Thread on Kingdoms of the Sudan that flourished & prospered before the rise of Mali in the 14th-century. In the latter decades of the 9th century, Kawkaw(Gao) was the greatest & foremost Kingdom in West Africa. Its potentate exercised vast authority over other prominent kingdoms in the area, like those of the Sanhaja.

Equestrianism in Senegambian History: Thread on Wolof horsemen of the Senegambia in the 15th-17th centuries. Around this era, Wolofs in Senegambia were one of the most skilful horsemen in Africa & one of the best horse trainers in the world.

Thread on female soldiers in the South East African Rim & Atlantic West Africa, from the 16th-19th century. In the vast Kingdom of Mutapa, among its military forces, stood thousands of female soldiers.

Thread on African Military Encounters with Conquistadors in Atlantic West Africa & the East African Rim in the 16th Century. In 1532 King Joao III of Portugal gave the Bijago Islands to his brother Dom Luis, ordering the Bijago's to submit to his brother's authority. Threatening war if they refused.

Divine Kings at war: Thread on the Kings of Bornu, Benin & Kwararafa at war in the 16th & 17th centuries. In the 16th & 17th centuries, the power of the Kings of Bornu, Benin & Kwararafa was noted by contemporary chroniclers to be unrivalled. They engaged in extensive offensive & defensive wars, seizing many cities & towns, & imposing their sovereignty on other groups.

Thread on the aquatic water sports on the Gold Coast of West Africa from the 16th-19th century. The inhabitants of this coast of West Africa were proficient fast swimmers & divers, generally & easily outdoing their contemporaries in other areas of the world in swimming & diving. In some parts of this coast, the inhabitants swam daily.

Thread on Chordophone Instruments in West African History In the Senegambian region, they had a chordophone instrument that sounded like a harpsichord. They were set in calabashes or gourds made fast together in a row with strings of several sizes over them in a tuneable order.

Thread on the industry of the Benin Kingdom in the 16th, 17th & 18th centuries. Benin was an industrious polity, particularly its 17th-century wealthy & majestic capital city, Great Benin, renowned for its grandeur.

On the civil administration in the Kingdom of Benin in the 17th century. The Kingdom of Benin was the most organised & best-governed kingdom in all of Africa in the 17th century.

Westafs interested in castles/forts that existed in the past would have to force their govts to do archaeological reconstructions as was done in other regions

The Murzuq fortress. Murzuq was demographically black & kanuri influenced, it was in Fezzan ( a former Bornu vassal)

https://twitter.com/lizvoodoo/status/1746217006121079178

in addition to this edifice in contemporary Ghana, there was the historical, Aban palace in Kumasi

https://x.com/lizvoodoo/status/1746217026916372648?s=20

Bight of Benin, the coastal region starting from around the greater Accra region (where the 16th-century kingdom of Labadi was located )-ending around where the Benin River is located was once dominated by the Benin kingdom. Was this information known to those who gave the gulf.. region the name?

Jean Alfonse, a prominent european explorer during the so-called age of discovery was well acquainted with the West African coast in the early 1500s-he asserted that the Volta River in the Accra region of the Gold Coast was under the control of the king of Benin

Quotes from pre-1770 documentary sources, & historians acknowledging the expansion of Benin westwards as far as present-day Accra Ghana, & the might of the Empire

Thread. "The account of the Frenchman Alfonce, published in 1559 but written probably c. 1536, asserts that the kingdom of Benin ' stretches from the River Volta as far as the River Royal [i.e. the Rio Real, or Bonny River]" - Robin Law

“Unconnected by any ties with the neighbouring
nations... they consider the world..their own; & that what it contains they have a right to plunder”

Thread on the life & 16th-17th-century adventures of the Bijagos of the Bijagos archipelago, marine marauders of the Guinea coast The Bijagos were animists who lived in politically decentralised societies, with chiefs at the head of their communities, & their daily affairs being governed by male & female age-grade systems. They also pursued small-scale farming, fishing & maritime commerce.