₦airaland Forum

SisterFire:
Who claimed to leave Nigeria and wickedly handed Nigeria to north , same as extremely drunk owner of a company handing over a company to his slowpoke son ?

Who labelled igbos terrorists so they can be wiped out on earth by whole tribes of Nigeria because of pains of independence?

As usual, you guys will never accept responsibility..

https://saharareporters.com/2021/10/06/flashback-i-regret-advising-azikiwe-not-join-forces-awolowo-%E2%80%93-former-eastern-premier

Perfectbeing:
As usual, you guys will never accept responsibility..

https://saharareporters.com/2021/10/06/flashback-i-regret-advising-azikiwe-not-join-forces-awolowo-%E2%80%93-former-eastern-premier

... Zik stole from Barclays bank or some bank and was blackmailed by ur sweet colonial masters not to join AWOLOWO you du.mb head .he was compensated with a mere ceremonial head of Nigeria.

Ask questions dum.b tribalist

What a load of BS!

SIRTee15:
See this one wants to tell me about Aso oke. Go and do more research on the cloth and come back to engage me. U can start with this.

ASO-OKE, THE TRADITIONAL MATERIAL MAKING A VERY MODERN COMEBACK
Words by Elaine Okoye


Aso-Oke is the short version of the more formal Aso Ilu Oke which roughly translates to ‘clothes from the up-country’. It is the traditional wear of the Yoruba tribe who originate from the south-west of Nigeria. They are the second largest tribe in the Nigeria and Aso-oke is often worn as a celebration cloth on special occasions and important events.

Aso-oke is a special hand-woven cloth and over centuries has become somewhat of the style marker of the Yoruba tribe. It was said to have been created in Yorubaland around the 15th century and since then spread around the land and its environs.


https://www.onchek.com/theinsight/asooke-the-traditional-material-making-a-very-modern-comeback/

I don't understand the epistle u writing on ajayi crowther and ajami script.
So what exactly is your point. Every civilization copy from another. English copied from Roman, Roman copied from Greek, Greeks copied from Phoenicians, Phoenicians copied from earlier mesopotamian civilisation.

U made some bogus claim and I debunked it.

U said British brought clothes for Africans. I debunked it by proving Yoruba were making clothes b4 coming in contact with colonialist.

U claimed British taught us how to write. I proved that Yoruba people already developed their own writing system before coming in contact with British.

U claimed an unknown British linguist developed the romanised Yoruba system of writing. I proved that wasn't true. A Yoruba man developed it.

Now u babbling about English language. We learning with English is borne out of necessity. If we want to abandon it, we will. Rwanda changed their official language from Belgian to English despite it was colonised by Belgium. Our use of English as medium of instruction as nothing to do with colonisation.


I don't really understand your aimless babbling. Stick to a point and make yourself clear.
All u half baked lazy ignoramus whose knowledge of Africa is based on what the white man wrote about africa. Do your own research on Africa and your eyes will clear.

Aso oke is made from cotton, when did cotton came to africa?

I have explained myself about Ajayi crowder and yoruba grammar.

Stop gaslighting and answer the question.

Ajami script isn't yoruba but arabic

I see you don't have any clue about anything, that is why you spent all your time not answering the question i asked but ranting.

thebosstrevor1:
Stop acting like bokoharam.

The British empire you abused, civilised all of you.

Brought education
Stopped slavery
Stopped the killing of twins
Gave you clothes
Built missionary schools for your education
Built hospitals.
Brought Christianity to you guys.
Stopped some of your barbaric cultures
Put food on your table
Ended cannibalism
ended mass human sacrifice
ended virgin killings for sacrifice

Many of you are planning to japa to the Uk, yet you spit on her majestic

If you don't like Britain

Stay in your country and develop your land.

Still history will never forget british draconian colonial laws and their corrupt warrant chief system of government, including other atrocities that where carried out by the british in the name King of England or Queen of England .

Uncle @Op with due respect there are elites here. Please before you type a message make a research.
There is a huge difference between queen Elizabeth and the Christian missionaries. There were all British but had different ambitions, goal, and purpose of coming to the Africa.

1). The queen had her purpose of invading Africa
2). Mongo park had his purpose
3). Columbus had his purpose
4). Mary Slessor a Scottish had her purpose

Majority of the good things you mentioned above if not all was carried out by Christian missionaries who by their good intentions built schools and gave free educations, clothed the necked, constructed bridges, medical treatment, and gave scholarships to people and preached against slavery to the Queen and cohort.

Marry Slessor a missionary preached against twins killing not the queen and co.

It wasn't the queen that did these things.

Later lots of Christians like Marthin Luther King junior began to preach against racism and slavery that was when the west including the queen and co had no choice than to stop those atrocities.

They then invaded our natural resources like crude, gold, diamond, etc.......

Maybe you should ask yourself the full meaning of the word "colonization" and to whose benefits

thebosstrevor1:
haha

so they want the queen of England to come to biafra to come stop what ojukwu started..

Dem suppose use you as Abobaku to serve the queen in hell.

thebosstrevor1:
Aso oke is made from cotton, when did cotton came to africa?

I have explained myself about Ajayi crowder and yoruba grammar.

Stop gaslighting and answer the question.

Ajami script isn't yoruba but arabic

I see you don't have any clue about anything, that is why you spent all your time not answering the question i asked but ranting.

