posted
The goal here is to pictographically bust the eurocentric fed cult-mentality that Africans were a essentially bunch homeless wanderers in danger of perishing forever, lest European thugs intruded in their lives...uhem...I mean "saviors".
The integrity of the 17th century Mausoleum before British intrusion:
The Mausoleum after being given British "constructive" treatment:
^This thug is probably thinking through his thick skull: "Good job, mate". "Now, we can tell our psychologically fragile children that these Africans never built anything; we were here to build them the very things we just destroyed".
What follows are examples of culmination of peoples' sweat and labor put in place since the 17th century before the British decided to intrude:
..and what happened to these foundations, when treated British "work":
Another thug, inspecting the aftermath of their splendid work, probably thinking: "What, am I seeing repair effort at work here already, with all these supports in front our "masterpiece", i.e. our great destructive work? Wait till we bring it down again?"
Funny how European terrorists destroyed everything in their path, only to have the loony eurocentric cults of today say that the bloodthirsty European intruders met up with non-functioning societies, with no signs of city life, who needed to be "rescued"; simply put: destroy years of hard work of others, and then say that visible manifestations of this never existed upon their arrival.
As these images will show, far from screeming for Euro attention, these people were actually minding there own business and taking care of themselves, before the brute intruders barged in on them, uninvited.
Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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...other images of both constructive work, and their subsequent destruction in certain cases...
Click on the image above for greater resolution.
Click on the image above for greater resolution.
^A figure out there, with a gigantic white clown hat on, like one of them terrorist British mofos
-------------------- The Complete Picture of the Past tells Us what Not to Repeat Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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-------------------- The Complete Picture of the Past tells Us what Not to Repeat Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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More images like the above can be found here: Flickr link
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Very beautiful buildings. I especially like the external wall reliefs.
The images of the ruins, on the other hand, fill me with disgust. The British truly were the real savages.
Posts: 7083 | From: Fallbrook, CA | Registered: Mar 2004
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A cleaned up Besease temple, as compared to an earlier photograph of it above.
Building show above earlier. The apparent destruction meted out by the brute british is more apparent here.
-------------------- The Complete Picture of the Past tells Us what Not to Repeat Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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Thanks for this. Would seem the racist brits were bent on saying Africans can't manage on their own, yet we know this is a lie.
British really held Africans from reaching their potential. The good news is that Africans now can shake off the shackles of Euro slavery and start building up there continent.
Evil was the Brits, they have allot of explaining to do.
Peace
Posts: 9651 | From: Reace and Love City. | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Isn' t it sad that the name of this over 3000yrs old empire does not even appear on Nigeria map these days, instead towns like Ogbomosho and Lagos originally named Eko which was founded by Benin military leaders now represent the glory of Nigeria's ancient cities.
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Great Find explorer,as one who imagines himself to be of Ashanti or Coroomantee decent as a lot of Jamaicans do.. much respect(can back that up though no dna test yet on my part.. )
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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Dapper, Olfert. Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche gewesten. Amsterdam: Jacob von Meurs, 1668:
"The King's court is certainly as large as the town of Haarlem, and is entirely surrounded by a special wall. . . . It is divided into many magnificent palaces, houses, and apartments of the courtiers. Fine galleries, about as large as those on the Exchange at Amsterdam, are supported by wooden pillars, from top to bottom covered with cast copper on which are engraved the pictures of their war exploits and battles, and they are kept very clean."
City and Palace the kingdom of Benin comprised the capital city, that is, metropolitan Benin, and the outlying districts. Just like the metropolis, the Oba of Benin directed the control of these districts from the central government at the capital.
Before its destruction, Benin City possessed an extensive network of streets up to 131 feet wide. A complex city wall system with nine gates, numbering among the most impressive earth structure in the world, protected the city from intruders. The palace compound itself occupied a large part, and is meant to have encompassed a surface area of 1148 x 2133 feet (Nevadomsky 1997).
Apart from these palace grounds encompassed the private living quarters of the king, various reception courts, the quarters of the three palace societies, and the royal harem. At least in the 17th century the wooden pillars supporting the roof of the galleries were decorated with mounted bronze reliefs plaques. In the 19th century the pillars were made of clay, and bore reliefs worked directly into the material. Doors and beams in the royal precinct were in some cases covered with hand-embossed sheet brass, or decorated with inlaid mirrors.
