kingston277:

Was literature even democratized in Egypt? If not, they were honestly no more literate than SS Africans.

No, literature was not democratized. It was for the elite. But that's not what I'm getting at, since writing was only for the elite in most places until the 18th and 19th centuries. I was saying that other parts of the continent would have had writing far earlier than they eventually did. And of course that would have affected the rate of technological advancement, and the spread of ideas from different parts of the continent to other parts. Basically, it would have accelerated technological development to have writing earlier. It would reduce cultural diversity, but it would boost scientific progress considerably.

jamaicanoshu:
If Kemet,Nubia , had colonized the rest of Africa our lives today would have been so much better today . Instead of Africa, Ansar the BLACK WAR GOD went and spread Civilization to the rest of the world. He brought writing to India, China, the Far East and the America's. ALL WRITING came out Kemet/Nubia. Why is it that Chinese writing ,Mayan writing, and Kemetic writing(HEIROGLYPHICS) all look so similar. Their clothing and hats were similar. They all had pyramids. They all had divine kings as government with a strong priestly cast. If only he had colonized the rest of Africa first the past 3000 years could have been so different for Africa. Today African's are going on pilgrimages to Rome, Mecca and Israel . They won't go to Egypt to see where those religious ideas were stolen from! The White man ,the Arab and the Jew are busy claiming Ancient Egypt ! Every four months out of Hollywood comes a film trying to make Egypt White. Whilst Africans are busy BLEACHING OUT THEIR MINDS AND BODIES! If we could build those great pyramids; we can surely build our own roads today!

If Egypt and Nubia had colonized the rest of Africa, we would be inundated daily with even more claims that black Africans were unable to create civilizations without help from so-called "Hamitic" colonizers spreading it to us. There would also be less cultural diversity, or at least each culture would be so heavily Egyptianized and Nubianized that they would be less unique. But on the positive side, there would have been far more literature and writing in general than there was, and that would have had other positive effects.

jamaicanoshu:
MODERATORS : I replied to PabloAfricanus but my reply is not showing up in the thread. I don't wish to do over my lengthy reply . Is there a technical reason for my response to not show up on the thread?

I'm not a moderator, but it's clear that your reply is lost. You'd have to type up your response again - but it would be better to type it up in Word or Wordpad or something first, so that it's not lost.

pleep:
I might doubt the Efficiency of IQ tests but i'm almost certain that the Intelligent ones of our Race are being Bred of Existence.

Pleep, is there some actual evidence for this?

I feel especially bad for the girl, now that the story has gone viral. Hope she somehow doesn't see that the story has spread, because this is the sort of thing that kills self esteem.

scholes0:
Dont blame the google App....
The girls posture and the way she contorted her face..... made her look like a ....

Actually it is the software. Don't blame the girl. Anyway, people make strange or funny faces all the time for pictures. Doesn't mean they're always tagged as animals by such software.

It has nothing to do with her posture or the way she contorted her face. Read other articles on the story, such as this, which gives a bit more detail:

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/gorillas-google-photos-uses-racist-tag-on-black-friends-provoking-backlash-20150701-gi31y6.html

From other articles I've read, this sort of thing has happened before with flickr and other sites.

Sonzo,

The reason you could not actually break down "olubaru" and give its etymology is because you have no understanding of any Dogon languages. So far, based on what I had posted, we had some reason to think that "olubaru" meant masters of the bush (though from what I have found out now, this is not even a literal meaning, but actually somewhat descriptive), but we couldn't say for sure what each part of the word (olubaru) meant without evidence. However, I will show below that the meaning of olubaru is not so simple, and that olu does not even mean masters (as you suggested it did and as I also suspected it might).

There is no reason to think the word "human beings" is literally in the term olubaru. I have explained this earlier. Until you show evidence of "human beings" actually being in olubaru, your claims don't have any significance. I have not asserted that there is a word "aru" in Dogon. But there exists at least a faint possibility that "aru" could be dialect variation or a grammatical inflection or an archaic form of a word meaning "men" for the simple reason that "ara" means "man" in at least some of the Dogon languages as shown by me in my first response to you. In those pdf links I posted, there is simply nothing like muntu, muru, moro, bantu, baru, or baro as referring to man or human or to men or human beings in those four Dogon languages, and there is absolutely no reason to think such words with those meanings would be found in other Dogon languages until evidence is shown of such words existing in any Dogon language.

