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Post by Shymmex on Jan 16, 2016 21:57:40 GMT
Egungun masquerade, Ede, Nigeria Throughout the Oyo Yoruba area annual or biennial festivals for the ancestors, called Odun Egungun, are held in every community. They consist of a series of rituals performed over several weeks within the compounds of the lineages that compose a town, as well as public rites at the ighale (the forest of the egungun), in the marketplace, and at the front of the palace. It is during Odun Egungun and on the occasion of commemorative funeral rites for the deceased that the living dead appear and are honored through the mediation of masquerades, or egungun, meaning ‘powers concealed’.” [Drewal H. J., Pemberton J., Rowland Abiodun, 1989: Yoruba. Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, Harry N. Abrams Inc.]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon traveled to Africa from March 17, 1970 to July 17, 1970 The photograph depicts Yoruba women with tribal marks. This photograph was taken by Eliot Elisofon in 1973. Vintage Nigeria Source
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 16, 2016 22:01:44 GMT
A freed Yoruba slave from Bahia, Brazil. 1800s “ekule baba” Greetings in Yoruba culture, 1960 Vintage Nigeria Know as “Idobale” in the Yoruba language and Postrate in english or at least that’s what was yelled at me when I was younger and did not greet an older person fast enough. The version pictured above is the modified version. Originally you would have had to go all the way down like you were about to do a push up. As time went on, westernization increased, it became what you see pictured above. Then it evolved to just the bowing without the hand touching the ground, and now, today, a respectful head and slight shoulder bow or just the head bow.
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 16, 2016 22:03:43 GMT
A boy reading the Quran at a school in Lagos. 1960sVintage Nigeria Elderly women in Ijebu Igbo dancing. 1979 Vintage Nigeria
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 16, 2016 22:07:02 GMT
Martiniano Eliseu do Bomfim Yoruba name was Òjélàdé, (1859-1943), was born in Bahia, Brazil. His father was a member of the Egba, one of the Yoruba sub-groups, had been brought to Brazil as a slave in 1820 and liberated there in 1842. A 16-year-old Martiniano accompanied his father, Eliseu do Bomfim, who was an import/export trader of Yoruba goods, on a trip from Salvador, Bahia to Lagos, Yorubaland in 1875 for the purpose of attending school and learning a trade. In Lagos he attended the Church Missionary Society Alápákó Fàájì School for almost 11 years. He arrived back in Salvador on January 30, 1886. During his time in Lagos Martiniano became fluent not only in English but also in Yoruba. He also acquired knowledge of Ifá, the Yoruba system of divination and became a Babalawo, as well as being trained as a bricklayer and house painter. Back in Bahia he worked as an English teacher for well to do Afro-Brazilians. Martiniano died on November 1, 1943 in Salvador, Bahia. Photo: 1937 Cândido da Fonseca Galvão, also known as Oba II d’Africa (1845-1890) was a Brazilian man who fought in the War of the Triple Alliance (also called the Paraguayan War) and claimed to be the grandson of an African prince whose son had been brought to Brazil as a slave. Galvão himself was born a free man in Bahia, and enlisted in the military at a time when Black slavery was still legal in what was then the Empire of Brazil. Galvão was the grandson of the powerful African prince Alafin Abiodun, who unified the Yoruba kingdom of Oyó in the late eighteenth century. Galvão’s father fought in the wars that raged in that region of Africa in the early nineteenth century, was captured in battle, and sold into slavery. He was then transported to Bahia. With the help of friends among the Yoruba community in Salvador, Galvão’s father quickly purchased his freedom. He then married and had children. As an offspring of freedpersons, Cândido Galvão was raised as a free black man near the town of Lençóis in the interior of Bahia. Dom Obá II considered it his duty to fight for his country in the war against Paraguay. “As the patriotic soldier that I am, I understand that I have only been doing my duty in taking an active part in all the matters that I understand to be grave.” Enlisting as a Voluntário in the all-black Zuavo company that departed from Lençóis on May 1865, Galvão remained at the front until wounded in his right hand in August 1866. After his return to Bahia, where he remained through the decade of the 1870s, Galvão petitioned government officials for recognition of his service during the war and for monetary compensation. His experience in Paraguay inspired his commitment to ending slavery in Brazil and his pride in being a black man. Galvão settled in Rio de Janeiro in 1880, where he gained renown. The wealthy considered him a “disturbed veteran” (uma espécie de veterano resmungão) and “folkloric aberration” due to his outspokenness and appearance in attire that included a long black morning coat, tall hat, gloves, umbrella, and walking cane. An activist of the first order, Galvão met personally with the Emperor [Pedro II of Brazil] 125 at public meetings from June 1882 to December 1884! Dom Obá garnered great respect among “the Blacks and the Browns” (the terms commonly used by Galvão) residing in the city. Slaves, freedpersons, and free persons of color all provided financial support that enabled the prince to publish articles in newspapers. In his writings, Galvão praised the contributions of black and brown soldiers during the Paraguayan war, condemned the racism he witnessed in Brazil, and called for an end to slavery. (Source: Dale Torston Graden, From Slavery to Freedom in Brazil: Bahia, 1835-1900.) Galvão died in 1890, shortly after the abolition of slavery in Brazil and the establishment of the Brazilian republic. An biography of Galvão, entitled Prince of the People, was published in 1993.
