In his 1668 description of the West African kingdom of Benin, the Dutch writer Olfert Dapper reported that “The king shows himself only once a year to his people, going out of his court on horseback, accompanied by three or four hundred noblemen on horseback.”
In Benin, based on what a capuchin missionary detained at some point in Benin in the mid 17th century - noted, one gets the idea that leopards were also used as guard animals to watch over people.
It’s strange that Egypt is the primary African kingdom taught in western schools. Many of the kingdoms in Africa that you write about are equally as fascinating and grand. I did do a class project on Mali, in elementary school, as we all picked an African country to research.
However, that would be about the extent of it, as more focus was on South America, the Middle East, China, and obviously Europe. I wish I had learned much of this earlier.
Egypt's overshadowing of Africa's other civilizations is one of the reasons this blog doesn't explore North African history as much as the rest of the continent, even though I consider it integral to understanding the history of the continent as a whole.
It's very unfortunate that the Hegelian separation of Egypt and North Africa from the rest of the continent has to be inadvertently reproduced whenever any attempt is made to highlight the history of other African civilizations that aren't Egypt.
You make such a very good point about that separation. In college, I studied classics for a year, including an Egyptology class. It was strange to me that Egypt got its own -ology.
Possibly pursuing it further would have led to more insights then, but I switched gears to biology instead because of parental pressure to go into medicine. Interestingly now, I find myself still intrigued by the evolution of society where we actually evolved biologically.
Also, European fascination with Egypt in the 18th century may have been rooted in its connection to the Bible? Were they looking for proof of truth in the bible and thus further justification for the religion imported to them via the Roman Empire, in addition to the stories of Antony and Cleopatra from Roman sources?
Someone was challenging the use of Roman Cavalry during the invasion of Kush, said there isn't' any source for that, he's also skeptical of the use of horses by the folks of the central African states against the Portguese.
Greetings Isaac , great article as usual , one thing I was wondering is was it possible to domesticate a certain species of Crocodiles, as shown in upper Egypt and on the Niger with folks toying with them.
The photograph of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia does not show him with a live lion, but with a skin with a stuffed head, as was fashionable at that time in Europe (I remember tripping over such things at my grandparents' house in Devon). This is one of a series of photos taken by Alfred Ilg, Menelik's Swiss Adviser and the first Foreign Minister of Ethiopia. The photographs were, I am sure, taken in the veranda of Ilg's house, the location of which I can see from my bedroom window (the house is still there - I checked last week). In some of them you can see the curve of the oval house wall.
true, the pillow is a dead giveaway, the Menelik photo is meant to complement the one of Ethiopian nobles riding elephants cause I couldn't get a clear one of the latter to use on its own.
In Benin, based on what a capuchin missionary detained at some point in Benin in the mid 17th century - noted, one gets the idea that leopards were also used as guard animals to watch over people.
It’s strange that Egypt is the primary African kingdom taught in western schools. Many of the kingdoms in Africa that you write about are equally as fascinating and grand. I did do a class project on Mali, in elementary school, as we all picked an African country to research.
However, that would be about the extent of it, as more focus was on South America, the Middle East, China, and obviously Europe. I wish I had learned much of this earlier.
Egypt's overshadowing of Africa's other civilizations is one of the reasons this blog doesn't explore North African history as much as the rest of the continent, even though I consider it integral to understanding the history of the continent as a whole.
It's very unfortunate that the Hegelian separation of Egypt and North Africa from the rest of the continent has to be inadvertently reproduced whenever any attempt is made to highlight the history of other African civilizations that aren't Egypt.
You make such a very good point about that separation. In college, I studied classics for a year, including an Egyptology class. It was strange to me that Egypt got its own -ology.
Possibly pursuing it further would have led to more insights then, but I switched gears to biology instead because of parental pressure to go into medicine. Interestingly now, I find myself still intrigued by the evolution of society where we actually evolved biologically.
Also, European fascination with Egypt in the 18th century may have been rooted in its connection to the Bible? Were they looking for proof of truth in the bible and thus further justification for the religion imported to them via the Roman Empire, in addition to the stories of Antony and Cleopatra from Roman sources?
Partly that, but mostly Napoleons “discovery” that ancient Egypt was much older than the biblical histories had led them to believe
The Rosetta Stone did a lot of that
Someone was challenging the use of Roman Cavalry during the invasion of Kush, said there isn't' any source for that, he's also skeptical of the use of horses by the folks of the central African states against the Portguese.
Greetings Isaac , great article as usual , one thing I was wondering is was it possible to domesticate a certain species of Crocodiles, as shown in upper Egypt and on the Niger with folks toying with them.
"taming" crocodiles may be possible, but domesticating them isn't.
The photograph of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia does not show him with a live lion, but with a skin with a stuffed head, as was fashionable at that time in Europe (I remember tripping over such things at my grandparents' house in Devon). This is one of a series of photos taken by Alfred Ilg, Menelik's Swiss Adviser and the first Foreign Minister of Ethiopia. The photographs were, I am sure, taken in the veranda of Ilg's house, the location of which I can see from my bedroom window (the house is still there - I checked last week). In some of them you can see the curve of the oval house wall.
true, the pillow is a dead giveaway, the Menelik photo is meant to complement the one of Ethiopian nobles riding elephants cause I couldn't get a clear one of the latter to use on its own.