This guy continues to embarass himself with his ignorance on african history. when did cotton arrive africa!!!!
cotton was probably domesticated in sudan region 5000 yrs ago. The whole of sene-gambia river territory had cotton farms by 1000 AD.
Go thru the link below an come back to apologise not only to me but your ancestors for ignorantly making a fool of them

https://www.joycerain.com/uploads/2/3/2/0/23207256/guinea_cloth.pdf

Its funny how you try to invalidate the effort of Yorubas/Africans to write in a borrowed script- ajami but see nothing wrong in British people writing in a borrowed scripts. whether its ignorance or mental slavery, I dont know but u will do well to study the history of writing system.

No western european nation including the English had any indigenous writing system, they all copied from the Latin alphabet when they were colonised by the Roman empire. Prior to that, they never wrote.
writing was invented independently in mesopotamia and china. all other writing system copied/was influenced by those 2 writing system.

SisterFire:
... Zik stole from Barclays bank or some bank and was blackmailed by ur sweet colonial masters not to join AWOLOWO you du.mb head .he was compensated with a mere ceremonial head of Nigeria.

Ask questions dum.b tribalist

Lies, lies, lies. Una nor dey tire to dey lie?

SIRTee15:
my natives clothes came from where? definitely not ASO-OKE or ARAN.

samuel ajayi crowther developed the romanised yoruba writing system not any british linguists. Prior to that yoruba language was written in ajami scripts among the muslims faithful. Muslims community in Iwo were writing their wills in ajami scripts while Ilorin musicians wrote the lyrics of their were music in ajami in the 19th century.

technology and invention is meant to make our lives better, is it not. soap is more convenient and less stressful, so we abandoned ashes. Point is our women understood cleanliness and hygiene before meeting the white man. say something else.

You learn with the language of relevance. English is the global official language and only makes sense to be well versed in it. It has plenty advantage, why do u think its very easy for nigerians and indians to japa. If u want to learn in your native language no one is stopping u, primary education medium of instruction ought to the mother tongue according to the federal ministry of education. Take your child to public primary school and watch him teach you mathematics in your local language.


what else? oya bring more ignorant comments. I think I have little time to knock sense into your head and also educate other readers.
note- I'm not here to educate u, I know u very well on this forum to be a baiter.

THANKS FOR DRUMMING SOME SENSE INTO THAT SENSELESS LITTLE SLAVEBOY WHO THINKS HE IS INFERIOR TO WHITES.

HE CLEARLY HAS READ NO HISTORY ABOUT HIS CONTINENT, AND IS A COMPLETE AIR HEAD WHO THINKS HE OWES HIS EXISTENCE TO WHITE PEOPLE.

HE IS AN UTTER DISGRACE AND EMBARRASSMENT.

Perfectbeing:
Lies, lies, lies. Una nor dey tire to dey lie?

...when u die u shall find out. Everyone has a secret

thebosstrevor1:
Aso oke is made from cotton, when did cotton came to africa?

YOU'RE AN EMBARRASSMENT.

Here is an image depicting 15th century Benin city. The city was described by European visitors as ‘wealthy and industrious, well-governed and richly decorated’.

And you can see the people are wearing clothes, so they did not wait for the British to bring them clothes 400 years into the future as your little colonized head imagines. The people built multi-storeyed buildings and grand structures, as you can see.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e0fd6147a67600c3bfa00ad8b0761b8b5c9a57d1/43_198_1101_660/master/1101.jpg?width=1020&quality=85&fit=max&s=30ca024d622a9efc7f784c255316c2ed

Learn more about ancient Benin city here:
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace

Ajami script isn't yoruba but arabic

Arabic isn't Arab, it is African.

The Arabic script is a derivative of African hieroglyphs.

If you want to go back to what came from what, then let's go back to the first writings in that part of the world, meaning we go all the way back to the hieroglyphs used by BLACK AFRICANS in Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia for thousands of years before the first Arab existed.

Papyrus of Maiherepri (3,500 BC)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Maherperi.JPG

Mairherepri was a black African scholar who penned the famed papyrus thousands of years before any Arab existed, much less 'Arabic writing'.

The Nile Valley and Levant (so-called 'middle east') were black majority areas in antiquity, and whatever you see there today (including 'Arabic writing') is a derivative of the old black civilizations of antiquity that dominated that part of the world for thousands of years prior.

Now run along you little cretin, and quit embarrassing yourself with your ignorance of African history.

thebosstrevor1:
Aso oke is made from cotton, when did cotton came to africa?

I have explained myself about Ajayi crowder and yoruba grammar.

Stop gaslighting and answer the question.

Ajami script isn't yoruba but arabic

I see you don't have any clue about anything, that is why you spent all your time not answering the question i asked but ranting.

I know you will too lazy to read the article in that link so I will post some excerpts here.
https://www.joycerain.com/uploads/2/3/2/0/23207256/guinea_cloth.pdf

archeological eidence of cotton production in pre-colonial africa:
Direct evidence of cotton shows up in the archaeological record starting in the 10th century CE. Recent archaeological work yielded over 500 cotton seeds and over 1000 seed fragments at the site of Dia, in the upper Niger region. Some seeds, along with several small spindle whorls (similar to those designed specifically for spinning cotton) were found at levels dating to the last century of the first millennium, which makes them the oldest cotton remains found in West Africa.

