₦airaland Forum

anonymous6: Are you Ghanian or Caribbean?

Canadian really, of Caribbean decent whos family owns property in both lands.

koyyes: What in the world is this?, advice Africans to move with time and not play nollywood films like people that want to be stuck in the past. This should be the last recommendation from someone claiming canadian citizen.

What's wrong with sticking with culture, seems like you need tutoring on what tradition is
https://www.nairaland.com/1796388/tradition-progress

Why gathering like that in a foreign land( don't they change their clothing after the meeting and put on western clothes when they go to work) if they want to prove a point, let them go back to their country to continue their meetings and contribute directly to the development of their country!!

It seems you didn't do the research. All of those people are AAs who converted to yoruba religion and are trying to spread African culture and prove a point as you said. I used him as an example of a foreigner trying to influence and promote Africa.

And by the way, don't you think their presence there has an influence on the american citizen like they have on us? Or are you not aware that some whites enjoy listening to afro juju music? Haven't you seen african prints and ankara materials being used in the fashion industry? We like it when we spread our culture to the western land but we don't like it when they spread their's to our land. Is that not selfishness!!!

We simply don't like non-progressive aspects of culture which is much of western culture taught to Africa in a nutshell, read the link I posted.

koyyes: You keep contradicting yourself. First of all, you implied that Africans were doing well before we allowed westerners to interfere in our affairs. Now you are promoting external influences to solve africa's problems. What are you saying?

Does this look like external influence to you?
Oyotunji village, USA
[img]http://assets.atlasobscura.com/media/BAhbCVsHOgZmSSJGdXBsb2Fkcy9wbGFjZV9pbWFnZXMvMjU2NzU3M2M3NTk0ZTdlYWQxY2MwM2ZkYWIwNTYwNzBmMzY2OWVkNi5qcGcGOgZFVFsIOgZwOgp0aHVtYkkiCng0MDA+BjsGVFsHOwc6CnN0cmlwWwk7BzoMY29udmVydEkiEC1xdWFsaXR5IDkxBjsGVDA/2567573c7594e7ead1cc03fdab056070f3669ed6.jpg[/img]

I don't want to keep going back and forth. Let me just say this- Nigeria's issues regarding it's culture/ tradition will continue to remain a subject of discussion due to many factors which are unavoidable as long as a country called Nigeria still exists. I have given one of the factors in my earlier post and if really, you are enlightened about Nigeria, you will understand but if not, just leave matters the way they are. This is the least of Nigeria's problem right now.

Since the "factors" you gave were at least partially inaccurate, it is important to remain objective and look for solutions then back then up with sources. This includes anyone who has something to contribute, no matter where they come from. I have contributed to this thread and placed sources to back up my reasonings. This, hopefully will strike a cord with people looking for change by enlightening them so they can properly tell their position in history.

koyyes: You should have said that a long time ago so I would have in turn told you to step aside or better still scram!!! What solutions have you given so far?What makes you think you are in the position to tell us what to do? You don't know half of Nigeria's history nor do you feel the 'heat'. What gives you that right! You of all people should know better that nigeria's problems are best solved by nigerians- that is what you should be telling us and not the nonsense you've been spewing!! I really hope for your sake that you are not a black forming canadian citizen-that will just make you the worst hypocrite ever! Keep your links to yourself. I am a nigerian and I don't need a FOREIGNER to lecture me on my history!!

Tell that to cam4pres and other foreigners here.And tell Kidstranglehold, the maker of the kongo thread, to get off too since he is a foreigner too.

Africans/Caribbeans/AAs, we are all suffering under the same conditions and we are all making the same stupid mistakes. Since Africa has a long, independent history, a large population, and is the only African society aside from Haiti to have thrived before the whiteman, I thought I should start here. Didn't Kwame Nkrumah learn from the likes of Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X before taking his country to the next level? Wasn't African studies(and afrocentrism) born in the west? And without it's contributions to the history books you would not be reciting any of your history like you are doing now.
And what about this guy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adefunmi
And there are many more too.

Your people stepped onto Haitian soil to help liberate them from the french, then proceeded annexed them into the African union while blabbering about black unity across the Caribbean, and now you are upset about "foreigners" telling you what to do? Bro, please. I've never seen a person so vexed about his people helping each other.

2prexios: 1. When was Ile Ife founded?

Ife was founded at year zero, day one, Yoruba ancestors era. To convert to Greco-Roman time, one needs to rely on Ife archeological specimen, which means we have to take the oldest sample of such specimen and determine its half life or carbon date. Whatever that is can be put in either BCE or AD, which is our (modern history) chronological time frame.

It was actually founded in 300BCE. Nice try though.
http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=008915

2. What are stand-in for Yoruba oral records?

There are several stand-in for Yoruba oral records that have survive to our time, if what you mean are oral record system of the Yorubas. the list at my disposal includes and not limited to the following


1. Oriki,

2. Ayajo,

3. Ogede,

4. Ofo,

5. Ijala,

6. Aroko,

7. Oro- Ile,

8. Ifa oracular dicta.

The above are oral historical instruments that the Yoruba ancestors devised to preserve their history and enable the same permeate their progeny's lifestyle beliefs and and culture till it get to our age in modern times.

Ok.

3. What is sugbo Eredo?

The first record of Sugbo Eredo came from the colonial periods, as early as 1910 thereabout. It was said to have been the work of Sugbo, an ancient woman claimed to be barren and was said to have erected the site for her remembrance. You can read more about Sugbo Eredo at Wikipedia as much as recent archeological findings around the monument.

