I am author of the books: The Great Wall of Africa: The Empire of Benin’s 10,000 Mile Long Wall, The Real Wakandas of Africa and The Real Vibranium of Africa (by Maurice Miles Martinez). Most people are unaware that African people built a wall before transatlantic slavery in the Benin empire that is one of the most massive structures in the world. At 10,000 miles long, the Great Wall of Africa contains more material than all of the buildings in New York City’s Manhattan. If cut into 1 meter high blocks, it would wrap around the equator more than 65 times! It is arguably the planet’s greatest man-made structure. Yet, it has been ignored by historians. In my book The Great Wall of Africa: The Empire of Benin’s 10,000 Mile Long Wall, I explore the dimensions of the wall, the history of the Benin Empire’s Kings (Obas) and the stolen Benin Bronzes. These treasures that sit in the world’s museums amount to more than $14 Billion. Most people who read this book are left wondering why they never heard about the Great Wall of Africa in their history classes. The world needs more videos on this topic. Maurice Miles Martinez

The Benin Empire is one of my favorite civilizations in Africa, and let you know I’m doing a God of War/Lord of the Rings type of fantasy involving a character from a kingdom based on Benin. Also involving African mythology and legends.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Very cool idea, I'd love to see more fantasy inspired by accurate understandings of African history and cultures (as opposed to caricatures or stereotypes, which show up in fantasy now and then).

@dennisigbinedion2763

Жыл бұрын

Please I will like to work with you for more storytelling

@syldreymombo8790

Жыл бұрын

😅😂 The funny part am doing something similar, hence I watched this video to learn more, am focusing more on the two brothers, including the mythology, good luck with your story hope to read it one day. Glad there's people out there having similar thoughts about our former leaders.

@osamudiamenosayande

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy ododuwa was a Benin Prince and the only son of ogiso owodo. The name Benin was not given by oranmiyan but the two sons of Pa Idu, who is the progenitor of the Benin people. Secondly, Benin never got bronze casting from ile and ile ife never cast bronze, till date the Benin still cast bronze, why not show to us the location of the ile ife bronze casters guide, as will still have in Benin?. I believe you are not from Benin.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

@@osamudiamenosayande I talked about the narrative that Oduduwa was Owodo's son in the video. Pa Idu did not appear in any of my sources. I was indeed mistaken about Benin getting bronze casting from Ile-Ife, I found out later that the practice appears in the archaeological record for both regions at the same time, and appears in Igboland much earlier, so we have no reason to believe Ile-Ife was the originator of this practice. Obviously I'm not from Benin, did you not hear my accent? That said, the narrative that bronze casting came from Ile-Ife was popularized by Jacob Egharevba, who WAS from Benin, so obviously being from Benin doesn't automatically make you correct about Benin's history.

Amazingly well done video. This is the type of care and attention to detail that is lacking in most African history videos out there. It's refreshing to see a kingdom covered with as much justice as one would a European or Asian kingdom. I also like the constant comparisons and analogies that you provide to give the viewer a point of reference. It was a privilege to have you in this collaboration!

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, it was a priviledge to take part!

The fact that each house had fresh water is astounding. Even the early monarchs in England struggled with this.

@stevenwheeler5324

3 ай бұрын

Its bullshit

@nomotioneli

2 ай бұрын

@@stevenwheeler5324source?

@514Exc

2 ай бұрын

@@stevenwheeler5324 source - trust me bro

@Markusbarkus111

Ай бұрын

@@stevenwheeler5324 No African people could’ve never created anything of importance, there is no way humans who are only phenotypical different from other humans could have the same accomplishments as their fellow humans. You do realize that humans are one of the most genetically similar species around right, especially among apes, but okay just keep being racist since facts and logic hurts your feeble mind. www.ashg.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/genetic-variation-essay.pdf

@514Exc

Ай бұрын

@@stevenwheeler5324 Might not be, the libyans found one of these underwater basins in the 1900s led to prosperity and economic success before america brought democracy 🥳

My friends and even strangers have said that I look like I am from Nigeria. I do have strong features and strength to match. I took an ancestry test and it revealed that I am 53.4% Nigerian and my ancestors are Edo or Ijaw people. That is what brought me to this video. I love it. Thks!

@SomasAcademy

Ай бұрын

Thanks for watching, I'm glad you enjoyed!

Great video with lots of information. Glad to see West African kingdoms being talked about more, they deserve to be known as well.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I agree that West African kingdoms deserve more recognition, I'm actually specializing in West African history for my Master's degree, so I very much intend to make more videos on the topic in the future.

@charlesspeaksthetruth4334

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy Awesome 👍😎. Can't wait to see them.

