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Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace

theguardian.com

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Re: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace

#21

Post by apalmer »

anonymous325 wrote: post #14
apalmer wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mathematics as far as it being a branch of logic was pretty much invented by the greeks as you say. And the mathematics mentioned in this article are definitely 'tenuous' at best. I clicked on the 'African Fractals' and didn't really see anything that I would consider mathematics, although I did see some organizing principals I guess. However the claim that mathematics is either 'theorems' or bust is not really valid…

> However the claim that mathematics is either 'theorems' or bust The theorems of mathematics are what distinguishes it from other enterprises and provides us with a degree of certainty of the correctness of our conclusions that would otherwise be unavailable. No number of (Euclidean) triangles measured, however great, would convince us equally well that their interior angles always sum to 180 degrees, nor would any…

Seems like this viewpoint is based on preconceived views of 'europeaness'. However agree in general that this articles claim of African fractals doesn't seems to be based more on geometric patterns that please they eye more than mathematical principles

Re: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace

#22

Post by ratsbane »

adwf wrote: post #4

I wonder whether there should be a word for the feeling you get when reading something like this and thinking "Please don't be the British again..." Dammit :(

You might be happy to hear that Jesus College at Cambridge just decided to remove the Benin Bronze they've had since 1897 and that it might go back to Nigeria: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/12188018/Cambridge-coll...

Re: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace

#24

Post by OoTheNigerian »

Ha!

I was born and grew up in Benin City!!

In summary, the city definitely exist but we have refused to maintain our historical artifacts. Although it is easy to blame the "evil British" , I think we back home can do better to preserve historical stuff.

But the British really messed up a lot of places. But after a while we have to take responsibility.

It's really cool to discuss where I grew up in a global platform though.

Re: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace

#25

Post by adwf »

ratsbane wrote: post #22
adwf wrote: post #4

I wonder whether there should be a word for the feeling you get when reading something like this and thinking "Please don't be the British again..." Dammit :(

You might be happy to hear that Jesus College at Cambridge just decided to remove the Benin Bronze they've had since 1897 and that it might go back to Nigeria: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/12188018/Cambridge-coll...

Actually, not really. I was disappointed with the recent controversy over the Cecil Rhodes statue at Oxford. I thought it was incredibly narrowminded and a poor reflection of the entire purpose of academic freedom. Quite glad when they kept the statue.

History always has multiple points of view, our most recent struggles reflect only one.

Re: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace

#26

Post by foota »

adwf wrote: post #25
ratsbane wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be happy to hear that Jesus College at Cambridge just decided to remove the Benin Bronze they've had since 1897 and that it might go back to Nigeria: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/12188018/Cambridge-coll...

Actually, not really. I was disappointed with the recent controversy over the Cecil Rhodes statue at Oxford. I thought it was incredibly narrowminded and a poor reflection of the entire purpose of academic freedom. Quite glad when they kept the statue. History always has multiple points of view, our most recent struggles reflect only one.

I think this is different, sounds like the Benin Bronze was basically stolen from the capital.

Re: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace

#27

Post by wtbob »

apalmer wrote: post #23
ommunist wrote: post #2

Slave trade kills cities and cultures.

Unfortunately although the practice is horrid, I dont see much to justify the claim

Back when the Brits were hell-bent on destroying the slave trade, being the capitol of a slave-trading culture was a good way to get destroyed.

Re: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace

#28

Post by 13of40 »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #12

Google satellite view of modern-day Benin City shows clear evidence of past earthworks in the countryside surrounding. In particular traces of an earthen structure runs northeast out of the city starting at about St. Savior Rd, through Urhokuosa, Erua and Ethor to Irrua. A distance of 50 miles, and perhaps further. https://www.google.com/maps/@6.3474921,5.747339,27322m/data=...

Wow, that city has one of the best visible-from-sky modern artifact collections I've seen:

https://www.google.com/maps/@6.3105913,5.595516,407m/data=!3...

Re: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace

#29

Post by meric »

afarrell wrote: post #6

When I was a kid, I was frustrated by the absence of an RTS or city-building game set in sub-Saharan Africa. I continue to be annoyed by this.

Not Sub-Saharan but I had fun with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaoh_(video_game).

Also "Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms" is out.

http://www.forgottenempires.net/aoak

Re: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace

#30

Post by adwf »

foota wrote: post #26
adwf wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, not really. I was disappointed with the recent controversy over the Cecil Rhodes statue at Oxford. I thought it was incredibly narrowminded and a poor reflection of the entire purpose of academic freedom. Quite glad when they kept the statue. History always has multiple points of view, our most recent struggles reflect only one.

I think this is different, sounds like the Benin Bronze was basically stolen from the capital.

Well it was taken down because it was representative of an atrocity, not because it was stolen.

Although, arguing down that route, war spoils are a tricky thing to discuss historically. "Stolen" is very different from "appropriated after successful war". Like I've said above, history and modern morals don't always mix. For that matter, current events and modern morals don't always mix. Take the Iraq oil situation, a bit more than a statue worth there.

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