against the invaders, she formed an alliance with the Dutch, who she intended to use to defeat the Portuguese slave traders."
In 1623, at the age of forty-one, Nzingha became Queen of Ndongo. She forbade her subjects to call her Queen, preferring to be called King, and when leading an army in battle, dressed in men's clothing.
In 1659, at the age of seventy-five, she signed a treaty with the Portuguese, bringing her no feeling of triumph. Nzingha had resisted the Portuguese most of her adult life. African bravery, however, was no match for gunpowder. This great African woman died in 1663, which was followed by the massive expansion of the Portuguese slave trade.
See also
- African archaeologyAfrican archaeologyThe continent of Africa has the longest record of human activity of any part of the world and along with its geographical extent, it contains an enormous archaeological resource...
- Economic history of AfricaEconomic history of AfricaHumanity originated in Africa, and as soon as human societies existed so did economic activity. Earliest humans were hunter gatherers living in small, family groupings. Even then there was considerable trade that could cover long distances...
- Historhyy of Africa
- History of North AfricaHistory of North AfricaNorth Africa is a relatively thin strip of land between the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean, stretching from Moroccan Atlantic coast to Egypt. The region comprises the modern countries, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Libya and Egypt. The history of the region is a mix of influences...
- History of Southern Africa
- History of West AfricaHistory of West AfricaThe partial history of West Africa can be divided into five major periods:#Its prehistory, in which the first human settlers arrived, agriculture developed, and contact made with the Mediterranean civilizations to the north....
- Iya NlaIya NlaFollowers of the Yoruba religion believe that Ìyá Nlá, or "Our Mothers", is a spiritual force that gives them access to the "Forces of Nature" and the wisdom of their ancestors. They believe that this force is the source of life and social harmony. They believe that dedicated followers will gain...
- Pan-AfricanismPan-AfricanismPan-Africanism is a movement that seeks to unify African people or people living in Africa, into a "one African community". Differing types of Pan-Africanism seek different levels of economic, racial, social, or political unity...
- Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric culturesSynoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric culturesThe synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures gives a rough picture of the relationships between the various principal cultures of prehistory outside the Americas, Antarctica, Australia and Oceania...