Comments by "" (@orboakin8074) on "What happened to the many African Kingdoms? History of Africa 1500-1800 Documentary 1/6" video.

I, as an African, love western civilization. They did what multiple African civilizations couldn't and wouldn't do. They condemned and ended slavery on the continent. Yeah, they partook in it but compared to the Arabs (who still practice it and have never recognized its evil) and many African kingdoms/empires, they actively worked to end it. Heck! In Nigeria, the Hausas/Fulani were infamous for enslaving those of us in the south (Yoruba, Edo, Igbo and others) until the British stopped them.
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@onworcheiodiakasen6018 oh, you're right. My mistake there. Sorry and thanks for the correction. They didn't extend into Benin and Igbo regions but they still did practice slavery and peoples from those two regions were among their captives but you are right that they didn't actually conquer those regions.
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@onworcheiodiakasen6018 After the fall of the Songhai empire, the Sokoto Caliphate was one of the many Hausa kingdoms that came after and during one period of expansion called the Fulani war, they conquered and enslaved over a million non-muslims in the middle and southern parts of what became Nigeria. This continued until the British under Lugard ended the caliphate. That is what I am talking about. You can check this stuff if you don't believe me. That's the reason why Nigeria is not one big islamist state and why there is still resentment against boko (western education) in the north by Hajusas/Fulanis.
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Well said.
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@ikengaspirit3063 Oh, I agree with you and I definitely give great credit to the Africans back then who worked to end slavery in Africa. But if we are talking about my own ancestors, specifically, they were the people of the Benin Kingdom and they were known to practice slavery and traded in slaves, among other things, with the Europeans before the British conquered them and ended the practice. All that being said, I do not begrudge them that because pretty much every other tribe or kingdom practiced slavery in some form or another but I also do not condone the practice simply because my own ancestors did it too.
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@lif3andthings763 I agree with you pal and I am not downplaying any of the other regions or civilizations that abolished slavery. But I am specifically focusing on Africa, my own continent and area of interest. And the fact is that the Europeans, specifically the British and French, played a huge role in the abolishing and condemnation of slavery on this continent than anyone else.
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@lif3andthings763 Pal, The British outlawed the Atlantic slave trade in 1807 and abolished slavery in their empire in 1833. They then fought off slavers and native kingdoms around west Africa that still practiced slavery. They even overthrew Oba Kosoko of Lagos, who was pro-slavery. They also stopped the slave trade created by the Sokoto caliphate and ended them. Yeah, they still colonized what eventually became Nigeria but you'd have to be a fool to say they still practiced slavery. Regardless of the fact that the British still colonized west Africa, they still ended slavery in what became my birth country and I'd have to be a fool to not be thankful for that. I don't care whether they did it for their own ends. I am just happy that the Nigeria I was born in came as a result of them ending European and African slave trading.
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@knowsomething-b8d I hear what you say, friend, but honestly, it's not what I am really focusing on. Geopolitics is something that every country on earth does or has done. China funds dictators in Africa and communists in South Asia. Saudia Arabia funds islamist groups in Africa, Europe and the USA and the Philippines. Heck! During the Liberian civil war, the Nigerian government sheltered Charles Taylor and his men despite his war crimes. If the Europeans or Americans never bothered with Africa, do you really think geopolitics would stop here? or that someone else wouldn't be selling us weapons and funding wars here?
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