Linguisitic evidence of cotton production in pre-colonial africa:
Linguistic evidence suggests that the knowledge and cultivation of cotton was disseminated and encouraged along trans sahara trade routes, by Muslims who spoke Africanized dialects of Arabic.
All of this evidence fits well alongside geographic accounts written in Arabic, which mention cotton clothing being worn in West African towns from at least the 11th century onward. One such account, compiled in 1068, described the weaving of cotton cloth in Takrur (astride the Senegal River), with many houses reportedly having their own “cotton tree.” So although the precise origins of cotton in Africa are elusive, it appears that a variety of Old World cotton was being cultivated (probably as a perennial) in sub-Saharan West Africa by the second millennium.

Description of aso oke production:
Another important textile producing area was taking shape before the 15th century in the lower Niger region, though in this case relying on a very different textile technology. The loom stood vertically, and the shedding device had to be operated with the hands rather than
the feet.

Pre colonial Africans even sold and exported their cotton clothes to european merchants:
In any case, by the time European navigators and merchants began to frequent this part of the Guinea Coast in the 1490s, the Benin area was noted as a place where cotton cloths could be purchased at inland markets. In the year 1505, for example, one Portuguese merchant stationed at the trading post of Ughoton purchased over 1800 locally woven cotton cloths, using them to clothe slaves, make ship’s awnings, and exchange for gold on the Gold Coast.

NIGERIAN EXPERTISE IN MATHEMATICS BEFORE COLONIALISM


''The Yoruba people in present-day Nigeria developed their own numeration system based on units of 20 which requires subtraction to identify different numbers.''

According to Williams (2008), a professor of mathematics, the Yoruba numerals are “amazingly complicated” because the expression of small numbers involves considerable arithmetical manipulation and the extensive use of memory.

Documentary evidence also suggests that scholars throughout the Nigerian kingdoms were highly skilled in the science of magic squares, and were consulting Coptic Solar Calendars to develop agricultural science.

Williams (2008) states that books which were preserved from the 17th Century contain mathematical charts dealing with agronomic activities, including the right time to harvest; the direction of the wind; time of germination; and which insects appear during different seasons.

Lynch and Robbins (1978) also report that the Namoratunga megalithic site in northwestern Kenya, which was built around 300 B.C., has 19 aligned basalt pillars that were purposely built to be oriented towards particular stars and constellations. The existence of such sites and books suggests that an accurate and complex calendar system based on astronomical and agricultural knowledge was in use throughout the continent.

- The Confucian Weekly Bulletin

IRON TECHNOLOGY IN PRECOLONIAL NIGERIA

Iron working consists of two main stages namely: smelting and smiting. In its natural state, iron ore is embedded in rocks and sand. Smelting therefore, is the process of extracting the ore from its matrix.

Smiting on the other hand, is the process whereby the extracted ore or more specifically, the bloom, is converted into items for human use such as knives, hoes, spears, pots, etc. Njoku (2002) however observed that both smelting and smiting were carried out in a series of stages, each of which was accompanied by elaborate religious rituals.

Smelting

According to Pole (1982), traditional smelting of iron in West Africa, was a complex, skilled, lengthy and very labour intensive process. It had to be carried out by a work group and never by an individual smelter. The first task was the procurement of charcoal which served as fuel during the combustion of iron ore.

In this regard, only hardwood trees such as the African oil bean and Ociobetleri were exploited. The trees were felled, chopped up into convenient logs, assembled at a charring point and then charred in an enclosure.

Njoku (2002) also noted that in some communities, the smelters dug trenches in the form of a cross (+) for this purpose. The floor was over – laid with combustible materials such as dry twigs and palm kernel shells. The logs were then carefully packed in the trench, with combustible materials inserted at regulated intervals. The pack was then covered with fresh leaves and trunks of banana trees and finally over – laid with wet sand.

Fire was then introduced to the pack through side openings. After the burning had been completed, the work group undid the pack and picked the charcoal. The rationale for bringing the wood into the enclosure, was scientific – to restrict the intake of oxygen and thereby minimize the by – production of ash.

The next stage was the construction of the smelting furnace. Having completed the furnace, the next stage was to procure iron stones which were usually dug up from shallow ferriferous quarries on the slopes of hills.

The Yoruba have a complex and highly specialized system of mining iron stones.

Nineteenth century reports show that in Egbaland, the miners dug to a depth of between 50 and 60 feet to obtain high quality ore. Like the construction of the furnace, the processing of the heemarite ore before combustion also varied from one community to the other.

Loading was done according to a well rehearsed and scientific order with accompaniment of ritual chants, in the case of Nsukka Igbo smelters as related by Anozie (1979) and Njoku (1986) respectively in their studies of iron technology in Igboland.

Fire was introduced into the furnace through the apertures at its base. Combustion was activated and sustained by the use of bellows connected to a tuyere which passes through the furnace wall into the combustion chamber.

The furnace was charged for about 36 to 48 hours, or so, during which it was fed with more ores and charcoal at regular intervals. When the charge attained high enough temperature, the molten slag flowed through the drain pipe into the pit, leaving behind, mainly iron globules. After the furnace had cooled, these were collected and consolidated by hammering into large lumps. As Njoku rightly observed, it may well be true that indigenous smelters did not comprehend the chemistry of the bloomery process in iron smelting.

