Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
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Nigeria's dynamism is mostly a credit to it's people in the south. It has a long history of continued habitation growth and civilization
Iwo Eleru "fossil" man (dead end) Nok iron Nok terracottas Ifa spirituality Ife busts Eridu kingdom wall various indigenous architectures
Share your knowledge.
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
Foundations (restored map imgs)
32KYA Sangoan industrial complex in river valleys south of the Jos Plateau and north of the forrest including Jebba (near Old Oyo).
12KYA Osteo-remains of Iwo Eleru (near Akure in what would be the heartland of Ife kingdom) are associated with the late stone age phase I facies A industry of hunters who used microliths but were without pottery or ground stone axes.
3600 - 1500 BCE Guinea neolithic industry of the late stone age phase II facies A type is at Iwo Eleru and Mejiro Cave (up in Old Oyo). Pottery and ground stone axes appear alongside the microliths. Farming begins to allow for population density. There are orchards (oil palms) under which clearings were made for gardening of roots (yams) and nuts (kola).
1000 - 1BCE Southbound Saharan pastoralist enter the general region losing their easily worked flint and adopting the harder quartz available locally. Their tool kit thus loses its aesthetics though retaining its effectiveness.
350 BCE Ife comes into existance as 13 hamlets of farming villages.
950 CE Completely urbanized, Ife is producing elaborate glass bead work (akori and segi beads), specialized naturalistic sculpture (terracottas by women; stone, metal, and wood by men; castings by joint effort), and highly decorated domestic pottery. The city now starts to pave its streets and courtyards with terracotta bricks.
Ile-Ife is the place where the consciousness of ethnic identity for the Anago began. It was the central place of creation for them and from there radiated religious and political authority to the many cities who claim origins in Ile-Ife whether or not their inhabitants were Anagos.
It was internal trade that fostered the late neolithic villages and towns and early iron age cities. The subsequent emergence of Yoruba kingdoms and their Oyo empire depended essentially on a highly successful exploitation of their environment due to indigenous genius.
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Good roundup. Do you have any more on trade and transportation systems? What kind of economies were in place circa 950CE?
-------------------- Note: I am not an "Egyptologist" as claimed by some still bitter, defeated, trolls creating fake profiles and posts elsewhere. Hapless losers, you still fail. My output of hard data debunking racist nonsense has actually INCREASED since you began.. Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
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The Nok culture appeared in Nigeria around 1000 BC and vanished under unknown circumstances around 300 AD in the region of West Africa. This region lies in modern Nigeria. Its social system is thought to have been highly advanced. The Nok culture was considered to be the earliest sub-Saharan producer of life-sized Terracotta.
[1] [2]
The refinement of this culture is attested to by the image of a Nok dignitary at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The dignitary is portrayed wearing a "crooked baton" ([3], [4]). The dignitary is also portrayed sitting with flared nostrils, and an open mouth suggesting performance. Other images show figures on horseback, indicating that the Nok culture possessed the horse.
Iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, appears in Nok culture in Africa at least by 550 BC and possibly earlier. Christopher Ehret has suggested that iron smelting was independently discovered in the region prior to 1000 BC
The Bronze Head from Ife is one of eighteen objects that were unearthed in 1938 at Ife in Nigeria, the religious and former royal centre of the Yoruba people. It is believed to represent a king. It was probably made in the twelfth century AD, before any European contact had taken place with the local population. The realism and sophisticated craftsmanship of the objects challenged Western conceptions of African art at the time. A year after its finding, the Ife Head was taken to the British Museum.
