₦airaland Forum

samuk:
Thanks for the conversion from league to miles and estimating the journey from Benin city to Maiduguri to be 850 miles.

I believe the report of the European who visited Lagos a little over a century later in 1603 said daily messages were being sent to Benin from the Benin military garrison in Lagos.

Considering that the journey from Benin city to Lagos is 201 miles and a daily frequency of messages were being sent to Benin city makes the 20 moons journey seems out of this world unless the 250 league is not a true reflection of the 20 moon journey.

Even the very best estimates of the journey and the other evidences of it's location relative to Benin and the reference to cross gifts still completely rules Ife out as being the location of the Ogane (Oghene).

We have to really start examining our history using all available evidences and start producing reports to correct any misrepresentations.

With regard to traveling from Lagos to Benin City, those envoys that went to Benin City to deliver the news about what was done each day could have gone by boat/canoe, which may have sped things up considerably for much of the journey. Additionally, it is not clear from the original description by Ulsheimer that the two envoys that were dispatched each day were actually reaching Benin City within a day and then returning to Lagos the next day. It could have taken longer than that. They probably used several pairs of alternating envoys, so that it wasn't always the same two people traveling back and forth between Benin City and Lagos the whole year (which would have been tiring/exhausting and possibly also a liability/vulnerability). There probably would have been several pairs of envoys available at Lagos, with only two leaving at a given time to go to Benin City on one day, and with the expectation that they should return to Lagos in a certain number of days. Meanwhile, there would still be other pairs of envoys available to send to Benin City the next day after those two had left, and so on.

samuk:
Thanks for the clarification, you probably missed the modified part of my earlier submission.

I am examining the actual report of the Portuguese which I reproduced.

It says that the location was east of Benin and a journey of 20 moons, 20 months or 1 year and 8 months.

My contention from all these evidences is that there is hardly a journey within Nigeria that will take 1 year and 8 months and certainly not from Benin to Ife.

No evidence of Ife producing bronze crosses as of 1480 has been produced.

Ife is not east of Benin.

With the aforementioned, it becomes very difficult to understand how anyone will reach the conclusion that the Ogane Benin spoke about in 1480 is Ife.

Yes, I understand your point, however it might be more important to focus on the 250 leagues part of the description. When traveling people have to make stops to rest, eat, etc. And in an era before the prevalence of easily usable roads (there were some roads - by which I don't mean modern roads of course - between towns and cities within kingdoms and there were roads between some kingdoms for trade of course, but probably not everywhere along a long journey would have had roads back then), and with no restaurants or convenience stores or hotels along the way, and with no specific requirement that the journey has to be done quickly (i.e. one is not necessarily in a rush to get there) a journey of several hundred miles could take a long time. I agree with your overall logic though, about the 20 months. Even taking into account the factors that I have listed, it does seem like it should not take 20 months to go from Benin City by foot to the very borders of Nigeria in any direction. But we can't know exactly at what pace people liked to travel back then.

250 leagues could be about 700 to 900 standard English miles depending on the standard used for "league", and that might still be within the borders of Nigeria if one takes Benin City as the starting point. The "Portuguese maritime league" unit of measurement was about 3.2 nautical miles, which is about 3.68 standard English miles.

Multiplying 250 by 3.68 gives 920 miles. But "920 miles" is probably not going to be exactly what was meant. It could be a bit less, and of course the standard for "league" might not have been strictly adhered to back then (although on the other hand the Portuguese explorers, being experienced sailors would most likely have used standard and well established measurements for distance). From Benin City to Maiduguri is about 820 miles, so it is conceivable to still end up within the borders of modern day Nigeria or just at the borders, if one travels "about 250 leagues" from Benin City, if "250 leagues" is not taken as literally meaning exactly 250 leagues.

samuk:
If I understood the article correctly, the Ogane Benin told the Portuguese about around 1480 is not even situation in modern Nigeria.

This can only point to the reach of Benin in ancient times.

Well no, that was not really what I meant to convey by citing that article. The "Ogane" ruler the Benin informants mentioned to the Portuguese most likely was situated in what is now Nigeria, or at least somewhere else in west Africa,. I am saying in that post that the view of historians (especially those who are specialists on medieval history) is that the "Organa" on 14th, 15th, and 16th century European maps is actually a reference to the North African city of Ouargla, in the Sahara desert, very far from Nigeria and nearer to the coasts of North Africa. In other words, the "Saracen" ruler designated "Rey de Organa" on the European maps is not a reference to the "Ogane/Hooguanee" ruler that the Benin informants later told the Portuguese about.

I was just noting that the evidence points to the "Ogane/Hooguanee/Oghene" ruler being someone else entirely different from the ruler described and depicted on the maps. Ouargla is a Berber or Arabic name, that was most likely corrupted into Organa on medieval European maps.

The Oghene/Ogane/Hooguanee ruler was most likely someone else. Those maps are not referring to him (Ogane) but instead referring to the North African city of Ouargla in the Sahara desert and its ruler. So they probably are not really that relevant to the discussion.

TerraCotta, I've included what I attempted to post here earlier as attachments.