Nevertheless, he contended, that their practical knowledge of smelting was based on scientific rationale as can be discerned from their
techniques of charcoal production and the loading of the furnace with iron stones and charcoal. In addition, he further stressed, that the quality of iron produced by indigenous smelters does not lend credence to the assertion that these smelters had no control over the production processes they undertook.

Source - International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 1 No. 13 [Special Issue – September 2011] 182

PRECOLONIAL NIGERIAN MEDICINE

Nigerian medical practises in precolonial times were a combination of physical and spiritual healing. A sick person was not regarded as merely physically ill, and thus requiring merely physical treatment.

As stated by wiki, ''Diagnosis is reached through spiritual means and a treatment is prescribed, usually consisting of a herbal remedy that is considered to have not only healing abilities but also symbolic and spiritual significance. Traditional African medicine, with its belief that illness is not derived from chance occurrences, but through spiritual or social imbalance, differs greatly from modern scientific medicine, which is technically and analytically based.''

IS THE WESTERN WAY NECESSARILY SUPERIOR?


''However, there has been more interest expressed recently in the effects of some of the medicinal plants of Africa. "The pharmaceutical industry has come to consider traditional medicine as a source for identification of bio-active agents that can be used in the preparation of medicine."

Pharmaceutical industries are looking into the medicinal effects of the most commonly and widely used plants to use in drugs.

In comparing the techniques of African healers and Western techniques, T. Adeoze Lambo, a Nigerian psychiatrist, stated in 1979,

"At about three years ago, we made an evaluation, a programme of their work, and compared this with our own, and we discovered that actually they were scoring almost sixty percent success in their treatment of neurosis. And we were scoring forty percent-in fact, less than forty percent."

Onwuanibe, Richard C. (1979). "The Philosophy of African Medical Practice".

GLASS WAS MANUFACTURED IN NIGERIA CENTURIES BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF EUROPEANS, SAYS NEW EVIDENCE

Chemical analysis of beads found at a site in Nigeria revels a composition entirely unique to the region


Josh Gabbatiss

Science Correspondent Independent Newspaper, UK



Glass was produced in sub-Saharan Africa long before Europeans arrived, according to scientists studying beads found in Nigeria.

Chemical analysis of glass found at a Nigerian archaeological site revealed a distinct composition entirely unique to the region.

The finding contradicts a long-held assumption that glass was brought to sub-Saharan Africa by traders from the Mediterranean or the Middle East.

Igbo Olokun, the site where the beads were discovered, is in the north of an ancient city and regional centre of power called Ile-Ife – the ancestral home of West Africa’s Yoruba people.



“This area has been recognised as a glass-working workshop for more than a century,” said Dr Abidemi Babatunde Babalola, an anthropologist at Harvard University who led the research project.

The abundance of glass beads found in Ile-Ife has been associated with the many shrines and sculptures historically located there – however, archaeologists have presumed they were evidence of trade with distant nations.

“The glass-encrusted containers and beads that have been uncovered there were viewed for many years as evidence that imported glass was remelted and reworked,” said Dr Babalola.

Now, the beads and glass working debris found and analysed by Dr Babalola and his collaborators appear to resolve the matter.

“The Igbo Olokun excavations have provided that evidence,” Babalola said.

Of the 12,000 glass beads found at the site, the researchers analysed 52 and found none matched the composition of glass produced anywhere else on earth.

Two groups of glass were found at Igbo Olokun, one with high levels of lime and alumina, and one with low levels of lime and high levels of alumina.

Both were identified as unique to the region, and Dr Babalola and his team noted their composition reflected the local geology and raw materials that were available.

Notably, the glass found at Igbo Olokun was also dated to between the 1100s and 1500s, centuries before Europeans established trade networks in West Africa.

“We are now confident beyond reasonable doubt that both the high lime-high alumina and low lime, high alumina groups of glass represent a glass produced in early Ile-Ife using local recipes, raw materials and technology,” wrote the researchers in their paper documenting the findings.

Their results are published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

The occurrence of similar beads in other West African societies, as revealed by other archaeological excavations, indicated the glass produced at Igbo Olokun was part of a wider regional trading network.

Source - The Independent Newspaper, UK[/quote]

IN THE 17th CENTURY, PORTUGAL BANNED THE IMPORTATION OF NIGERIAN MANUFACTURED SOAP, TO PROTECT HER LOCAL INDUSTRIES

This story is a stunning opposite of the type of news we hear today, where it is African countries who try to ban imports of foreign manufactured goods to protect their local industries.

In the 17th century, soap was manufactured in Nigeria on an industrial scale, and exported across the world, especially to Europe, as people on that continent, emerging from their Dark Ages and into the Renaissance, slowly came to realise the importance of bathing and washing.

This led to very high demand for imported manufactured soap and soap products, since Portugal lacked any meaningful soap manufacturing industry, and lacked the technical know-how to manufacture this important product.

They turned to the people of present day NIGERIA, to provide them with this much needed manufactured product, as the industry was flourishing in that part of the world.

This trade dominance by Nigeria eventually became such a threat to the Portuguese economy that the Portuguese leaders place an outright BAN on Nigerian and West African manufactured soap products in order to encourage local production, protect her local industries, and reduce unemployment in Portugal.

