Folktales of Benin Legends

Watch now! The Doomed Prince ! An Egyptian Folktale
https://youtu.be/WCP4x24kwac?si=OECFo...

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7 months ago | [YT] | 0

Folktales of Benin Legends

The Great Benin is credited for having the first street lighting in the world. Then called Edo, as far back as the 9th century, the blueprint of the city was designed using fractal mathematics when that science hadn’t even been ‘discovered’ yet.

Public health, animal rights & environmental science were high on the Benin agenda. Every house had its freshwater supply, and according to 17th-century Dutch biographer Olfert Dapper, “the city’s main streets, which ran at right angles to each other, had underground drainage made of a sunken impluvium with an outlet to carry away stormwater. Much narrower side and intersecting streets extended off them.

In the middle of the streets were turf on which animals were fed.”
Dapper adds that wealthy residents kept their house walls “as shiny and smooth as any wall in Holland can be made with chalk, and they are like mirrors.”

When the Europeans first came to Benin, they carried gifts & bibles and bowed before Oba Ewuare The Great.
In the mid--1400s, the Oba was considered The Human Leopard, and the leopard was considered a symbol of the Oba. Their hunting was a taboo, and Leopards were seen walking around the Oba’s private court, answering to none, other than the Oba himself, who shared the same spirit and mind with the creature.

Benin was royal, not only in regalia but in mindset & outlook. The early foreign explorers’ descriptions of Benin City portrayed it as a place free of crime and hunger, with large streets and houses kept clean; a city filled with courteous, honest people, and run by a centralized and highly sophisticated bureaucracy. People treated each other with such refinement, that In 1691, the Portuguese ship captain Lourenco Pinto observed: “Great Benin, where the king resides, is larger than Lisbon; all the streets run straight and as far as the eye can see. The houses are large, especially that of the king, which is richly decorated and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.”

In contrast, London at the same time is described by Bruce Holsinger, professor of English at the University of Virginia, as being a city of “thievery, prostitution, murder, bribery and a thriving black market made the medieval city ripe for exploitation by those with a skill for the quick blade or picking a pocket”.

In that royal tradition, Benin’s 16,000 km Great Wall remains the largest manmade infrastructure before the industrial era and the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet.

The Benin Wall System was originally speculated to be four times longer than the Great Wall of China until a recalibration of the China wall by Chinese surveyors put their great wall at around 21,000 km.

Still, the Great Wall of Benin consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops and took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, until they were bombarded away by the British Navy in 1897, after several years of attempting to breach the royal kingdom.

The looting of the Benin Royal Palace followed, and 1000s of bronzes and other sculptures now remain in museums in London, France, the Netherlands, Belgium & the USA, and in auction sales for half a million dollars-a-piece or more.

With such impeccable & incredible detail, Benin & later, Ife Bronzes, are the most refined metalwork in the ancient world, their technology, artistry & sophistication unequaled in the west until maybe the 19th century, and significantly predating the European renaissance.

Till today, Benin bronzes rank among humanity’s greatest artistic achievements.

7 months ago | [YT] | 8

Folktales of Benin Legends

The Wereldmuseum in Leiden, Netherlands 🇳🇱 is returning 113 Benin Bronzes, looted from Benin Kingdom now in Edo state, Nigeria over 120 years ago, as part of a broader movement to restitute colonial-era artifacts.

The bronzes were originally stolen during a violent British expedition in 1897, and while some European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, are returning them, the British Museum has refused to do so due to legal restrictions.

The Dutch museum has previously restored artifacts to Indonesia, Mexico, and the U.S. and hopes this latest effort will inspire more institutions to follow suit. Some bronzes will remain in Leiden on loan, while the rest will be shipped to Lagos, with plans for a dedicated museum in Benin City, Edo state so the children of Benin can see the ingenuity of their ancestors.

Source: DW Africa

7 months ago | [YT] | 5

Folktales of Benin Legends

New Story out! Watch how The Man Who never Lied make a mockery of an African king in this African folktale: https://youtu.be/av3fVu1dJ9o?si=HE0Yq... . watch with subtitles and beautiful background magical music. share with friends and family

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8 months ago | [YT] | 0

Folktales of Benin Legends

Please vote!
In the last poll for The King's Three Wives: Adesuwa the Jeaouse Wife, we had 24 voters and it was a tie. So we're redoing it! Which thumbnail would you choose? Option 1 or option 2

9 months ago | [YT] | 3

Folktales of Benin Legends

New video releasing soon. Please vote! Which thumbnail do you prefer?

10 months ago | [YT] | 4

Folktales of Benin Legends

Creating a FREE COMMUNITY where we unite together and try to create the next $1M coin together

The coin will be shared there first before it goes to social medias

Locking the group at 5,000 people

t.me/+xFePqwhnrps5MDA0

1 year ago | [YT] | 0

Folktales of Benin Legends

What’s your top 2 memecoins?!
Right now everyone is pumping 1000x and getting crazy profit!

$OBA will be launching in a couple of days on pump fun how ready are you?
Do you have your phantom wallets and solana coins?

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1 year ago | [YT] | 1

Folktales of Benin Legends

Votes Are In! 🎉

The community has spoken, and the results are royal—$OBA will be our first coin! 👑💰 Get ready to reign in the memecoin empire with the power of the Oba of Benin.

But wait… a king needs a crown-worthy image! 🖼️✨ Now it’s time to decide which design will represent $OBA in style.

🔥 Cast Your Vote: Which image will wear the $OBA crown? Choose wisely, as this is history in the making!

💬 Drop your vote below and let’s make $OBA the King of Coins! 👑🚀

1 year ago | [YT] | 1