You wanted to know what the "b" part would be in the hypothetical etymology I gave? In the hypothetical etymology I gave, where "aru" might mean men or human beings if "men" or "human beings" were actually in olubaru (which I don't believe is the case), I never assumed that "olu" was a separate word by itself, as you did, so I had no reason to give an explanation for "b." Anyway, assuming I had to give an explanation for "b" (I actually did not), if there were a word "ibi" or "ebe" or "ubu" or some other word like that (I'm not saying there actually is), and the word "Olubaru" actually had "olu" and "aru" as separate words, a combination such as

olu + ibi + aru or olu + ib + aru

olu + ebe + aru or olu + eb + aru

olu + ubu + aru or olu + ub + aru

could easily produce the word "olubaru." You assumed there were only two parts to the word (and indeed, there may be) but that is just a guess, and the word may actually be a longer phrase that has been made shorter by the elimination of some sounds. This is a simple phenomenon in some languages where some vowels are eliminated when words are joined together to make new/longer words. But it doesn't really matter because I was only speaking about a hypothetical (if "human beings" or "men" were really in olubaru), not claiming what the etymology really is, as you are.

When you brought up "olubaru" you initially claimed "olu" meant sacred, now the belief is that it may mean god or master, after my response. But I want to bring this Dogon olubaru stuff to an end, so I will post the real meaning of olu in Dogon, which I found out after more searching. Here is the real meaning of olu:

"The village/bush opposition is fundamental. The bush (olu) is the source of all strength and wisdom, feared for its unpredictability but needed for a constant flow of energy and knowledge into the village (van Beek and Banga 1990)." - from "Dogon Restudied: A Field Evaluation of the Work of Marcel Griaule [and Comments and Replies]" (1991)

I looked up van Beek and Banga since they are cited in this part of the article and I found that these two authors (Walter E.A. van Beek and Pieteke Banga) also wrote an article called "The Dogon and their Trees." Here are two relevant parts of that article:

"The Dogon realize that trees are essential for survival and value them, not so much as a production factor, as already outlined, but as a part of oru, the bush, a category sharply contrasted with ana, the village. The notion of oru is complex. On the one hand the bush is dangerous: no one will ever sleep there without the protection of huts or people. . .Several types of spirits roam the bush and may attack people or exchange body parts with them. An often voiced fear is that spirits will exchange body parts with them. An often voiced fear is that spirits will exchange eyes with humans, rendering them blind."

"The main preservers of the cultural treasures, the orubaru are initiated in a 3-month period in a cave outside the village, living as animals as much as possible (no clothing, no speech, sleeping on the ground, no sexual interaction, etc.) In fact, the word orubaru means "added to the bush" (Calame-Griaule 1968). 'If they are not like animals, they can never learn wisdom', an informant explained. In the sigu festival, held every 60 years, the Dogon notion of a normal lifetime - the surge of new life - results from men returning from the bush into the village. In a reversed fashion, the more dangerous power of the masks stems from the bush itself entering the village. Even the - seemingly - most human of all arts, speech, stems from the bush in the form of the secret language (sigu so; van Beek 1991)."

Note that oru and olu are one and the same. The shift between l sounds and r sounds in many languages is very well known to linguists.

With this, we have eliminated the possibility that "olu" literally means master or god or sacred. How the rest of the word should be (literally) interpreted is unclear at the moment, but there is no point making claims and assumptions since neither of us understands those languages. It is clear that you do not understand the Dogon languages and do not have the capacity to give the etymology of words in their languages (just as I do not) based merely on your own guesses, hence your claim that olu meant sacred, which you then adapted to meaning god or master after one of my posts in this thread, when in fact it means bush. I did not know it meant bush either, but I am not pretending to have some expert knowledge of the language or claiming to be able give the etymology of words in Dogon. I think I am done with the Dogon issue, since you could not give any evidence to support any claims you made there.

On Nok, let's keep this more simple. I am not going to take the time to do a detailed comparison of specific images or give any references when it seems that you haven't looked at any comparisons that any researchers on this culture have made in published articles and books.

I never claimed the art was made by Hausas, Igbos, Fulanis, Yorubas or Binis. I made no specific ethnic attributions, because there is not actually strong evidence for such attributions yet. By the way, I am not sure why you keep mentioning these specific groups as though these are the only groups in Nigeria. There are hundreds of other ethnic groups in Nigeria and any one of the many groups in the northern/central Nigerian area could be direct descendants of the group that made the Nok art.

There is other ancient (2000+ years old) terracotta art from non-Nok artistic traditions in Nigeria that is already known, in addition to later "medieval" terracotta sculptures from other parts of Nigeria. There does not seem to be any evidence of similarly old (as Nok) terracotta or Nok-like terracotta in Bantu language areas so far, so it is strange that you claim that the reason Nok art stopped is because Bantus left or were absorbed.

