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isaac Samuel Profile picture
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16 Jun, 4 tweets, 3 min read
1566AD
Letter from Antonio Vieira to king Henry of Portugal reporting on copper in Kongo
written from Sao Tome
-National Archive of Torre do Tombo
#randomxt

Antonio was a powerful Mwisikongo noble and diplomat that served as the Manikongo's factor at Lisbon under 1/3
both kings Afonso and Pedro later acting as Kongo's ambassador to Rome in 1595 under king Alvaro later marrying to Margarita da Silva (a Portuguese noble woman and Queen Catharina 's lady in waiting)

He was instrumental during the various successions of kings of the era,
ecclesiastical issues between kongo, lisbon, sao tome and Rome and the trade between Portugal and Kongo of which copper was one of Kongo's biggest exports during the early stages of the Atlantic trade esp after Kongo restricted slave exports in the late 16th and early 17th cent.
reading
subsection; "diplomacy : kongo", in the book:
The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-1624
Peter C. Mancall
books.google.co.ug/books/about/Th…

A History of West Central Africa to 1850
Book by John Thornton
books.google.co.ug/books/about/A_…

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More from @rhaplord

isaac Samuel Profile picture
25 May
#triviaxt
A look at John Thornton's argument that the Atlantic trade was marginal to African economy, on why slavery was mild in Africa and why the primacy of labor over land in pre-colonial African production explains the existence of domestic slavery in pre-Atlantic Africa
He explains that Africans weren't coerced into the trade by european military superiority b'se europeans failed in their first attempts at colonizing the senegambia, west-central africa (plus southeast africa & the swahili coast) b'se it was africans with the military superiority
He has covered it before: the defeats successive european navies suffered in the senegambia, the portuguese defeats in west-central africa (kongo at mbanda kasi and kitombo, matamba's queen njinga, etc)
and if I may add: changamire and mutapa in southeast africa and the swahili
Read 28 tweets
isaac Samuel Profile picture
7 May
large states were ubiquitous in African history and were never mono-ethnic: the limitations of low population density often meant that a state had to draw resources from a diverse range of groups

secondly, ethnic groups are rarely geographicaly limited but dispersed as diasporas
the most prominent "diasporas" in west africa alone were over half a dozen with distinct states, religions and cultures some as state builders, traders, etc none were delimited by geography
eg the soninke/wangara/Jakhanke, peul/fula/, hausa, tuareg, malinke/mande, songhay, sorko
the best African example of trying to counter the limitations of low population density by incorporating various ethnic groups was the lunda empire of central africa
drawing from the textile belt groups, the salt producing groups, the copper mining groups and ivory trading groups
Read 4 tweets
isaac Samuel Profile picture
30 Apr
early 14th cent. AD

Ife terracotta and copper-alloy artworks

-Head of a king with an 'akoko' crown
-arm of a ruler/priest with leaf motif
-beaded figure of a king with an oro cap
-bronze bowl with intricate cord patterning
#randomxt

-Berlin state museum, germany
-NCMM, nigeria
"Ife was an African civilization whose art, inventiveness and ritual primacy developed with little foreign influence: contrary to the misconception where Muslim empires of West-Africa like Mali were transmitters of high culture into the southerly regions"
uncensoredopinion.co.za/the-ancient-ci…
reading...

Art in Ancient Ife, Birthplace of the Yoruba
Suzanne Preston Blier
scholar.harvard.edu/files/blier/fi…

Art and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Power, and Identity, ca. 1300
By Suzanne Preston Blier
books.google.com/books/about/Ar…
Read 4 tweets
isaac Samuel Profile picture
23 Apr
#Triviaxt

Thread on economic dynamics of slave trade: why most west african states exported enslaved ppl and why some states didn't export them despite the overwhelming economic incentives (by extension political incentives) to do so

screeshots used are taken from these 4 books
initially, there was no "stock" of slaves in africa, waiting for European buyers. Instead, the expansion of the trade was b'se there was a price differential between retaining slaves locally vs exporting them in which the latter's high price rationalized slave exportation
for the majority of (coastal) african states that did export slaves the question of complicity and agency is best answered in Robin law's introduction to ouidah -which was west africa's biggest slave "port"

on the rationale during the trade and ultimately the legacy of the trade
Read 12 tweets
isaac Samuel Profile picture
27 Mar
Megathread on the "trivial" details in African history

-notable figures
-economic history
-African warfare
-politics & diplomacy
-miscellaneous

on the 19th century west African philosopher Abd Al-Qadir al-Mustafa al-Turudi and his works
the scale of gold trade in medieval southern africa

logistics of benin textile trade along the west african coast

from the mid-15th to late 17th century, benin's textiles were in high demand along the coast partially b'se of their use as currency

Read 12 tweets
isaac Samuel Profile picture
12 Feb
Acemoglu on Africa in "why nations fail" -a commentary thread on his analysis of the political and economic institutions of pre-colonial Africa
Detailed sources and references at bottom of the thread
<for Sources for screenshots and further reading at bottom of the thread>

1/37
2/
 His argument is that prosperity of wealthy nations was preceded by political pluralism that started a positive feedback loop of inclusive political institutions, increasing the cost of staying in power while broadening the segments of society where political elites are taken
3/
 He thus categorizes all pre-modern states' political systems as extractive and those after the glorious revolution in England, the French revolution and their western colonies as inclusive
on pre-colonial Africa, he focuses on Kongo (plus abit on Aksum, Kuba and Ethiopia)
Read 41 tweets

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