A beauty isn't it.

4. Could the people who developed these be said to be less evolved?

These are unique achievements that has been accomplished by the Yoruba ancestors, but wonders of monumental proportion litters every culture, hence the old world compiled her seven wonders of the world. Have we found or credited the builders of Stonehenge? how about the sphinx and the hanging garden of babylon and the wall of china?

If the above make us more evolve than others, then we are people before our time, and if we are hooked to the past glory and praise the ancestors, what will the ancestors praise about us, that we don't care to put up a new world wonder may mean we are retrogressing, on backward-spiral.

I never said anything about evolution let alone who is more evolved than who. That and the biological race notion as we see it today is a myth scientists have debunked several times over. Please, it's time to focus on ways to develop Nigeria, not silly eugenics practices.

This
https://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/nu51233ba6.jpg

Anybody willing to contribute?

koyyes: looool, wtf!!! So why are we here today?where did we go wrong?oh, you want to blame western influence right? In order words, we were better of before we were forcefully married together as nigerians because right now, we are all dum and can't build a simple bridge without the white men interfering right?Like the typical nigerian that you are.

1stly, I'm not Nigerian, check my profile. But that doesn't stop me from assisting in the growth and appreciation of cultures I greatly admire.

Do yourself a favor and read your history book and stop giving lame excuses!!!

https://www.writingwinters.com/wp-content/uploads/House.gif
You...are talking to me...about reading a history book?
Did just join NL or something? There are several threads that people put time and effort into to educate the likes of you. Please, I beg of you, don't let these peoples threads go to waste.
https://www.nairaland.com/582176/benin-art-architecture/
https://www.nairaland.com/1003303/oyo-empire-1300ce
https://www.nairaland.com/1235003/kongo-kingdom...a-underrated-kingdom
https://www.nairaland.com/1796503/traditional-african-boat-designs
https://www.nairaland.com/1249503/interesting-images-precolonial-early-colonial
And try to learn something from this forum too.
http://historum.com/middle-eastern-african-history/58840-diversity-early-african-architecture-ruins-thread.html

alienYOUTH: History is only relevant if it helped achieve a laudable Today.

History only affects today if the inhabitants of this time period do not sit on their fat a.sses waiting for handout.
If I burned all records documenting Sir Issac Newton's existence, he would be wiped from history all together.
As Karl Khan states...

Karl Khan: A hallowed past is not a dead past -- it is the foundation for the works of the present and future. The past dies when its heirs fail to increase it.

DarryOsh: I get you. I was actually appalled when last year, on a thread on nairaland, I learned that the government had decided to scrap history as a subject in schools. Before then I always felt history was not prominent enough in our curriculum. I learned the real stuff of the Nigerian civil war from Chimamanda ' s half of a yellow sun. Before then my erroneous belief about d war was as follows:

'the easterners decided to secede because oil was discovered in their region. They were greedy. There was a war, a few died. '

I was so ignorant, I was embarrassed to learn about my ignorance . That was when I started to wonder why all the schools I attended never offered history. I think history should b Compulsory in primary and secondary schools.

Recently I read about the Oyo empire when someone created an elaborate thread about it. It was a shock to learn that I come from such a great place with great history. Of course I knew a lot about the British, Greek, Egyptian and Roman empires but very little about my own Oyo. It is such a shame . We need to teach history as a compulsory subject.

I'm caught on the fence about weather the cancellation of history courses was a good or bad thing, because if the curriculum is majority colonial/post-colonial history and outdated, then I agree it should probably be scrapped until Nigerian liberate themselves from inferiority complex motivating them to fabricate history for their personal westernized agenda. From what I've heard all it seems to do is glorify the colonialists and omit pre-colonial achievements. Any "history" course that fails to include the history of our great thinkers before the fall of civilization should be scrapped.

alienYOUTH: Irrespective of where you come from, it is where u r going to that matters; for of more importance is the end of a thing than the beginning.

I'm not going to mince words and i'll be very brief.

It is only a reprobate that sees light and decides to live in the dark. The reason why we are adults is to be able to judge for ourselves what is good and follow accordingly. Everyman will be held responsible for his actions and beliefs, and he will subsequently be judged by them; so i'm not going to force my beliefs down anyone's throat, I'm just stating the logic behind my beliefs, you state yours.

Not everything the "western world" has to offer is good & pure, but i dare say 90% of what we are today is because of the enlightenment they have brought back to Africa. The "White men" did not drop from space, we were all created the same time; but they chose to leave culture and tradition behind and seek knowledge.

Africa is the birthplace of the human race, this has been proven scientifically. if you look at the map of the world, you will see that the further away from Africa a country is, the more advanced they appear to be; this is because some select few decided to leave the comfort of tradition behind and seek enlightenment.

I dare say, my "African" tradition has little to offer me besides laziness and darkness; I will be glad if someone can enlighten me otherwise. If the "white people" refused to come back to Africa to enlighten us, we will still be sitting on our myopic, though content, prehistoric butts.

The people who refuse to be negatively "westernized" (China, Russia, etc) have cultures and traditions that work and it is obvious they are progressing, i will definitely be singing a different tune if my African tradition could boast of the same. So in the absence of that, i would gladly shove my dark culture down the drain and embrace that which gives me light and a better life, after all, culture was made by/for man and not vice versa.

Anything in life that plans to remain relevant has to evolve and adapt; be it a business, culture, or even human beings themselves. So if the hypocritical few on this forum decide they want to set their traditions and culture in stone, then only time will tell, because even stone will succumb to erosion with time.