Numerous European visitors reported on the long waiting times before they were admitted to see the king. Access to the monarch was not only impeded by architectural hurdles, but also by the various ranks of dignitaries, who often actually posed an insurmountable obstacle http://wysinger.homestead.com/ogiso.htmlPosts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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I think this is a very important topic because as far as Western people are concerned Africans south of the Sahara didn't have dwellings worthy of speaking of. Maybe a mosque or two but certainly not houses with roofs over them.
It sad to say but most people in the West probably have never seen an authentic African house, not even in National Geographic. At the most Africans they picture small huts.
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quote:Originally posted by Brada-Anansi: The Neighbours of the Ashanti
Dapper, Olfert. Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche gewesten. Amsterdam: Jacob von Meurs, 1668:
"The King's court is certainly as large as the town of Haarlem, and is entirely surrounded by a special wall. . . . It is divided into many magnificent palaces, houses, and apartments of the courtiers. Fine galleries, about as large as those on the Exchange at Amsterdam, are supported by wooden pillars, from top to bottom covered with cast copper on which are engraved the pictures of their war exploits and battles, and they are kept very clean."
Wow - I think I have found my new area of study early towns, city planning and architecture in Western Africa. This is fascinating!
Posts: 4226 | From: New Jersey, USA | Registered: Mar 2007
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Dana, donot neglect parts of Central Africa because Mbanza Kongo and Lovango also had urbanized dwellings with courts and palaces. Unfortunately, since colonization and contact was very early in these places not much remains in pictures. Obenga, a contemporary of Diop, wrote about pre-colonial places like Mbanza Kongo and Lovango.
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Explorer, this thread is an excellent initiative! Excellent work.
Just like with Ancient Egypt, people truly cannot fathom the destructive efforts of the colonial powers to level the existence of civilisations outside Europe. The thread about the Igbo 'Pyramids' proves this. The heavy hand of European resentment towards African's done an indisputable thorough job at erasing our Kingdoms. This only makes sense, the Benin Bronze works, Yoruba Bronze, Terracottas, Ivory artworks wouldn't have been hanging from Teepee's after all. Their were complex architectural surroundings and buildings that our great artworks dwelt in. When will people understand that astronomically much more has been destroyed than preserved.
That's why I laugh when people ask 'where are your structures'? 300 years of occupations saw to it that none survived. The Moors flourished for a millenia and only a handful of their building were spared the torch and hammer of the Europeans (even on their own soil!)
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Appreciated feedbacks, especially the supplementary info. That said, we have here, some of the more familiar images on the web...
Relic of ancient Ghanaian complex, photo and sketch of foundations at Koumbi Saleh.
A section of a ca. 1000 year old Eredo rampart [Nigeria].
Apparently, many complexes presided in the 'western Sudan' in antiquity, and it seems that as new complexes supplanted declining ones, considerable sections of preexisting landscape was reorganized, being replaced with the then new urbanization and infrastructure setups, understandably obscuring the broader infrastructure setup of the outgoing complex, save for scattered relics here and there. It is no wonder then, the more immediate signs of older layers of social shifts are readily seen trails like ramparts, architecture-foundations, and as one source puts it,...
"The flood plain of the Middle Niger of West Africa is line with hundreds of ancient tells rivaling those of Asia both in area and in clues to the emergence of city life...the Middle Niger is dominated by numerous monumental tumuli (McIntosh 1991:203)." - R.J. McIntosh
There was a time in history, the world was very close to having lost the grand ancient pyramids of Egypt instantly vanish from history, when there was a decision at a high level of the then local authority to have them destroyed to make way for "modernization"; had that happened, there would be some tongues wagging today, about how they could not have ever existed [but presumably just myths designed to uplift young African minds] -- consider it a possibility.
