₦airaland Forum

Benin City, 1847 drawing by English visitor Mary Evans, showing large, multi-storey public buildings and monuments, and a high level of Nigerian civilisation long before the colonial invasion.

This drawing was done 50 years before the British invasion of Benin City in 1897.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ef/5c/89/ef5c89fe551d9ca5a70b9b284342ce83.jpg


According to the UK Guardian Newspaper,

''The Guinness Book of Records (1974 edition) described the walls of Benin City and its surrounding kingdom as the world’s largest earthworks carried out prior to the mechanical era. According to estimates by the New Scientist’s Fred Pearce, Benin City’s walls were at one point “four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops”.

Benin City was also one of the first cities to have ....street lighting. Huge metal lamps, many feet high, were built and placed around the city, especially near the king’s palace. Fuelled by palm oil, their burning wicks were lit at night to provide illumination for traffic to and from the palace.

At the centre of the city stood the king’s court, from which extended 30 very straight, broad streets, each about 120-ft wide. These main streets, which ran at right angles to each other, had underground drainage made of a sunken impluvium with an outlet to carry away storm water. Many narrower side and intersecting streets extended off them....

When the Portuguese first “discovered” the city in 1485, they were stunned to find this vast kingdom made of hundreds of interlocked cities and villages in the middle of the African jungle. They called it the “Great City of Benin”.... Indeed, they classified Benin City as one of the most beautiful and best planned cities in the world.

In 1691, the Portuguese ship captain Lourenco Pinto observed: “Great Benin, where the king resides, is larger than Lisbon; all the streets run straight and as far as the eye can see. The houses are large, especially that of the king, which is richly decorated and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.”


Palace of the Oba of Benin, 15th Century
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/af/54/86/af548637d5b30bdc5c09efaf28455d3e.jpg

“Houses are built alongside the streets in good order, the one close to the other,” writes the 17th-century Dutch visitor Olfert Dapper.
“Adorned with gables and steps … they are usually broad with long galleries inside, especially so in the case of the houses of the nobility, and divided into many rooms which are separated by walls made of red clay, very well erected.”

Dapper adds that wealthy residents kept these walls “as shiny and smooth by washing and rubbing as any wall in Holland can be made with chalk, and they are like mirrors. The upper storeys are made of the same sort of clay. Moreover, every house is provided with a well for the supply of fresh water”.

African fractals

Benin City’s planning and design was done according to careful rules of symmetry, proportionality and repetition now known as fractal design. The mathematician Ron Eglash, author of African Fractals – which examines the patterns underpinning architecture, art and design in many parts of Africa – notes that the city and its surrounding villages were purposely laid out to form perfect fractals, with similar shapes repeated in the rooms of each house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village in mathematically predictable patterns.

As he puts it: “When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.”

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


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Very beautiful! Meanwhile Ibadan after 54 years...spits

Karlovych:
Very beautiful! Meanwhile Ibadan after 54 years...spits

Na wa o.

Must you guys turn everything into ethnic something on this forum?

I tire for una mehn...

Wow, so what happened to all this artifacts

Ancient Ibadan

Before the invasion of the Benin it used to be like abroad, and only one way in and out.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Benin empire weren't ambitious, they could have conquered a bigger space

Karlovych:
Very beautiful! Meanwhile Ibadan after 54 years...spits

I don't expect Osu people to love ibadan considering that Yoruba people wasted some useless 3 million pigs some years back

DMerciful:
The Benin empire weren't ambitious, they could have conquered a bigger space

You mean they were not GREEDY.
You mean they were satisfied with what they had and not see the need to make slaves of others who had right to be their own free people.

Go and ready how Russia, USA, China came to be.

Benin kingdom should have been a country of its own because they were a great empire before the colonial era.

They should have been more ambitious. They should have taken Lagos when they had the chance because of its strategic location

Stephen0mozzy:
You mean they were not GREEDY.
You mean they were satisfied with what they had and not see the need to make slaves of others who had right to be their own free people.

