What are some Ancient Roman-level political fukkery time periods in African history?

Samori Toure

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The Empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhay were nonstop fukkery. It got so bad that Manden people consistently fled and relocated all over West Africa. One group of Mandingos had a female general named Macarico. She supposedly insulted the Mansa (Emperor of Mali). The Mansa got pissed off at her and decided to pop the trunk on her, but she and her crew took off and headed South towards the ocean. They eventually invaded modern day Liberia and Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone they became known as Mende after intermarriage with Bullom people near the coast.

In Oyo which are Youba people in modern day Nigeria their King which was referred to as Alaafin or Oba served at the pleasure of a Chief Priest (Bashorun) and other prominent men. Each year they would give the Alaffin a calabash. When the Alaafin raised the lid if the plate was empty or had a parrots egg under the lid then the Alaafin had to commit suicide because the egg meant that the people were not happy with his reign. As you might imagine that system worked OK for a little while, but that first Alaafin that said hell to the nawl nawl was a problem. Civil War.
 

Samori Toure

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The Akan people are an ethnic group that was originally from the Empires of Ghana and Mali. With the encroachment of Islam they left the Sahel and traveled through the forest to modern day Central Volta and they settled just South of the Black Volta River where they established Bono State which is also referred to as the Bonoman Kingdom and a town called Bono-Manso (I noticed the Manso is very similar to Mansa). Anyway once they were there the Akan started having differences of opinions, mostly because one of the subgroups of the Akan (the Ashanti) began to dominate the other Akan subgroups (Denkyira, Fante, Baoule, etc). Some of the conflict stemmed from gold mining, taxation and the fact that the Akan people who were in the modern day country of Central Ghana, needed but did not have access to the coast were the Europeans had come to trade.

One group of the Akan groups called the Baoule could read the writing on the wall and they knew to run while the getting was good, because the Ashanti were very warlike. So the Baoule and other smaller Akan groups fled to the West of Bonoman and established the Baoule Kingdom which is in modern day Ivory Coast. That is Ghana and Ivory Coast are so similar and they both also have Muslims in the North.

Back in Bonoman the Ashanti launched attacks on the people in their South in order to gain access to the ocean for trade. They were able to subdue the Ewe/Ga people and capture Accra. Over time the Ashanti waged 5 wars against the English, wherein they won 3 of them. The Ashanti also waged war against the Dagomba who are another group in Central and Northern Ghana ethnic group. During the conflict Ashanti captured the Dagomba King and they had intended to sell him into slavery unless his Kingdom agredd to pay an annual tribute in gold. Dagomba could not pay in gold, but they negotiated slaves as payments instead. Based upon that agreement the Dagomba and their related tribes of Mamprussi and the Mossi carried out wars into Muslim Northern Ghana and Southern Burkina Faso to capture people and pay the tribute. The Ashanti in turn sold the captured people to the Europeans. That in a nutshell is gold trading and slave trading on the Gold Coast and the formation of Ivory Coast. The irony is that gold trading is the reason that people were on the Gold Coast, rather than slave trading but the dungeons in Ghana are still major sites for slave trading tourism. However Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Senegal probably only produced about 25%-30% of all slaves combined and and even those percentages are too high because no one counted the people that were made prisoners of war. The vast majority of all slaves (70%+) came from the modern day countries of Nigeria, Cameroon, Congos and Angola. So Ghana has a nice little hustle going regarding slave tourism.
 
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RamsayBolton

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The Akan people are an ethnic group that was originally from the Empires of Ghana and Mali. With the encroachment of Islam they left the Sahel and traveled through the forest to modern day Central Volta and they settled just South of the Black Volta River where they established Bono State which is also referred to as the Bonoman Kingdom and a town called Bono-Manso (I noticed the Manso is very similar to Mansa). Anyway once they were there the Akan started having differences of opinions, mostly because one of the subgroups of the Akan (the Ashanti) began to dominate the other Akan subgroups (Denkyira, Fante, Baoule, etc). Some of the conflict stemmed from gold mining, taxation and the fact that the Akan people who were in the modern day country of Central Ghana, needed but did not have access to the coast were the Europeans had come to trade.