@ch0asnature

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy One Fact I would like you to really look into though is this - it is actually believed the Oba rulership began from Benin with he oba sending his first son to Ile ife and not the other way around which is now very popular. this is an ongoing debate and i believe the best place to get the fact from would be to take a visit to both palaces whilst the elders are still alive. Also, the story of the relationship between today's Edo and Benin the country don't add up, it is not the Portuguese capturing slaves to ship to Benin but a different form of relationship that results in the relationship as they practice the same doctrine....

@tralbriggs104

Жыл бұрын

Nothing here is true. Bini has claimed BENIN ( Dahomey ) Fame and history and has also claimed IJAW land to be part of Bini .

This is personally my favorite video on the playlist. Whenever I watch African history videos done by anyone other than From Nothing, Home team, or HiddenHistory, they rarely ever go this in depth and end up oversimplifying these kingdoms. Nice job keep it up!!!

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I like that you mentioned those three creators, because I owe Hometeam, Jabari, and Hidden for being the first channel I could start learning about African history from, inviting me to a place where I could discuss African history more deeply (the From Nothing discord server), and convincing me to start making videos, respectively, so without the three of them this video wouldn't exist! Needless to say, I also really appreciate all of those channels, and am flattered to have my first proper video on West African history compared with their content.

Love the Ogiso era and pre-classical Greece comparison! Great video, it was an honor to be a part of the collab

@algobrehane7369

4 ай бұрын

Europe needs to leave Africa period.

What a great video on the amazing Benin civilization!

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Loving this collaboration, Thanks for covering my favourite African civilization

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, Benin is one of my favorites too!

Great vid...!!! BTW... To give a comparison of its size, the *Great Wall of Benin* was so large that it could linearly wrap around the total area of all 5 boroughs of present-day New York City about 130 times, & around London over 103 times. It spanned the distance between New York City & Los Angeles over 3.5 times, & between London & Vancouver, over 2 times. The original *Oba's palace* _(not the current smaller one)_ was so large & grand that it was about 91% of the size of the entirety of Vatican City, or about 20% of the size of the entire country of Monaco. That's a combined size of 76 typical football fields...!!! No other interconnected architectural structure on earth was as large... & that's real & impressive greatness...!!! 👍🏽

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Neat!

As someone from Benin, i find this very detailed, good pronunciations of the names, very impressive!, Nice video.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I'm glad to hear that my pronunciation was good, I couldn't find any pronunciation guides for the Edo language or any Edo speakers to help me, so I had to just guess - I'm glad my guesses weren't too far off lmao

@DrLesiaThePreachasDiviNation

6 ай бұрын

My ancestor, CudJoe Lewis is from there.

@algobrehane7369

4 ай бұрын

Now if we could just get Europe to leave.

Need more videos fam! My sister and I just found out our lineage is from Edo state (confirming that over time :)). But your video alone has me really eager to learn more and embarrassed I didn't know to begin with!

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching, I'm glad you enjoyed! And don't feel embarrassed not to have known, African history is unfortunately neglected in our education system, so very few people know anything about the states that existed there before the colonial period. That's why we decided to make this collab, and I plan to make more videos in the future on Benin and other Pre-Colonial African countries to hopefully introduce this history to more people.

@iyamugeorge5835

Жыл бұрын

Okay. Welcome to edo state

@winstonwwright

Жыл бұрын

@@iyamugeorge5835 thank you family

@SayiSPACE

Жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/Ympp0NiHXcuTYsY.html

@kiloman7632

19 күн бұрын

@@winstonwwrightwelcome my fellow edo brotha

I also think more videos discussing these different periods of Bini history would be awesome 😎

Very well done 👏 Thanks for delivering an Impartial account of the Ekhaladerhan-Oduduwa situation

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! It's clearly a culturally significant situation for both Edo and Yoruba people, so I wanted to make sure I didn't discount either position without solid evidence.

A top tier video about a fascinating topic!

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Good morning! Really looking forward to watching all videos in the collaboration! Thank you for participating!

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Ditto!

@HistoryandHeadlines

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy 🙂

A brilliant contribution to a really great collaboration. looking forward to checking out the rest of your work.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

This was well made and narrated. I appreciate your work - thank you.

@SomasAcademy

9 ай бұрын

And thank you for watching!

This is absolutely fantastic. Thanks for this beautiful information.

I am overwhelmed by the due diligence and incredible research done in producing this video. It boasts many of the critical elements missing in other narratives about Benin. Great video.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!

Fantastic! I look forward to checking out more of your videos.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Please make more videos on this amazing kingdom, I really enjoyed your in depth study and analysis of this video and I’d like to learn more about Benin kingdom

@SomasAcademy

8 ай бұрын

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed!

Awesome video! Very well done and informative!

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

I am totally ready for more videos.

