Black History Series: West African Empires

When we think of great empires we usually think of the British Empire, Roman Empire or even the Ottoman empire. We never really hear about African Empires however Africa had many great Empires. This post is going to focus particularly on empires in west Africa.

Ghana Empire

The Ghana Empire (also known as Wagadugu) existed approximately between the 7th - 13th century. The name Ghana means "King". Its location is no where near modern day Ghana but lay between eastern Mauritania and Western Mali. Ghana was inhabited by the Soninke people. The leader of the empire was called Dinge Cisse. Ghana's wealth came from trading in Gold which it had in abundance hence being called "The land of Gold". The Soninke people had developed gold mining techniques and camels were used to transport goods to help trade. At the time the Ghana empire was the strongest state in west Africa.


Mali Empire

After the fall of the Ghana Empire the Mali Empire emerged, it existed roughly around the 13th - 16th century. At its time it was the second most powerful kingdom in the world. It continued to trade in gold and expanded its wealth by also trading in salt which was a valuable commodity. The rulers of this empire were Muslim. One of the greatest rulers was Mansa Musa (1280-1333) who is the richest man in history, his wealth in todays money would be equal to $400 billion. He became known by his famous pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 where he was accompanied by 60,000 people and carried a considerable amount of gold. On his journey he gave a way a lot of gold and in Egyp,t he gave away so much gold that the value of gold declined in Egypt and it took Egypt a decade to recover.

Mansa Musa helped to transform Timbuktu into a cultural trade centre. Mosques, libraries and the worlds first university (University of Sankore) were built. People from all over the world came to study at Timbuktu.


Songhai Empires

The Songhai empire grew as the Mali empire weakened due to issues of who should be the next successor to the throne. This empire existed between the mid 15th century until the 16th century. The capital city was Gao which was a market place to trade in salt, kola nut, slaves, ivory and other goods. Sunni Ali was one of the greatest rulers of this empire during 1462-1492. He was known as a strong military leader and wanted to expand the empire so he took over cities and villages. The Songhai became one of the largest African empires covering 1.4million km at its peak. The Songhai Empire declined when it was invaded by Moroccans who had more advanced weapons.

Black History Series: Black Inventions

As it is black history month in the UK I am doing a blog post series on black history. This first post is about black inventions. We are never taught about the contributions that people of African descent have made to this world. Here is the of list of just a few black inventors and their inventions that we couldn't live without in the modern day world:

Lewis Latimer - Carbon filament in the light bulb

T Marshall - Fire Extinguisher

Robert Flemming - Guitar

Lydia Newman - Hairbrush

Garett Morgan - Traffic light and gas mask

Frederick M Jones - Air conditioning


Henry T Sampson - Mobile Phone

Burridge and Marshman - Typewriter

John Standard - Refridgerator

Alexander Miles - Record player

Joseph Hunger Dickenson - Elevator/Lift

Marie Van Brittan Brown - CCTV

Benjamin Benneker - Clock

Charles Drew - Blood plasma bag

James E west - Microphone

Otis Boyken - Artificial heart pacemaker

Thomas Elkins - Chamber commode (this became the modern day toilet)

Marc Hannah - 3D Technology used in films

Body Image and The Black Woman: Part 2

*If you haven't already, read part one here.

"I like big butts and I can not lie" the first line of Sir-Mix-A-Lots 1992 record about big butts. Fast forward to today there is a huge obsession with big butts. The popularity of large butts which was predominantly prevalent in the black community has gone mainstream. Even in todays music there are a lot of songs about derrieres. Nicki's latest song "Anaconda" remixes Sir-Mix-a-Lots record. The single's cover has Nicki's whole butt out. Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea have a song called "Booty" and not forgetting Big Seans song "Ass". It seems that many females from all races want to have a bigger butt. With that has also come the popularity of twerking. This style of dancing has always existed in the black community but was made mainstream by Miley Cyrus.

Butt implants and injections are on the rise. There seems to be an obsession with women doing squats just for a bigger butt (whilst ignoring the fact that squats are also a great exercise for the legs and the body as a whole hence it being the number one exercise for bodybuilders). It seems that many women are doing what they can to get a bigger behind.

Womens derrieres are paraded everywhere! Just look on instagram. Many females have pages where the majority of their pictures is just showing off their behind. One woman called Jen Selter has gained 4 million instagram followers just because of her butt. The feminist in me wants to scream out to these women and tell them that they are worth more than their physical traits and they are not defined by the size of their butt. It is sad that some females do this for attention and for the likes of thirsty men. Yes he will view you sexually but not as the queen that you are.

The parading of the black female body for the pleasure of men is nothing new. Let me tell you the story of Sarah 'Saartje' Baartman aka Hottentot Venus. She was a young South African woman from the Khoisan tribe. In 1810 when she was 20 years old she was sold to a British doctor William Dunlop who promised her fame and fortune and took her to London. During her time in England she was exhibited and paraded. She was perceived by the Europeans as a freak of nature because of her very large butt and enlarged labia. Her body was different from that of a white woman and her physical features were viewed as unusual. She was an object of sexual curiosity. People would pay money to view her butt and pay extra money to poke and touch her body. Sarah was degraded, humiliated objectified and dehumanised just because of her physical traits. Scientists and doctors were fascinated with her body so they examined her and made scientific drawings of her body.