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 16, 2016 22:08:48 GMT
Female graduates of University college in Ibadan, Nigeria. 1953 The Ransome-Kuti family children (L-R) Olikoye, Beko, Dolupo and Fela. Photo taken in 1941
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 16, 2016 22:10:51 GMT
Three sisters in 1954. Lagos, Nigeria. Yoruba people, 1956
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 16, 2016 22:14:38 GMT
C.M.S. Cathedral, Ibadan, May 1966. Source: Smithsonian Institution An unidentified Yoruba ruler with his people in 1898.
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 16, 2016 22:18:41 GMT
Yoruba women, 1890s A Lagos man, 1910
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 16, 2016 22:21:43 GMT
Madam Efunroye Tinubu, Iyalode of Egbaland (c.1805-1887). Born in the Egba Land of the Yoruba people of West Africa at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Tinubu learned commerce from her grandmother, a successful trader. As a young woman Tinubu married a local man and bore him two sons, but she was widowed following the family’s migration to the town of Abeokuta in 1830. Shortly afterward she met Adele, a deposed king of Lagos, married him, and moved with her new husband and sons to the coastal town of Badagry, where Adele was temporarily recognized as ruler. Tinubu arrived in Badagry at a time when the then illegal Atlantic slave trade was peaking on the eastern Slave Coast. Although her sons soon died, she used two slaves, allegedly a gift from her father, to trade between Abeokuta and the coast in slaves and other commodities. Never again blessed with children, she invested her growing income from trade in slaves and other retainers, beginning the process of amassing personal followers and expanding her commercial operations. In 1835, Adele was invited back to Lagos to become king once again, and Tinubu accompanied him as a royal wife. Following her husband’s death two years later, she married Yesefu Bada (also known as Obadina), a successful Muslim warrior and favored retainer of the new king, Oluwole , ensuring Tinubu continued access to the commercial and other advantages associated with royal patronage. In the bitter succession dispute between Akitoye and Kosoko that followed Oluwole’s death in 1841, Tinubu and Obadina actively supported Akitoye, who was initially crowned king but was defeated in 1845 and forced with his followers into exile at Badagry. Throughout these years of political turmoil, Tinubu seized opportunities to expand her trade and build a large and powerful household of slaves and other retainers. She also took a keen interest in Islam, which was spreading in Lagos. When in 1851 the British, encouraged by Akitoye , bombarded Lagos, deposed Kosoko, and reinstated Akitoye as king in the name of ending the Atlantic slave trade and developing new kinds of commerce, Tinubu returned to the town. A fierce defender of African interests and autonomy, she soon ran afoul of the British, however, and was eventually driven by them out of Lagos and into exile at Abeokuta. There Tinubu reestablished a large household and used her slaves and retainers to produce and trade palm produce, a new export, and other commodities. She also began exercising considerable influence in politics in Abeokuta and was eventually recognized as the iyalode, or leading female chief, in the town. Although the British represented Tinubu as an inveterate slave trader and fierce opponent of abolition, she was committed more to the success of her own political factions and to African autonomy than she was to a particular kind of foreign trade. Tinubu is significant historically both for her own activities and achievements and as an unusually well-documented example of a type of powerful precolonial West African woman, too often obscured from the historical record.
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 16, 2016 22:25:05 GMT
Former Premier Obafemi Awolowo with his daughter waving at spectators after release from prison, 1966 Christopher Alexander Sapara Williams (July 14 1855– March 15 1915) was the first indigenous Nigerian lawyer, called to the English bar. He also played a prominent political part during Nigeria’s colonial days.
