black african civilization prior to european colonalization and racist stereotypes

[hunter10]

i just recently started using this forum and was worried about the tales people chat of no black civilizations or nations prior to european contact. and i wanted to correct that. i also wanted to say something about the belief that savage blacks captured savage blacks and sold them to whites. i recently asked my great grand dad, who showed me some writings by an african ruler in the oyo empire in western nigeria. apparantly he was worried that the british where selling guns to another black nation the dahomey and that because the oyo empires attempts to replicate the rifles where unsuccessful they needed to trade more with the english. unfortunately gold was not what the english wanted but slaves. in most african society prior to european colonialism. slavery was only used on people who commited grievious criminal acts and prisoners of war. and the slaves could work their way out to freedom, they could also have children who where free and their relatives could buy their freedom. some black nations like the nri kingdom even outlawed slavery and any slave that set foot on their land wes free. u see slavery in west africa was seen as being more humane than executing someone for murder as spilling blood was often seen as taboo. and they where many laws concerning the treatment of slaves. but when white people arrived the game changed because of guns. u see guns gave a nation advantages and when whites sold it to a particular black kingdom other kingdoms where afraid they would be dis advantaged and also sought after guns. at first gold and spices and cloth was enough for europeans, but with the discovery of gold and spices in north and south america, slaves where needed to covert these resources. and the only thing blacks had to trade where slaves for guns. so as a result blacks started selling their criminals into slavery thinking the same rules of slavery applied to whites, but we all know now that was different. so the slave raids only started when the kingdoms ran out of criminals and then started raiding other kingdoms and sometimes going to all out war just for slaves to get more guns. why more guns u say what did they need them for. well many people have forgotten that for centuries black africans have been resisting arab muslim invaders who wanted to forcefully enslave and convert them and needed every edge they could get get guns was to sell slaves and thus a vicious circle began. of course they where blacks who sold their own people out simply fo profit, but in what culture or race has such people not existed. i apologise to west african descendants of the slavery diaspora. and now i will list west african civilizations, which black people in america can take pride in.

from what i can tell the nok civilization is west africas oldest as it started in 1000bc and from what i can tell it started up isolated as they where no advanced cultural influences nearby. i still dont understand why when ancient africa is potrayed on tv is always mud huts. i mean the where walled cites roads, written languages , science, universities like in ancient timbuktu. some had flags and constitutions. an some where even democratic. so why are they not mentioned. mind u these links are only from west africa they are many more in central east and southern africa


west african
http://en.wikipedia....iki/Mali_Empire
http://en.wikipedia....iki/Nri_kingdom
http://en.wikipedia..../Songhay_Empire
http://en.wikipedia..../Ashanti_Empire
http://en.wikipedia....ki/Ghana_Empire
http://en.wikipedia....em-Bornu_Empire
http://en.wikipedia....i/Fulani_Empire
http://en.wikipedia....ki/Benin_Empire
http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Oyo_Empire
http://en.wikipedia....gdom_of_Dahomey
http://en.wikipedia....ki/Wolof_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nok
http://en.wikipedia..../Hausa_Kingdoms
http://en.wikipedia....Mandinka_Empire


central africa

http://en.wikipedia....ki/Kongo_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ndongo
http://en.wikipedia....ki/Lunda_Empire
http://en.wikipedia....dom_of_Zimbabwe
http://en.wikipedia....m_of_Mapungubwe
http://en.wikipedia....i/Mutapa_Empire
http://en.wikipedia....ki/Rozwi_Empire

east africa

http://en.wikipedia....Axumite_Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia....ingdom_of_Kerma
http://en.wikipedia....Kingdom_of_Kush
http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Mero%C3%AB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makuria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobadia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alodia
http://en.wikipedia....ki/Land_of_Punt

southern africa

http://en.wikipedia....ki/Zulu_Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakalava
http://en.wikipedia....Bantu_expansion


ps to add egypt was not a black civilization but nubia was. ancient egyptians where a mixture of nubians, and berbers, the only time it could have been described as a black kingdom was the time nubian kings conquered and ruled over it. present day egyptians are a result of arab, turkish, roman, and greek invaders.

my question is why does the media in general still insist on not showing ancient african cities, roads and politics except maybe some tiny villages whenever they want to represent ancient africa

 

[David]

<Snip>

You have to remember that the Western world is what happened when Roman civilization became resurgent during the renaissance. Everything, from our laws to our alphabet and from our roads to our architecture Is largely themed on the Romans. Now think of Rome's history with Africa, Carthage, a great enemy, Nubia, a puppet kingdom, Egypt, a satellite-state, ect. The resulting views carried over.