Believe or not, the atmosphere in Eurocentric circles, and even outside of this ideological sect, amongst sections of the rest of "western" societies, is this arrogant attitutude -- some more subtle than others -- that the "west" has this maternalistic relationship with Africa. The attitude is that Africans owe their very existence to Europe, and so, that Africans owe them astronomically. For evidence of this, look no further than the arrogant attitude of our resident redneck, who has maintained this position time and again. There is this idea that these folks nurture psychologically, that Africans would instantly disappear or become extinct without them. Never mind, that Africans were surviving just fine before European intrusion, or that the majority of humanity's bio-evolutionary and associated socio-evolutionary history took place on this continent for thousands and upon thousands of years before dispersing outside of the continent; never mind, that if it were not the instinct of the African's survival, non-Africans would not have even existed to begin with! Yet, we (Africans) are now supposed to owe occupants of one of the last major landmasses to be inhabited by modern humans our very existence. Amazing. Never mind, that the whole purpose of colonization was to suck the wealth of Africa by force, and not have to resort to a concept called 'sharing' or 'trading', which means that this wealth was and continues to be used to drive the economies of backyards of the colonialist intruders. Never mind, that the purpose of colonization was to disrupt the pre-existing rhythm of the functioning societies of Africa, destroy all that matters and turning back the clock of these societies, to make them rely on Europe in a new trade network where Europeans were to reign supreme. But of course, this is then justified on the concept of robbing people off the essential means of subsistence by force (military might), and yet at the same time, this action is supposed to be interpreted as "helping" people to exist rather than doing the opposite; funny, just funny. It is the contradictory mindset that prevails arrogant Eurocentric cult attitude. Contrary to being an agent of African progress, European imperialism is actually the agent of its regress. As it stands, quite to the contrary of Eurocentric propaganda, 'western' economies actually owe Africans, and big, really big. And through all this, Africans never really expect 'western' economies to repay them, and are certainly not naive to think that "celebrity" and western state-level photo-op "charity" handouts is the key to African progress; all they seek is to given the opportunity to be recipients of true fair trade and its leveling the playing field for such activity, the absolute relinquishing of both fraudulent debts and implanting or propping up totalitarian regimes for 'western' consumption. This is precisely the sort of thing though, the 'western' economies outright refuse to partake, and good for reason: they know full well, that if this were to happen, they will have enabled the beginning of new and real rivalry, and will expose the fact that up until now, rather than being agents of progress in Africa, they have been the opposite, and in tandem, rather than a maternalistic relationship, what we have here is actually one of a parasitic one, with European economic forces being the parasites sucking wealth and progress out of African territories.
Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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Folks this markellion bucket of **** is part of the propaganda machine to display Africans as the lowest forms of humanity.
Anyone who has seen his postings can attest to that. markellion gets a hard on of his fantasy of Africans being ......
Posts: 3085 | Registered: Jan 2008
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KING your in the same mold as markellion with your condescending fake know-it-all about them "blacks", when in actuality your garbage ass don't know jack about so called "blacks" both in and out of Africa.
Posts: 3085 | Registered: Jan 2008
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quote:Wow - I think I have found my new area of study early towns, city planning and architecture in Western Africa. This is fascinating!
I hope you do Dana,so much is neglected so much so that we have folks right on here on E/S who are longtime posters..vets?? who because they don,t see Roman arches or Kemitic columns think there is not thing to find so they spend all their time on the coast or African influences in other lands, The forest cities would be a fair comparison with medieval Japanese cities of about the same era. In 1903, Kano's city walls (above) were regarded as West Africa's most impressive monument. They were 25km long and up to 18m high with narrow fortified gateways. In the mid-C19th, Barth could not get his laden camels through most of the gates; and the above reconstruction has been widened to cater for motor traffic.
Background: Between Lake Chad and the Atlantic Ocean, there are about 10,000 town walls, 25% or more of them on deserted sites. They represent the largest concentration of past urban civilization in black Africa; yet only a handful have been surveyed. There are also about 250,000 unsurveyed tumuli, several million un-charted iron-smelting sites, and an unknown number of ancient terracotta sites, most of which now may have been looted (see main menu for details). Old aerial photographs and other more modern remote-sensing methodologies offer an opportunity to record much of what will otherwise soon be lost altogether. Below: Reconstruction of the Kano City wall at the Museum of Traditional Nigerian Architecture in Jos, where higher rainfall conditions have meant constant repair work. The upper parapet was manned by archers and riflemen using loopholes in the wall; whilst cavalry moved rapidly around inside the walls to ensure protection at the weakest spots. The walls were built entirely of tubali - pear-shaped, sun-dried mud blocks to create a 24 km long, 20m high perimeter. http://apollo5.bournemouth.ac.uk/africanlegacy/kano_walls.htm Remember Jos is where we find evidence of some of the earlest existance of urbanization IE Nok culture in that part of Nigeria going back some 1000yrs B.C about the time of King Solomon.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009
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quote:Originally posted by PrideandJust: TruthCentric you are such a filthy monkey loving race traitor.
First of all, I am not filthy. I bathe twice every day. Secondly, just because I admire the achievements of African people does not mean I am betraying my own race.
Posts: 7083 | From: Fallbrook, CA | Registered: Mar 2004
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Truthcentric, please don't take the bait to allow an educational thread to go to waste. I suggest, if the scum needs attention, it be taken to its turf [own thread].