Four years later she was taken to Paris and continued to be exhibited as a freak, she was a part of a circus. As the popularity of her shows declined she was forced to turn to prostitution to support herself financially. She ended up dying a year later at the tender age of 25. A French doctor was interested in Sarah's body and made a cast out of her corpse. He removed her skeleton, brain and genitals which was preserved and displayed in a museum in Paris for 160 years. Nelson Mandela had requested for Sarah's remains to be bought back to south Africa in 1994.  Finally in 2002 her remains were returned back to her homeland.

This story shows the exploitation of the black female body. This is something which still goes on today, however females now do this willingly. All you have to do is type in 'video vixens' on google to see many females showing of their bodies for the pleasure of men. It seems that many women reduce themselves to sexual objects. Sarah's story is a tragic one because she was exploited during her life and even in her death her body and genitals were on display for people to see. Historically black women were viewed by Europeans as oversexed,  jezebels and promiscuous. When Europeans first encountered African women they perceived them as lewd because of they way they dressed. White slave owners usually had a black female slave that they used for sexual purposes. They also justified the rape of black woman by saying that they always desired sex anyway.

Black women (and women in general) should not have to attribute their worth to the size of their butt. We shouldn't degrade our body's just for the lustful eyes of men. Yes you may have a nice body but it does not mean that is all you have to offer. How about that brain of yours? how about your intellect, skills and talents? We should  aim to get respect from men, not attention. We are queens and a true queen will not allow herself to be degraded. Read my post 'The Woman' where I discuss the role of women further.  In conclusion we should remember the legacy of Sarah, the video below is a great poem about Sarah Baartman have a listen.
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Are black male lives valued less?

When I heard the story of Michael Brown the narrative sounded all too familiar. Young black unarmed male killed by a white police officer. Being from the UK parts of this story immediately reminded me of Mark Duggan. In both cases the unarmed victim was shot and killed by a police officer and there were peaceful protests as a result. However this led to some people rioting and looting.

The role of the police is to serve and protect its citizens but it seems that in the USA especially if you are black and male it is the police that you rather need protecting from. What has shocked me is the excessive military style force used by the police in Ferguson towards the predominantly peaceful protesters. They used tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets indiscriminately. There is footage of the police throwing tear gas at the Aljazeera media team. Why would they attack journalists? They obviously do not want people to record their actions for the world to see. The small suburb of Ferguson with roughly 21,000 residents looks like a war zone with racial tensions brewing. About 67% of the residents are black while 29% are white. However only 3 of the the 53 police officers are black.

R.I.P Mike

Michael brown was an 18 year old male who had no previous criminal convictions. He graduated from High School and was days away from starting College (University). His school teachers described him as someone who didn't cause trouble. There are different eye witness accounts to the circumstances surrounding his death but it is a fact that he was shot six times with the fatal shot being a bullet to his skull. Many of the witnesses say that Brown was facing the police with his hands up to surrender but Darren Wilson (the police officer) continued to shoot. What I can't understand is why an officer would continue to shoot multiple times at someone who is surrendering. The fact that Michaels body was lying in the street in broad daylight for 4 hours with no ambulance being called is disgraceful.

There is a campaign called "dont shoot" with many people including celebrities and people all over the world holding up their hands in honour of Michael Brown. Another campaign that has arisen is a hashtag on twitter #iftheygunnedmedown what photo would they choose? Young people show contrasting pictures of themselves, one where they may be in a hoodie/drinking/smoking/partying etc and the second picture is in a more professional light such as being at work/in a suit or their graduation picture. This is to show how the media portrays black victims by using a picture that may make the person be  perceived in a negative light instead of the more positive picture. It seems that the media like to assassinate the characters of black victims by bringing up negative things about their past to make it seem that they deserved to be killed. With Michael Brown they bought up the fact that he stole cigars from a store by releasing CCTV images and it has also been said that he allegedly had weed in his system. But how does this justify him being murdered? Yet the media do not bring up anything negative about the policeman. Whats even worse is that almost a quarter of a million dollars has been raised by people in support of Darren Wilson and he is on PAID administrative leave.

It is extremely disgraceful that in this day and age things like this happen. It seems that the Ku Klux Klan that had terrorized black people in the past have a new face - The police (I'm not saying that every single police officer is a racist but there are a lot that are).  I'm reminded of the cases of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner. The sad thing about these cases is that despite the evidence none of their killers have been convicted of murder. I have doubts that Darren Wilson will be convicted of Michaels murder. Some people may argue that black people also kill black people but nothing is said unless a white person kills a black person. This seems true but that is another topic. Though race plays a key part in this story it shouldn't be about 'black v white' but it should be about humans being treated and valued as humans. It should be about justice. Police brutality against ANY race is wrong!  People should not have to live in fear of being killed by the police. Police shouldn't be abusing their power, they shouldn't be above the law because like the rest of us they are people too and should be punished for committing crimes .

*Images of Ferguson