okoroemeka: of caesers wealth and power,sadly Brutus was manipulated and used but later all the liberators paid with their lives and their heads were piled on caesers statue from the casca brothers to cimber
If the Roman mobs (as my dad's book called them) were "civilized" enough to revolt -- I wonder what's wrong with us?
Don't get me, I'm not taking sides. I'm just surprised mobs from over 2000 years ago could wreck such havoc without giving a damn about the soldiers. I guess the masses all loved Caesar.
Racoon: The simple moral lesson of this gory incident is the saying "absolute power corrupts absolutely" Hence always give rise to desperate intra-institutional power tussle. Brutu's being part of the conspiracy is justifying of the saying "a man's enemy is of those of his own household."
Brutus felt he was just being patriotic to Rome, if only he knew most of the conspirators were just envious.
I remember my little self listening to my father telling me this story countless times. I remember reading this from a book I found in my father's pile of books and old newspapers. 😢
candygist: This country cant be saved, so many evil and wicked people started arround the country. Make God just dey bless us make money dey enter, make we leave the country for them.
Regarding mentorship, I'm so occupied if I would be honest with you. But you can easily get a mentor for free on YouTube. Also endeavour to keep using your weekends to practice the free tutorials you would have access to. You would be fine.
JoeEeL: Exactly. Peoples like Japan did not lose their identity. Instead they built ontop it. They kept their monasteries and Kun reading. The technology of guns when the brits stepped foot on their lands, they grabbed it and built ontop of it while preserving their values. Till today their sense of purpose and identity are strong. They also reserved their language and their ways of life, like the Chinese.
The Nsibidi was a complex code / symbol language that translated to meanings. It was developed in the Biafran territories, from the Igbo hinterland to the Ejagham peoples all through Cross River, Akwa-Ibom down to even present-day Cameroun. It stood as a unifying form of communication whilst each of the indigenous peoples in this region had their respective languages. For instance in English or many of today's languages, everything is broken down, letter by letter. For instance "I am going to the market". Nsibidi instead would have a sort of symbol that would encapsulate the words "I", "go", "market" etc. You get the idea. There was mainstream nsibidi which the locals knew while there were far advanced code symbols that the "higher class" developed and used. More like "cult" but not in a bad way.
It was also used in representation of markings, tattoos, paintings, arts and even in wars to pass coded messages. These colonialists came, destroyed and banned all those things, eliminated those with deep knowledge of these, burnt artefacts and stole a lot from temples. If you know what these colonialist countries are hiding from black people, many of us would die of heart attack. They started to build churches and the corrupt and exiled in the societies, they began to make them appointed in church... citing scriptures that talk so much about forgiveness of sins and almost no repercussion. This was at odds and conflict with most of our traditional values. We did not have prison systems. Most times the bad in the societies were either exiled or estranged. Most kids wouldn't play with you, everyone would keep away from you to serve as deterrence for others to keep commiting evil. But these invaders turned our systems upside down and the alienated, the bad eggs, were elevated as priests, teachers, commanders of d community. They were stooges for d west... all from politics, to elders, to church etc. This is why it seems we are cursed with bad leaders. No, its been like that since they step foot on our soil. They make the worst rule over us. It's deliberate.
See, there's too much to say. Back to the nsibidi stuff. They started to demonise those who had knowledge of it. You know d usual na. Call them cultists, rebels, devil worshippers, hellfire stuff. U know how these guys control communication, media and brainwashing na. To d extent people started dropping their names that bore sweet names like Ekwensu, Esubiyi, Ifadele... Check yoruba names today; people now drop their names if it starts with Ogun, Ifa, Sango, Oya etc. and replace with Oluwa. For instance we used to have names like "Sangodele", "Ifabiyi", "Ogundayomi" "Ogundare" etc. Those in Biafra kukuma dropped their whole indigenous names and begun to bear names like "Sandra", "Gregory", "Silas", "Anselm", "Hilda". That's how it all started o. They burnt many of our "idols", "shrines", "temples" etc. Those who practised went into hiding. Haha, our world was actually turned over.
Back to the discussion, there was one lady on youtube that was teaching Nsibidi one time like that. But know that its watered down and quite a lost has been lost. But it can be revived just like the hebrew language today by the pioneer Ben-Yehuda. People dont know that Hebrew language of today was actually lost... but with determination, languages and cultures can be revived.
vtuKiosk: Amazon KDP requires you to have an ad budget in place if your goal is to start earning immediately.
Upwork and the likes do not really need an ad budget before you can start earning, so you might want to focus on serving small business owners (US, Canada, etc) on these Platforms instead. After some months, you can include Amazon KDP.
It would also be a smart idea to write for 10 of these small business owners at once without asking a dime but requesting that they drop a comment and also put a word out there for you. Don't forget to research their business to know if it worth your labour.