-------------------- The Complete Picture of the Past tells Us what Not to Repeat Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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quote:Originally posted by LiedandJustDUMB: TruthCentric you are such a filthy monkey loving race traitor.
LOL Are you mad at Truthcentric, or are you just mad at all the info Explorer smacked you around with-- that Africans did create complex architecture including large scale buildings and cities, most of which was destroyed by rampaging rapacious white conquerors. Posts: 26286 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by The Explorer: [QB] The goal here is to pictographically bust the eurocentric fed cult-mentality that Africans were a essentially bunch homeless wanderers in danger of perishing forever, lest European thugs intruded in their lives...uhem...I mean "saviors".
Funny how European terrorists destroyed everything in their path, only to have the loony eurocentric cults of today say that the bloodthirsty European intruders met up with non-functioning societies, with no signs of city life, who needed to be "rescued"; simply put: destroy years of hard work of others, and then say that visible manifestations of this never existed upon their arrival.
As these images will show, far from screeming for Euro attention, these people were actually minding there own business and taking care of themselves, before the brute intruders barged in on them, uninvited.
Excellent research on your part!
However this angers me deeply, Europeans should be required to pay reparations for the destruction of a civilization, in the same way America should pay reparation to the descendants of slaves.
I remember reading somewhere that over 6 million African artifacts are stored in a British museum, talk about 'literally' locking our history away.:angry face:
Posts: 747 | From: Atlanta, GA USA | Registered: May 2004
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^ If whites should pay for such destruction, then I say the first ones to do it are the nutty naysayers who deny that such structures ever existed! Posts: 26286 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by LiedandJustDUMB: TruthCentric you are such a filthy monkey loving race traitor.
LOL Are you mad at Truthcentric, or are you just mad at all the info Explorer smacked you around with-- that Africans did create complex architecture including large scale buildings and cities, most of which was destroyed by rampaging rapacious white conquerors.
Sigh. My old friend Djehuti this is what you don't understand. Only the strong prosper and weak suffer. If they couldn't defend themselves then they were weaker. If Africans were so intelligent and had the capability to construct such complex advanced architecture and civilization then what happened to them? Why couldn't they defend themselves from those less advanced and intelligent? They couldn't have been that advanced or intelligent. You lost and we won. That is the way of the world.
Posts: 64 | From: Texas | Registered: Feb 2010
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quote:Originally posted by Stupid wide nosed ape: ^ If whites should pay for such destruction, then I say the first ones to do it are the nutty naysayers who deny that such structures ever existed!
Whites shouldn't have to pay for anything. You lost and we won. Get over it.
Posts: 64 | From: Texas | Registered: Feb 2010
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quote:Wow - I think I have found my new area of study early towns, city planning and architecture in Western Africa. This is fascinating!
I hope you do Dana,so much is neglected so much so that we have folks right on here on E/S who are longtime posters..vets?? who because they don,t see Roman arches or Kemitic columns think there is not thing to find so they spend all their time on the coast or African influences in other lands, The forest cities would be a fair comparison with medieval Japanese cities of about the same era. In 1903, Kano's city walls (above) were regarded as West Africa's most impressive monument. They were 25km long and up to 18m high with narrow fortified gateways. In the mid-C19th, Barth could not get his laden camels through most of the gates; and the above reconstruction has been widened to cater for motor traffic.
Background: Between Lake Chad and the Atlantic Ocean, there are about 10,000 town walls, 25% or more of them on deserted sites. They represent the largest concentration of past urban civilization in black Africa; yet only a handful have been surveyed. There are also about 250,000 unsurveyed tumuli, several million un-charted iron-smelting sites, and an unknown number of ancient terracotta sites, most of which now may have been looted (see main menu for details). Old aerial photographs and other more modern remote-sensing methodologies offer an opportunity to record much of what will otherwise soon be lost altogether. Below: Reconstruction of the Kano City wall at the Museum of Traditional Nigerian Architecture in Jos, where higher rainfall conditions have meant constant repair work. The upper parapet was manned by archers and riflemen using loopholes in the wall; whilst cavalry moved rapidly around inside the walls to ensure protection at the weakest spots. The walls were built entirely of tubali - pear-shaped, sun-dried mud blocks to create a 24 km long, 20m high perimeter. http://apollo5.bournemouth.ac.uk/africanlegacy/kano_walls.htm Remember Jos is where we find evidence of some of the earlest existance of urbanization IE Nok culture in that part of Nigeria going back some 1000yrs B.C about the time of King Solomon.
