THE WORLD CIVILIZATIONS AND INDIA , PART – 10

THE KONGO KINGDOM OF AFRICA THE KONGO KINGDOM OF AFRICA existed from 1390 AD to 1914 AD . It was comprised of the modern day the DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF KONGO and the REPUBLIC OF KONGO – both . However , the precise boundaries of the Kingdom of KONGO could not be determined exactly . The King of KONGO was called MANI-KONGO . Under the leadership of a KONGOLESE warrior called LUKEN LUA NIMI , who dominated over the central AFRICAN Countries , the territory of the Kingdom of KONGO extended from the modern day KONGO to ANGOLA . The Empire was spread over to about 500 miles . Despite surrounded by the dense forest , the KONGO EMPIRE was extended in the middle from KASAI to JMBESI rivers. The capital of the Empire was at SAO-SALVADOR (MBANZA-KONGO) which was praised by the PORTUGUESE as one of the best places of AFRICA . The PORTUGUESE first brought Christianity in KONGO through their Christian Catholic Missionaries . They started selling their Guns to the KONGO EMPIRE for slave trade as such . The King of KONGO used to give war surrendered people for slavery to the PORTUGUESE traders in exchange of their sofisticated guns . And the latter used those slaves in their sugar-cane plantation fields or sold them either in Europe or America . The KONGOLESE society was quasi-feudal in nature . Rich in the trade of Textiles , Pottery , Copper and Ivory , the KONGOLESE people followed the trade routes through rivers . However , in the seventeenth century , the PORTUGUESE altogether destroyed this one of beautiful Empire of AFRICA .

THE BENIN EMPIRE OF AFRICA THE BENIN EMPIRE OF AFRICA existed from 1180 AD to 1897 AD . Famous for artisan crafts of Ivory , Bronze and Iron , the BENIN EMPIRE was founded around modern day NIGERIA . It was considered as one of the oldest and the most developed state of the West AFRICA . It has strong trading relationships with the PORTUGUESE . They exchanged palm oil , pepper and Ivory for an AFRICAN currency called MANILLA . The relationship between the BENIN EMPIRE and the PORTUGUESE reached its zenith in the 16th century when an ambassador of the BENIN EMPIRE visited LISBON strengthening the trade relations between the two countries . The BRITISH entered the BENIN EMPIRE in 1553 for trading . And mutually beneficial trades between them went on throughout the 16th and 17th century until BENIN suspected that the BRITISH wanted to have monopolistic trade with the Empire . At last , the Empire became a colony of the BRITISH at last of the nineteenth century as such .

THE KINGDOM OF D’mt OF AFRICA THE KINGDOM OF D’mt was the first Kingdom of ERITREA and ETHIOPIA existed around 700 BC . Its capital was YEHA . A SABAEAN style temple of the God ILMUQAH still existed in YEHA . The kingdom of D’mt rose to power in the 10th century BC . Due to the existence of the SEBAEAN style temple in its capital , there is a belief that it might be the SEBAEAN colony of YEMEN . But very limited sources either Archeological or Inscription-wise survive to prove that . That’s why much historical facts about how it was united with the AKSUMITE KINGDOM around the beginning of the first century AD could not be ascertained . Historically speaking , D’mt was established in an iron age . It was preceded by the LAND OF PUNT and succeeded by the Kingdom of AKSUM . The modern historians differ on whether it was an indigenous civilization or a mixure of the SABAEANS and the Indigenous people . However , the SABAEANS influences on the indigenous people could not be denied altogether . Conclusively , it can be said that the D’mt was a civilization of the indigenous people having strong SOUTH ARABIAN economic and cultural influences as such .

Many small Chiefdoms existed along the ocean near SUDAN . They were mostly a tiny tribal Chiefdoms . In times of emergency , they used to choose an unanimous King to fight out any attack or otherwise . These Chiefdoms were as follows : BOLOF , TEKRURE , ABRAN , ASHANTI , YUE , DAHOM , HANSA , BUSA , NUFI etc . But due to continuous attacks by the ARABS , these Chiefdoms couldn’t ever prosper at all . Due to the continuous cultural and economic attacks by the outsiders on these small Chiefdoms , political instability continued for long and scrambles for AFRICA among the EUROPEAN countries in the nineteenth century completely destroyed these Chiefdoms slowly and gradually .

We get detail descriptions about these Black Chiefdoms of NORTH-EAST AFRICA from the famous ARABIAN books like TARIKH-E- BUKHARI , TARIKH-E-SUDAN , TARIKH-EL- FATAH and numerous traveller’s accounts of the ARABS . Otherwise , very rare accounts of these Chiefdoms are available anywhere in other historical accounts as such . Excavations at large scales and collections of Inscriptions in this regard would be helpful for creating a detailed History of these beautiful Kingdoms and Empires of AFRICA .

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT .

TO BE CONTINUED …………….