Ife of Nigeria

The Yoruba, [also known as ^1.Yarriba, ^2. Nago and Aku] country lay to the immediate West of the River Niger [below the confluence] and South of the Quorra {i.e., the Western branch of the same River above the confluence), having Dahomey on the West, and the Bight of Benin to the South. It is roughly speaking between latitude 6° and 9° North, and longitude 2° 30′ and 6° 30′ East. Yoruba was in ancient days a Kingdom of numerous tribes who paid tribute to the King of Ago, also called Oyo after the Capital of the Kingdom of ^3.Katunga that preceded the Yoruba civilization.

Principal Kingdoms: The Egbados, Jebu, Egbas, Ife, Ijesha, Ijamo, Efoh, Ondo, Idoko, Igbomina, and Ado.

Prehistory: It is recorded that Autochthonous tribes, [Aborigines] inhabited Ife before Oduduwa arrived from the east. It is conjectured that these Aborigine were conquered or absorbed by the new arrivals, however, some Aborigine history records migrations out of Africa in search of food during a cyclical drought that created a great famine and no yam produce. The Egyptologist Flinders Petri and Budge, as well as Professor Oric Bates and others do record autochthonous tribes in Africa: Consequently their complete absence from the Continent post 18^th Century, does rather imply a mass deportation or eviction of the remnant by Europeans. Certainly we can see stylistic art representations in African prehistoric art,  that resembles those found in Australia, Oceania and elsewhere. I can, with reference to Aborigine history stating arrival in Australia 30,000 years ago, safely conjecture, that Africans shared a habitation in the Sahara with Aborigine tribes, many of whom dispersed during the Upper Palaeolithic era, as this would correspond with the Aborigine account, and left behind a remnant.

Ife: 45,000 BC – 2700 BC; these were not called Ife, but would have been the first Black inhabitants who migrated into Nigeria, and settled alongside a Autochthonous tribe already there. There is evidence corresponding to a Upper Palaeolithic stone age for the Aborigine, that is not a shared history with the Ife. Again, when stone age tools are discovered in Africa, they are immediately given a later date, as European racism attempted to make Africa the backward savage Continent. Some cohabitation occurred as we will see further along.

Ife Bronze Age: 2650 BC -2700 BC. A earthquake ended the Ife Civilization in Africa abruptly, burying it beneath the earth. The survivors decided to relocate out of Africa with their Aborigine survivors, and I can reasonably conjecture, that the sick, feeble and weak, were left behind with a few youth to tend to them. ^4.John Hammerton, described by the Dictionary of National Biography, “As the most successful creator of large scale works of reference in Britain,” dated the Ife Kingdom bronzes to 2,500 BC in the 19^th Century.

Ife Interregum Period: 2700 BC -1100 BC, Ife reappear on the island of Crete and Cretes bronze age appears simultaneously with Ife’s disappearance from the African Continent. I would posit that the Aborigine among them, now shared and became involved creatively in-order to shape their new world in Crete. The stylistic similarities between African, Aborigine and Minoan pottery is yet to be examined. Aborigines favour sea creature images such as fish and octopus etc, consistent with those on Minoan pottery.

Original Aborigine of California

African pot

Greco pot

Period Minoan Amphorae

 The Ife did not create a Pantheon of gods once they arrived in Crete, they simply exported the Pantheon of gods they already had. Moreover, in no other Country, has the civilizations archaeological discoveries mirrored that of ancient Crete and Greece, than the former Ife Kingdom of Nigeria. ^5.Falconer in his translation of Strabo’s Geography book 2, attempts to redefine the word Autochthonous to read indigenous with the presumption being European, however, we all know what Autochthonous means:

 ^6.“We dug, we went into the depths… a head, of marvellous beauty, wonderfully cast in antique bronze, true to the life, encrusted with a patina of glorious dark green. This was in very deed, the Olukun, Atlantic Africa’s Poseidon… I looked around and saw the Blacks, the circle of the sons of the venerable Priest, his Holiness, the Oni’s friend and his intelligent officials. I was moved to silent melancholy, at the thought that this assembly of degenerate and feeble minded posterity should be the legitimate guardians of so much classic loveliness…. The sculptures were reminiscent of classical Greece… their gods echoed Mount Olympus… the architecture resembled early Mediterranean, particularly Etruscan… Their statecraft supported a Greek connection.” [Historian and archaeologist Leo Frobenius].