What is up with you stupid blacks and your plain architecture? At least make the damn thing more attractive or sophisticated by painting the damn thing. Termites can create much more sophisticated and attractive architecture than your sand castles and look at how small they are in comparison to your size. How embarrassing.
Posts: 64 | From: Texas | Registered: Feb 2010
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quote:Originally posted by PrideandJust: TruthCentric you are such a filthy monkey loving race traitor.
LOL Are you mad at Truthcentric, or are you just mad at all the info Explorer smacked you around with-- that Africans did create complex architecture including large scale buildings and cities, most of which was destroyed by rampaging rapacious white conquerors.
What sophisticated architecture including large scale buildings and cities? I don't see anything as sophisticated or monumental. That is your imagination.
Posts: 64 | From: Texas | Registered: Feb 2010
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However this angers me deeply, Europeans should be required to pay reparations for the destruction of a civilization, in the same way America should pay reparation to the descendants of slaves.
I remember reading somewhere that over 6 million African artifacts are stored in a British museum, talk about 'literally' locking our history away.:angry face:
Thank you. This thread is the anti-thesis of the ku klax klanic-loon mentality that still has a grip on trailer-trash country crakas of today. The Akan urban setup rivaled its 17th century contemporaries in not only urban planning, but in the unique architecture as well. The following, reported on Wiki, says it all:
On May 15, 1817 the Englishman Thomas Bowdich entered Kumasi. He remained there for several months, was impressed and on his return to England wrote a book, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, which was disbelieved as it **contradicted** prevailing prejudices.
Priceless. Imagine, this was back in the early 19th century, and yet this is the state, i.e. the bedazzlement with disbelief, that characterizes 'white-bed sheet' crakas to this day.
Btw, I believe I had already adviced folks here to stop inviting ku klux klanic-loony trolls here, but it seems to have fallen to def ears. Can't *reasonable* people ever make a point without having the urge to directly crave the attention of these lower-than-anal-scum lowlifes [trolls] of the world? Seriously.
Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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Good presentation by the way.
Posts: 8805 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
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However this angers me deeply, Europeans should be required to pay reparations for the destruction of a civilization, in the same way America should pay reparation to the descendants of slaves.
I remember reading somewhere that over 6 million African artifacts are stored in a British museum, talk about 'literally' locking our history away.:angry face:
Thank you. This thread is the anti-thesis of the ku klax klanic-loon mentality that has still a grip on trailer-trash country crakas of today. The Akan urban setup rivaled its 17th century contemporaries in not only urban planning, but in the unique architecture as well. The following, reported on Wiki, says it all:
On May 15, 1817 the Englishman Thomas Bowdich entered Kumasi. He remained there for several months, was impressed and on his return to England wrote a book, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, which was disbelieved as it **contradicted** prevailing prejudices.
Priceless. Imagine, this was back in the early 19th century, and yet this is the state, i.e. the bedazzlement with disbelief, that characterizes 'white-bed sheet' crakas to this day.
Btw, I believe I had already adviced folks here to stop inviting ku klux klanic-loony trolls here, but it seems to have fallen to def ears. Can't *reasonable* people ever make a point without having the urge to directly crave the attention of these lower-than-anal-scum lowlifes [trolls] of the world? Seriously.
Explorer I say we should ignore them bro. They can't bring down this thread unless we let them. Lets focus on presenting African architecture. I have so many files I have been holdong out... Also did you read about Africa being compared to India in growth. Im telling you Africans of the Diaspora need to seriously look at Africa for a new home. Africa is the Final Frontier.
Posts: 8805 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
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That's precisely what I been saying: ignore them. If you have anything that will enhance the thread, don't hesitate to share it here. I didn't post these material in any pre-existing thread, for reasons that it might easily get buried. Sometimes the best offensive is through passive aggressiveness, which is what the underlying tone of this thread is all about.
-------------------- The Complete Picture of the Past tells Us what Not to Repeat Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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[/qb][/QUOTE]Explorer I say we should ignore them bro. They can't bring down this thread unless we let them. Lets focus on presenting African architecture. I have so many files I have been holdong out... Also did you read about Africa being compared to India in growth. Im telling you Africans of the Diaspora need to seriously look at Africa for a new home. Africa is the Final Frontier. [/QB][/QUOTE]
Then present them! Posts: 64 | From: Texas | Registered: Feb 2010
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UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
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Also did you read about Africa being compared to India in growth. Im telling you Africans of the Diaspora need to seriously look at Africa for a new home. Africa is the Final Frontier.
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