Do you even know what enlightenment is? It is the question of traditions and beliefs in a society, Africans have been doing that for ages.
It sometimes goes hand-in-hand with atheism & skepticism which has also been with Africans in the for of the Pygmies, Zulu, Cameroonian beliefs, etc.
http://atheism.about.com/od/atheismhistory/a/PrimitiveAtheismSkepticism.htm

koyyes: I tell you, if you read Pre-Nigeria's history, you'll understand why we have our never ending problems today. Our attitude did not develop over night. It's an in built inheritance.

Developed from where in the pre-colonial times? Does Nigeria build paved roads? Have transparent, foreword thinking governance? Evolving technology? Recreational activities? Clean water? Plumbing? Proper health care? Proper law enforcing system? Clean streets? Unique, inspiring architecture? Massive building projects? A powerful army that can put up resistance to the west? Sense of unity? Self-sufficiency? Equal opportunities for everyone? Acceptance of people from all religions and backgrounds? Put it's people before foreigners? All of these things our forefathers had in those days, and you continue to look down on advancement.

Have you looked at pre-colonial Nigeria? Because historians around the world will tell you that pre-Nigeria is renown for many human achievements including building two the worlds largest man-made structures(wall of benin & sungbo's eredo), being among the first to develop iron/steel technology and among the first to develop water-craft. But you still look down on advancement. No wonder traditionalists with-draw from politics so they don't have to deal with backwards people from the rest of the country, if our forefathers could travel to the 21st century, they would take one look at this hell-hole,shake their heads in shame, and get a visa. I would too.
smdh.

More coastal pirogues (larger ones are sea-faring)
[img]http://www.seableue.fr/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SENEGAL-PIROGUE.jpg[/img]
[img]http://s2.lemde.fr/image/2012/05/10/534x267/1699508_3_ce5c_une-scene-du-film-franco-senegalais-de_8a680474c6a1b33471c68b62291b8057.jpg[/img]
https://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6601f/x6601f0j.gif
https://www.locasenegal.net/photos/gd/pirogue_saly.jpg
https://www.robinwyatt.org/photography/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/senegal-dakar-yoff-beach-tourism-travel-photographer-fishing-boats-17481.jpg
https://fishconsult.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Building-and-maintenance-of-fishing-boats-Gambia.png

koyyes: Well said! As time passes, things advance and situation arises that brings cultural/traditional changes. The op cannot tell us that he ties wrapper to work or farms for a living. It has nothing to do with inferiority complex. We are only moving/evolving with time- that is the key to development! Any culture that depicts wickedness and selfishness that brings tears to the eyes of people deserve to go extinct! After all, the same promoters of our culture/tradition sold their brothers to the whites as slaves for petty things like mirror.

Who sold who's brother? That was illegal in those times.

DarryOsh: Lol. I thought I was the only one that sneered at that statement.

All this culture issue sef ehn e get as e be o. What you guys should realise is that there are over fifty countries in Africa , thousands of languages and distinct cultures (although we could argue thatI there are some similarities)

And the so called oyibos that we jumble up together and regard as Western culture, they once had distinct cultural practices. But with continued interaction over long periods they absorbed from one another and became really similar.

I am pan African. I love Nigeria. I speak my native language very very well. I speak English very very well. However I read and write English much better than my native language.

English is our lingua franca. That is the major thing that has led to us absorbing the so called western culture. Once a language becomes dominant in a place the battle for cultural supremacy is half won. The dominant language you speak determines the books you read, the movies you watch, the online sites you visit etc. We all know that the info we consume affects how we see things. So over time the things we read about (practices, dressing, etc) look to us as the 'normal and acceptable'.

We can certainly take steps to preserve aspects of our culture but I don't think we can go back to to pre-colonial cultural Africa.

A lot of cultures have had to deal with this. A lot of people don't even know that there are local languages in places like Ireland till this day .

maybe not precisly, but we can reinstate certain customs, laws, beliefs that existed during these times. Who knows, maybe we can turn back the political/social clock like what happened to NL after the attack.

angela98: Yes they do depending on family background. Particularly the older generation. But the younger generation are becoming more westernized, liberated and they are now having their own voice.they are also more exposed and wiser because the world have changed and now very open. The birth of technology changed a lot of conception.

yes, they are indeed wiser. This "liberation" is why they fail miserably at build a functioning, working country like their "uneducated" forefathers did without breaking a sweat. Yes, westernization is truly an improvement.

broadminded: In a world where bio-tech engineers redefine life's boundaries and fashion designers dictate dress code, civilization and most importantly social media influence have all helped most of us flush our very own culture, tradition, language and heritage down the wrong tunnel.

This is why its important to stick with your culture and evolve it. I honestly think it might be 21st century perception that people in the previous centuries remind the same, we really need our own fashion designers for, instance, to evolve traditional clothes in the name of art. I'm pretty sure Fulanis in the 10th century did not dress the same as they did in the 15th century, so why should culture today be defined by technological levels, fashion of a specific time period, etc. I strongly discourage copying frivolous western ideals and I believe a societal time travel back to the 19th century is the only way to liberate the issues of today, but I doubt our forefathers were very much concerned with tradition as we are. Why then did they adopt firearms for their kingdom military? Isn't that betraying culture just as some people believe using computer/phone is betraying culture.
Or are these just tools.

FOLYKAZE: Foolish question.

There is no 100% safety guarante using a protection.

Why do our soldiers get hitted by bullets, pieced with bomb blast and throat slitted with knife when they engage boko boys? Is there armor, proofs and skill not enough to protect them?