Have the mind to deliver quality job for them despite being free. That way, your portfolio would be rich and start attracting those that would actually pay you. That subtle pitching would favour you. Those small business owners might also decide to retain you and start paying you.
Meanwhile, if you do not know your way around Fiverr or Upwork, why not practice some free tutorials on YouTube to perfect your skills?
I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm entitled or something. Can you mentor me? 🙏
Thank you for the advice, I appreciate. Although my hands are tied on my work that pays me very low and I can't stop since I live alone, I will surely do this.
XY23: There were very few intellectuals then, many of the Binis didn't take any pride in learning about the ways of the 'whites' nor writing about them. Apart from the ease of doing business with them, the Binis general abhored anything that could ruboff on their identity. However, details of their early dealings were instead documented in Edo language (we had special unit for that at the time). The archives were destroyed or stolen by the British.
The British did a number on us 😠.
Was it written in the alphabets we are familiar with today?
JuanDeDios: Any sub-Saharan Africans who left and travelled did so individually. They were the exceptions. We never built ocean-going vessels to explore the seas. We did not travel far as organized groups.
This whole thing is crazy! They told us all humans originated from Africa, how did they get to Europe, Australia, Americas, and Asia? Did Africans lose everything including that knowledge? 🤔
It might be possible since this generation is more fixated on making money from the internet and social media, our descendants might lose the knowledge to certain technology. But this time, we've got YouTube and well documented processes to help them.
The question begging for answers is: did we forget the knowledge to certain technology our ancestors possessed? Just look at the pyramid in Egypt...
I find it hard to believe these fvckers who want us to believe that Africans that were the first humans but were jumping from one tree to another 😐 prior to "the coming of the white man". It's hard to swallow that.
JoeEeL: They did this to erase the handiwork and craftsmanship of our forefathers. This is the extent of damage the colonists did to us as a people
The walls were not just huge and big but they had mathematical inscriptions and advanced code symbols that were privy to the rulership class systems.
It was too inspirational and the Brits came in to destroy this in order to break the chain that links our identity from generation to generation. This eventually creates a loser's and conquered mindset which is why we as blacks do not easily recognise ourselves anymore.
It took several centuries to build that and imagine we continued up till this day, we would have kept advancing and advancing in our knowledge but they destroyed this and gave you guys nigeria.
It is because many of us do not know our history and the extreme damage of colonialism that we still embrace One Nigeria. This is why as they say, being a One Nigerian and an intellectual are mutually exclusive. What these colonialists carried out is more than genocide. This is the peak of world crimes. They didn't just end peoples, they ended their identity. This is deeper than what you can ever imagine.
They also destroyed Arochukwu temple in Abia today. They made us hate our ancestors and burnt temples and shrines all over southern africa. They gave us their fake bible and interpreted our ancestors like Esu and Ekwensu as "devil", very mischievously.
Africans do not know who they have been. Africans should stop looking forward... they have to first start from looking back and way back to see where they're coming from.
Where's Nsibidi today? Do you know we had systems of reading and writing? Our Ifa system they tried to demonise it. I posted Isese day on my whatsapp status, one bornfool was telling me to repent. A great pity for d black man but its not too late.
Don't stop... We're all here to learn. Can nsibidi be revived? I've heard so much about it! Imagine our kids being literal in English and nsibidi alphabet. If I die without seeing Africa rise, I will curse her 😠😔.
XY23: Also, it was Oba Edifie that had sophistication in Portuguese.
This got me thinking... Why didn't he order the intellectuals to develop a writing system after seeing how the Portuguese rolled? We would have gotten to hear Benin empire's history from the horse's mouth.
JuanDeDios: Our problem, in sub-Saharan Africa - was isolation. The Chinese were not isolated, the Arabs were not - they interacted with the WORLD throughout the ages. The ancient Egyptians invented writing. The Chinese invented paper. The Indians invented the 1, 2, 3 numbering system. The Arabs invented Algebra. The Indians invented surgery. The Europeans invented astronomy. Etc. The West absorbed all these and refined them. The Chinese absorbed things from the West and vice versa. Because there was INTERACTION. Sub-Saharan Africans are not seen to have contributed anything. But you think we didn't have science? Or even some form of writing? You'll be shocked! The East Africans did surgery long before oyinbos came. Marlians did astronomy. The Igbo and Efik had a writing system called Nsibidi. But these were ISOLATED civilisations and because they did not INTERACT with the outside world, they did not adopt formal writing and nothing was systematized, codified, scaled, and passed on.
We needed interaction with the outside world. Unfortunately, when it happened, it came in the form of slavery and colonialism. We finally adopted writing and systematized medicine but at the huge cost that we were exploited. And the rest is history.
I agree.
Sometimes the way these guys look down on us inspires me to make sure history doesn't repeat itself again.