What in God’s name happened to Benin City? This place wasn’t ravaged by war, didn’t suffer conquest, wasn’t wiped out by genocides, natural disasters, or even the typical Nigerian curse of dysfunction. No earthquakes, no nukes, no colonial carpet-bombing, no scorched-earth madness — yet it’s a shadow of its former self. Once a cradle of ancient civilization, now just coasting on nostalgia. How do you fall so far without a single bullet flying?

DMerciful:
Go and ready how Russia, USA, China came to be.

Benin kingdom should have been a country of its own because they were a great empire before the colonial era.

They should have been more ambitious. They should have taken Lagos when they had the chance because of its strategic location

How are you discounting the lives that were lost in the conquest that you wished they aspired to. You think Russia, Usa, and the likes conquered places by Vote Like or Share on social media?

The Benin Kingdom was doing well for its capacity - in skills and might - they were as structured in town planning as they were in their customs.

kettykings:
What in God’s name happened to Benin City? This place wasn’t ravaged by war, didn’t suffer conquest, wasn’t wiped out by genocides, natural disasters, or even the typical Nigerian curse of dysfunction. No earthquakes, no nukes, no colonial carpet-bombing, no scorched-earth madness — yet it’s a shadow of its former self. Once a cradle of ancient civilization, now just coasting on nostalgia. How do you fall so far without a single bullet flying?

Have you heard nothing about the Benin Massacre? Have you heard nothing about the continent-wide exploitation of colonial powers.


Outta the rock man!

DMerciful:
The Benin empire weren't ambitious, they could have conquered a bigger space

Benin Empire that went to Japan. Dey play.

Learn about the 'Edo Period' of Japan. Top video that got over 12,000 likes:

Japan's Mysterious African Heritage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JD8FTP1cWQ

They were satisfied with their size then but now a minority in Nigeria where they could have been a super majority

Stephen0mozzy:
How are you discounting the lives that were lost in the conquest that you wished they aspired to. You think Russia, Usa, and the likes conquered places by Vote Like or Share on social media?

The Benin Kingdom was doing well for its capacity - in skills and might - they were as structured in town planning as they were in their customs.

I have watch this video.

Benin empire is a shadow in Nigeria today when they were bigger than the majority nationalities before the colonial era

Kemetian:
Benin Empire that went to Japan. Dey play.

Learn about the 'Edo Period' of Japan. Top video that got over 12,000 likes:

Japan's Mysterious African Heritage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JD8FTP1cWQ

Benin looks even much worse now, more than 50 years after the British left. This means they only came to destroy and plunder.
This is not to take away the fact we ourselves have further complicated issues.

DMerciful:
They were satisfied with their size then but now a minority in Nigeria where they could have been a super majority

Those who are majority, what benefits have their majority afforded them if not constant HATE AND BANTER.

We are still very satisfied with not being dragged into POLITICO-ETHNIC BARBARISM.
🤪

“When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.”

Ron Eglash (mathematician) , author of African Fractals.

I will relate this to a form of triangulation, maybe their planners had a simpler formular instead of this mordern headache calculation 🤷. They used their guns and fire to burn down everything and destroy our heritage, our greed contributed which is seen till today🤐👌🤷.

When I look at this picture, it tells me that the British INTERRUPTED AND REVERSED OUR DEVELOPMENT.

They did not 'civilise' us.

They DE-CIVILISED US.

This was Benin City 170 years ago for goodness' sake.

It looks better than many parts of Nigeria today!

Just imagine if this city had been left alone from 1847 till now to continue developing and thriving without invasion, by today it would be one of the most beautiful and advanced cities in the entire world.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ef/5c/89/ef5c89fe551d9ca5a70b9b284342ce83.jpg

kettykings:
What in God’s name happened to Benin City? This place wasn’t ravaged by war, didn’t suffer conquest, wasn’t wiped out by genocides, natural disasters, or even the typical Nigerian curse of dysfunction. No earthquakes, no nukes, no colonial carpet-bombing, no scorched-earth madness — yet it’s a shadow of its former self. Once a cradle of ancient civilization, now just coasting on nostalgia. How do you fall so far without a single bullet flying?