Hey dude, put your sense on when asking questions. You tried but not relevant.

...wth, man How was that foolish?
I was asking a legitimate question by addressing people who believed they put 100% trust into these charms like it was armor or something.
mtcheew!

Of course I know there is no guaranteed protection. Wearing the christian cross doesn't protect at all but that doesn't stop people from wearing it like it's suppose to do something. And there were skeptics in every society.

phuckNL: I do not need to see it fail because like i said earlier, JUJU is a fallacy. How can it fail when it doesn't even exist?
The same JUJU that Sango used to breathe fire from his mouth, the same JUJU that people used to disappear, the same JUJU that people use to change to cats (yet this has never been proven, it is always hearsay). So much JUJU, we can't use it to find the Chibok girls. So much JUJU, they couldn't use the BULLETPROOF against the colonisers and slave takers.We need to wake up. This is 2014. JUJU is a freagn myth.
As rampant as it is, you would think it would have been proven at least once. My guy, i am being rational. Believing any of this crap would be IRRATIONAL.

Wait. If they believed charms can protect them from bodily harm, why did they make shields and armor?

It seems many of these so-called acient practices were are not so ancient.

I have spent a considerable amount of time wondering how single women could have made do in West African history. The non-existent yet much spoken of “African culture” of today paints a picture that such things never happened even though there are several renowned women who we remember today that never married, whether it is Queen Amina of Zaria, or Sarrounia, or Pa Sini Jobu, or even King Ahebi Ugbabe. Yet, most of us believe that independent minded women who are not interested in marriage only came to be so due to colonial European influence. Or assume that it must have been hard for unmarried women back when. In this post, I use Baule women of Ivory Coast as an example to show that it was not impossible to be unmarried and childless in a pre-colonial West African society.

It was a great pleasure coming across Mona Etienne’s “Gender Relations and Conjugality among the Baule”, in Christine Oppong’s Female and Male in West Africa. In a chapter, Etienne begins by mentioning that modern Baule women are known for being independent, noting that many middle aged and elderly Baule women who live in towns are unmarried yet acquire enough wealth to support those that are dependent on them and to maintain social networks. Some of these women have educated adult children or foster children who earn high salaries and are thus able to support their incomes, ensure that the women are taken care of in old age, and that they will have a “presitgious” funeral when they die. Young women holding these older women as role models, view marriage as “incompatible” with their personal goals of becoming wealth, or view marriage as a means through which they can get wealth as “a generous husband may help them attain wealth and success”.

Etienne boldly states that “this type of situation is not unusual in Africa, especially in West Africa”, and I believe that she means among modern West African women in urban environments. However among Baule women, even those in rural areas resist marriage despite pressure and the limited economic opportunities available to single women in the village, putting marriage aside because they want to go to the city or wanting to escape to the city because they do not want to marry. Both in the urban cities and rural villages, there are Baule women who are more concerned with achieving economic autonomy. Etienne traces this reluctance to marry, and this view of marriage as an unwanted convenience or “as an outright exploitation” to pre-colonial Baule society. Baule society has always placed premium in personal autonomy and individual freedom of choice for women and men.

Early European observers remarked on the high positions Baule women held. They had a voice in the decision making process in affairs that concerned the village. Furthermore all adult women were part of a secret society whose rituals were forbidden for men to see/watch. As part of this society, women defended the interests of the community against foreign threats, they also defended the interests of women against women although Etienne states that the more import role was safeguarding the community interests in times of illness and warfare. The support of women was absolutely crucial in affairs concerning the community, for example it was believed that men who went to war without the support of women would surely meet defeat and death. It should be noted that men also had their own secret society that women could not be part of.

It seems it was only in ritual that Baule women and men were divided as there was hardly any other case of separation between the sexes, and gender attributes were not rigidly defined. The division of labour in which men and women were assigned different tasks were apparently upheld due to efficiency in production and were not enforced by supernatural or civil sanctions. Deviations were acceptable when necessary or convenient meaning that men could perform women’s labour tasks when the situation called for it and vice versa. Finding a partner of the opposite sex to aid with labour did not necessarily mean finding a husband or wife, but could mean finding a “sister” or a “brother”. Deviations were only rare in the cases of apprenticeship though healers and diviners could be men or women.

Women chiefs were important, although they grew less in number at the time of colonisation. Women could attract vast amounts of wealth and dependants (both men and women), they played their role in trading and gold prospecting expeditions, and acquired domestic slaves in their own rights. Etienne mentions the traditions and histories contemporary women have of business minded grandmothers and great-grandmothers, and guesses that these women may have been encouraged by their own mothers hinting at a chain of enterprising Baule women who inspired their daughters over time. So Baule women’s search for independence and wealth is not new but rooted in history and traditional models.

Among the Baule, early stages of marriage were marked by long periods of duolocality, that is the wife continued to live with her kin and the husband did the same. Marriage was not thought to be complete until the wife took up residence with her husband. It is due to this that noble women, women who belong to families that held high political office, are said to not marry. Such women could not be expected to move and take residence with their husbands if they did marry because they had a chance at a political office. And apparently the same thing happens today, even though the traditional political office does not hold as much important in this post-colonial age. Yet there are women who refuse marriage because they are heirs to a political seat, or whose families oppose their marriages for the same reason. Etienne states that these cases must be less frequent that in the past, because colonial and post-colonial administrations does not encourage women holding traditional political positions. In pre-colonial times when this discrimination was non-existent, there would have been more noble women refusing to marry or whose families refused their marriages. There would have also been noble women who married but did not live with their husbands as they did not want to risk losing their chance at a political seat. Thus for politically ambitious women, marriage was a constraint and noble women were not anxious to married, or if they did get married often divorced to claim their political office with their kin.

