The virtual tour of Africa VI
Aug. 26th, 2023 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunn Benin
We came to Benin expecting Voodoo (original African flavour). We learned that there;s rather more Voodoo in Togo than Benin, and also that once there's a Hollywood movie about African history the entire Youtube record becomes hopelessly skewed. The available videos were heavily, heavily skewed by the movie 'The Woman King) (2022)
I'd like to know more about the Oyo Empire, home of the notably administratively gifted Yoruba people, and the successor Kingdom of Dahomey,which seems to be rather a dark place, closely involved with the slave trade as a way of disposing of prisoners of war.
Nigeria
I failed to make any notes about Nigeria. Very populous, relatively prosperous despite the usual history of coups after independence. Oil money and 23 years of democracy.
We found out a bit about the Benin Empire, which is not in Benin but Southern Nigeria, and I'd like to find out more about that, it's ancient walled capital, Benin City, and the Ogisu dynasty: the 'rulers of the sky'.
I also feel I could do with a better grasp on the palm oil business of the 19th and 20th centuries, because I keep seeing suggestions that this motivated the British Empire in the decision to wipe out slavery (to keep labour in Africa growing palm oil) and I hadn't previously been aware of the many uses of palm oil or the value of that market.
Cameroon
We watched a video of an interview with the current Fon of Bafut. I read of Bafut in the biographical zoo collecting books of Gerald Durrell, so I was interested to see how things were going in Bafut now, and find out if there was still a Fon.
And there is: a near-absolute monarch in a long tradition with hundreds of wives and children. He had established a trade school for Bafut with the help of an organisation in Switzerland, and was keen to assure watchers that it was for practical skills, not useless academia.
Pp watched several videos about the Cameroon football team, particularly Roger Milla and the 1990 World Cup team.
Equatorial Guinea
Probably the winner in terms of deeply disturbing dictatorships. A country of two halves: the prosperous offshore island, and the tropical jungle mainland Dictator I mass-murdered his opposition using armed guards dressed as Santa. He was eventually executed with the help of an imported guard from Morocco : none of the locals would kill him for fear of being cursed. Dictator II is wildly exploitative, (possibly also declared himself a god and may have eaten a police chief (?!) ) but seems to be widely considered better than his predecessor. Oil money, very much concentrated in the hands of one family.
We watched a video from a popular youtuber who visited at the invitation of the government that was so positive it felt like obvious propaganda, and covered the new capital, being established on the mainland, clearly at vast expense, while a lot of the ordinary population live in shacks and don't have access to clean water. Not to mention the visit to the offshore island Annobón, which looked delightful, but seems to be a secret toxic waste dump with expensive licences paid by UK and US companies.
In short : eek. I don't feel any particular urge to know more about Equatorial Guinea. Though very beautiful, it gives me unease.
São Tomé and Príncipe
Two archipelagos uninhabited until they were settled by the Portuguese, who brought slaves with them and used the islands in the slave trade (of course!) and for growing sugar cane. Escaped slave settlements in the wooded mountains. The settlers and slaves together make up the current population. There's a specific group of people who call themselves 'Angolares' that have as their origin-story slaves shipwrecked there from Angola in 1540!
Would like to read more about Rei Amador and his slave revolt in 1595 and the free nation of Kilombo.
Now peaceful and prosperous, democratic with freedom of speech and politics. Education! Healthcare! All the good things.
At this point we took several days break from the tour as we had visitors staying, but yesterday we pressed on to:
Gabon ( Gabonese Republic)
An Equatorial country on the west coast, once a French colony and blessed with oil money, though apparently a lot of that has gone to France rather than benefiting Gabon. The capital Libreville was founded by French freed slaves.
This is the first Bantu-speaking country we've got to. (I wasn't clear exactly how 'Bantu' is defined: it's a group of languages, and the Bantu peoples are the ones that speak those languages, I learned.
Gabon was originally a pigmy area, and was settled by the Bantu peoples around the 14th century.
Peaceful and very beautiful. Cool masks.
We came to Benin expecting Voodoo (original African flavour). We learned that there;s rather more Voodoo in Togo than Benin, and also that once there's a Hollywood movie about African history the entire Youtube record becomes hopelessly skewed. The available videos were heavily, heavily skewed by the movie 'The Woman King) (2022)
I'd like to know more about the Oyo Empire, home of the notably administratively gifted Yoruba people, and the successor Kingdom of Dahomey,which seems to be rather a dark place, closely involved with the slave trade as a way of disposing of prisoners of war.
