knowafricaofficial, Author at Know Africa Official

Tribe

The Samburu Tribe: Kenya’s Untouched Cultural Gem

By knowafricaofficial August 20, 2024

Northern Kenya is home to the semi-nomadic pastoralist Samburu Tribe. They own camels, sheep, and goats in addition to mostly herding cattle. Although the Samburu have kept most of their traditions and customs, they are closely related to the Masaai Tribe.

The Samburu people live in arid, drier places, therefore in order to provide their animals with enough new grazing, they have to relocate their dwellings and cattle every few weeks. To keep out wild animals, their houses are constructed of animal hides, mud, grass mats, and wooden poles and are encircled by a thorny fence. Typically, villages consist of five to ten families.

READ ALSO: History Of The Acholi Tribe

Traditionally, the women are in charge of gathering roots and vegetables, gathering water, and taking care of the children, while the males tend to the cattle and other livestock as well as the family’s general safety. The elders of the tribe govern it and choose which men and women are married to and circumcised. In Samburu tradition, a person can only be considered a man or woman if they have undergone circumcision. After undergoing circumcision, a boy is referred to as a Moran, or worrier.

The Samburu people’s traditional attire is a shukka, or brilliantly colored red material worn like a skirt and topped with a white sash.

Beaded jewelry is worn by both men and women in the form of necklaces, earrings and headdress. The more jewelry they wear the higher their social status is.

Samburu Tribe: Their Culture

A gerontocracy is the Samburu people. The notion that elders are cursed gives them the exclusive right to arrange marriages and take on new women, which in turn gives them power. This comes at the expense of younger, single males, whose development remains in a state of social suspension until they turn thirty, so delaying the onset of adulthood.

Men wear a cloth which is often pink or black and is wrapped around their waist in a manner similar to a Scottish kilt. They adorn themselves with necklaces, bracelets and anklets, like other sub tribes of the Maasai community.

Members of the moran age grade (i.e. “warriors”) typically wear their hair in long braids, which they shave off when they become elders. It may be colored using red ochre. Their bodies are sometimes decorated with ochre, as well. Women wear two pieces of blue or purple cloth, one piece wrapped around the waist, the second wrapped over the chest. Women keep their hair shaved and wear numerous necklaces and bracelets. In the past decade, traditional clothing styles have changed.

Some men may dress in the red tartan cloth of the 1980s and 1990s or they may wrap a dark green or blue plaid material around their waists, known as “kikoi,” frequently with shorts worn below. Marani (Lmuran)[7] warriors dress in pastel or flowery clothing. While some ladies still choose to wear two items of red or blue clothing, it’s now trendy to wear clothing with vibrant floral or animal themes. In addition, women frequently pair their clothes with tiny tank tops, and plaid skirts have also.

Religion Of The Samburu Tribe

The traditional Samburu religion centers on their multifaceted divinity, known as Nkai. The Samburu people of today actively participate in the lives of Nkai, a feminine word. Children and teenagers, particularly ladies, frequently claim having visions of Nkai. A handful of these kids go on to have a long-term reputation for prophecy, and some of them prophesy for a while. In addition to these impromptu prophets, the Samburu people have ritual diviners, or shamans, known as “loibonok,” who counsel warriors and determine the origins of personal illness and bad luck.

The Samburu people hold that Nkai is the origin of all protection against life’s dangers. However, Nkai also punishes when a senior curses a junior for displaying disdain. The elder’s rage is interpreted as an appeal to Nkai, who makes the determination as to whether the curse is warranted. When a victim experiences misfortune after being disrespected by an older man, they should go to their senior and make amends in exchange for his approval. This eases the elder’s rage and brings Nkai’s defense back. Still, it is rare for an older person to curse a younger person. Curses are only used in the most egregious of situations.

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Uncategorized

The Bariba Tribe

By knowafricaofficial August 12, 2024

The Bariba people or the Bariba Tribe, also known as the Baatonu (plural: Baatombu), are the majority of people living in the Benin departments of Borgou and Alibori (1.285.000), and they were cofounders of the Borgu kingdom, which is now located in what is now northeastern Benin and west-central Nigeria (197,000). They are dispersed over western Kwara State and the Borgu region of Niger State in Nigeria. Seventy percent of the estimated one million Bariba live in Benin.

READ ALSO: History Of The Acholi Tribe

Togo is home to small Bariba groups (25.0000).

The Bariba are concentrated primarily in the north-east of Benin, especially around the city of Nikki, which is considered the traditional Bariba capital.

At the end of the 18th century they became independent from the Yoruba of Oyo and formed several kingdoms in the Borgou region. The colonization of Benin (then Dahomey) by the French at the end of the 19th century, and the imposition of an Anglo-French artificial border, ended Bariba trade in the region.