You may think the art doesn't have any resemblances with some other Nigerian art, but at the same time I don't see anything that could be said to be distinctly "Bantu" in the art, in terms of aesthetic characteristics seen in other art made by groups in Bantu language areas. There is pretty much no one (until this thread, I guess) who has seen the Nok art and said "that doesn't look like it could be West African, it must be Bantu" or "that clearly looks like it was made by Bantu language groups." On the contrary, researchers that looked at the art after it was discovered soon noticed similarities in the way certain parts of the bodies and certain ornaments on the bodies of Nok figures were depicted and the way certain ornaments and body parts were depicted on other (later) Nigerian art. You just haven't read enough about the art and I don't think you've seen enough of it either, because there are even pieces of Nok sculpture which are nearly realistic (rather than very stylized) in their depiction of faces and other body parts, and realism or near realism are characteristics found in some later Nigerian art.

To be honest, if, for some reason, I were to look outside of the Nigerian area for what later African art is most similar to the Nok art I would look first at certain pieces from among the Inland Niger Delta region terracotta sculptures from Mali before I would look at any particular art tradition from a Bantu language area, since there are at least a few similarities between some sculptures from the two traditions (such as in the repeated depiction of elongated faces, depictions of horse rider figures, and in some depictions of beards on faces). Not to say that there is some direct connection between the two, but there are at least a few similarities there.

I think I have some idea of why you might want to claim the art was made by a culture that spoke a language classified in the Bantu linguistic group, but honestly nothing you've said so far seems that plausible and no evidence has been provided to support your theory. I do not want to stretch out our discussion beyond this, so I'll let you have the last word if you want it. Peace.

pkjag:
FYI Al in Arabic is a definite/indefinite article such as a or the in English, most Bantu languages however do not have definite/indefinite articles.

I think she was actually referring to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_%28deity%29

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/181687/El

tpiadotcom:
Olu is also of Semitic origin, Al or El, meaning God, High, Deity, etc.

Perhaps correspondences like these between words from an Afroasiatic language group (whether Semitic or any other Afroasiatic language group) and some non-Bantu and Bantu "Niger-Congo" languages are not due to the spread of words with a specifically Semitic origin, but due to some underlying similarities between some Niger-Congo languages and some Afroasiatic languages.

pkjag:

Just to point out something of interest, the Abaluhya of Kenya and some Ugandan bantu tribes also have the Olu prefix that means people of/object/thing.

Interesting. There are actually some non-Bantu west African languages where "olu" or a very similar word has a meaning that is similar to "master, god, or ruler" of some object or place. But I didn't bring that up earlier when I mentioned that "olubaru" was said to mean "masters of the bush" in Dogon because the correspondence between olu (masters) in Dogon languages and olu in some non-Bantu west African languages may just be a coincidence.

But regardless, there really is no reason so far to think that either "men" or "human beings" in Dogon languages would be "baru" as sonzo seemed to think.

Back to my regular username.

sonzo666:


How can "aru" means "human beings"?
Muntu=human being ===>bantu=human beings
Moro=human being ====>baro=human beings
Muru=human beings ====>baru=human beings
In many bantu words,o=u and t=r ===>mukongo=mokongo;moswahili=muswahili; kamerhe=kamete ....etc ,,,
The kinirwanda for example makes extensive use of "r" whereas the kikongo replaces "r" by "t"
The "olu" prefix is used in many bantu words and means master/god .For example in the word olueme, olu=god and eme=judgement.This implies that olueme=ordeal/ordalie in French.
Olume/olumi===>olu(god/master) + me/mi(my)===>my god/my master
I don't know where you get the idea that "aru" can means " human beings".Can you elaborate on that?
Moreover,dogon toponyms such as badiangara/badiagana,sangha,bongo are mostly found in bantu areas.Simple coincidence?I doubt!It is impossible to find a west African with a name like badiagana.You can always try!
I always take with suspicion European historians traduction of African words!

Sure, I can elaborate. Based on the links I posted earlier of some actual Dogon languages, one might think a word closer to "aru" could be human being or person in a Dogon language (perhaps as some sort of dialect variation), but there would be no reason yet to think that "baru" specifically could be a word for human being in those languages. I don't see why you think it matters yet what "baru" means in some Bantu languages when the issue is to first determine which words mean human being, person, or man in all Dogon languages before proceeding to make comparisons. So far I have seen nothing to suggest that "baru" or "baro" or "bantu" is the word for human beings in a Dogon language, because you have not shown any evidence to support that idea.

If "olu" means master or god or something similar in several Bantu languages, what makes you think that this is an exclusively "Bantu" feature which must be indicative of Bantu origin whenever it is seen? You also mentioned "me/mi" as meaning "my" and that is definitely not an exclusively Bantu linguistic feature, as many languages from other African language groups have a similar or identical word for the same thing.