Description
The head is made of bronze (a copper tin alloy) using the lost wax technique and is approximately three-quarters life-size, measuring 35 cm high. The artist designed the head in a very naturalistic style. The face is covered with incised striations, but the lips are unmarked. The headdress suggests a crown of complex construction, composed of different layers of tube shaped beads and tassels of hair. This decoration is typical of the bronze heads from Ife.[2] The crown is topped by a crest, with a rosette and a plume which now is slightly bent to one side. The crown's surface includes the remains of both red and black paint. The lifelike rendering of sculptures from mediaeval Ife is exceptional in sub-Saharan African art, and initially was considered the earliest manifestation of a tradition that continued in Yoruba art, in early Benin art and other pieces. An excavation in Igbo-Ukwu in 1959 provided scientific evidence of an established metal working culture and bronze artifacts that may be dated to the ninth or tenth centuries
Ife
The Ife head is thought to be a portrait of a ruler known as an Ooni or Oni. The Yoruba society he ruled over had developed in 800 AD. This period was an age of prosperity for the Yoruba civilisation, which was built on trade via the River Niger to the peoples of West Africa. Ife is regarded by the Yoruba people as the place where their deities created humans.
These bronze heads are evidence of additional trade as there was very little copper in Nigeria and in the rest of West Africa. In fact, the copper is thought to have come from Central Europe, North West Mauritania, the Byzantine Empire, or Southern Morocco. The trade in copper may have led to the importation of the idea of lost wax casting.
The bronze casts could have been modelled on contemporary terracotta sculptures.[6] A long tradition of terracotta sculpture with similar characteristics existed in the culture prior to the date of the creation of these metal sculptures. Ivory was another material used frequently in African art
Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
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I have it that Yoruba is a term the Hausa gave to Oyo or Kwara when they incorporated it into their Bakwai Banza. The related dominant ethny of the kingdoms labeled "Yoruba" actually refer to themselves as the children of Oduduwa. Oduduwa had 16 children. [The mythology varies as the Yoruba are a diverse people. In some kingdoms' mythology Odudua is female.] * They called their language Anago.
Yoruba (and other closely related) spiritual system(s) was transported to the western hemisphere during the transAtlantic slave trade. In Cuba they became known as Lacumi or Lucumi practicing Santeria. In northeast and southern Brazil they are Nago, a term first bestowed to them in Africa by the Fon**. In Trinidad they profess the Chango religion. In South Carolina USA there is the Oyotunji***. .
*Arará_Sabalú says Interestingly enough, alternative names for the supreme being of the Baule (Akan group from Ivory Coast) are Dudua~Alulua, which are clearly similar to Yoruba Oduduwa (though I originally thought of Alulua being cognate with Yoruba Olorun, meaning "owner of the sky"). I'm not sure on how this theonym reached Ivory coast, but there seems to have been an extensive cultural exchange between the people from Ivory Coast to Nigeria. According to Beninese linguist Olabiyi B. Yaï, an opposite borrowing would have been the transfer of the Akan deity Nana Buruku to Gbe and Yoruba speaking areas.
** Not to sound pedantic, but I think all Gbe speaking people (Ewé, Gen, Aja, Fon, etc.) refer to Yoruba as Anago.
Nowadays, the word is often used in Benin to describe "Indigenous" Beninese Yoruba groups such as Ketu and Tchabe.
I remember reading from a contribution to John Bendor Samuel's book "Niger Congo languages" that some Yoruba people refer to Fon as Anago. I think the same source also cites a Yoruba scholar claiming that he believed Anago to be derived from Akkadian Anaku, meaning "I". (Note that although the semantic motivation doesn't seem very relevant to me, this pronoun is also found in Berber, Hebrew and Egyptian among others. Th.Obenga also provides nga "me" in his native Mbochi language).
To add even more to the confusion, I've read that the Baule (Baoulé) from Ivory Coast refer to Yorubas, as well as their neighbours such as the Fon "Anago".
This reference by Akan people to Gbe speaking people as being "Yoruba" may be paralleled by Asante's mentions of a 1764 defeat to "Oyo", the latter being interpreted by most historians like British Robin Law as being actually a reference to Dahomey.
***YoungHorus says Oyotunji might have been chosen instead of (Yoruba, Anago etc) as a statement of the ressurection of the Oyo people over there in South Carolina (perhaps after a horrible trip across the Atlantic).