Baule women retain economic rights in their own kin group. They have rights to the labour of a brother or any other kinsman with whom they could launch an economic partnership similar to that between spouses. Basically, unmarried women could form ‘marriage-like” partnerships with their kinsmen on solely economic grounds. Kinship relations among the Baule are traced from both parents, rather from either a father and a mother, with succession and inheritance being generally matrilineal. In this cognatic system, people continually sought to attract dependants from all sides of the family tree that they could rely on, and who could rely on them in turn. Elders looked to attract dependants in order to increase their own wealth while juniors wanted to establish ties with elders who were rich enough to finance entrepreneurial undertakings and who were generous enough to offer dependants a share in the profits. Kin group membership was not rigidly ascribed and there was less gerontocracy or autocracy. Elders did demand respect and had some authority, however rigidly enforcing authority could led to the departure of dependants and even the eventual dying out of a kin group due to all the members leaving.

Riches came from having a large number of dependants to contribute to one’s revenue. No elders or chiefs could completely take the labour or revenue of their dependants, meaning that dependants always could keep a little something to themselves. The elders held on to a bonus which increased their own wealth. People acquired wealth and personal property either from their labour and also from estates inherited matrilineally. Relationships of dependency were flexible, all adults had the possibility of building their own group of personal dependants. A son who remained with his father’s kin was a “child of male” and could not inherit there, and neither could his children unless he married a woman in the same kin group as his father. In order to inherit, one had to be a “child of a female”. A man could return to his maternal kin in order to inherit there. Or he could build his own group, with his sisters, or his sister’s children, or by attracting maternal kin unrelated to his father. These people would show allegiance only to their “brother” and contribute their labour to his estate while receiving some revenue for themselves.

A women who chose to live with their husband had access to similar opportunities. She could create her own group by holding on to her unmarried or divorced daughters. These would be joined by her dependants unrelated to her husband, her domestic slaves, and younger members of her own kin group. By fostering and adopting children, a married woman could grow the number of people who depended on her. Usually when a woman took up residence with her husband, she was given a child in adoption and would adopt other children as time went on. Junior dependants would join her group if she had a reputation of wealth and generosity. All a married woman’s dependants owed allegiance to her alone, and respect to her husband. Through this, a married woman essentially she aided the people in her own kin group and maintained ties with them even though she now lived with her husband.

Etienne argues that marriage in Baule society was more of an “association of a woman and man for purposes of reproduction and production with shared rights in both children and products”. Children owed labour and allegiance to both parents, but this could be circumstantial depending on the child’s desires and ambitions. A married woman controlled the products of her labour and gained new wealth from surplus production. Gender equality was so that the two most important products in pre-colonial Baule society were controlled by men and women; yam for men and cloth for women. Division of labour meant that both men and women contributed to the production of both. Women and men controlled surplus production by controlling the labour of their dependants, domestic slaves, children and junior kin. And by controlling male dependants who worked in yam farming for example, a woman could use her surplus production to fund other opportunities such as long-distance trade and gold prospecting.

Of course colonialism changed things considerably. The introduction of cash crop lead to Baule women losing control over production. And losing control over production lead to losing control over dependants, as reduced productivity reduced a woman’s ability to attract dependants, and less dependants reduced a woman’s productive capacity. There is more to be said on how Baule gender relations and marriages were affected by colonialism and urban migration, however that is not the purpose of this post so I will end things here hoping that those who read this post have a clearer idea of how single unmarried women thrived in pre-colonial Baule society.

What I read
Etienne Mona, “Gender Relations and Conjugality among the Baule”, pp. 309-319 in Female and Male in West Africa (1983) edited by Christine Oppong

http://eccentricyoruba./

Women in Pre-colonial/colonial Nigeria

Pre-colonial
The position of women in pre-colonial Nigeria obviously differed in the vast number of ethnic groups in Nigeria. A woman's position varied according to the (1) kinship structure of the group and (2) role of women within the economic structure of the society. Common factors among women of different ethnic groups, however, included the domestically oriented jobs and the range of economic activities that the societies reserved for women. Women in pre-colonial societies held a complementary position to men although patrilineal and patriarchal kinship structures predominated Nigerian societies. The kinship group expected women who married into a Yoruba or Igbo patrilineage to give birth to sons to ensure the future of the group. Furthermore, the position of a young wife improved as she grew older, bore children, and earned approval from its older members. She gained assistance from younger wives as she grew older, thus allowing her to spend less time in the home and more time engaging in activities outside the household--activities such as farming and craft making which allowed her to provide the material resources needed in order to care for her family. Yoruba society offered the greatest opportunities for women to participate in other economic activities such as manufacturing and trade. In Yoruba society, the responsibility of a woman to provide for her family included providing the material resources for such care. Women believed that providing such resources met their responsibility as women and citizens. Their society considered the work the women did complementary to the work of men, and some women achieved impressive status in the economic and social realms of Yoruba life. However, more commonly, women achieved power by means of their lineage or by means of marriage into ruling families. By achieving such power, they obtained indirect political influence, but they rarely showed their influence in public.