The British had a organized army and most importantly gun powder .

id4sho:
“When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.”

Ron Eglash (mathematician) , author of African Fractals.

I will relate this to a form of triangulation, maybe their planners had a simpler formular instead of this mordern headache calculation 🤷. They used their guns and fire to burn down everything and destroy our heritage, our greed contributed which is seen till today🤐👌🤷.

Our greed contributed to what?

Oga, Benin people were minding their business and thriving when these people came from London with guns and bombs and started shooting up the place.

So which one is 'our greed' there?

Kemetian:
Our greed contributed to what?

Oga, Benin people were minding their business and thriving when these people came from London with guns and bombs and started shooting up the place.

So which one is 'our greed' there?

Mind you they came first as
# explorers
# traders ( buying and selling resources, slavery)
# military expedition (colonisation)
# missionaries (development)

Our innate greed and backstabbing is shown during trade. Chiefs and followers will start selling each other out. Benin OBA had a Portuguese wife🤷🤦(white toto).
The greed shows our lack of unity, the next thing is to come and take resources and instill discipline (military expedition).
We sold our selves to little things like sugar,gin, mirror, garment. Most notably sugar and gin.

DMerciful:
The Benin empire weren't ambitious, they could have conquered a bigger space

they conquered almost all the nearby tribes. Even sent a prince to become olu of warri, conquered Lagos island for example too. . Most of their development was tied to their trade with Portuguese and Dutch. The empire began to decline when slavery ended.

Exactly my point. Look at the Fulanis,
they expanded and retained wherever they expanded to. Benin didnt do that.

ednut1:
they conquered almost all the nearby tribes. Even sent a prince to become olu of warri, conquered Lagos island for example too. . Most of their development was tied to their trade with Portuguese and Dutch. The empire began to decline when slavery ended.

Kemetian:
Our greed contributed to what?

Oga, Benin people were minding their business and thriving when these people came from London with guns and bombs and started shooting up the place.

So which one is 'our greed' there?

the benin and Portuguese were in bed. Portuguese armed them with guns and naval support, ijaws also helped them with naval support. They conquered others and sold them into slavery using coastal kingdoms they controlled. They weren’t innocent 🥱

DMerciful:
Exactly my point. Look at the Fulanis,
they expanded and retained wherever they expanded to. Benin didnt do that.

fulani used religion to seal their stay.

You see Edo aka Bini people, they are the real progressive people in Nigeria, and if you check the pattern of Presidents they support in Nigeria, it will also tell you why they are the real progressives not the Ronu cum crude oil greed driven Ronus claiming to be progressives.


Binis just like Igbos have a natural instinct to spot a potential good leader, that was why Edo became the headquarter of Obidient movement.


If you also check, Edo people are the most traveled tribe in Nigeria because they love exploring the world unlike the others that claim that they don't travel undeveloped regions because their region is paradise more than Europe that Europeans still explored all nooks and crannies of the world looking for opportunities.


It is that natural drive for greatness that make Edo people to travel a lot and not depend on using politics of tribal-religious division, tribal hatred, propaganda and gangup to be currying political favor from the North to develop their region while claiming progressive.


History even have it that Bini Empire owned Lagos, I can see the truth in it.


I really cherish Edo people no be small, great people that never lie to gain political favor; reason Oba of Bini told Ikwerre people to their faces that they should stop claiming that they are from Bini, that they are Igbos, that there is no relationship between Ikwerre and Bini beside economic/trade migration

Auto-pederasty

Empires are all evil. It doesn't matter if you call it the Bini empire, Oyo empire, or the British empire. All empires are evil

Empire means that at some point, some people left their land to use military force to take over other people's lands, enslave, and subjugate them. What can be good about that?

Bini empire, Oyo empire, and British empire, where all evil