"Oyotunji" means "Oyo has arisen/woken-up/resurrected".. _________________ Good magic - not the magic of sorcerers, but that of initiates and 'masters of knowledge' - aims at purifying men, animals and objects, so as to restore order among the forces through the agency of speech.
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
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Some words and names in the Yoruba language aja ile ceiling dudu black funfun white ile house ilekun door ilenle floor oba king obo vagina oku penis omi water oni king ori head ounje food pupa red sha owner tala whiteness
Babatunde father returns Obaluaé (an orisha) king of the earth Yemanya (an orisha) mother of the fishes Yetunde mother returns
Numerals from one to ten ení èjì è.ta è.rin àrún è.fà èje è.jo. è.sán è.wá
Body parts irun hair ori head oju eyes imu nose enu mouth eyin teeth ahon tongue eti ears apa arm owo hand ika owo finger ekanna nail ikun stomach ese leg ese foot omo-ese toe
Yoruba is a tonal language meaning that a word's sense depends on pitch. For instance the word igba has meanings varying from dependence on a rise or fall of voice; * time, period (both syllables low * two hundred * calabash cut in half (last syllable high * locust tree (first syllable low last syllable high * system of pawning (last syllable low All this made for the possibility of the invention of the talking drum (an hourglass shaped double membraned drum with the membranes linked by torsion cords allowing a range of tones corresponding to speech to be reproduced).
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quote:Originally posted by mena7: The Nok culture appeared in Nigeria around 1000 BC and vanished under unknown circumstances around 300 AD in the region of West Africa. This region lies in modern Nigeria. Its social system is thought to have been highly advanced. The Nok culture was considered to be the earliest sub-Saharan producer of life-sized Terracotta.
[1] [2]
The refinement of this culture is attested to by the image of a Nok dignitary at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The dignitary is portrayed wearing a "crooked baton" ([3], [4]). The dignitary is also portrayed sitting with flared nostrils, and an open mouth suggesting performance. Other images show figures on horseback, indicating that the Nok culture possessed the horse.
Iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, appears in Nok culture in Africa at least by 550 BC and possibly earlier. Christopher Ehret has suggested that iron smelting was independently discovered in the region prior to 1000 BC.
I am in agreement with Ehret here. Archaeology in so-called 'Sub-Sahara' is rather poor compared to the Nile Valley. And so far the Nok sites discovered make it look as if Nok civilization just sprang into existence. Note this was the same case with Egyptian civilization until further archaeology in the last 4 decades uncovered the early roots of Egyptian civilization in the Upper Nile Valley and in the Eastern and Western Deserts. Obviously more archaeology has to be done to uncover the roots of Nok Civilization which no doubt stretches back much earlier. I wouldn't be surprised if Nok possesses some sort of connection to the oldest known settlements outside the Nile Valley, i.e. Dhar Tichitt-Walata of Mauritania which dates to the Neolithic. And then there is the issue that the forest regions of West Africa were suppoedly sparsely inhabited with the bulk of West Africa's population living in the Sahel to Sahara until the dessication.
quote: Nok sculpture
Note the above figure sits in the same sacred position or posture that is associated with rulers or deities in Egypt.
glyph for god or ruler
Of course I'm not suggesting Egyptian influence or the other way around but rather an African commonality.
quote: Nok sculpture
It is really not clear what species of animal the above person is riding. Perhaps the idea that it's a horse may stem in part from diffusionist ideas that Nok culture may have originated from "northern cultures", but regardless what the animal really is there is no evidence of Nok Culture being derived from anything else but Africa. Anyway, the head of the "horse" looks no different from that of the rider so I don't know if this means anything.
quote: Nok sculpture
Nok sculpture
Nok sculpture
The coiffures including beard style looks no different from those worn by high status men of traditional towns and villages. And so too are the jewelry like beaded necklaces and bangles.