And I don't see what the relevance of a few specific coincidences in names is as far as indicating ethnic origin. Coincidences in names across different ethnic groups and language groups are found all the time in names in Africa and elsewhere. So far nobody has shown that Dogon vocabulary and grammar are closer to Bantu languages than to non Bantu languages.

I didn't say fangs were the creators of the Nok culture!I refered to fangs oral history to show that bantus used to occupy a wider area of nigera that what the majority of history books suggest.

So one could equally say that some non-Bantu west Africans used to occupy a wider area of Africa than the majority of history books suggest based on some origin stories of origin outside of west Africa, and therefore claim that much of Africa was originally "non-Bantu west African" occupied territory. In which case, one could then just claim that non-Bantu west Africans were responsible for whatever other particular ancient art or relics scattered throughout Africa that one wants to claim.

As far as I know,almost all Nigerian ethnic groups(hausas,fulanis,igbos,yorubas,binis,etc....) claim an outside origin and their oral histories suggest they weren't the first settlers in Nigeria.

So what major significance does this have in the context of the Nok? There are lots of ethnic groups in Nigeria, and we don't even know for certain that the ethnic identities of today were solidified/definite back at the time of the Nok culture. And for all we know the ethnic group of the Nok could simply be ancestral to some ethnic groups found today in north central Nigeria.

Since you admit that it is not all Nigerian groups that claim an outside origin, anyone could equally claim that some ethnic groups of Nigeria who claim to be autochthonous were the first to settle in Nigeria or were responsible for the Nok culture. Note that being first to settle in Nigeria and being responsible for the Nok culture are not necessarily the same thing, though you have been associating them as being necessarily connected.

The question is who where the first settlers?

I haven't come across any method that can be used to determine exactly who the first settlers in Nigeria were in terms of linguistic groups or ethnic groups.

We know for sure that bantus were in Nigeria coz that where their origin seems to be

Even if we take it as a fact that Bantu language groups originated somewhere around the southern Nigerian/Cameroonian border, that doesn't prove anything about the Nok culture, as the Nok culture is in north central Nigeria, and the people of the Nok culture could just have come to the north central Nigerian area from an eastern, western, northern, northeastern or northwestern direction from some other populations that belonged to some linguistic group besides the Bantu linguistic group.

And if bantus went on to conquer half of Africa,I cant see them not occupying the whole Nigeria.

So I take it that during the time of the Nok culture, the ancestors of present day Nigerians were in Kyrgyzstan, Sweden, Oman and Luxembourg while Bantu groups were occupying all of Nigeria. . .but then most of the proto-Nigerian groups stormed into western Africa from thousands of miles away and drove all the Bantu groups out of the Nigerian area with unstoppable fighters using gigantic scimitars (now lost), rhinoceros cavalry charges (now unknown), ancient jeet kune do (now unknown), bronze trebuchets (now lost), trained war leopards (now extinct), and perhaps some poisoned tridents for good measure. . .and did all of this so rapidly and with such ferocity as to force the Bantu groups to flee the proto-Nigerian onslaught in a mass migration as fast as their feet could take them into other parts of Africa. . .

But on a more serious note, if West Africans don't originate from western Africa as most people think, then one could just as easily claim they occupied most of the other areas of Africa after they left eastern Africa, before they got to western Africa, and that whatever is found in west Africa (such as the Nok culture's art) in later times is just what they started doing when they finally stopped roaming and settled down. I mean, anyone can make up highly speculative scenarios that aren't really based on anything. It's not going to convince anyone though.

As far I am concerned,Nok culture fell victim of a more powerful and vicious external force and got destroyed/absorbed

It's just not the case that every culture that made high quality art of a certain type for a while but then later stopped was destroyed/absorbed by outsiders.

I cant see that much similitudes between nok esthetic and Yoruba or bini esthetics

That's fine. I can't see much similarity between the Nok aesthetic and the aesthetic of any art from Bantu language areas, which is part of what caused me to ask the questions I asked in my first post to you. But this is all a matter of perception, so we don't have to agree.

Kongo people were very famous for producing all types of clothes,but they lost all that technology when they started trading with portugueses.So the Nok case is not a one off in Africa history.

Perhaps Bantu language groups eventually lost the know how and the inclination to make art that strongly resembles the Nok art, and perhaps non-Bantu language groups in West Africa eventually lost the know how and technology to make huge pyramids. It's just mere speculation at this point.