In correcting revised history, it is also necessary to demonstrate that the original history was widely known in times preceding our own. Significant Western resources have been employed to refurbish Black history with European imagery, as well as purporting, late Greek statutes to be consistent with the archaic age. Additionally, early historians had no concept of Africa Propa right up until the late 18^th and 19^th Century. For these, everything Black, originated out of ancient Egypt or Phoenicia, when in fact it was not so. There is no doubt, that ancient Crete, was originally inhabited by Black African and Autochthonous tribes, before being joined by Slavs from over the Caucasus Mountains.

 

References:

1.      The History of the Yorubas, [The Rev. Samuel Johnson] 1897
2.       Impressions of Western Africa, [Thomas J Hutchinson Esq] 1853
3.       Same as above
4.       Peoples of All Nations, Vol 7 [John Alexander Hammerton. P.5372] 1922
5.       Strabo [The Geography Vol.2. p.2] 1856 – Falconer Translation
6.       The Kingdoms of Africa, [Peter Garlake] 1978. [P.38-39].
7.       The Voice of the African Peoples, [Leo Frobenius, vol 1] 1913

Sao Civilization of Africa, [Chad].

The Sao Civilization of the lower  valley of Logone and Chari now called Chad, corresponds to the upper palaeolithic  period, [40,000-32,000 BCE] of Chadian history. Substantial evidence of zoomorphic, [animal shaped] works of art occur here, to represent what we call anthropomorphism , and see in Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, South-America and elsewhere, corresponding to the age when homo sapiens first climbed out of the Middle Palaeolithic to engage in recording through art, the animals that dwelt in their proximity, their understanding of their religion and possibly, also to trade.  See also Garamantes.

Zoomorphic

Sao Anthropomorphic

NOTE: Unfortunately racism has played a significant part in robbing us of a comprehensive Sao history. It was important for Europeans to distort the history, in-order to allege that no African Civilization predated those of Europe. Fortunately, we can still put the pieces of the jigsaw they created, back together.

 EARLY PREDYNASTIC: It appears fitting to me, to refer to the early epoc of the Sao, as Saoian.  The Saoian culture appears in the Lower valley of Logone. Archaeological evidence discovered here, proves to be a settlement, where the Sao lived, and where they began to make pottery. ^1.Over 15,000 pieces of ceramics have been discovered here; as well as funerary urns, water vases and other household utensils. It appears that the Soa’s period of residence in this land, was consistent right up to the bronze age and beyond, as bronze jewellery, coins and statutes were discovered along with ceramics and zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures, which implies that the Sao did not migrate out of their region, as it is unlikely that such a chasm could exist between artists of the same epoch. I would also posit that they had a adequate  natural water supply and a attachment to their Ancestors whom they buried carefully in large urns. [Depicted by the same Carthagian burial below]. I cannot say whether the carcases were burnt before being interred into the large funeral urns, but I will say that this tribe demonstrates a reluctance to commit loved ones to the earth to become food for maggots. Which would imply sensibilities and sensitivities, linked to some form of religious belief; for it is not too dissimilar to ancient Egypt’s embalming process, that favoured tombs as opposed to earth.

7^th Century BC Burial Urn with charred remains of a child, [Carthage].

It is difficult to accurately record the Sao ceramics here, as Europeans stole the majority, which are now in private collections in European, and predominantly in France.

The jewellery of the Saoian epoc, consisted of large and small beads strung together, which we can conjecture, became more sophisticated as they evolved.

BRONZE AGE: The evidence for this is found in the cire perdu lost wax process, [ca.3000 BC] which the Sao used to make bronze jewellery cast according to the ancient abovementioned process. Also discovered were bronze ritual cups, pendants, ankle- bracelets and weapons, all now with Europes private collectors instead of in our museums. The weaponry informs us that the Sao hunted and were well aware of the need to defend themselves against aggression. There is also evidence that they were fishermen.

Ethnicity: We need to look at the ethnic groups inhabiting Lake Kuri, or Chad who may be related to the Sao and from whom we can glean the circumstances surrounding this tribes disappearance. ² Jean Lebeuf documented several tribes: The Guti and Tukur tribes as having stylistic similarities in artwork, that permits us to conjecture a familial relationship. Lebeuf supported the hypothesis that the Buduma, Gamergu, Kanembu, Kotoko, and Musgum  could claim descent from the Sao, however, I am not wholly convinced, that living in a particular region, automatically creates or confers ancestral descent, without other factors operating. Many African tribes were massacred with the arrival of Europeans. Entire tribes were deported into slavery, and this could account for the Sao disappearance. There is some suggestion that the Sao embraced Islam, but no proof is provided to support this supposition, nor would it cause the tribe to forget their origins.