quote:
Perhaps this figure has some connection to horned deities of modern West Africa and that or northwest Africa during Moorish Andalusia which I will discuss later.
quote:Originally posted by Tukuler: I have it that Yoruba is a term the Hausa gave to Oyo or Kwara when they incorporated it into their Bakwai Banza. The related dominant ethny of the kingdoms labeled "Yoruba" actually refer to themselves as the children of Oduduwa. Oduduwa had 16 children. [The mythology varies as the Yoruba are a diverse people. In some kingdoms' mythology Odudua is female.] * They called their language Anago.
Although the Yoruba are patrilineal, there is rather strong evidence to suggest they were originally matrilineal. The variant legend that the original founding ancestor Oduduwa was female is just one example. Another example is the tradition that the early, presumably first Yoruba kingdom of Ondo could be ruled only by a son or daughter of a queen-mother is another with queen-mothers holding prominent positions almost equal to that of the oba (king). There is also the significant fact that despite patrilineal descent, many of the ancestral spirit rites of a patrilineal clan are carried out by the eldest daughter of the family often called 'chief daughter' which is true of virtually all West African societies even if they are patrilineal. These same chief daughters are the organizers of the marketplaces which are predominantly run by women. And even certain priesthoods of goddess cults which are presided by men are only inherited matrilineally. Not to mention the Yoruba language itself which shows emphasis on maternal relations and female oriented concepts.
quote:Yoruba (and other closely related) spiritual system(s) was transported to the western hemisphere during the transAtlantic slave trade. In Cuba they became known as Lacumi or Lucumi practicing Santeria. In northeast and southern Brazil they are Nago, a term first bestowed to them in Africa by the Fon**. In Trinidad they profess the Chango religion. In South Carolina USA there is the Oyotunji***..
Yes, although the Ifa religion of the Yoruba has been pretty much taken over by the Bokono divination priesthood which is male dominated, the lucumi (oracles) are still considered supreme in Ifa with their authority superseding Bokono high priests. The lucumi is the Ife equivalent of the mambo of the Vodun/Voodoo religion of Gbe peoples. She is a shaman who goes into trance and to be possessed by deities and prophesies, heals, and performs other miracles just like the mambo. Whereas the Bokono perform rituals to decipher any signs the orishas may give, the lucumi allow the orisha to speak through her directly.
quote:*Arará_Sabalú says Interestingly enough, alternative names for the supreme being of the Baule (Akan group from Ivory Coast) are Dudua~Alulua, which are clearly similar to Yoruba Oduduwa (though I originally thought of Alulua being cognate with Yoruba Olorun, meaning "owner of the sky"). I'm not sure on how this theonym reached Ivory coast, but there seems to have been an extensive cultural exchange between the people from Ivory Coast to Nigeria. According to Beninese linguist Olabiyi B. Yaï, an opposite borrowing would have been the transfer of the Akan deity Nana Buruku to Gbe and Yoruba speaking areas.
** Not to sound pedantic, but I think all Gbe speaking people (Ewé, Gen, Aja, Fon, etc.) refer to Yoruba as Anago.
Nowadays, the word is often used in Benin to describe "Indigenous" Beninese Yoruba groups such as Ketu and Tchabe.
I remember reading from a contribution to John Bendor Samuel's book "Niger Congo languages" that some Yoruba people refer to Fon as Anago. I think the same source also cites a Yoruba scholar claiming that he believed Anago to be derived from Akkadian Anaku, meaning "I". (Note that although the semantic motivation doesn't seem very relevant to me, this pronoun is also found in Berber, Hebrew and Egyptian among others. Th.Obenga also provides nga "me" in his native Mbochi language).
To add even more to the confusion, I've read that the Baule (Baoulé) from Ivory Coast refer to Yorubas, as well as their neighbours such as the Fon "Anago".