According to researchers:

''The forest people of Nigeria are believed to have developed the soap production industry. Soap production was on such a large scale in the 17th century that Portugal had to ban the importation of West African soap in order to protect their soap-boiling industry.''

The indigenous techniques in soap making were produced in several communities through the use of materials such as ashes, palm oil, cocoa pods and water. It was an industry worked mainly by women. In addition, black soap was believed to be of high medicinal value especially among the Yoruba and Igbo communities.''


Source - AN OVERVIEW OF INDIGENOUS INDUSTRIES IN NIGERIA, by Victor Eshameh, Gifted Minds Writers Firm, Research Dept, 2016

SisterFire:
...when u die u shall find out. Everyone has a secret

Keep absolving yourselves of all blames and be blaming every other tribes.

Prognosis: Chronic inferiority complex with co-morbidity of high historical ignorance.

SIRTee15:
I know you will too lazy to read the article in that link so I will post some excerpts here.
https://www.joycerain.com/uploads/2/3/2/0/23207256/guinea_cloth.pdf

archeological eidence of cotton production in pre-colonial africa:
Direct evidence of cotton shows up in the archaeological record starting in the 10th century CE. Recent archaeological work yielded over 500 cotton seeds and over 1000 seed fragments at the site of Dia, in the upper Niger region. Some seeds, along with several small spindle whorls (similar to those designed specifically for spinning cotton) were found at levels dating to the last century of the first millennium, which makes them the oldest cotton remains found in West Africa.

Linguisitic evidence of cotton production in pre-colonial africa:
Linguistic evidence suggests that the knowledge and cultivation of cotton was disseminated and encouraged along trans sahara trade routes, by Muslims who spoke Africanized dialects of Arabic.
All of this evidence fits well alongside geographic accounts written in Arabic, which mention cotton clothing being worn in West African towns from at least the 11th century onward. One such account, compiled in 1068, described the weaving of cotton cloth in Takrur (astride the Senegal River), with many houses reportedly having their own “cotton tree.” So although the precise origins of cotton in Africa are elusive, it appears that a variety of Old World cotton was being cultivated (probably as a perennial) in sub-Saharan West Africa by the second millennium.

Description of aso oke production:
Another important textile producing area was taking shape before the 15th century in the lower Niger region, though in this case relying on a very different textile technology. The loom stood vertically, and the shedding device had to be operated with the hands rather than
the feet.

Pre colonial Africans even sold and exported their cotton clothes to european merchants:
In any case, by the time European navigators and merchants began to frequent this part of the Guinea Coast in the 1490s, the Benin area was noted as a place where cotton cloths could be purchased at inland markets. In the year 1505, for example, one Portuguese merchant stationed at the trading post of Ughoton purchased over 1800 locally woven cotton cloths, using them to clothe slaves, make ship’s awnings, and exchange for gold on the Gold Coast.

Nigeria is filled with half-baked intellectuals like you who go about posting links of irrelevant things just to make themselves feel important. it is just embarrassing

from the link you posted, this was written in the first paragraph. i am sure you failed to read them.

‘Guinea cloth’ is a term conventionally used in reference to plain white, loom-patterned, or
piece-dyed cotton textiles that were important commodities in the “hidden half” of the
Atlantic slave trade.1
Known also by various names given to different types of these cloths –
names such as brawles, capperees, chelloes, hussanees, and pautkas – [b]they were woven in India and
shipped to Europe to be re-exported by slave traders to Africa’s Guinea Coast and to the
West Indies.2
Then, with the development of industrial production of cotton textiles in
Europe, ‘Guinea cloths’ were made there in imitation of the Indian goods.[/b]

https://www.joycerain.com/uploads/2/3/2/0/23207256/guinea_cloth.pdf

FYI Cotton development in Nigeria started in 1903, while the first commercial production was in 1939/40
https://www.yieldinitiatives.com/history-of-cotton

Quintopia:
IN THE 17th CENTURY, PORTUGAL BANNED THE IMPORTATION OF NIGERIAN MANUFACTURED SOAP, TO PROTECT HER LOCAL INDUSTRIES

This story is a stunning opposite of the type of news we hear today, where it is African countries who try to ban imports of foreign manufactured goods to protect their local industries.

In the 17th century, soap was manufactured in Nigeria on an industrial scale, and exported across the world, especially to Europe, as people on that continent, emerging from their Dark Ages and into the Renaissance, slowly came to realise the importance of bathing and washing.

This led to very high demand for imported manufactured soap and soap products, since Portugal lacked any meaningful soap manufacturing industry, and lacked the technical know-how to manufacture this important product.

They turned to the people of present day NIGERIA, to provide them with this much needed manufactured product, as the industry was flourishing in that part of the world.

This trade dominance by Nigeria eventually became such a threat to the Portuguese economy that the Portuguese leaders place an outright BAN on Nigerian and West African manufactured soap products in order to encourage local production, protect her local industries, and reduce unemployment in Portugal.

According to researchers:

''The forest people of Nigeria are believed to have developed the soap production industry. Soap production was on such a large scale in the 17th century that Portugal had to ban the importation of West African soap in order to protect their soap-boiling industry.''