Fantastic! This is definitely a collab I have to dig into.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! And yes, I'd definitely recommend digging into the rest of the playlist - Sam Aronow, Chronology Cast, and Schrodinger's Moose made some of my personal favorite entries!

this was awesome. thanks for treating african history with the respect and care it deserves

More Benin videos is a great idea.

I love the level of detail you always go into.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Glad I found this channel, great upload!

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

I'm very happy to see great videos like this.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

This was very informative, thank you.

@SomasAcademy

10 ай бұрын

Thank you for watching, I'm glad you enjoyed!

I’d love to see more!

You are doing great work

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

I would LOVE more information about the Edo/Benin Kingdom. Great video!

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Lovely video

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thanks!

Good video & summary :p cool to see you exploring more and more with editing too

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! The visuals were so hard with this one lmao there aren't a lot of good illustrations for this location so I had to get a bit spicier with the editing (and do more illustrations than usual, I'm pretty sure this is the most assets I've made for a video so far) to keep everything moving.

Such an interesting state, glad I get to learn more about it!

Very well researched! Most of the "points" you make continue to resonate with the Benin people to this day! 👊🏾🇳🇬👊🏾🇳🇬!

@SomasAcademy

10 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Great video

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

I wish we had games and anime and movies similar to like europes knights and japans samurai and chinas warriors but for african kingdoms like this one

@SomasAcademy

6 ай бұрын

Same, the Benin Bronzes show some really cool warrior outfits that I think would make great character designs. The Sahel region would also make a great setting; a friend of mine once drew a short comic set in that region that was basically riffing on Samurai tropes, because the region had a few aesthetic parallels to Feudal Japan (horseback riding warriors, conical straw hats, similar robes, etc.).

Nice collaboration and nice video.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Please make more videos on the subject of Benin. Thanks!

Yes, please. More videos about Benin.

Thanks for this video and love to see more of are great kingdom. Oba E tor te ah

@SomasAcademy

11 ай бұрын

Thank you! Stay tuned!

I am your 800th subscriber, good video

This is amazing! Where did you find all of these wonderful graphics?

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! The majority of the images I used were from the web, but the maps and cartoony illustrations are my own work.

Love it ❤

Please make more of the kingdom of Benin Kingdom history 🙏 and Nigeria 🇳🇬 with Africa 🌍 or origin American ,we need to know what is going on in the world 🌎

From ile-ibinu to Benin. Lol. Now it makes sense. Please don't you ever give up on this channel. You are onto to a winner.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@osamudiamenosayande

Жыл бұрын

From Yariba to Yoruba. Lol, it make more sense

@georgeilawagbon9255

19 күн бұрын

​@@osamudiamenosayandeyariba the fulani slaves 😂

please more videos of benin!

Make more videos about Benin Empire please

Yes make more videos please

Nice

I subscribed

Great Benin Kingdom history 👏 👌 👍

2:25 they reached out to him because he was actually from Benin, the exiled son. Only royal blood can sit on the throne in Benin that’s why the didn’t want the other guy to rule over them.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

I get to that literally seconds after the point you paused the video at to comment lol

@thevisitor1012

Жыл бұрын

I've looked at both sides and I agree with you that Oduduwa was Prince Ekaladerhan. The one thing that remains constant in Oduduwa's origin is that he wasn't native to the land and came from a far away place. Him originally being from Benin is a lot more plausable than him coming from....Mecca....

9:27 I think you meant 5000 km. It might have sounded better "25% shorter". Anyway, great work!

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Yes, I can't believe I missed that when editing, thanks for pointing out the error!

Please make a longer video on Benin! This was amazing thank you 🙏🏾

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I will definitely make more videos on Benin in the future, though given my upload schedule I'm not sure when, so stay tuned!

@davyroger3773

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy Would be interested in hearing about the Enogie chiefs and generally the social hierarchies of the empire

Please make more VIDEOS

Great

very welldone video and thank you for spending time on my heritage

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching, I'm glad you enjoyed!

My ancestors come from Edo empire aka Benin.

@iyamugeorge5835

Жыл бұрын

Welcome to edo state

@zion-985

11 ай бұрын

Your Edo family will be waiting for you in Edo state. They are very welcoming people.

Wow, great Benin

Interesting history Great job I must say, the history is truly ancient indeed and it’s quite understandable that you had to leave out some information in order to achieve a detailed summary. I’ll like to see more of the Great Benin Empire history here especially that Of Queen Idia and her son Oba Esigie. For clarity sakes too the Benin history has a lot of evidence to prove that the popular Oduduwa (originally Izoduwa) is a Benin prince, same goes for his son Oranmiyan (Originally Omoniyan).