Like the family and economic structures, the religions of many Nigerian tribal societies conceived the position of women as complementary to that of men. However, the fact remains that the societies of Pre-Colonial Nigeria believed men superior to women and, to some extent, in control of women. According to Carolyne Dennis, writer of Women and State in Nigeria, "The religions of many Nigerian societies recognised the social importance of women by emphasising the place of female gods of fertility and social peace, but women were also associated with witchcraft which appeared to symbolise the potential social danger of women exercising power uncontrolled by men" (15). In societies that did not confine women to the household as the Hausa did, women held important roles in agriculture, manufacturing, and trade, and women also possessed an important, if restricted, religious role. However, religion also provided an important means of controlling women by explaining that women acting outside their appropriate social role, unconfined by menled to dangerous results.

Women held a basically complementary, rather than subordinate, position to men in indigenous pre-colonial Nigerian society, which based power on seniority rather than gender. The absence of gender in the pronouns of many African languages and the interchangeability of first names among females and males strikes Niara Sudarkasa, author of "'The Status of Women' in Indigenous African Societies" in the anthology Women in Africa and the African Diaspora, as a further relation of the social deemphasis on gender as a designation for behavior. She observers that "many other areas of traditional culture, including personal dress and adornment, religious ceremonials, and intragender patterns of comportment, suggest that Africans often deemphasize gender in relation to seniority and other insignia of status" (36). However, despite the lack of emphasis placed on gender by Nigeria's indigenous societies, the state and its bureaucracy tried to dictate the lifestyles of women, endorsing the domesticity of women and the unwaged services they provided for the family. Much of the legislation concerning women, therefore, attempted to control them, their sexuality and fertility, further defining their subordination. The beginning of colonial rule brought to Africa the European notion that women belonged in the home, nurturing their family. At the same time the societies expected women to work--work which the society considered complementary to that done by men--the state and the beginning of colonial rule began to change the roles of women by means of legislation restricting women and the focusing of colonial economics on men.

Colonial
The colonization of Africa by European powers including Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and Portugal brought Africa into the world economic system as a major target for exploitation. Africa not only provided Europeans with a source of raw materials but it also provided them with what they viewed as raw, uncivilized people -- if Europeans considered Africans people at all -- on whom they could impose their views and whom they could exploit at the same time they exploited the land. For example, with the incorporation of Nigeria into the international economy as a supplier of raw materials, new patriarchal conceptions of the appropriate social role for women dictated by colonial administrators and missionaries changed the position of women in economic, and therefore social, endeavors. Males began to dominate the cultivation of cash crops for the international market and confined women to the growing of food crops which received lower returns. By focusing on men, the cash crop farmers, bureaucratic efforts to improve agriculture further encouraged the separation of economic roles of men and women that had previously complemented each other. The importing of cheap manufactured goods from Europe, and later from Japan, led to the decline of craft industry, except for a limited range of luxury goods which in some regions affected the significant proportion of women engaged in such manufacture. The creation of the colonial economy thus tended to marginalize the position of the majority of women.

Colonial administrators and Christian missionaries introduced the assumptions of European patriarchy into Nigerian society. Their ideas of the appropriate social role for women differed greatly from the traditional role of women in indigenous Nigerian societies. The ideas of the colonizers resembled the patriarchal European assumption that women belonged in the home, engaged in child rearing--an exclusively female responsibility--and other domestic chores. The colonizers expected African societies to consider women as subordinate to men because Europeans considered women subordinate to men. They thought that if a woman obtained financial independence she might not give her husband and his family their entitled respect. In pre-colonial indigenous Nigerian societies, however, a woman's role included providing for her family by means of financial support; therefore, her traditional responsibility required her financial independence. Furthermore, many members of the extended family helped to rear the children, not only the mother.

The restrictions that colonial governments placed on women changed the position of women in indigenous societies. In Nigeria, the colonial state passed legislation restricting women, indirectly preventing them from performing their duties towards their families. The extent of the changes inspired many Nigerian women to hold a series of protests throughout the colonial period against particular colonial policies and against colonialism itself. Colonialism disrupted the traditional system of production in indigenous Nigerian societies, reinforcing the existing systems of social inequality and introducing oppressive forms of social stratification throughout the state.

West African coast
https://www.africanaheritage.com/priscilla/graphics/journal/AddGeneralColorfulBoat.jpg
https://www.africanaheritage.com/priscilla/graphics/journal/AddColorfulBoat2.jpg
https://www.happytouring.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/A-simple-picture-of-traditional-West-African-sailing-boat-Sierra-Leone.jpg
https://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/3963261.jpg
[img]http://3.bp..com/-VqXL79MZB9Y/Twr9-uK3wlI/AAAAAAAADIE/dwI0e1Ik8OU/s1600/DSC08711.JPG[/img]

Movie showcasing west African piroque sea-faring capabilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXU28K1gTpc

Kanoro: What was the name of the book?

I can't remember the exact name aside from African Archaeology but I do know it as from this series.
[img]http://books.google.com/books?id=3FiBAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&imgtk=AFLRE73xMC12qlv8igYndvNXGuRnOLL60gsDQgFMF81TFykuVbOwuc_HVrTLYtw_uuNGfVTqsEpw76wyJDnCXVjlpe4fYnJVnmXD554MCzykaDW0x3dAVGI[/img]
I also can't remember precisely which three authors wrote it as it is a series with each written by a different set of authors, but you can check them out if you'd like. I'll post the book when I can find it.