I think that if you really believe this Bantu Nok theory you should probably look for better arguments and evidence to support your idea, because I don't think the scenario you've constructed so far sounds believable.

kingston277:

A good question would be why the Bini had little need for participation in the slave trade. And why other states didn't follow suit.
I've heard that agriculture in peppers/spices is what turned them away from the slave trade but I can't verify if that is the definitive reason.

This is a good question and I will give my view on things based on what I have read.

In addition to the myth/stereotype I alluded to earlier about precolonial west African states needing the slave trade to prosper economically (even some of those that derived some very significant temporary wealth from it didn't necessarily need it), and the myth that every important/major polity in that area (west Africa) was heavily involved in it, there is another myth that hangs over the historical understanding of some African states which is also due to exaggeration or misunderstanding of the evidence.

This second myth is about trade (in general) with Europeans being so lucrative or economically significant for all west African states that traded with Europeans that it was of great importance to all of them at all times. This second myth applies to Benin as well and in the case of Benin, while some aspects of trade with Europeans were indeed important early on (especially political aspects, such as the possibility in the 16th century of forging closer ties with states like Portugal that had access to guns that Benin could have obtained in significant quantities if the Benin kingdom had converted to Christianity), the actual economic significance was much less important and did not become of any great importance until the 18th and 19th centuries (after the kingdom's stability and power had declined significantly due to its civil wars), yet the economic importance of the trade with Europeans has sometimes been exaggerated. The trade was important, but initially this was not even for truly economic/monetary reasons.

The initial (i.e. before the 18th and 19th centuries) limited economic significance of the trade with Europeans in general for the kingdom of Benin was most likely due to the fact that it was not really that lucrative compared with their other trade (within that region of west Africa) at that time. This notion comes through clearly when one reads the historian Alan Ryder's 1969 book on Benin's interaction and trade with Europeans, but that book is kind of obscure, especially now, so it is not uncommon to see the wealth derived by Benin from trade with Europeans wildly overstated, and even implied to be lucrative at all times (even though Benin restricted trade with Europeans at times - decisions that would not have been taken if the trade were so important to Benin's economy). In lieu of going quote mining through Ryder's book for passages that get across what is meant, I found an excerpt from a 1971 review of Ryder's book that gets across the basic idea in a few sentences, which I will quote instead:

"The primary reason for the European presence in West Africa was trade, from the time of the Portuguese arrival in the late fifteenth century until the end of the nineteenth century. Consequently, trade provides the context for the general narrative of the book. Ryder emphasizes the apparent lack of importance of the European trade to Benin, however, and the lack of Edo dependence on this trade for maintaining the Benin state. He stresses that the Oba and his principal chiefs were in full control of the trading system, with the ability to regulate the market at will and the power to force the Europeans to meet Benin conditions in order to trade. Europeans had to accommodate to local conditions. Special European circumstances, such as a reduced demand in Europe for a Benin product, were very largely ignored by the Benin leadership." - H.M. Feinberg, "Benin and the Europeans 1485-1897 by A.F.C. Ryder," African Historical Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1971), p. 405

Now later on in this article reviewing Ryder's book, this author suggests that trade with Europeans may have been more important for Benin in later centuries (18th and 19th), which is a reasonable suggestion, but it is important to note that Benin had declined significantly by that time due to internal conflicts (although there was some significant recovery of power and stability during the mid to late 18th century and the early 19th century, Benin still was never in possession of the kind of power and prosperity it had seen in former days). When the state was strong and prosperous, trade with Europeans (in general, whether involving slaves or anything else) was of no great importance in terms of economic significance. When the state was less powerful and less prosperous, trade with Europeans became more important than it had been previously.

With regard to the items that were of importance to Benin's economy, we have some examples from firsthand accounts that showed that Benin (like some other important African states) had many things to trade in that had nothing to do with the slave trade. For example the Irishman James Stanfield, who visited Ughoton (which he called 'Gatoe'), an important port town of Benin, in the 1780s, made these observations:

"At Gatoe the markets were regular and well stocked: they teemed with luxuries unknown to Europeans. Their fishermen, hunters, and husbandmen, brought in their stores and delicacies: their smiths, carpenters, and weavers, and believe me, there are such among them, displayed their curious manufactures. Fowls, fish, fresh and dried provisions, fruits of the most delicious kind, various sorts of pepper and spices, potatoes, yams, plantains, calavances, cocoa nuts, sugar-cane, purslane, calliloo, ocra, palm-wine and palm oil, were in plenty there. These added to native coral, mats of a most curious texture, Benin and Jaboe cloths of beautiful colours, ivory, gold-dust, gums, woods, wax, cotton and other commodities, proved a demonstration the inexhaustible store of valuable articles, which they could substitute for the unnatural traffic in human flesh. . ." - James Field Stanfield, Observations on a Voyage to the Coast of Africa, 1788

These are just some of the items Benin traded, and the 1780s and the late 18th century in general were not even the most prosperous period of the kingdom's history.