Benin kingdom the cradle of black civilization.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

I'd disagree with this label, because while Benin is one of the oldest Black civilizations we know by name, "Black civilization" as a whole goes much further back, to civilizations we don't know by name.

@Isiejeme0829

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy this is a label the kingdom got, I didn't make it up.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

@@Isiejeme0829 I see. Still, bit of a misleading label for the reason I described!

Good work Benin is One of my favorite civilisation

@SomasAcademy

10 ай бұрын

Thank you! It's one of my favorites too.

Those from benin Kingdom like

Thank you im edo thank you very much

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

And thank you for watching!

16:01 I recommend you read the Sep 14, 2022 article "Who Benefits When Western Museums Return Looted Art?" in The Atlantic to get some perspective on the bronzes. I wouldn't unequivocally state that it's a positive thing, it's an issue with a great deal of complexity.

@SomasAcademy

10 ай бұрын

It's a fairly good article, thank you for the recommendation. That said, I don't think all of Frum's points are very strong, and I hold to the position that repatriation is an overall positive development, despite the complexities; there are still issues to sort out surrounding who exactly the artwork should be "returned" to (I personally believe returning them to the legal possession of the Oba and working out formal agreements for their display between him and museums, both in Edo state and elsewhere, would be the best option), but I think it is unequivocally good for their legal ownership to be with the descendants of the people they were stolen from. I'd also like to point out that one small portion of the article is incredibly historically inaccurate. The author claims: "The obas of Benin obtained the material for their glorious artworks by trading people they’d enslaved for brass sold by Portuguese merchants. Changing patterns of commerce relocated the sugar industry from São Tomé to Brazil by the early 17th century. [...] The Benin kingdom and its art went into decline soon afterward. Like the Roman Pantheon and Thomas Jefferson’s mansion at Monticello, the art of Benin flaunts the wealth gained by slavers." This is false. Yes, slaves were among the products Benin sold to the Portuguese during the late-15th and early-16th centuries. However, the export of male slaves was banned in the 1520s or 30s, and as female slaves were in exponentially lower demand, this largely removed Benin from the slave trade. You can probably do the math to see that that leaves around a century between the end of Benin's involvement in the slave trade and the period when the kingdom and its art "went into decline." Moreover, while production of the Benin Bronzes did peak in the 16th century, as I mentioned in the video, they had been produced since the 13th century, and continued to be produced later in Benin's history. Notably, most of the art featured in the article was produced after Benin's involvement with the slave trade largely ended. Were some of them made with brass obtained through the sale of slaves? Certainly. Was this true of all or even most of them? Absolutely not. Benin got brass from countries other than Portugal, and it got brass by trading for goods other than slaves in more cases than not, so this claim that the bronzes are akin to works built entirely through slave labor is nonsensical.

good at pronouncing the names

This story sounds more meaningful

This is a cool video. I had to do some digging to find why he was depicted with one half of his body lighter then the other. According to Wikipedia, his name means "The child has chosen to be controversial" and they named him that because of his unique skin. According to legend at least.

@SomasAcademy

9 ай бұрын

Thank you! I thought about explaining how I depicted Oranmiyan in the video, but since it was a digression from the main topic of the video I decided to leave it as a little detail for people who already knew about the legend to appreciate lol

Oduduwa he was Benin Prince who went to ife. And Obama is from Kenya America president yes and you can talk of his Child without talk of his Father so therefore you most know that Oduduwa was the Son of KING OGISO Owodo Igodomigodo know has today Great Benin

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

As I explained in the video, according to the Edo account Oduduwa was Prince Ekeladerhan, while according to the Yoruba account Oduduwa was a completely different person. Neither account can be confirmed, so I talked about both.

@g.b-side-global.t.v5086

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy truth can not be hide like the way yoruba hiden truth and bring lie to the Table

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

@@g.b-side-global.t.v5086 There is no reason to view the Edo account as more reliable than the Yoruba one. Both groups had reasons to paint Oduduwa as coming from them. A person coming from an Edo background is obviously more likely to assume the Yoruba version is a lie, and vice versa for a person of Yoruba background; I am neither and therefore do not have a bias toward one or the other, and thus presented both as equally valid, because it's literally a "he said-she said" situation.

@aghonelego2379

Жыл бұрын

@@g.b-side-global.t.v5086 You are dumb. Do you know the earlier history of Benin people said that they are from Ile Ife. Until now that the generation who knows better than their ancestors says otherwise. You cannot force your story on others. The day you will be wise is the day you accept wisdom that Soma's Academy just told you now

@extremeboi7234

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy thank you!!!

A video is equally needed on the life of military general, chief Ologbosere, who the Edo people see as a hero

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

I'll look into his story, thank you for the suggestion!