I read in an archaeology book that caste-iron was created both intentionally and unintentionally in parts of the continent, but likely wasn't used much until the arrival of gun manufacturing.

spawnx: The Osu Caste System
Leo Igwe
The Osu caste system is an obnoxious practice among the Igbos -in Nigeria-which has refused
to go away despite the impact of Christianity, modern education and civilization, and the human
rights culture. In this piece, I will argue that the Osu discrimination is an outdated tradition with
no basis for its continued practice and observance in the contemporary Igbo society.
Traditionally, there are two classes of people in Igboland – the Nwadiala and the Osu. The
Nwadiala literally meaning ‘sons of the soil’ are the freeborn. They are the masters. While the
Osu are the slaves, the strangers, the outcasts and the untouchables. Chinua Achebe in his well-
known book, No Longer At Ease asks: What is this thing called Osu? He answers: “Our fathers
in their darkness and ignorance called an innocent man Osu, a thing given to the idols, and
thereafter he became an outcast, and his children, and his children’s children forever” The Osu
are treated as inferior human beings in a state of permanent and irreversible disability. They are
subjected to various forms of abuse and discrimination. The Osu are made to live separately
from the freeborn. In most cases they reside very close to shrines and marketplaces. The Osu
are not allowed to dance, drink, hold hands, associate or have sexual relations with Nwadiala.
They are not allowed to break kola nuts at meetings. No Osu can pour libation or pray to God
on behalf of a freeborn at any community gathering. It is believed that such prayers will bring
calamity and misfortune.
A human rights group outlined the atrocities meted out against the Osu in Igboland. They
include: ‘parents administering poison to their children, disinheritance, ostracism, organized
attack, heaping harvest offering separately in churches, denial membership in social clubs,
violent disruption of marriage ceremonies, denial of chieftaincy titles, deprivation of property
and expulsion of wives etc.”
The Osu caste discrimination is very pronounced in the area of marriage. An Osu cannot marry
a freeborn. The belief is that any freeborn that marries an Osu defiles the family. So freeborn
families are always up in arms against any of their members who wants to marry an Osu. They
go to any length to scuttle the plan. Because of the Osu factor, marriages in Igboland are
preceded by investigations-elders on both sides travel to native villages to find out the social
status of the other party. And if it is found that one of them is an Osu, the plan would be
automatically abandoned. Many marriage plans have been aborted, and in fact some married
couples have been forced to divorce because of the Osu factor. Chinua Achebe also noted this in
his book. When Okonkwo learns that his son wants to marry Clara, an Osu. Okonkwo says: “
Osu is like a leprosy in the minds of my people. I beg of you my son not to bring the mark of
shame and leprosy into your family. If you do, your children and your children’s children will
curse you and your memory… You will bring sorrow on your head and on the heads of your
children.”
But there have been several efforts and initiatives to eradicate this harmful tradition. In 1956,
the government of the then Eastern Nigeria passed a law abolishing the Osu caste system. The
law freed and discharged anybody called Osu including the children born to such a person. It
declared the practice unlawful – and a crime punishable by law. But unfortunately, 50 years
after the enactment of this legislation, nobody has been prosecuted or convicted for breaking the
law. At best what the legislation has achieved is to drive the practice underground. Also many
religious leaders and traditional rulers have spoken out against the practice. Recently Eze
Enyeribe Onuoha, the traditional ruler of Umuchieze autonomous community in Imo State urged
his community members to abandon the practice. He said: “discrimination against Osus is
irrational, illegal, unjust and archaic and opposed to human rights. It is one Umuchieze(Igbo)
tradition that should immediately be abolished.”
But statements and declarations like this are not uncommon. But they have always fallen on
deaf ears among the Igbo people most of whom think that cultural norms are sacrosanct and
should not be tampered with. So the belief in and practice of Osu caste system continue to wax
strong in Igboland. In 1997, a person alleged to be an Osu was made a chief in a community in
Imo State. But six months later, the community was engulfed in a crisis. And when the case was
brought to the court, the presiding judge noted that though the abolition of Osu caste system
was in the statute, it was an unenforceable law. The chief was dethroned so that peace would
reign in the community.
And not too long ago I met a lady in a friend’s house in Lagos. I was told that she was engaged
to a young man from Imo State. And months later I learnt that the marriage plan had been
abandoned because the lady was said to be an Osu. There have been several instances like that
where young men and women of Igbo extraction have suffered heartbreaks and emotional
traumas as a result of this cultural disease. And now the question is, why is it that this cultural
practice has refused to go away even among educated Igbos. The reason is not far fetched. The
practice of Osu caste system is hinged on religion, supernaturalism and theism. And Igbos are
deeply religious and theistic people. Osu are regarded as unclean or untouchable because they
are (alleged to be) dedicated to the gods. So it is the dedication to the gods that makes the Osu
status a condition of permanent and irreversible disability and stigma.
So this cruel custom will not be eradicated until Igbos begin to realize that gods are imaginary
beings, not objective entities. Igbos need to understand that deities and spirits are mental
constructs used to control and organize the society at the infancy of the human race. And today
that humanity has come of age. Because if one does not believe that the gods and spirits are
real, then the idea of treating someone as unclean or untouchable because the person is
dedicated to any deity does not make sense at all. Even for the god-believing Igbos, the practice
is out rightly baseless. Because most Igbos are Christians and do not profess any belief in the
traditional gods to which the Osu were (alleged to be) dedicated. So, it is both sensible and
appropriate that all Igbos - believers and non-believers alike renounce and abandon this
abhorrent, inhuman and despicable practice. Politically, state authorities must get Igbo
communities and associations to remove provisions in their constitution that bar Osu from
contesting elections or receiving traditional titles. Legally, the courts must begin to enforce the
law abolishing the Osu caste system. And the Nigerian state must rise up to its duty of
protecting and defending the humanity, dignity and equal rights of all citizens irrespective of
their sex, ethnic origin, religion, belief or birth status.
Most importantly Igbos must begin to envision a new society where people can live and interact,
marry and be married, elect and be elected, without division, distinction, discrimination on the
basis of Osu or Nwadiala. Hence I want to use this opportunity to appeal to my people- ndi Igbo :
Please let’s strive to remove this mark of leprosy and shame from the face of our culture and
society.