While making a research, I came across onenimus (or something like that) who introduced innoculation to Americans. This was at a time, most of Americans believed "it was God who gives and takes" because they were helpless as they watched their children die.
You're right, if we had not been isolated from the rest of the world -- we wouldn't have to deal with statements like "the white man saved you... Y'all didn't even know how to start a fire". But on a second thought, why didn't our ancestors think of exploring the "unknown" world? Although I heard some of them actually did.
Rossikk: You give wayyy too much power to these Fulanis? Who the hell are they?
Are they even up to 5 million in number?
Ok, Tinubu is president now. If the Edo state governor calls him and says “Mr President, we need to resurrect our great Benin wall to attract tourists worldwide”, and Tinubu says ‘’Of course, what do you need?”
How will Fulanis stop it?
You attribute to them way too much power than they actually have.
It’s as a United Nigeria that we can even AFFORD to resurrect that wall. Where will Bini find the money and expertise to do it on their own after Nigeria is ‘divided’? They will be broke like Sierra Leone!
Yujin: Divide Nigeria and see how Bini will rise again. There will be peace around Bini and since people from there will control their land, they will want to maximize whatever tourism they can get from their historical achievements. Insist on one Nigeria and see more historical artifacts and land marks will be destroyed. The fulanis having a strong control over Nigeria don't have a single landmark therefore they won't hesitate to destroy that of others. I know you won't ever agree to this proposal but I still put it down for others to read and weigh for themselves.
You're right.
I don't know why we are still defending a European's creation which was meant to benefit them. Imagine how they burned down a whole city down...
We need an African union similar to the European Union and if more than more ethnicities must be in a country, why not create a system that gives them autonomy? Even the UK that put us in this mess are doing the same thing.
I don't know... does it mean we hate ourselves so much we rather perish than succeed? 😔 Our ancestors were no saints (nobody's ancestor was, anyway) but they were way better than us. For Igbos to live in communities without attempting to colonize others says a lot about the type of people they were. Except maybe for arochukwu and the wars between some of them.
Whatever happened to learning a new technology without losing our old ways that benefitted us just like China and Japan? Japan was fvcking nuked but that didn't make them adopt American culture!
Rossikk: There was an international regulation during colonial rule called Terra nova or something whereby international law dictated that a colonial power could only legally take over a foreign country if such country was barren and devoid of 'civilization'. So this requirement spurred the colonialists to burn and destroy all signs of urban development across Africa. Many cities were burnt down just to prove there was no civilization, to legitimize their seizing the territories.
Benin City was one such city, and they made sure they destroyed it and left nothing standing, including the great palace, in 1897.
Another beautiful, great city they destroyed was Mbanza Kongo in present day Rep of Congo.
Dang!
Now, we can't remember anything about our past! Don't you think it'd be great if we can start laying a solid foundation for the future generations by creating our own alphabets and etc so our own descendants wouldn't have to go through this feeling of inferiority a lot of Africans suffer from today?
We can destroy the negative legacies of these Europeans that has held us back and stop blaming them but instead build our defense just like China is doing today? I can't imagine my descendants still blaming "the white man"...
Is this Benin? I keep wondering what would have happened if we continue to build our houses the same way our ancestors did. Our architecture would have been unique. I see most of these Caucasians insulting us for living in "mud house".
If you ask 100 Nigerians ''which city had streetlights first, London or Benin city'', 99 would say ''London of course'', and look at you as if you're mad for even asking the question.
Meanwhile Benin city not only had streetlights before London, but had them 300 years BEFORE London.
Our ancestors must be ashamed of us 😔.
I know some of our traditions wasn't good (just like it was in every culture in the world) but we believed in ourselves and would have been better than we were now.
I wonder what would have happened if we had the type of confidence people like the Chinese possess, that led them to develop at a faster pace.
Did we forget all these? What didn't our ancestors develop some system of writing that's popular in the south? A lot of questions not a lot of answers. If we had a system of writing, it would have been easier to regain our confidence since we can learn the exploits of our ancestors.
Now, we have to read a book by a European to know more about our ancestors 😔.
Region, Nneka, Imo, Anambra, ESN, conflict, Lagos. Its always about tribe for nincompoops like you and that has dragged this country backwards till the cave age and still dragging. I’ll say again choose your words carefully. Now is not the time.
Have fun replying to yourself and your thousand levels of stupidity. I’m done talking to you.
Ignore that piece of sh*t, sir.
I think it's better I stick to the diary section to avoid seeing comments from these black things that can't even defend their continent.
The negativity is overwhelming and it's affecting me.
MS247: The way some people carry this matter for head eeehn
Wetin concern nneka with MohBad if not mischief and Political undertones
Your father must be ashamed of you! Banza kowai! I can't scroll through nairaland without seeing worthless comments like yours. God save your black soul, sir!
Romance › Re: A Crime Being Handsome? by SuperOnyi: 1:12am On Sep 24, 2023