This reference by Akan people to Gbe speaking people as being "Yoruba" may be paralleled by Asante's mentions of a 1764 defeat to "Oyo", the latter being interpreted by most historians like British Robin Law as being actually a reference to Dahomey.
***YoungHorus says Oyotunji might have been chosen instead of (Yoruba, Anago etc) as a statement of the ressurection of the Oyo people over there in South Carolina (perhaps after a horrible trip across the Atlantic).
"Oyotunji" means "Oyo has arisen/woken-up/resurrected".. _________________ Good magic - not the magic of sorcerers, but that of initiates and 'masters of knowledge' - aims at purifying men, animals and objects, so as to restore order among the forces through the agency of speech.
I don't know about Akkadian or any Semitic language in pre-Islamic West Africa, but I have read of outlying groups among the Yoruba who are ethnic outliers in the sense that while they share some affinities with other Yoruba groups, they also share affinities with Akan peoples both in language as well as customs such as matrilineage and religious rituals. But what about ethnies closely related to Yoruba such as the Igbo??
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quote:Oduduwa is the legendary progenitor of the Yoruba. There are two variants of the story of how he achieved this feat. The first is cosmogonic, the second, political. The cosmogonic version also has two variants.
According to the first variant of the cosmogonic myth, Orisanla (Obatala) was the arch-divinity who was chosen by Olodumare, the supreme deity to create a solid land out of the primordial water that constituted the earth and of populating the land with human beings. He descended from heaven on a chain, carrying a small snail shell full of earth, palm kernels and a five-toed chicken. He was to empty the content of the snail shell on the water after placing some pieces of iron on it, and then to place the chicken on the earth to spread it over the promirdial water. According to the first version of the story, Obatala completed this task to the satisfaction of Olodumare. He was then given the task of making the physical body of human beings after which Olodumare will give them the breath of life. He also completed this task and this is why he has the title of "obarisa" the king of orisas.
The other variant of the cosmogonic myth does not credit Obatala with the completion of the task. While it concedes that Obatala was given the task, it avers that Obatala got drunk even before he got to the earth and he was unable to do the job. Olodumare got worried when he did not return on time, and he had to send Oduduwa to find out what was going on. When Oduduwa found Obatala drunk, he simply took over the task and completed it. He created land. The spot on which he landed from heaven and which he redeemed from water to become land is called Ile-Ife and is now considered the sacred and spiritual home of the Yoruba. Obatala was embarrased when he woke up and, due to this experience, he made it a taboo for any of his devotees to drink palm wine. Olodumare forgave him and gave him the responsibility of moulding the physical bodies of human beings. The making of land is a symbolic reference to the founding of the Yoruba kingdoms and this is why Oduduwa is credited with that achievement.
based on Bolaji Idowu Olodumare: God In Yoruba Belief Longman: Nigeria 1962
quote:According to the second version of the myth, however, there was a pre-existing civilization at Ile-Ife prior to its invasion by a group led by Oduduwa. This group came from the east, where Oduduwa and his group had been persecuted on the basis of religious differences. They came to Ile-Ife and fought and conquered the pre-existing Igbo (unrelated to the present Igbo) inhabitants led by Oreluere. Obviously, there is a connection between the two versions of the story. The political one may be the authentic story of the founding of Ife kingdom through conquest. However, the myth of creation lends it a legitimacy that is denied by the conquest story; just as it appears that it is lent some credence by the fact that, as a result of the embarrassment it caused their deity, the followers of Obatala are forbidden from taking palm wine. Indeed the second version of the cosmogonic myth also appears to foreshadow the political variant. The claim that Obatala got drunk and the task of creation had to be performed by Oduduwa already has some political coloration which is now explicit in the political version of the tradition.
Segun Gbadegesin, Ph.D ASPECTS OF YORUBA ORAL TRADITION Isokan Yoruba Magazine V3 n3 1997
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
Here's a thread on a Nigerian type of pavement.
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(restored map imgs)
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