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 17, 2016 0:50:18 GMT
Dressmaking Establishment Lagos 1937 Source: E.O Hoppe A Yoruba woman weaves native cloth on a traditional hand-loom The cloth was woven from locally-grown cotton and dyed by local methods. Before the Second World War, production was steadily declining due to cheap imports from Europe and elsewhere, but wartime restrictions led to a revival in the local product. South West Nigeria March 1945.
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 17, 2016 1:03:22 GMT
A Nigerian woman in Traditional dress. Photo by John Hinde. Retro Nigeria…Lagos Market in 1956
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 17, 2016 1:04:32 GMT
Shades & Swagger # 4 | When vintage pales on modern. Source : Heritage 1960
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 17, 2016 1:05:44 GMT
The Brazilian Baracoon, built in the 1840s and held up to 40 slaves at a time in Badagry, Lagos State. This ancient town of Badagry was founded around l425 A.D. Before its existence, people lived along the Coast of Gberefu and this area later gave birth to the town of Badagry. It is the second largest commercial town in Lagos State, located an hour from Lagos and half-hour from the Republic of Benin. The town of Badagry is bordered on the south by the Gulf of Guinea and surrounded by creeks, islands and a lake. The ancient town served mainly the Oyo Empire, which was comprised of Yoruba and Ogu people. Today, the Aworis and Egun are mainly the people who reside in the town of Badagry as well as in Ogun State in Nigeria and in the neighbouring Republic of Benin. The name originated from the fact that the people of Badagry’s means of livelihood are farming, fishing and salt making due to the availability of trees and presence of ocean water respectively. The natives believed that Badagry was founded by a famous farmer called Agbedeh who maintained a farm which became popular it was named after him. The word Greme meant farm in Ogu language and a visit to Agbedeh’s farm brought about the word and Agbedegreme and its usage meaning Agbedeh’s farm. It was then coined to Agbadagari by the Yoruba inhabitants and later corrupted to Badagry by the European slave merchants before the end of the seventeenth century. Badagry is majorly recognised for its slave trade by the foreigners. The trade began in 1440 with Prince Henry, the navigator of Portugal. By 1593, 12,000 slaves had been sold to labour markets in Italy and Spain. One horse was traded for 25-30 slaves in the 1440s and the value of African slaves rose from six to eight slaves per horse. By the 16th century, there were over 32,000 slaves in Portugal. Along the line, Seriki Faremi Williams, an African slave appealed a bargain with his buyers. He agreed to supply slaves to the foreigners in exchange for his freedom. The Nigerian, specifically of the Yoruba tribe to be exact, got his wish and was immediately set free to begin business. He returned to Badagry and built the Brazillian Baracoon with the mission to transport as much slaves as possible. He raided villages and captured their natives and sold them to the middlemen who eventually re-sold them as slaves to European slave merchants. The baracoons were small rooms where up to 40 slaves were kept, all in upright position for days before they were shipped across the lagoon via the point of no return into the waiting ships. The group of houses, now mostly residential, were all at one point or the other used to keep slaves waiting to be transported. Vlekete square, founded in 1510, was known to be the slave market in Badagry. The slave merchants began to work on his intelligence and that of African Leaders involved and enticed them with material gifts. Slaves were then exchanged for merchandises as little as whisky, tobacco, rum, cuppino glass, canons, iron bars, brass, woollen, cotton, linen, silk, beads, guns, gun powder amongst others. Because they knew it was of paramount importance to these natives. Historically speaking, Badagry was the first and last port of call. When the ships arrive to pick these slaves, they would be brought out from the hole in which they were put and taken to a place called ‘The Point of No Return’. This process involved the crossing of slaves through the ocean that links the Badagry port to this point. When the slaves have been crossed over, they would walk about 20miles to the point. In between, they would each approach a coven where they would drink from a well that contained a silver shiny liquid claimed to be water and recite a verse. This initiation would wipe out there memory so as to avoid foreknowledge of their whereabouts. The curator further explained that these slaves immediately loose their memory and do not regain it until they reach their final destination. Only the strong ones make it to the New World and maybe luckily, back.
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Post by Shymmex on Jan 17, 2016 1:08:30 GMT
Vintage street style…Ibadan, Nigeria. 1960
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