One of their noted festivals is the annual Gani festival of which horse riding is a prominent element.

The Bariba people holds an important place in the history of the country. During the late 19th century, Bariba was known to constitute independent states and dominate with kingdoms in cities like Nikki and Kandi in the northeast of the country. In the town of Pehunko there are approximately 200,000 Bariba people out of 365,000 inhabitants.

The Bariba society consists of a higher-ranking official as chief of the town and their subordinates’ chiefs. Social status and titles are inherited in families, but the status of a person may be given by the families’ nature of work. Notable subdivisions of the Bariba include the ruling Wasangari nobles, Baatombu commoners, slaves of varying origin, Dendi merchants, Fulbe herders, and other divisional ethnic groups.

Agriculture is the dominant occupation for the Bariba. They grow corn, sorghum, rice, cotton, cassava (tapioca), yams, beans, palm oil, peanuts and some poultry and livestock. Religion plays an important role in Bariba tribes and they are primarily Islamic.However a number of Bariba communities have their own indigenous beliefs.

History Of The Bariba Tribe

Origins

According to some versions of their history, the Wasangari first settled in the region of Nikki-Wenu around 1480, it having been occupied from 1350 by the Baatonu natives. Coming from the East, they initially settled in Bussa in what is now Nigeria, where Kisra, the legendary Wasangari horseman from Persia had formed an alliance with Mansa Doro left Bussa for Nikki-Wenu with his groom Sero, the son of Kisra who entrusted Mansa Doro with the education of Sero. Before leaving the region again to join Kisra, Mansa Doro nominated his protégé Sero as the new chief. Decked out in hunting attire, the groom was established by the populations of Nikki-Wenu as Sounon Sero, King of Nikki.

Sime Dobidia, father of the dynasties

Sabi Sime, the youngest son of Sounon Sero, later became Sime Dobidia, and through marriages with the native clans Baatonu, Boko and Hausa, founded the dynasties of the Empire of Nikki. His sons, endowed with the royal emblems of trumpets ans white spurs, took control of villages of their respective mothers. Those parental ties were the basis of the political structure established by the Wasangari.

The royal dynasties are founded by:

Sero Kora Bakarou, the ancestor of the dynasty of KorakouSero Baguiri, the ancestor of the dynasty of the Karawe

Kpe Gounon Kaba Wouko, the ancestor of the dynasty of the Gbassi

Sero Kpera I, the ancestor of the dynasty of the Makararou

Kpe Lafia Gamabrou, the ancestor of the dynasty of Lafiarou

Culture – The origins of the Gaani

The yearly Gaani festival, presided over by the Emperor of Nikki, or in his absence the chiefs of the Bouay, Kika and Sandiro provinces, assembles all the provincial chiefs and their populations, who come to renew allegiance to the Emperor and receive his blessing.

More than 150,000 persons converge to Nikki from all over to participate in the spectacular ceremony where the vitality of the Baatonu culture is celebrated and parental and fraternal links between dynasties are nurtured. Everyone brings presents, however modest, to contribute to the magnificence of the festivities.

The Gaani is the second festival in the Baatonu calendar, following the fire festival or Donkonru, that takes place at the New Year. The Gaani is associated with the notion of nasara, evoking joy, victory and freedom and is a time for ecstasy and communion. By animating and perpetrating the memories that unite them, it nourishes and re-news solidarity and fraternity within the Baatonu people, endorsing their values of welcome and sharing.

An animistic tribal ceremony, it was later incorporated into the Muslim calendar and thus coincides with the Mawlid which is celebrated by Muslims to commemorate the birth of the Prophet. The festival is organized according to the lunar calendar and is always held on a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday; it cannot be held on any other day of the week.

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NEWS

Sudan War: Over 100 People Killed In 2 Weeks

By knowafricaofficial May 29, 2024

At least 123 people were killed in more than two weeks of Sudan War over a major city in the western Darfur region between the Sudanese military and an infamous paramilitary gang, according to a report released on Sunday by an international humanitarian organization.

Over 930 people were injured in the same period by fighting in el-Fasher, the provincial seat of North Darfur, according to Doctors Without Borders.

READ ALSO: History of the Igbo Landing

The organization stated, “This is a sign of the violent intensity of the fighting.” “We urge the warring parties to do more to protect civilians.”

Clashes between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces escalated earlier this month in the city, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

El-Fasher has become the centre of the conflict between the military and the RSF, which is aided by Arab militias commonly known as janjaweed. The city is the last stronghold that is still held by the military in the sprawling Darfur region.