Nigeria
I failed to make any notes about Nigeria. Very populous, relatively prosperous despite the usual history of coups after independence. Oil money and 23 years of democracy.
We found out a bit about the Benin Empire, which is not in Benin but Southern Nigeria, and I'd like to find out more about that, it's ancient walled capital, Benin City, and the Ogisu dynasty: the 'rulers of the sky'.
I also feel I could do with a better grasp on the palm oil business of the 19th and 20th centuries, because I keep seeing suggestions that this motivated the British Empire in the decision to wipe out slavery (to keep labour in Africa growing palm oil) and I hadn't previously been aware of the many uses of palm oil or the value of that market.
Cameroon
We watched a video of an interview with the current Fon of Bafut. I read of Bafut in the biographical zoo collecting books of Gerald Durrell, so I was interested to see how things were going in Bafut now, and find out if there was still a Fon.
And there is: a near-absolute monarch in a long tradition with hundreds of wives and children. He had established a trade school for Bafut with the help of an organisation in Switzerland, and was keen to assure watchers that it was for practical skills, not useless academia.
Pp watched several videos about the Cameroon football team, particularly Roger Milla and the 1990 World Cup team.
Equatorial Guinea
Probably the winner in terms of deeply disturbing dictatorships. A country of two halves: the prosperous offshore island, and the tropical jungle mainland Dictator I mass-murdered his opposition using armed guards dressed as Santa. He was eventually executed with the help of an imported guard from Morocco : none of the locals would kill him for fear of being cursed. Dictator II is wildly exploitative, (possibly also declared himself a god and may have eaten a police chief (?!) ) but seems to be widely considered better than his predecessor. Oil money, very much concentrated in the hands of one family.
We watched a video from a popular youtuber who visited at the invitation of the government that was so positive it felt like obvious propaganda, and covered the new capital, being established on the mainland, clearly at vast expense, while a lot of the ordinary population live in shacks and don't have access to clean water. Not to mention the visit to the offshore island Annobón, which looked delightful, but seems to be a secret toxic waste dump with expensive licences paid by UK and US companies.
In short : eek. I don't feel any particular urge to know more about Equatorial Guinea. Though very beautiful, it gives me unease.
São Tomé and Príncipe
Two archipelagos uninhabited until they were settled by the Portuguese, who brought slaves with them and used the islands in the slave trade (of course!) and for growing sugar cane. Escaped slave settlements in the wooded mountains. The settlers and slaves together make up the current population. There's a specific group of people who call themselves 'Angolares' that have as their origin-story slaves shipwrecked there from Angola in 1540!
Would like to read more about Rei Amador and his slave revolt in 1595 and the free nation of Kilombo.
Now peaceful and prosperous, democratic with freedom of speech and politics. Education! Healthcare! All the good things.
At this point we took several days break from the tour as we had visitors staying, but yesterday we pressed on to:
Gabon ( Gabonese Republic)
An Equatorial country on the west coast, once a French colony and blessed with oil money, though apparently a lot of that has gone to France rather than benefiting Gabon. The capital Libreville was founded by French freed slaves.
This is the first Bantu-speaking country we've got to. (I wasn't clear exactly how 'Bantu' is defined: it's a group of languages, and the Bantu peoples are the ones that speak those languages, I learned.
Gabon was originally a pigmy area, and was settled by the Bantu peoples around the 14th century.
Peaceful and very beautiful. Cool masks.
We watched a couple brief documentaries about the Babongo pygmy people, some of the original occupiers of the land, who live high in the mountains where apparently it's surprisingly chilly and also there are a horrible bunch of mosquitoes. We watched a bloke shoot a monkey with a poisoned arrow, with amazing and lethal precision. Guns are better, but expensive apparently. Someone was wearing a Newcastle United football shirt. The Babongo houses seemed worryingly small and basic, almost sheds, with very litte furniture. Gabon as a whole apparently has some outstanding hospitals, but maybe not in the mountains where people still hunt to live. We met a mother who had just lost a baby: only one of her twins survived.
Most of the world's gorilla population lives in the forests of Gabon. And there are forest elephants and surfing hippos. Or at least, hippos that hang out on the coast swimming around in the waves.