Thank you for this fine video about the kingdom of Benin ..I've not seen such interest in a West African society ..I think in do part to the hit film The Women King..I feel it is high time that European scholars & others start teaching more about African history other than North Africa. One of my all times favorite African scholars is Christopher Ehret ..his book The Civilizations Of Africa : A History to 1800 is a must read for those really serious about Africa. .. Sub Sahara is becoming obsolete..& for many have racist over tones as a carry over from colonialism ..personally I stopped using it years ago. Again A Fine Video about Benin...

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! West African history is a long held interest of mine, in part thanks to Jabari from the channel From Nothing, who also organized this collab - his Discord community really helped build my knowledge of the region, and now I'm actually focusing on West African history for grad school. I plan to make plenty of other West African history content in the future, and Ehret's book is one of my sources for an upcoming video, so stay tuned for that ;P

@roberth2627

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy I'm looking forward to your up coming video's. I've long had a great interest in Africa since a kid in the 1950's when all we had was Tarzan films for Africa esp at that time.. Africa was none & void ..It was not even considered & was referred to as" The Dark Continent " in fact slavery was not really discussed except for the happy slave narrative ...So I had to do my own research...as I grew..into adult hood. Luckly I discovered Black scholars like.. John Henry Clark ,Cheikh Anta Diop who's focus was ancient Egypt & the Nile Valley which was still considered to be a white or a non Black civilization. But that is even changing with a new crop of Egyptologist & Nubiologist like Stuart Tyson Smith, Debora Head &Sally Ann Aston who are now seeing connections to ancient Egypt (Kemet) to West Africa ...It's great to see more people of European descent taking a interest in West Africa now days..I have to admit I've seen more video's by other like yourself exploring Dahomey (Bennin) since the Women King..

9:04 it'd be nice if instead of mixing units you provided both units for each measurement.

No wonder why ewuare people are so stubborn in Benin.

It is a really good country to play in Europa Universalis 4

Hey, did they have an written languages?

@SomasAcademy

10 ай бұрын

No they didn't, our knowledge of their history is largely based on oral traditions and archaeology.

A beautifully presented video. The Edos came from Egypt as the Aksumite Empire and people and their kings were called Ogiso ie Ohisos in ancient Egypt.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I must say though, the supposed origin of the Edos in Egypt is actually a colonial-era claim based on some highly spurious evidence, and likely influenced by the Hamitic Hypothesis, a pseudohistorical narrative which attributed many Tropical African achievements to outsiders. I would recommend checking out the article "A Comparison of Jacob Egharevba's Ekhere Vb Itan Edo and the Four Editions of Its English Translation, A Short History Of Benin" by Uyilawa Usuanlele and Toyin Falola, they talk more in-depth about the questionable origins of this narrative. I'll also note as someone who has studied the Middle Egyptian language that "Ohiso" is not an Egyptian word - the Egyptian kings were called Nswt-Bjtj or, later, Pr-aA.

@19Elicar

5 ай бұрын

⁠@@SomasAcademycan please not using the term Hamitic a lot historians agreed that the term problematic just Afro-Asiatic.😂

@SomasAcademy

5 ай бұрын

@@19Elicar I'm not referring to the Afro-Asiatic language family, I'm specifically referring to an outdated belief - as I said in my comment, the Hamitic Hypothesis was "a pseudohistorical narrative which attributed many Tropical African achievements to outsiders." The reason why the term "Hamitic" is not longer used by linguists is because of its connection to this racist hypothesis.

@19Elicar

5 ай бұрын

@@SomasAcademy lol my bad I had knee jerk reaction every time I see that word thrown i lose a couple of brain cells just looking at it.

@SomasAcademy

5 ай бұрын

@@19Elicar Lol no worries

Owodo is a place in Lagos and That is when my sister was born

The Bini kingdom was the greatest kingdom with the most advanced civilization in Africa. They built a wall still standing in some parts of Edo, delta, Ondo and environs which in it’s time was greater than the wall of China but the Portuguese and British destroyed it.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

"Greatest" and "most advanced" are really hard to quantify, and I wouldn't put down other African civilizations to elevate the Edo, but they're certainly my personal favorite African kingdom!

You try for the history, that’s how we see it, thank our Gods things are coming back,

☺☺☺ GREAT BENIN

I'll speak for myself and not for African brother, Far as my understanding of this video it was exceptionally respectful and I hope that my African brother do not see any insult in my comment in regards to not knowing too much about Benin and the accuracy of all segments of this video it just seems as though it was research well in its coverage! Nevertheless it did not surprise me in regards to the ending in how the Western countries are ALWAYS self-centered, arrogant , controlling BULLY INVADERS not only domestically,but nationally and INTERNATIONALLY.!... BUT AS ALWAYS still We RISE !!✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿👊🏿✊🏿👉🏿✌🏿👉🏿💝💝💖💖....AFRICA YOU ROCK ! Ps, The ONLY reasons ( manytimes) the west would win in war is because they had guns and mother Africa didn't! BUT Why would she as there was no need for THEIR creation CRAP.!!