The indigenous techniques in soap making were produced in several communities through the use of materials such as ashes, palm oil, cocoa pods and water. It was an industry worked mainly by women. In addition, black soap was believed to be of high medicinal value especially among the Yoruba and Igbo communities.''


Source - AN OVERVIEW OF INDIGENOUS INDUSTRIES IN NIGERIA, by Victor Eshameh, Gifted Minds Writers Firm, Research Dept, 2016

another half baked copy and paste intellectual


in the 17th century there was no NIgeria so the rubbish you copied and pasted is useless information

Quintopia:
GLASS WAS MANUFACTURED IN NIGERIA CENTURIES BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF EUROPEANS, SAYS NEW EVIDENCE

Chemical analysis of beads found at a site in Nigeria revels a composition entirely unique to the region


Josh Gabbatiss

Science Correspondent Independent Newspaper, UK



Glass was produced in sub-Saharan Africa long before Europeans arrived, according to scientists studying beads found in Nigeria.

Chemical analysis of glass found at a Nigerian archaeological site revealed a distinct composition entirely unique to the region.

The finding contradicts a long-held assumption that glass was brought to sub-Saharan Africa by traders from the Mediterranean or the Middle East.

Igbo Olokun, the site where the beads were discovered, is in the north of an ancient city and regional centre of power called Ile-Ife – the ancestral home of West Africa’s Yoruba people.



“This area has been recognised as a glass-working workshop for more than a century,” said Dr Abidemi Babatunde Babalola, an anthropologist at Harvard University who led the research project.

The abundance of glass beads found in Ile-Ife has been associated with the many shrines and sculptures historically located there – however, archaeologists have presumed they were evidence of trade with distant nations.

“The glass-encrusted containers and beads that have been uncovered there were viewed for many years as evidence that imported glass was remelted and reworked,” said Dr Babalola.

Now, the beads and glass working debris found and analysed by Dr Babalola and his collaborators appear to resolve the matter.

“The Igbo Olokun excavations have provided that evidence,” Babalola said.

Of the 12,000 glass beads found at the site, the researchers analysed 52 and found none matched the composition of glass produced anywhere else on earth.

Two groups of glass were found at Igbo Olokun, one with high levels of lime and alumina, and one with low levels of lime and high levels of alumina.

Both were identified as unique to the region, and Dr Babalola and his team noted their composition reflected the local geology and raw materials that were available.

Notably, the glass found at Igbo Olokun was also dated to between the 1100s and 1500s, centuries before Europeans established trade networks in West Africa.

“We are now confident beyond reasonable doubt that both the high lime-high alumina and low lime, high alumina groups of glass represent a glass produced in early Ile-Ife using local recipes, raw materials and technology,” wrote the researchers in their paper documenting the findings.

Their results are published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

The occurrence of similar beads in other West African societies, as revealed by other archaeological excavations, indicated the glass produced at Igbo Olokun was part of a wider regional trading network.

Source - The Independent Newspaper, UK

another pack of rubbish

there was no Nigeria before the European came

Quintopia:
PRECOLONIAL NIGERIAN MEDICINE

Nigerian medical practises in precolonial times were a combination of physical and spiritual healing. A sick person was not regarded as merely physically ill, and thus requiring merely physical treatment.

As stated by wiki, ''Diagnosis is reached through spiritual means and a treatment is prescribed, usually consisting of a herbal remedy that is considered to have not only healing abilities but also symbolic and spiritual significance. Traditional African medicine, with its belief that illness is not derived from chance occurrences, but through spiritual or social imbalance, differs greatly from modern scientific medicine, which is technically and analytically based.''

IS THE WESTERN WAY NECESSARILY SUPERIOR?


''However, there has been more interest expressed recently in the effects of some of the medicinal plants of Africa. "The pharmaceutical industry has come to consider traditional medicine as a source for identification of bio-active agents that can be used in the preparation of medicine."

Pharmaceutical industries are looking into the medicinal effects of the most commonly and widely used plants to use in drugs.

In comparing the techniques of African healers and Western techniques, T. Adeoze Lambo, a Nigerian psychiatrist, stated in 1979,

"At about three years ago, we made an evaluation, a programme of their work, and compared this with our own, and we discovered that actually they were scoring almost sixty percent success in their treatment of neurosis. And we were scoring forty percent-in fact, less than forty percent."

Onwuanibe, Richard C. (1979). "The Philosophy of African Medical Practice".

another rubbish

you can see the evidence of the traditional medicine today

if you wanna get rich, kill another human being and use his or her head or blood

if you wanna get pregnant, bring 2 tortoise and 2 goat

so this is the supersition you called medicine

Quintopia:
IRON TECHNOLOGY IN PRECOLONIAL NIGERIA

Iron working consists of two main stages namely: smelting and smiting. In its natural state, iron ore is embedded in rocks and sand. Smelting therefore, is the process of extracting the ore from its matrix.

Smiting on the other hand, is the process whereby the extracted ore or more specifically, the bloom, is converted into items for human use such as knives, hoes, spears, pots, etc. Njoku (2002) however observed that both smelting and smiting were carried out in a series of stages, each of which was accompanied by elaborate religious rituals.

Smelting

According to Pole (1982), traditional smelting of iron in West Africa, was a complex, skilled, lengthy and very labour intensive process. It had to be carried out by a work group and never by an individual smelter. The first task was the procurement of charcoal which served as fuel during the combustion of iron ore.

