Watch all six hours of Africa’s Civilizations on the PBS app or online! Major corporate support for Africa’s Great Civilizations is provided by Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson, and Ancestry. Major funding is also provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Gilder Foundation, the Corporation for […]
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Tag: benin
Dahomey Amazon Women of Benin, West Africa
The Dahomey Amazons or N’Nonmiton, which means “our mothers” in Fon, were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey in the present-day Republic of Benin which lasted until the end of the 19th century. They were so named by Western observers and historians due to their similarity to the semi-mythical Amazons of […]
Oba is the word for King in the Yoruba
There are two different kinds of Yoruba monarchs: The kings of Yoruba clans, which are often simply networks of related towns (for example, the oba of the Egba bears the title “Alake of Egbaland” because his ancestral seat is the Ake quarter of Abeokuta, hence the title Alake, which is Yoruba for Man of Ake. […]
After 117 Years African Art Returned
Mark Walker outside of the Oba Palace in Benin (now Edo state) Nigeria posing with one of two statues that he returned to Nigeria, after having being looted over 117 years ago by his ancestor Captain Herbert Walker during the 1897 Punitive Expedition. This has opened the door to many requests for other stolen works, […]