How can you saying a thing like that? That bronze casing spread from iLe ife to Benin please edit ✍🏿 that section Bronze casing never 👎 came from Ile ife but from Benin ok.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your comment, that was indeed a mistake on my part. The hypothesis that Bronze Casting spread from Ile-Ife to Benin is a very common one repeated in several of my sources, going back to Egharevba, an early source on Benin who was really tied to the idea that Benin's civilization had its roots in Ile-Ife. However, while I was researching for this video I wasn't aware that this hypothesis was poorly supported by archaeological evidence, so I simply accepted what my sources said; in reality, bronze casting in Benin and Ile-Ife are attested from the same period, so we can't say that either culture got the technique from the other. The Igbo also practiced bronze casting hundreds of years before it appeared in either Benin or Ile-Ife, so we definitely can't say that Ile-Ife was the origin of the practice. Bronze casting could have developed several times independently, or spread in any of several ways; we just don't know for sure, and my sources which implied an origin in Ile-Ife were mistaken. Unfortunately I can't edit a video that has already been released, but this is something I'll be sure to correct in future videos on Benin!

@donisede8563

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy Stop ✋ referencing Egharevba in all of your works he was paid by the Yoruba elites and the West to sabotage our history until the deities of Idu and our ancestors point it out. All of his books are as useless as tissue papers among we his climes.

Benin state was later divided into Edo and Delta state, which was called the Ben-del state which is the mixture of Edo and Delta state

more benin vids pls uwu

What were Benin warriors called

Awesome video, learned allot. And while I like Edo civilization, it’s not my favorite. African women in Edo religion/culture tended to play a subordinate & background role compared to their men. So low in fact, queen-mothers used to murd3red, the MOTHERS of their crowned prince slain. I’ve never heard anything worse. But Edo indigenous culture did remove that evil tradition, betrayal of Edo motherhood. Queen Idia was a game-changer. Wish their had been more of her grandeur. The Edo used to worship Obienwema as the first born child of the supreme-god Osanobua, but she couldn’t rule because she was a woman. So Osanobua’s son Olokun (not the Orisha Olokun) became the lord of waters or successor to the supreme god. Olokun, a male god, becoming associated with child birth or fertility, while Obienwema was replaced by Olokun! What are the names of these Edo mothers & Edo wives of these Edo kings & princes? Who was Odudwa’s mother & crowned wife or wives (although most would say that Oduduwa is the “father” of the Yoruba peoples, most say The Orisha Yemoja is the mother of the Yoruba peoples because she made the first sacred clay or mud, that Obatala used to sculpt humanity’s first original bodies). The Bini are unlike the matrilineal Nubian kingdoms of Kush were the women were equal or near-equals to the men, the queens to the kings being no exception to this. Nubian Queens: mothers, wives & sisters of the kings being celebrated as ruling by his side as equals or near-equals including in MANY cases sole rulers. These holy-women of Nubia’s history were always respected, never attempted erasure by their Nubian kings, unlike Yoruba Obas who tried to erase the legacies of Yoruba women Obas, Onni Luwoo Gbagida & Alaafin Orompoto etc. Although plenty of ancient Yoruba Ile-Ife head busts & figures, display various types of Yoruba crowned queens (“Yemoos” for example).

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Very fair perspective. Edo is one of my favorite African kingdoms due to a combination of my personal bias toward West Africa, some superficial considerations (I just really love their armor and architecture, and their very long oral history, but I can totally see why their very firmly patriarchal culture would put a damper on one's appreciation. The Yoruba are a culture I'm less familiar with, I've heard a few times that they had fairly egalitarian gender relations, though knowing how that claim is sometimes exaggerated (like in the case of the ancient Egyptians, who were more egalitarian than most of their neighbors, but still clearly patriarchal), I would need to do more research on the subject to judge that claim - judging from what you've said, it seems like a case of exaggerated equality similar to Egypt. If you're interested, I intend to cover the story of Queen Idia at some point, so stay tuned for that!