Unfortunately, because of the stereotyping of precolonial African polities that I mentioned earlier, the assumption is sometimes made that important African kingdoms (such as Benin) that traded with Europeans were all somehow in a state of dependence on trade with Europeans for prosperity or that trade with Europeans was automatically very lucrative or of great economic significance to their states. Even on the wikipedia article for the Atlantic Slave trade for example, some wikipedist has claimed (without citing any credible source, of course) that Benin "grew increasingly rich during the 16th and 17th centuries on the slave trade with Europe". Trade with Europeans by Benin, although initially significant in other ways, was not economically significant enough in and of itself to claim that Benin could "grow increasingly rich" just off of that, and in any case, Benin was, as mentioned earlier, not a major player in the slave trade. However the two major myths/stereotypes about precolonial African states that I mentioned earlier are so strongly embedded in the minds and popular imagination of many people, whether black or non-black, African or non-African, that even in the case of a kingdom like Benin where the evidence is so clearly contrary to these myths, some people will still just substitute popular myths and misconceptions for research.

However, for an example of a pattern of African-European interaction which ran contrary to that of Benin, we can consider the case of the kingdom of Kongo. They were eager to trade other items besides slaves but their sometime allies (and sometime foes) the Portuguese were mostly interested in slaves and little else. In fact, in 1526, not too long after their leaders had become Christian, and their kingdom had become infatuated with Portuguese ways in general, the Christian king of Kongo, Nzinga Mbemba (Afonso I), wrote a letter to his ally the king of Portugal, in which he made some complaints about the direction the trade with Portugal had taken:

"Each day the traders are kidnapping our people—children of this country, sons of our nobles and vassals, even people of our own family. This corruption and depravity are so widespread that our land is entirely depopulated. We need in this kingdom only priests and schoolteachers, and no merchandise, unless it is wine and flour for Mass. It is our wish that this Kingdom not be a place for the trade or transport of slaves."

"Many of our subjects eagerly lust after Portuguese merchandise that your subjects have brought into our domains. To satisfy this inordinate appetite, they seize many of our black free subjects....They sell them. After having taken these prisoners [to the coast] secretly or at night.... As soon as the captives are in the hands of white men they are branded with a red-hot iron."

The king of Portugal, João III, replied that he simply did not believe this, as he had heard differently:

"You. . .tell me that you want no slave-trading in your domains, because this trade is depopulating your country. . . .The Portuguese there, on the contrary, tell me how vast the Congo is, and how it is so thickly populated that it seems as if no slave has ever left."

You can find some discussion of the significance of this exchange and these quotes in the book King Leopold's Ghost (1999) and several other publications.

Perhaps if the Kongolese had decided to limit or minimize their interaction with Europeans, in trade and in religion, things would not have taken the awful turn that they did. The reason why Kongo participation in the slave trade swelled to huge numbers and was not limited like that of Benin could probably be ascribed to Kongo allowing Europeans (and their trade goods) to have excessive importance in their society beyond what could be easily regulated.

In the case of other major slave trading polities, there were other motivations (such as acquiring guns) that differed from what took place in the Kongo, but I think that a commonality among many of them was that trade with Europeans in general (whether in slaves or other items) had taken on too important/prominent a share of the economic activity of the nation (as was the case at Bonny, for example). The issue of Dahomey's role in the slave trade is a bit complex so I won't discuss it at any length but there is a very informative article on that subject you can read that analyzes (much better than I could) the various theories about why the slave trade was so significant for Dahomey:

"Dahomey and the Slave Trade: Reflections on the Historiography of the Rise of Dahomey" (1986) by Robin Law

(You can find and read that article through JSTOR.)

And as for the most prominent Akan state, a king of the Asante in the early 1800s, Osei Bonsu, gave a specific excuse when interviewed by the British consul Joseph Dupuis, claiming that he had to sell the captured soldiers and civilians of rival states to avoid eventually being overpowered by them:

"I cannot make war to catch slaves in the bush, like a thief. My ancestors never did so. But if I fight a king, and kill him when he is insolent, then certainly I must have his gold, and his slaves, and the people are mine too. Do not the white kings act like this? Because I hear the old men say, that before I conquered Fante¹. . .white men came in great ships, and fought and killed many people; and then they took the gold and slaves to the white country: and sometimes they fought together. That is all the same as these black countries. . . .When I fought Gyaman,² I did not make war for slaves, but because Dinkera [the king] sent me an arrogant message and killed my people, and refused to pay me gold as his father did. Then. . .like my ancestors, I killed Dinkera, and took his gold, and brought more than 20,000 slaves to Kumasi. Some of these people being bad men, I washed my stool³ in their blood. . . .But then some were good people, and these I sold or gave to my captains: many, moreover, died, because this country does not grow too much corn. . .and what can I do? Unless I kill or sell them, they will grow strong and kill my people." - quoted in The Human Record: Sources of Global History, Volume II: Since 1500, p. 188. The original source is Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (1824) by Joseph Dupuis.