Who taught this cave-dweller to write?

dolarolls: May The Almighty God judge all by their hands. It is irritating to hear, they will be using innocent "Human HEADS" for "1 MAN's burial". And all our leaders believe its a normal thing in this modern age. If the process is meant 2 be a clean & transparent 1 D chief should have openily said it but tell the press to just hold on in their publications.
Hmmm! Well God helps we don't fall victims.

Because they are clearly ignorant about culture and history. Try becoming oba in the 19th century and try requesting human heads for your burial. You''l be lucky if you don't get this look from people
[img]http://www.personal.psu.edu/cdr5174/blogs/la101h/wtf.png[/img]

Jakumo: You know that's right. In my own modest efforts to educate people in Nigeria that ONLY a regular Kevlar vest will stop a bullet, I have blown a few chickens to red fragments with my trusty shotgun, to the utter dismay of spectating Juju-ologists who had festooned the test subjects with magic necklaces and other meaningless fetish crap, in the hopes of making them blast proof.

To sweeten the offer, I had promised several Juju men that IF their "traditionally protected" chickens repelled my close-range blasts of hot buckshot, I would surrender my gun to the witch-doctors, and enroll under their tutelage as a paying student of Juju-Motive Technology. That shotgun still stands by my bedside in Nigeria, ready for action as needed, and still ALL mine, after all those tests carried out to see if African Magic really works proved ultimately that it does NOT work at all.

I have a feeling you're not the only Nigerian in history to test this. Centuries have gone by so I'm pretty sure not everyone held this so dearly to their hearts.

Jakumo: You know that's right. In my own modest efforts to educate people in Nigeria that ONLY a regular Kevlar vest will stop a bullet, I have blown a few chickens to red fragments with my trusty shotgun, to the utter dismay of spectating Juju-ologists who had festooned the test subjects with magic necklaces and other meaningless fetish crap, in the hopes of making them blast proof.

To sweeten the offer, I had promised several Juju men that IF their "traditionally protected" chickens repelled my close-range blasts of hot buckshot, I would surrender my gun to the witch-doctors, and enroll under their tutelage as a paying student of Juju-Motive Technology. That shotgun still stands by my bedside in Nigeria, ready for action as needed, and still ALL mine, after all those tests carried out to see if African Magic really works proved ultimately that it does NOT work at all.

I have a feeling you're not the only Nigerian in human history to test this. Centuries have gone by so I'm pretty sure not everyone held this so dearly to their hearts.

juwoonn: Written records, you will say.
I know they look like representations.

You can just tell me what they are, if I'm wrong.

Quote from a thread:

Nsibidi was used in judgement cases known as 'Ikpe' in some Cross River communities. Macgregor was able to retrieve and translate an nsibidi record from Enyong of an ikpe judgement.



The record is of an Ikpe or judgement case. (a) The court was held under a tree as is the custom, (b) the parties in the case, (c) the chief who judged it, (d) his staff (these are enclosed in a circle), (e) is a man whispering into the ear of another just outside the circle of those concerned, (f) denotes all the members of the party who won the case. Two of them (g) are embracing, (h) is a man who holds a cloth between his finger and thumbs as a sign of contempt. He does not care for the words spoken. The lines round and twisting mean that the case was a difficult one which the people of the town could not judge for themselves. So they sent to the surrounding towns to call the wise men from them and the case was tried bv then (j) and decided; (k) denotes that the case was one of adultery or No. 20.[14]

https://www.nairaland.com/973985/nsibiri-pre-colonial-writing-south-eastern

Op, why are you preaching about igbo culture let alone the whole of African history like you know your stuff when you clearly don't. Anybody history with even a chicken-scratch bit of interest in African culture knows what nisbidi is, why don't you? And why are you passing yourself off as more knowledgeable than historians?

all4naija: You are indolent and very shallow in reasoning. Using italic font is just a way to distinguish my posts so that I can easily reach for them any time.

Is that not what the moniker, quote option, post pages, etc are for

Saying the truth about Africa is negativity to all those who don't want to admit the reality on ground. I will keep airing my views based on my opinions and truth of the matter.

Most of Africa's problems a have previously been diagnosed by other, less biased, more educated people of this forum and in books. So what is and isn't a factor as already been covered, you are free to read them and educate yourself. All that is left is waking people up about it. Thanks for the input though.
https://www.nairaland.com/1179342/blacks-educated-feel-inferior-dr
This is a good start to fixing these issues by objective thinking Africans.

What is wrong in a thread having 117-page long? The military thread is well over 1000 pages within a short time and it doesn't mean everything there is trolling.

So you think a racially charged thread meant to incite conflict is ok even when it well over 1000 pages(before the hack)? You don't think its strange that your moniker appears every minute as the last poster all the way since the thread began?

Only to a primitive man it is trolling to have long page. Jeez! You are clueless, dude![/i]

And what are you, advanced?
Are you a cyborg of something, because that seems to be your favorite word for everything you don't like.
Lol, just like the whiteman. You both have yet to prove you are advanced socially.