@kingneldon7881

Жыл бұрын

The practice of sacrificing queen mothers which was perhaps an attempt at ensuring the limitation of undue influence on the king was ended by Oba Esigie like you said. Every civilization has parts of their history that isn’t all bed and roses and Benin is not an exception. But there are series of very powerful and memorable women in Benin history which includes Queen Idia who was a conqueror in her own right(immortalized by the FESTAC mask), Emotan who helped Prince Ogun reclaim the throne from Uwafiokun (All Obas honor her during their ascension and other important ceremonies are performed at her shrine which has been in the same location for centuries), Crown Princess Edelayo, Queen Iden who voluntarily offered herself as sacrifice to end a period of turmoil in the Empire, Also, Women did hold powerful positions in certain Olokun orders in Benin. There are also wars fought in the honor of women. For example, when Adesuwa the daughter of the Ezomo of Benin was murdered by the Obi of Ubuluku (also call Ogio Oboro) who had failed to court the noble lady and killed her out of anger at her refusal, the Oba of Benin declared war which ended with the Obi’s Beheading. Essentially, Benin has existed for thousands of years going back to the days of Odionweres chieftains to Ogisos and then Obas hence its history is also complex. Thanks for the interest as well.

@afrinaut3094

Жыл бұрын

Forgot to mention that at least in Yoruba & I believe also in Edo religion/cultures women could own their own land/wealth, before marriage, during marriage separate from their husband’s wealth, & in-case of divorce/being widowed. Although, correct me if I’m wrong, but Edo women could pass on their land/wealth to their daughters? I know that the eldest son got land/wealth from his father & was expected to look after his mother & his siblings, to any agreeable amount of thier situations.

@kingneldon7881

Жыл бұрын

@@afrinaut3094 Yes women could inherit properties as well engage in business (trading), farming etc. Although male heirs had the prerogative in terms of inheritance.

Oduduwa was a Benin exile prince

Wait, they had multi storey houses with plumbing too? I thought it was only the Ashanti Empire.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

According to Dapper they had multi-storey buildings, but he didn't mention plumbing; I think you must've misunderstood the mention of wells for fresh water.

@EvwienureEjowokeoghene-uh5iq

9 ай бұрын

Ashanti was a kingdom not empire

You tried in the narrative, you should oduduwa was not Yoruba origin but a complete stranger, from igodomigodo, which eventually became Benin empire.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

As I explain in the video, there are two competing narratives, with Edo and Yoruba oral traditions each varying on this detail. I explained both versions because we have no way of knowing which one is more accurate; you can consider one more likely than the other, but it wouldn't be appropriate for me to take a side, since I don't know better than anyone else.

@osamudiamenosayande

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy you tried, thanks for your effort

I believe that oba oguola who made the move for the digging of that giant and wide defence to protect his people from invaders must have consulted orunmila Or he had a dream of invasion

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

That is what is suggested by the oral histories, but we can't put complete faith in oral histories, as there's a lot of potential for them to evolve over time. There's some evidence that the true picture may be more complex - it's possible that Oguola simply modified existing structures rather than building them from scratch, or even that the Iya were completely misattributed to him, either deliberately for political reasons or by mistake. I'd really recommend checking out Hidden History's video on the Walls of Benin, it goes over the different hypotheses.

The Benin empire the most powerful empire in west Africa

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

Eh, not so much. They were reasonably powerful, but plenty of other empires in West African history ruled over much larger areas or had stronger militaries, like the Wagadu, Mali, Songhai, Oyo, and Asante Empires. Benin was more middle-of-the-road in terms of power; there might have been some window of time when it was the most powerful Empire in the region, but it certainly wasn't the most powerful in the region's history.

@smoothpentertainment7503

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy Benin history is poorly always analyzed since people didn’t actually know the history so well so I wouldn’t blame you for your errors and mistakes . But there is always room for further studies .

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

@@smoothpentertainment7503 I'm sorry, is your implication that further research would convince me that Benin was in fact the most powerful state in West African history? If you could give me some details I'd be happy to look into them, but I'm not a fan of the vague gesturing at undefined research material lmao

@fromabove422

Жыл бұрын

It must have been pretty powerful if sokoto and kanem couldn't get to it. not even on some tributary ish...

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

@@fromabove422 This is like saying Denmark must've been pretty powerful since the Russian and Ottoman Empires never reached it; there were other states in-between, so they never came into conflict in the first place. At Sokoto's greatest extent there was an entire state, Ekiti, between it and Benin, and Kanem was even farther north. The fact that they never subjugated Benin therefore gives us no indication of whether or not Benin was powerful enough to fight them, because they never even got the chance to fight (that's not to mention that "power" alone does not determine military success, there are other factors like the terrain; states that built their military strength on cavalry were at a severe disadvantage in the forest belt, for example, which is why they tended to expand east and west rather than south).

They had beautiful artistry, beadwork & customs. They practiced human sacrifice and had a huge trading economy, including being a slave trading giant in the ancient world. I have to wonder if this slave trade (dating back to 1200bc) is why the Kingdom of Benin isn’t typically discussed in history ?

@SomasAcademy

Ай бұрын

I'd say probably not, considering how often the Vikings and the Roman Empire are discussed, despite the massive slave trades they were heavily involved in! I think the reason Benin isn't discussed is simply because it's in Africa, and outside of Egypt, African history in general is heavily underdiscussed.

