"the left bank of the Niger developed heroic leaders. Operating from Kangaba, sometimes called Kanga, the capital of Manding, they made for themselves a place in history among the greatest rulers of their day" #BlackHistoryMonth#Day2
"This city has been the center of the Malinké, or Mandingo people...For several hundred years this city was the capital of one of the greatest empires ever developed in Africa and one of the most considerable that ever existed in the history of man" - Dr. Carter G Woodson
"The first time the outside world ever had a glimpse of this empire was about 1050, when one of its rulers, converted to Islam, made a pious pilgrimage to Mecca to bow at the tomb of the Prophet." - Dr. Carter G Woodson
"Mansa Musa. He brought the Manding to its apogee during his reign from 1307 to 1332. Building upon the conquest of his predecessors, Gonga-Musa expanded the Manding empire in all directions" - Dr. Carter G Woodson
"The administration of justice was an important concern of both the central and local authorities. In the judiciary were representative lawyers, judges, juriconsults, and the like" - Dr. Carter G Woodson
"The people were in good circumstance because of their trade and industry. They exported gold, ivory, skins, and kola nuts; and they exchanged cattle, durra, and cotton" - Dr. Carter G Woodson
"Signs of wealth were in evidence, and the people seemed happy. Towns, which flourished as an out let of what the people produced, introduced among them a. desire for imported luxuries for which these commodities were exchanged." - Dr. Carter G Woodson
"The army was organized on the same basis of efficiency. It was composed of both infantry and cavalry armed with bows and arrows, swords, and long and short spears. The army was divided into units under captains or commandants." - Dr. Carter G Woodson #BlackHistoryMonth#Day2
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Ancient Nigerians in Nsukka started smelting iron some time between 2631 - 2458 BCE, long before the arrival of Nok people
The dufuna canoe, Nok canoe art and Atlantic seashell terracotta may be evidence of Nok long distance trade with iron metallurgists, down the Niger River
"Some very early iron dates include 1895–1370 BCE at Tchire Ouma 147 in the Termit Massif region of Niger; 2631–2458 BCE at Lejja in Nsukka region, Nigeria"
- Foreman Bandama
"The beginning of iron production sometime between 750 and 550 BC"
- Louis Champion
"In Taruga he recovered terracotta fragments in context with iron-smelting furnaces. Radiocarbon measurements dated the site to the mid-first millennium BC"
- Dr. Nicole Rupp
The Saharo-Sudanese industry, ancestors of Niger-Congo speakers constructed stone foundations to huts and stone enclosures 10,000 years ago, corralling Barbary sheep in caves during the green Sahara. This taming took place 2,000 years before the spread of pastoralism.
Dr. Jitka Soukupova speaking of the stone architecture of the green Sahara
"Early Holocene sheltered sites in the Tadrart Acacus massif offer impressive evidence of sophisticated forms of wild animal management and force us to reconsider the nature of human-animal relations prior to the introduction of domesticates to the region"
- Dr. Rocco Rotunno
Diy-Gid-Biy/DGB stone ruins in the Mandara Mountains of northern Cameroon, were built between the 13th - 16th Century AD
Oral tradition, similar style stone architecture and pottery from the modern Chadic speakers of Gwoza hills, Nigeria links them to the builders of DGB sites
"archaeological considerations place the period of creation and use of the Diy-gid-biy between the 13th and 16th centuries . AD."
- Dr. Jean-Marie Datouang
"Known as Diy-Gi’d-Biy...... While varying greatly in size, they constitute the most impressive set of indigenous stone-built structures in sub-Saharan Africa out-side the Horn and the complex of ruins in Zimbabwe and Mozambique"
- Nicholas David
The Gangara Stone Ruins believed to be post neolithic, pre Islamic architecture
Built by Wangara/Soninke people called "Gangara" by medieval Arabs during the Ghana empire. The ceramics discovered are said to be similar to one's still being made by moden Black Mauritanians.
"Al-Bakrî mentions the Gangara as a group of Blacks in the neighborhood of the Senhaja town of Banklabîn.........Gangara, or Guangara, on the other hand, corresponds phonetically better to our group, whom al-Bakrî characterizes as black non-Muslims"
- Andreas W. Massing
"Traditions are agreed that
these 'post-neolithic, pre-Islamic' villages belonged to black people called 'Gangara', ancestors of the present-day Soninke (Sarracolet)"
- E. Ann McDOUGALL
Contrary to popular belief, some ancient African Women were hunters and were depicted on green Saharan rock art 9000 years ago. Not all of these hunters who migrated south adopted pastoralism, some of them only picked up agriculture in the Sahel like the Nok Culture.
Female hunters in round head rock art from the green Sahara :
"Although they are less numerous than male figures, a certain importance of women in the spiritual life of this hunting society is evident."
- Dr. Jitka Soukopova
"Their lesser incidence in rock art must not be misleading and it may simply indicate that women as mothers and housekeepers could not always afford to venture into the mountains to produce paintings."
- Dr. Jitka Soukopova
According to archeologists Martin Sterry and David Mattingly, ancient Garamantes were ethnically diverse people. Originally consisting of earlier dark skin pastoralist who intermixed with late arrival Berber pastoralists, as well as Africans south of the Sahara
"presence of individuals with features that are typically Sub-Saharan alongside individuals with features more typical of the overall al-Ajal sample is an interesting reflection on the possibilities of Garamantian social structures"
- Ronika K Power
"identifying a few individuals with features broadly characterised as typical of Sub-Saharan morphology that differ from the majority of the Garamantian sample, while also highlighting a subgroup of individuals with more typically 'Mediterranean' characteristics."