Fulani Origin (Ancient Africa)
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Fula or Fulani or Fulbe (the latter Anglicization of the word in their language, Fulɓɓe) are an ethnic group of people spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and The Sudan of east Africa.
The countries in Africa where they are present include Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, The Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Niger, Togo, the Central African Republic, Ghana, Liberia, and as far as Sudan.
Fulas are not a majority in every country they live but they are the fifth most populous Ethnic group in Africa, but in Guinea they represent a plurality of the population (largest single group).
The history of the Fulani seems to begin with the Berber people of North Africa around the 8th or 11th century AD. As the Berbers migrated down from North Africa and mixed with the peoples in the Senegal region of West Africa the Fulani people came into existence.
They Berbers are predominantly normadic and farmers, Over a thousand year period from AD 900 – 1900, they spread out over most of West Africa (Western Sudan) & even into some areas of Central Africa. Some groups of Fulani have been found as far as the western borders of Ethiopia.
As they encountered these other peoples, they conquered the less powerful tribes. Along the way many Fulani completely or partially abandoned their traditional nomadic life in favor of a sedentary existence in towns or on farms among the conquered peoples.
The nomadic Fulani continued eastward in search of the best grazing land for their cattle. Their lives revolved around and were dedicated to their herds. The more cattle a man owned, the more respect he was given. Today, estimate 18 million Fulani people stretch across Africa.
They remain to be the largest group of nomadic people in the world.
Beginning as early as the 17th and 18th centuries, but mainly in the 19th century, Fulas and others took control of various states in West Africa by Usman Dan Fodio.
Over 99% of Fulani are Muslims. It is said that to be a Fulani is to be a Muslim. There are a small group of Fulani called the Mbororo, or Wodaabe, found in Niger and Cameroon, who resisted Islam, and have kept much of their pre-Islamic way of life and beliefs.
And in different places, small groups of Fulani are choosing to follow the way of Christ.
In 1804 Usuman Dan Fodio, a studious and charismatic Muslim Fulani scholar, began to preach the reformist ideology in the Hausa kingdoms which led to creation of the first Fulani Empire.
Tenkamenin (African king ruled over a democratic nation centuries before Abraham Lincoln)
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Tenkamenin, (A.k.a. People's king). Tenkamenin ruled from 1062 until 1075 in the Ancient Ghana Empire Throughout Tenkamenin’s brief reign Ghana reached great heights.
Tenkamenin’s empire prospered economically through his tactful management of the gold trade across the Sahara desert in West Africa.
The Ghana Kingdom that existed between 830-1235AD remains one of the strongest ever and richest African kingdoms with a rich culture. It is often mistaken for modern-day Ghana, formerly known as the Gold Coast.
Kingdom Of Zimbabwe
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The Kingdom of Zimbabwe (A.K.A Great Zimbabwe) was one of the great African Empires. The kingdom existed from 1220 to 1450. The region of Zimbabwe was settled in the eleventh century, but the Kingdom was fully set up in the thirteenth century.
The Kingdom has been known for its extensive, long-established stone buildings and walls. Greater Zimbabwe was established using an expertise method of dry stonewalling.
It was at Great Zimbabwe that the Kingdom monarch lived within the main city with between 200 and 300 consultants and royals. The town was the center of population with 20,000 people lived outside the city, divided by the wide walls still standing today from the ruling class.
The Kru tribe, (tough people that refused to be captured and taken away for slavery).
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The people of Kru are a tribe of West Africa from South-Eastern Liberia and the neighboring Côte D’ivoire. The Kru people have historical relations with Nigeria’s Ijaws.
Kru migrated and settled in different parts of the West African coasts, in particular Sierra Leone, Freetown, Cameroon, and Nigeria.
📸 Ijaw or Ijo people
The Kru tribe who made fishing and trading as their primary activity was majorly known for their seafaring and strong history of resistance to be captured for slave trade by European slave traders, that was when Liberia was called the Republic of Maryland.
Ancient African Civilization (Pyramids)
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There are 138 pyramids in Egypt, 255 pyramids in Sudan, 10 pyramids in Enugu State Nigeria known as Nsude pyramids, Alikua/ Uganda pyramids, Mali Pyramids, Oba pyramid in Benin City Nigeria (destroyed) and the South African pyramids.
Zimbabwe has the largest ancient structure South of the Sahara and second only to the Pyramids of Egypt in size and grandeur.
Most of this African Pyramid are ancient architecture, monumental structure constructed of or faced with stone or brick and having a rectangular base and four sloping triangular. Most Equatorial Regions experience bimodal rainfall distribution, that tends to weather the pyramid.
Ancient African Civilization (Pottery)
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Africa has the oldest pottery remains known in the world performed mostly by creative Women dating to 10,000 BCE– i.e. one or two millennia after the inception of the Jomon pottery in Japan they were excavated in the Aïr Region of Niger.
In Ancient African Science, they developed earlier inventions and around 1000 BC, women in Africa were more involved in technology and science than those of the same period in West Asia, Rome or Greece. In 400 BC, women created African pottery used to smelt iron.
Around 500 CE, Africans made carbon steel, something that was not done by industrial England until the 19th century. The discovery & use of metal became one of the highest priorities for survival as well as many of the daily functions in ancient Africa.
Ancient African Civilization🧘🏽♂️
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Before the 16th Century A.D the Kongolese textiles were well distinguished crafts, the peoples living in eastern Kongo and nearby regions manufactured quality damasks, sarcenets, satins, taffeta, cloth of tissue and velvet.
The designs were in different styles.
Professor DeGraft-Johnson made a curious observation that: “Their brocades, both high and low, and were far more valuable than the Italians in quality.”
The Kongo Kingdom is found in present day Northern Angola, Western part of Democratic republic of Congo, Republic of Congo and Southernmost part of Gabon, it was a sovereign kingdom from 1390-1859 with it's Capital in Mbanza-Kongo now Sao Salvador in Angola.