@UCMICU

Ай бұрын

@@SomasAcademy Disagree. Plenty of Kingdoms in Africa are discussed. Benin was tiny compared to Rome’s accomplishments so that’s not a fair comparison.

@SomasAcademy

Ай бұрын

@@UCMICU My point isn't to say Benin is equivalent to Rome in global significance, just to say that involvement in slave trading isn't enough to explain why a historical country isn't discussed on its own. And while some pre-colonial African kingdoms may be discussed more often than Benin, I would say Benin is actually one of the most well-known Kingdoms in African history among the general public, on account of the popularity of the Benin Bronzes. Behind Mali and possibly Dahomey after the release of that "Woman King" movie, it may be the most well-known kingdom in West Africa. General awareness of African history outside of Egypt is extremely poor, as I discuss in my most recent video if you want to check that one out - a lot of people don't even know Sub-Saharan Africa had farming, let alone Kingdoms!

@UCMICU

Ай бұрын

@@SomasAcademy Depends on the demographics & academics available to those individuals I suppose. Benin success was mostly attributed to slavery and ivory for centuries prior to Europe and human sacrifice was prevalent. You can’t teach Benin history without those facts. Egypt yes, but also Kush, Ethiopia, Songhai, Ghana to name a few that are also well known African kingdoms with rich history.

@SomasAcademy

Ай бұрын

@@UCMICU "Benin success was mostly attributed to slavery and ivory for centuries prior to Europe" By whom, exactly? I'd like a source on that please. And it's about as easy to teach about Benin's history without mentioning human sacrifice as it is to discuss British history without mentioning the eucharist or executions (easier, even, since human sacrifices in Benin only happened a few times a year); it was certainly part of the society, but wasn't such a core part as to be vital to mention unless you're delving into religion/state violence in particular. As for awareness of these kingdoms, yes, it definitely depends on who you're talking about. I'm talking about the general public, particularly Americans since that's where I'm from; anyone who has looked into African history at all will be familiar with Kush, Ethiopia, Songhai, Ghana, and a few others, and anyone who has looked into Egypt at all should also know about Kush, but again, much of the general public doesn't even know that Africa had agriculture. "Well known" is definitely an overstatement for any of those countries; any degree of knowledge on African history outside of Egypt is pretty niche. I would say the only definitely "well known" African Kingdom is the Zulu Kingdom, with Mali possibly also earning the label. I would like to believe those entry-level African kingdoms were well-known, as you say, but I've interacted with far too many people who were confused to learn Africa had history when I mentioned my research focus to believe that.

These walls are just mounds of Earth and though large in size are no comparison to anything like the Pyramids ot Great wall of China which were carefully engineered structures.

@SomasAcademy

8 ай бұрын

The Pyramids are just piles of rocks and the Great Wall of China is just a series of stacks of bricks and mortar. Anything can be framed dismissively if you so desire.

Mind you Benin did not get it bronze and casting in ile ife, Benin exist many years before they create ife. Benin rules over all those places. Go and research about it very well

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

I was indeed mistaken to say that bronze casting was introduced to Benin from Ile-Ife, the evidence for bronze casting in both regions actually dates to around the same time, whereas bronze casting to the east of Benin among the Igbo goes back much further. The rest of what you said is not correct.

@donpuzo6201

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy have asked how the bini got to conquer Lagos? They wouldn’t have been able to do that without conquering regions before Lagos. The British did great harm to benin kingdom. The benin kingdom span beyond southwest and southeast. Most of these regions connived with the British to conquer benin kingdom so they can be free…today smaller population is blinding most people to actually believe that Benin once had such power. Benin kingdom was the last to be taken by the British. The Binis never surrender like other regions. If you know the history, you will know that after the British lost the first battle, they came back with European forces(which were promised of the rich treasure of the kingdom). that’s why bini treasures are scattered across Europe.

@SomasAcademy

Жыл бұрын

@@donpuzo6201 As I explained in the video, Benin expanded through a series of conquests from the time of Ewuare the Great onward, spreading to the coast and then along it. Their borders reached the Lagos Lagoon under Ozolua the Conqueror, and was incorporated into Benin under Orhogbua. At the time the area which would become Lagos was more sparsely populated, becoming a frontier town of the Kingdom of Benin. It was later lost to the Oyo Empire.

@donpuzo6201

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy it was never lost to oyo empire. The British took it away from the Binis. If it was lost to Oyo, why is the royal family from Benin kingdom?

@donpuzo6201

Жыл бұрын

@@SomasAcademy Lagos King is the only king in Southwest answering “Oba”

#ObaGaTorKpere