In this regard, only hardwood trees such as the African oil bean and Ociobetleri were exploited. The trees were felled, chopped up into convenient logs, assembled at a charring point and then charred in an enclosure.

Njoku (2002) also noted that in some communities, the smelters dug trenches in the form of a cross (+) for this purpose. The floor was over – laid with combustible materials such as dry twigs and palm kernel shells. The logs were then carefully packed in the trench, with combustible materials inserted at regulated intervals. The pack was then covered with fresh leaves and trunks of banana trees and finally over – laid with wet sand.

Fire was then introduced to the pack through side openings. After the burning had been completed, the work group undid the pack and picked the charcoal. The rationale for bringing the wood into the enclosure, was scientific – to restrict the intake of oxygen and thereby minimize the by – production of ash.

The next stage was the construction of the smelting furnace. Having completed the furnace, the next stage was to procure iron stones which were usually dug up from shallow ferriferous quarries on the slopes of hills.

The Yoruba have a complex and highly specialized system of mining iron stones.

Nineteenth century reports show that in Egbaland, the miners dug to a depth of between 50 and 60 feet to obtain high quality ore. Like the construction of the furnace, the processing of the heemarite ore before combustion also varied from one community to the other.

Loading was done according to a well rehearsed and scientific order with accompaniment of ritual chants, in the case of Nsukka Igbo smelters as related by Anozie (1979) and Njoku (1986) respectively in their studies of iron technology in Igboland.

Fire was introduced into the furnace through the apertures at its base. Combustion was activated and sustained by the use of bellows connected to a tuyere which passes through the furnace wall into the combustion chamber.

The furnace was charged for about 36 to 48 hours, or so, during which it was fed with more ores and charcoal at regular intervals. When the charge attained high enough temperature, the molten slag flowed through the drain pipe into the pit, leaving behind, mainly iron globules. After the furnace had cooled, these were collected and consolidated by hammering into large lumps. As Njoku rightly observed, it may well be true that indigenous smelters did not comprehend the chemistry of the bloomery process in iron smelting.

Nevertheless, he contended, that their practical knowledge of smelting was based on scientific rationale as can be discerned from their
techniques of charcoal production and the loading of the furnace with iron stones and charcoal. In addition, he further stressed, that the quality of iron produced by indigenous smelters does not lend credence to the assertion that these smelters had no control over the production processes they undertook.

Source - International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 1 No. 13 [Special Issue – September 2011] 182

another irrelevant information

there was no Nigeria until 1963

I wonder, where you guys do get these info from, info that has no connection with reality

SIRTee15:
This guy continues to embarass himself with his ignorance on african history. when did cotton arrive africa!!!!
cotton was probably domesticated in sudan region 5000 yrs ago. The whole of sene-gambia river territory had cotton farms by 1000 AD.
Go thru the link below an come back to apologise not only to me but your ancestors for ignorantly making a fool of them

https://www.joycerain.com/uploads/2/3/2/0/23207256/guinea_cloth.pdf

Its funny how you try to invalidate the effort of Yorubas/Africans to write in a borrowed script- ajami but see nothing wrong in British people writing in a borrowed scripts. whether its ignorance or mental slavery, I dont know but u will do well to study the history of writing system.

No western european nation including the English had any indigenous writing system, they all copied from the Latin alphabet when they were colonised by the Roman empire. Prior to that, they never wrote.
writing was invented independently in mesopotamia and china. all other writing system copied/was influenced by those 2 writing system.

to you an half baked intellectual

Ajami is an Arabic script, not a Yoruba script that is why it was popular among Muslims

Ajami script is also used in Hausa

you can see the ajami script in our 200 hundred naira

Quintopia:
THANKS FOR DRUMMING SOME SENSE INTO THAT SENSELESS LITTLE SLAVEBOY WHO THINKS HE IS INFERIOR TO WHITES.

HE CLEARLY HAS READ NO HISTORY ABOUT HIS CONTINENT, AND IS A COMPLETE AIR HEAD WHO THINKS HE OWES HIS EXISTENCE TO WHITE PEOPLE.

HE IS AN UTTER DISGRACE AND EMBARRASSMENT.

I am surprised you think highly of yourself with the nonsense and meaningless copy and paste article you posted

Quintopia:
YOU'RE AN EMBARRASSMENT.

Here is an image depicting 15th century Benin city. The city was described by European visitors as ‘wealthy and industrious, well-governed and richly decorated’.

And you can see the people are wearing clothes, so they did not wait for the British to bring them clothes 400 years into the future as your little colonized head imagines. The people built multi-storeyed buildings and grand structures, as you can see.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e0fd6147a67600c3bfa00ad8b0761b8b5c9a57d1/43_198_1101_660/master/1101.jpg?width=1020&quality=85&fit=max&s=30ca024d622a9efc7f784c255316c2ed

Learn more about ancient Benin city here:
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace



Arabic isn't Arab, it is African.

The Arabic script is a derivative of African hieroglyphs.

If you want to go back to what came from what, then let's go back to the first writings in that part of the world, meaning we go all the way back to the hieroglyphs used by BLACK AFRICANS in Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia for thousands of years before the first Arab existed.