One group of the Akan groups called the Baoule could read the writing on the wall and they knew to run while the getting was good, because the Ashanti were very warlike. So the Baoule and other smaller Akan groups fled to the West of Bonoman and established the Baoule Kingdom which is in modern day Ivory Coast. That is Ghana and Ivory Coast are so similar and they both also have Muslims in the North.

Back in Bonoman the Ashanti launched attacks on the people in their South in order to gain access to the ocean for trade. They were able to subdue the Ewe/Ga people and capture Accra. Over time the Ashanti waged 5 wars against the English, wherein they won 3 of them. The Ashanti also waged war against the Dagomba who are another group in Central and Northern Ghana ethnic group. During the conflict Ashanti captured the Dagomba King and they had intended to sell him into slavery unless his Kingdom agredd to pay an annual tribute in gold. Dagomba could not pay in gold, but they negotiated slaves as payments instead. Based upon that agreement the Dagomba and their related tribes of Mamprussi and the Mossi carried out wars into Muslim Northern Ghana and Southern Burkina Faso to capture people and pay the tribute. The Ashanti in turn sold the captured people to the Europeans. That in a nutshell is gold trading and slave trading on the Gold Coast and the formation of Ivory Coast. The irony is that gold trading is the reason that people were on the Gold Coast, rather than slave trading but the dungeons in Ghana are major sites for slave trading tourism. However Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Senegal probably only produced 25%-30% of all slaves combined and and even those percentages are too high bit no one counted the people madecwar prisoners. The vast majority of all slaves (70%+) came from the modern day countries Nigeria, Cameroon, Congos and Angola. So Ghana has a nice little hustle going regarding slave tourism.

:ohhh:
 
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A few years ago I read about about a funny ruler from Mali Empire era called Mansa Khalifa. It is said that he was an illegitimate or adopted son of Sundiata Keita.

Anyway, dude was super crazy, like he loved to go to the palace rooftop and shoot arrows at some of the commoners passing near the spot. Dude only ruled for around 4 years, then was assassinated by members of the great council and replaced with a puppet Mansa.

Another interesting history is the one of Mansa Sakura. Dude was born a slave in Mali, flattered and boot-licked his way to the imperial court, became super powerful, killed and jailed some of the most powerful people in the imperial court, usurped the throne and became a Mansa too. During his rule he annexed more regions and expanded Mali's borders, plus increased Mali's share of trade with non-African states(mainly the ones in Middle East). PS: Both examples ruled before Mansa Musa was even born.
 
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After Umayyads conquered North Africa, they tried to do the same to Ghana Empire but were spanked and stopped there. It is not the desert that stopped Arabs from conquering the Sahel and below, just like it wasn't malaria or yellow fever that stopped Europeans from colonizing Africa from 15th to late 19th/early 20th centuries. They were just defeated.

"Immediately following the occupation of North Africa, the first Umayyads sent an army to attempt the conquest of the Empire of Ghana. It was defeated...". The remaining defeated soldiers(who were still alive, of course) were later allowed to settle in and serve the kingdom.



A painting depicting the battle.





Another crazy one that not many people know, although it happened recently...Napoleon, Prince Imperial, and descendant of Napoleon I, was killed by Zulus. His dad was Napoleon III, Emperor of France from 1852 to 1870.

"In England, he trained as a British Army officer. Keen to see action, he persuaded the British to allow him to participate in the Anglo-Zulu War. In 1879, serving with British forces, he was killed in a skirmish with a group of Zulus. His early death caused an international sensation and sent shockwaves throughout Europe, as he was the last serious dynastic hope for the restoration of the House of Bonaparte to the throne of France."

"Zabanga stabbed the prince again with an assegai, followed by Gwabakana; and then the prince suffered a final blow from Klabawathunga - who stabbed the prince in the right eye - penetrating the prince's brain and killing him. When the prince's corpse was recovered the next day, it was found naked and an examination by surgeon-major F. B. Scott counted 18 wounds - all of which were stab wounds."

 
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