[Notes:

1. The Fante arrived on the Guinea Coast sometime after 1600 and established a number of small states before being conquered by Asante in the 1760s.
2. A rival state to the northwest of Asante.
3. A reference to the "Golden Stool," a symbol of Asante royal power.]

But putting aside this obvious rationalization/excuse given by that Asante king, the truth is more likely that he and his ministers were unable to think of a way (or lacked the military power) to maintain effective control over conquered areas without depopulating them and they therefore just saw slave selling as a profitable option that also allowed them to weaken the threat of neighboring kingdoms. If they had had the political or military ability to maintain effective control over the kingdoms they came into conflict with and conquered without depopulating them, they could only have had a stronger and more productive empire and potentially would have been more powerful (barring any great civil wars or other internal conflicts) when the inevitable confrontation with European imperialists/invaders occurred. Unfortunately like many African leaders, they lacked the foresight to see the bigger threat.

Traditional chiefs and government officials from the Republic of Benin (where the kingdom of Dahomey was centered) and Ghana (where the kingdom of Asante was centered) have apologized for the role of their ancestors in the slave trade, and perhaps one day Nigeria will follow suit when Nigerians are more enlightened or aren't so busy squabbling among themselves. I think it's clear that the problems and suffering caused by the slave trade could have been avoided if wiser choices were made by past African leaders and if trade with Europeans in general had been kept relegated to a position of minimal importance in the societies of the peoples that traded with them.

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1267771&t=w[/img]

"A Sudanese scene: a reading in the street."


AUTHOR
Dubois, Félix (b. 1862)
COLLECTION
Timbuctoo the mysterious
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1897
TOPICS
Mali
Men -- Clothing & dress -- Africa
Malians
Street life
Oral reading

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1103898&t=w[/img]

"Attack at Sansandig" (by Ahmadou's army)


AUTHOR
Mage, E. Eugene (1837-1869)
COLLECTION
Voyage dans le Soudan Occidental.
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1872
Senegal
Senegambia
Campaigns & battles

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1103896&t=w[/img]

"Entrée du palais d'Ahmadou à Ségou."


AUTHOR
Mage, E. Eugene (1837-1869)
COLLECTION
Voyage dans le Soudan Occidental.
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1872
TOPICS
Senegal
Senegambia
Doors & doorways
Castles & palaces

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1103893&t=w[/img]

"Types et coiffures de Bambaras."


AUTHOR
Mage, E. Eugene (1837-1869)
COLLECTION
Voyage dans le Soudan Occidental.
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1872
TOPICS
Senegal
Senegambia
Hats
Bambara (African people)

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1103894&t=w[/img]

"Vue de Yamina sur le Niger."


AUTHOR
Mage, E. Eugene (1837-1869)
COLLECTION
Voyage dans le Soudan Occidental.
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1872
TOPICS
Senegal
Senegambia
Dwellings
Waterways

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1103891&t=w[/img]

"Sambou, griot de Niantanso."


AUTHOR
Mage, E. Eugene (1837-1869)
COLLECTION
Voyage dans le Soudan Occidental.
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1872
TOPICS
Senegal
Senegambia
Musicians
Musical instruments

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1234440&t=w[/img]

"El-Haj Abd-el-Kader, Envoy of Timbuktu."


AUTHOR
Reclus, Elisée (1830-1905)
COLLECTION
The Earth and Its Inhabitants, Africa.
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1890-1893 [v.1, 1892]
TOPICS
Messengers
Tombouctou (Mali)

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1105137&t=w[/img]

"Toucouleur types - the interpreter Alpha Sega and his sisters."


AUTHOR
Reclus, Elisée (1830-1905)
COLLECTION
The Earth and Its Inhabitants, Africa.
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1890-1893 [v.1, 1892]
TOPICS
Families
Clothing & dress -- Africa
Senegambia
Toucouleur (African people)

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1103890&t=w[/img]

"Vue de Koundian."