 

[COPE2]

the romans were way over rated. you always hear about white people talking about how great rome is but its quite embarasing for them to boast about their own culture when they know nothing about others. just the mongols alone could have wiped the floor with them. up until 300yrs ago, europe was the most backward civilisation in the world. indians, muslims, chinese, and africans were more prosperous than europeans. in fact, the only way europeans were able to build up their wealth was through robbing, and sabatoging other countries, which they still do until this day. fact is and was, europeans could never handle a free market economy, based on fair trade. the only way they can get ahead is by cheating, destroying, starting wars, and robbing. i dont know what africa was like before europeans sucked them dry, but i can tell you that europeans are nothing special.

 

[David]

the romans were way over rated. you always hear about white people talking about how great rome is but its quite embarasing for them to boast about their own culture when they know nothing about others. just the mongols alone could have wiped the floor with them. up until 300yrs ago, europe was the most backward civilisation in the world. indians, muslims, chinese, and africans were more prosperous than europeans. in fact, the only way europeans were able to build up their wealth was through robbing, and sabatoging other countries, which they still do until this day. fact is and was, europeans could never handle a free market economy, based on fair trade. the only way they can get ahead is by cheating, destroying, starting wars, and robbing. i dont know what africa was like before europeans sucked them dry, but i can tell you that europeans are nothing special.

1. Rome was an African nation (Italy is in Africa, Europe starts at the Alps), 2. Rome was a world power as large as the modern US and possessing everything from running water to computers, not what I'd call primitive, 3. why are you so racist?

 

[Frogger]

the romans were way over rated. you always hear about white people talking about how great rome is but its quite embarasing for them to boast about their own culture when they know nothing about others. just the mongols alone could have wiped the floor with them. up until 300yrs ago, europe was the most backward civilisation in the world. indians, muslims, chinese, and africans were more prosperous than europeans. in fact, the only way europeans were able to build up their wealth was through robbing, and sabatoging other countries, which they still do until this day. fact is and was, europeans could never handle a free market economy, based on fair trade. the only way they can get ahead is by cheating, destroying, starting wars, and robbing. i dont know what africa was like before europeans sucked them dry, but i can tell you that europeans are nothing special.

Sure, the Mongols were great horse warriors but that is all they were. They did not institute a lasting form of government, create any lasting laws or even build any lasting edifices. Show me a copy of the Lex Mongolia, or a Mongol road or a Mongol aquaduct or Forum. They were destroyers, not builders.

The Indian cities of Harrapa and Mohanjo Dharo were the jewels of the Indian sub-content with indoor bathrooms connected to underground sewers but even these jewels had buildings that rose to only three stories and were made of clay. They are dust while the Roman Forum can still be seen.

Islam did not begin to build a great civilization until the arrival of the Seljuk Turks, a European people. The indigenous Arabs lived in tents and roamed over the desert on camels.

Yes, China had a great civilization but China was insular and did not share its civilization with the world. Romean civilization spread throughout the known world.

Rome was the center of the known world, none of these other civilizations came even close to being that.

 

[obtuseobserver]

You have to remember that the Western world is what happened when Roman civilization became resurgent during the renaissance. Everything, from our laws to our alphabet and from our roads to our architecture Is largely themed on the Romans. Now think of Rome's history with Africa, Carthage, a great enemy, Nubia, a puppet kingdom, Egypt, a satellite-state, ect. The resulting views carried over.

Rome influenced a great many things but the single largest cultural factor of western civilization is the adoption of Abrahamic Monotheism.

Think of the constitution's acknowledgement of natural law.

Think of the Supreme Court building in DC... think of all the statues of Moses law giver... you'll find precious few of any Romans. Their administrative methods... those we absorbed with great affinity. The Romans were excellent bureaucrats and administrators. They left wonderful records. They left wonderful methods of analysis etc etc etc.... but how many cathedral were built to celebrate that? How many wars fought over differing opinions of interpretation of roman legal standards? blah blah blah

 

[David]

Rome influenced a great many things but the single largest cultural factor of western civilization is the adoption of Abrahamic Monotheism.

Think of the constitution's acknowledgement of natural law.

Think of the Supreme Court building in DC... think of all the statues of Moses law giver... you'll find precious few of any Romans. Their administrative methods... those we absorbed with great affinity. The Romans were excellent bureaucrats and administrators. They left wonderful records. They left wonderful methods of analysis etc etc etc.... but how many cathedral were built to celebrate that? How many wars fought over differing opinions of interpretation of roman legal standards? blah blah blah

Rome was Christian for 2,000 years, so that point kind of falls flat on it's face.

 

[obtuseobserver]

Rome was Christian for 2,000 years, so that point kind of falls flat on it's face.

Christianity is only 2000 years old.

The latest date you can claim a roman empire would be 1453 when Constantinople finally fell.

so, let's call it 1100 years (we'll date it from 313 when Constantine made it legal to be a Christian). That's 1100 years of Abrahamic Monotheism dominating the western world. When you consider that the West was, by and large Christian in 1453 it further supports my point...