As more information arrives I will update this history

REFERENCES:

1.Art and Mankind; Larousse Enc of Prehistoric and Ancient Art, [1962].

2.Lebeuf, Jean-Paul,and Annie Masson Detourbet (1950). La civilization du Tchad, Paris

http://www.memoiredafrique.com/en/sao/galerie-amis.php

KING JOAO OF PORTUGAL

King John 1 or King Joao 1 of Portugal, [11^th April1358-14^th August 1433] was the Black King, of the House of Avis who married Dona Filippa de Lancastre.

The wedding of João I of Portugal, 11 February 1387 with Fiilippa de Lancastre, by 15th Century manuscript illuminator Master of Wavrin.

Early Life: Prince Joao was born in the Royal Castelo De Sao Jorge in Lisbon. His father was King Pedro I de Portugal and his mother Queen Ines de Castro, [it is often alleged that he was bastard by Europeans]. His parents are believed to have married in secret in 1354.

As he was not inline for the Throne, Prince Joao having a elder half-brother Ferdinand 1,  was conferred the title Grand Master of the Order of Aviz. In 1385 Prince Joao became King of Portugal following the death of his brother Ferdinand 1, a period of crisis ensued with no King on Portugal’s throne. This was averted when the ‘Council of the Kingdom,’ declared Prince Joao King of Portugal as King Pedro 1 only surviving male heir.

It was well attested that the entire Iberian peninsula was in past times originally inhabited by Black tribes who had migrated out of Africa and settled and established Kingdoms and Monarchies on European shores, these are referred to by ^1.historians, as ‘black’ in complexion, with this word later translated to read dusky. However, it is significant, that Strabo, Herodotus and others referred to Ethiopians as having curly hair!!! And about which common sense informs us, there was nothing ‘unusual’ at all!  Historians have also referred to the ancient Celts as Aborigine. So nothing Caucasian there. The oldest history of Ireland, itself attest that the original inhabitants were a Black race² who terrorised the first wave of Caucasus immigrants. Consequently we cannot get around the fact, that Portugal, France, the United Kingdom and Spain’s original inhabitants were comprised of Black tribes, and this was well attested until revisionist histories began rewriting the facts. That said, King Joao of Portugal, could not have been Black without Black parents. Furthermore, a Black King in one century, does not become Caucasian in a later time, and it would be against the law in all civilized Countries, to depict Black People as Caucasians under Racial Hatred Legislation.

King Joao at his wedding feast

 Acclaim: Following the death of John 1 of Castile King Joao diplomatic skills managed to preserve Portugal’s independence from Castile and prevent her being embroiled in yet another European conflict. This King was a scholar and a theologian, he was so well versed in law, that he was able to purge the corrupt Portuguese Courts and transform them into the most progressive of his time. King Joao initiated Portuguese expansionism abroad and a expedition against Ceuta, which largely failed. He understood the value of imparting knowledge and promoting culture heritage to his numerous Children which Fillipa bore and which in turn became the fruit of a golden era, often called the illustrious generation. He built the Abbey of Batalha and wrote a book on hunting called Book of the Mount, [Livro da montaria]. King Joao is the first King of Portugal to be known by the title of Lord of Ceuta. Historical reference accords him the non de plume of John the Good and John the Great, [O Principe de Boa Memória, or João de Aviz, João o Grande].

King Joao of Portugal is most likely referred to today in images, as, ‘head of a negro.’ His children were definitely mixed race and this is not reflected in revised histories, when we are told his son Prince Edward succeeded him as King of Portugal in 1433.

I often think these are his descendants labelled Kongo

 1. S Baring Gould: Book of the West, [1900].

Eugene O’ Curry: Lectures On The Manuscripts Materials  Of Ancient Irish History. [1861].

Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland, 1865, Vol. 1

Aristotle: De Mundo 111, [see E.S Forester 1914 translation at p.393:10].

Alfred J Church: The Agricola of Tacitus [P.8] 1881.

1. Lebor Gabaila

New Larousse Enc of Mythology [1972] p.224

Charles Squire: The Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland,[1906].

© Roeim ben Yehudah aka Lynda D Swain-Sheppard. All rights reserved without permission

HistroPedia © Roeim ben Yehauda aka Lynda D Swain Sheppard; all rights reserved.

I am so fed up with Wiki and its revised histories, that I’ve decided to create my own HistroPedia Blog, to deliver the historical facts with reliable sources and accurate images supported by references with the true accounts of our Black history. Let me know if there is a particular African or Black history subject you would like a me to Blog about. Watch this space…