Sudan’s conflict began in April last year when soaring tensions between the leaders of the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

The conflict killed more than 14,000 people and wounded thousands more amid reports of widespread sexual violence and other atrocities that rights groups say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It also pushed the country’s population to the brink of famine. The U.N. food agency warned the warring parties earlier this month that there is a serious risk of widespread starvation and death in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan if they don’t allow humanitarian aid into the vast western region.

The RSF has built up forces in recent months seeking to wrest control of el-Fasher. Along with its Arab militia allies, the RSF besieged the city and launched a major attack on its southern and eastern parts earlier this month.

The clashes renewed on Thursday in the Abu Shouk camp for displaced people in the Salam neighbourhood in the city’s northern part, as well as its southern western parts, the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration reported.

On Saturday, a shell hit the house of a Doctors Without Borders aid worker close to the city’s main market, killing the worker, the charity said.

The U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami blasted the “tragic” killing. The aid worker was not identified.

Nkweta-Salami urged warring parties to stop fighting in the city where “hundreds of thousands of women, men, and children in North Darfur are once again caught in the crossfire of war.”

“A human tragedy of epic proportions is on the horizon, but it can, and must, be prevented,” she said.

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History

6 Major World War I Battles Fought in Africa

By knowafricaofficial May 28, 2024

6 Major World War I Battles Fought in Africa

Battles in Africa were fought between colonial powers, but the majority of those forced to fight were conscripted Africans. World War I is often associated with scenes of fighting in Europe, such as the first Battle of the Marne, the siege of Verdun, the terrible battle of The Somme, and the brutal grind of trench warfare on the Western Front.

However, the first bullet of the war, fired in late July 1914, did not come from Europe. Instead, as Byron Farwell observes in his book The Great War in Africa, 1914-1918, it was a shot taken by an African soldier in a British uniform at German colonial forces in what is now Togo in West Africa, which was once a part of Germany’s huge empire in Africa.

Africans Compelled to Fight

Between 1914 and 1918, the British and their allies fought to take Africa’s massive colonial empire, which the Germans had established. However, Africans, whose lands had been taken from them by Europeans in the mid to late 1800s, bore the brunt of the battle.

“The fighting in Africa was between the colonial powers, but most of the soldiers were Africans,” explains Padraic Kennedy, an associate professor of history at York College of Pennsylvania. About two million Africans were compelled to fight in the war, and more than 150,000 African soldiers and bearers lost their lives, with many more wounded and disabled.

In addition, many African civilians succumbed to starvation, due to food shortages created by the war’s disruption of agriculture, including armies’ seizure of food supplies and cattle, and the shortage of farmers, hunters and fishermen due to the Europeans’ conscription of African males.

“The conflict in one way or another affected almost every African group and family,” according to Derek Frisby, an associate professor in the Global Studies program at Middle Tennessee State University and an expert in military history.

The war in Africa also was very different from the conflict in Europe, where new technologies such as tanks and aircraft revolutionized warfare.

“The African Great War battles lack much of the industrialization inherent in Europe,” Frisby says. In particular, the artillery used so effectively in European fighting was mostly a non-factor in Africa, according to Frisby. None of the colonial powers had the necessary infrastructure, such as communications for observation and logistics for transporting artillery pieces and keeping them supplied with ammo and maintenance, and it was harder to find suitable terrain. And the forces there often had to make due with older weapons. As a result, Frisby says their greatest effect was in terrifying the native populations, rather than creating devastating barrages.
“Infantry remained the primary combat arm in Great War Africa, not surprisingly taking advantage of the machine gun,” Frisby explains.

In contrast to the often massive battlefield clashes in Europe, African World War I battles tended to be smaller in scale and drawn out over longer time spans. “They were fighting over so much land in Africa, that the fighting was very spread out,” explains Michael Green, associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Indeed, the crucial German East Africa campaign between 1916 and 1918, which pitted 165,000 troops from Britain, South Africa, Belgium and Portugal against a German colonial force of 25,000, took place over an area of 750,000 square miles—three times the size of Imperial Germany itself.

Many Africans wanted no part of the war at all. “The French encountered widespread rebellions as they attempted to conscript soldiers in various parts of west Africa,” says Etana Dinka, a history professor at James Madison University.

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History

History of the Igbo Landing

By knowafricaofficial May 28, 2024

Igbo Landing, also known as Ebo Landing, Ibo Landing, or Ebos Landing, is a historic site located near Dunbar Creek in Glynn County, Georgia, on St. Simons Island. In 1803, a group of Igbo captives who had taken over their slave ship and refused to accept being sold into slavery in the United States committed a mass suicide there. African American folklore, such as the legend of the flying Africans, and literary history both place symbolic emphasis on the event’s moral significance as a tale of struggle against slavery.