AUTHOR
Mage, E. Eugene (1837-1869)
COLLECTION
Voyage dans le Soudan Occidental.
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1872
TOPICS
Senegal
Senegambia
Dwellings

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1248537&t=w[/img]

"Peuples de la Senegambie 1. Mandingue du Wolli, 2. Bambara, 3. Yoloff du pays de Wallo"


AUTHOR
Tardieu, Amédée (1822-1893)
COLLECTION
Sénégambie et Guinée, par m. Amédée Tardieu ... Nubie, par m. S. Chérubini ... Abyssinie, par m. Noël Desvergers ...
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1847
TOPICS
Africa --
Mandingo (African people)
Bambara (African people)
Wolof (African people)

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1107143&t=w[/img]

"Hair - dressing as a work of art."


AUTHOR
Basden, George Thomas (1873-1944)
COLLECTION
Among the Ibos of Nigeria, an account of the curious & interesting habits, customs, & beliefs of a little known African people by one who has for many years lived amongst them on close & intimate terms, by G. T. Basden.
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1921
TOPICS
Africa
Igbo (African people)
Women
Hairstyles

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1107149&t=w[/img]

"Town dieties, Adonta, near Awgwash; A medicine man, with stock-in-trade."


AUTHOR
Basden, George Thomas (1873-1944)
COLLECTION
Among the Ibos of Nigeria, an account of the curious & interesting habits, customs, & beliefs of a little known African people by one who has for many years lived amongst them on close & intimate terms, by G. T. Basden.
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1921
TOPICS
Africa
Igbo (African people)
Ceremonial objects
Healers
Shamans

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1107145&t=w[/img]

"1. Surgical knives ; 2. A brass anklet ; 3. A copper bracelet ; 4. Cast - brass tobacco pipes."


AUTHOR
Basden, George Thomas (1873-1944)
COLLECTION
Among the Ibos of Nigeria, an account of the curious & interesting habits, customs, & beliefs of a little known African people by one who has for many years lived amongst them on close & intimate terms, by G. T. Basden.
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1921
TOPICS
Africa
Igbo (African people)
Knives
Tobacco pipes
Jewelry
Copperwork
Brasswork

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1235185&t=w[/img]

"Un roi de Nouveau-Calabar."



AUTHOR
Compiègne, Louis-Alphonse-Henri-Victor du Pont, marquis de (1846-1876)
COLLECTION
Afrique equatoriale. Gabonais, Pahouins, Gallois, par le marquis de Compiegne. Ouvrage enrichi d'une carte speciale et de gravures sur bois dessinees par L. Breton d'apres des photographies et des croquis de l'auteur.
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1875
TOPICS
Clothing & dress -- Africa
Kings -- Africa
Children -- Africa


[Nouveau Calabar = New Calabar, the term European writers used to refer to Elem Kalabari, in modern day Rivers state, Nigeria.]

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=488165&t=w[/img]

"Banjom chief, N. W. Cameroons."


COLLECTION
The Dark Continent: Africa, The Landscape and the People
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1931
TOPICS
Africa --
Ethnology -- Africa
Daggers & swords
Clothing & dress


['Banjom' = Bandjoun, a subgroup of the Bamileke of Cameroon.]

[img]http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=488144&t=w[/img]

"Chief in ceremonial dress, Gold Coast."

COLLECTION
The Dark Continent: Africa, The Landscape and the People
DATES / ORIGIN
Date Issued: 1931
TOPICS
Africa --
Manners & customs -- Africa

This is a drawing of a ceremony at Abomey.




This is a drawing of another ceremony, also at Abomey.


Source (for both images): Dahomey and the Dahomans; being the journals of two missions to the king of Dahomey, and residence at his capital, in the year 1849 and 1850 by Frederick E. Forbes


[These images are from volume 2 of the book by Frederick Forbes.]

". . .one of the oldest houses in Coomassie . .and part of the quarters of the Mission."





". . .a more modern part of the same house, being one side of a small area about 15 feet square, allotted to the chief officer of the Embassy. These areas are all distinct, and a house consists of an indefinite number of them, some 36 feet square, with several long courts. In paying a visit to a principal man, the state was to detain us some minutes at the door of each area, as he generally received us in the innermost. The figure is one of the King's body guards, which have been described before."


Source: Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, with a statistical account of that kingdom, and geographical notices of other parts of the interior of Africa (1819) by Thomas E. Bowdich

". . .a perspective view of the entrance area to Apokoo's house; the fourth side is an open fronted building like those on the right and left for attendants to wait in, and for the hearing of palavers. The opposite closed side is a bed room. The figure is playing the bentwa."


Source: Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, with a statistical account of that kingdom, and geographical notices of other parts of the interior of Africa (1819) by Thomas E. Bowdich