Papyrus of Maiherepri (3,500 BC)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Maherperi.JPG

Mairherepri was a black African scholar who penned the famed papyrus thousands of years before any Arab existed, much less 'Arabic writing'.

The Nile Valley and Levant (so-called 'middle east') were black majority areas in antiquity, and whatever you see there today (including 'Arabic writing') is a derivative of the old black civilizations of antiquity that dominated that part of the world for thousands of years prior.

Now run along you little cretin, and quit embarrassing yourself with your ignorance of African history.

I wonder how the pic you posted depicts cotton

ok, Arabic is African, English is African, french is African every language is African

most times, I find a waste of time arguing with people who have it hard to process reality

black Africans in eygpt

i don't know why you guys keep twisting history, when there are lot of writings by chrisitan missionaries about africa.

thebosstrevor1:
Nigeria is filled with half-baked intellectuals like you who go about posting links of irrelevant things just to make themselves feel important. it is just embarrassing

from the link you posted, this was written in the first paragraph. i am sure you failed to read them.

‘Guinea cloth’ is a term conventionally used in reference to plain white, loom-patterned, or
piece-dyed cotton textiles that were important commodities in the “hidden half” of the
Atlantic slave trade.1
Known also by various names given to different types of these cloths –
names such as brawles, capperees, chelloes, hussanees, and pautkas – [b]they were woven in India and
shipped to Europe to be re-exported by slave traders to Africa’s Guinea Coast and to the
West Indies.2
Then, with the development of industrial production of cotton textiles in
Europe, ‘Guinea cloths’ were made there in imitation of the Indian goods.[/b]

https://www.joycerain.com/uploads/2/3/2/0/23207256/guinea_cloth.pdf

FYI Cotton development in Nigeria started in 1903, while the first commercial production was in 1939/40
https://www.yieldinitiatives.com/history-of-cotton

U are just a shameless troll without any dignity. An article compared imported fabrics to locally made ones in ancient Africa and u talking nonsense.
I guess u didn't see where benin people exported their cotton clothes.
U ve been completely destroyed on this thread. What u need to do is either run away in shame or apologise and retract your stupid ignorant comments.

What u need to do to stay relevant here is to bring article that said Africans wore no cotton clothes until the arrival of British or u shut up.

thebosstrevor1:
to you an half baked intellectual

Ajami is an Arabic script, not a Yoruba script that is why it was popular among Muslims

Ajami script is also used in Hausa

you can see the ajami script in our 200 hundred naira

So u finally agreed writing was established b4 arrival of white man in Nigeria. Hausa people wrote, Yoruba people wrote, then what's your argument?
U are a senseless troll.

thebosstrevor1:
FYI Cotton development in Nigeria started in 1903, while the first commercial production was in 1939/40
https://www.yieldinitiatives.com/history-of-cotton

Explain this comment from my article otherwise shut up.
In any case, by the time European navigators and merchants began to frequent this part of the Guinea Coast in the 1490s, the Benin area was noted as a place where cotton cloths could be purchased at inland markets. In the year 1505, for example, one Portuguese merchant stationed at the trading post of Ughoton purchased over 1800 locally woven cotton cloths, using them to clothe slaves, make ship’s awnings, and exchange for gold on the Gold Coast.

Nigerians were naked until 1903, arindin.

This are pictures of Yoruba warriors taken in the 1870s.
I guess they wore leaves because according to some morons, Nigerians were naked until British developed cotton farms in the north in 1903.

[quote author=thebosstrevor1 post=116524939][/quote]I wonder how someone would believe his ancestors never wore clothes until the British arrive. What a dumb.
Anyway, don't ever again throw shade to the Yoruba civilisation. It was well established and thriving before any white man appeared. We even made cosmetic products like soap and exported or to Americas.

I will continue to knock sense into your empty skull.

https://theyoruba./2015/11/17/yoruba-textile-history/

Between the African history of Egyptians splendidly attired in flowing robes and some modern day African cultures which have either dispensed completely with wearing clothes or likely have never worn them, where did the Yoruba of old fall?

Yoruba culture has a textile history dating back as far as documented history of foreigners’ visits to Yorubaland exists. in other words, none of the accounts in history mention unclothedness among the Yoruba as a norm. So, as far back as the 1400s at least, Yoruba have been manufacturing ( and wearing) indigenous fabric.

Here are 10 facts about Yoruba textiles:

Kijipa

Kijipa is the earliest known indigenous Yoruba fabric
Kijipa which had a rough texture, was made of raw hand spun cotton
Kijipa was woven on indigenous narrow and wide looms
Kijipa was beige in colour, which faded into white with regular washing, but it was sometimes dyed in indigo for practical and aesthetic purposes
Kijipa was a work fabric for every day living worn by men and women alike
Adire

Adire is indigo resist dyed cotton cloth that has been made by Yoruba women for generations
Adire resist-dyeing involves creating a pattern by tying away designed parts of the fabric with raffia or coating with starch to prevent them absorbing dye.
Adire was originally used to beautify Kijipa fabric, later imported cotton fabric was used
Adire patterns were once a mode of story telling via fabrics
Each authentic Adire pattern has a meaning , interpretation or proverb behind it


And finally, the popular Aso Oke. Aso Oke is a hand loomed cloth woven by the Yoruba people of western Nigeria.- Wikipedia.