History of the Igbo Landing

After surviving the Middle Passage, a shipload of West African captives was brought to Savannah by American-paid kidnappers in May 1803, where they were put up for auction at one of the region’s slave markets. Among the enslaved passengers on board the ship were several Igbo people from modern-day Nigeria. Planters and slave traders in the American South knew the Igbo for their staunch independence and opposition to chattel slavery.

The seventy-five Igbo slaves were purchased for $100 apiece by agents of John Couper and Thomas Spalding to be used as forced labor on their estates on St. Simons Island.

The chained enslaved people were packed under the deck of a small vessel named The Schooner York to be shipped to the island (other sources say the voyage took place aboard The Morovia[6]).

During this voyage the Igbo slaves rose up in rebellion, taking control of the ship and drowning their captors, in the process causing the grounding of the Morovia in Dunbar Creek at the site now locally known as Igbo Landing.

There are multiple narratives regarding the revolt’s evolution, some of which are regarded as mythical, therefore it’s unclear what happened in what order. Under the guidance of a prominent Igbo leader, the Africans reportedly disembarked and proceeded to sing “The Water Spirit brought us, the Water Spirit will take us home” as they marched into the creek together. As a result, they chose death and the protection of their god Chukwu over the option of servitude.

One of the few contemporaneous reports of the tragedy was written by Roswell King, a white overseer on the adjacent Pierce Butler plantation (Butler Island Plantation). According to King, as soon as the Igbo people arrived on St. Simons Island, they fled to the swamp and committed suicide by entering Dunbar Creek. The captain is identified by his last name, Patterson, in a 19th-century narrative of the incident, and Roswell King is credited with retrieving the drowning victims’ bodies.

The Igbo walked into the swamp, where 10 to 12 drowned, according to a letter detailing the incident written by Savannah slave dealer William Mein. Some were “salvaged” by bounty hunters who got $10 a head from Spalding and Couper. Certain sources state that.

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NEWS

Excerpts from the BRICS Heads of Space Agencies Meeting.

By knowafricaofficial May 26, 2024

Excerpts from the BRICS Heads of Space Agencies Meeting.

The formation of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China, and the Republic of South Africa (BRICS) in 2006 was initiated by Russia with the goal of fostering peace, security, development, and cooperation, as well as supporting multilateral collaborations. In 2022, the states established the BRICS Joint Committee on Space Cooperation.

This committee is critical in allowing member space agencies to collaborate more closely on environmental protection, disaster prevention and mitigation, and addressing climate change through effective data sharing and utilization. Its formation is a significant step forward for BRICS space cooperation, increasing the effectiveness and impact of member countries’ space activities.

The BRICS committee comprises ten countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. Under Russia’s leadership, the heads of BRICS space agencies gathered in Moscow on May 23, 2024, for a two-day summit to discuss various facets of international space cooperation, deliberate on ongoing and prospective multilateral space initiatives, and adopt joint documents.

In his welcome address, Yury Borisov, Director General of Roscosmos, highlighted that the BRICS countries collectively operate over 1,200 national orbital satellites in space, considering the recent addition of new member countries to the association. The Director-General also proposed an initiative to establish a global system to guarantee the safety of space operations. This global system would be constructed around an accessible information platform with software capable of exchanging data and monitoring the situation in near-Earth orbit, providing real-time updates on space debris, potential collisions, and other safety concerns.

Furthermore, the BRICS countries also plan to exchange data regarding natural phenomena in space, including solar activity, galactic radiation, and the paths of potentially hazardous asteroids and other celestial objects. This system will be inclusive, welcoming participation from all, regardless of their level of expertise, technical resources, objectives, or terms of engagement. The process of data exchange and sharing will be governed by a comprehensive data sharing agreement, ensuring the security and privacy of all participating countries’ data.

“Both curious enthusiasts and amateur astronomers, as well as professionals in space activities, including regional or national monitoring systems, will be able to connect to the platform. Based on their choice and desire, the partners will be offered the opportunity to receive information, products, and services and to offer their own based on their demands,” commented Yury Borisov.

To advance the BRICS space activities and foster the peaceful use of outer space, the participants considered a draft joint statement by the Heads of BRICS Space Agencies. This statement urges the international community to unite in preventing the deployment of any weaponry in space and to abstain from actions that could jeopardise the integrity of the space environment and the enduring viability of space missions. This includes refraining from utilising civilian space infrastructure for undisclosed purposes. This commitment to space safety and integrity underscores the responsible and trustworthy approach of the BRICS countries towards space exploration and utilization.

At the forefront of the discussions was the BRICS Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation Cooperation Initiative, a testament to the collaborative spirit of the member countries. Established in 2015, this initiative aims to form the BRICS Remote Sensing Satellite Virtual Constellation and implement a data-sharing framework among the BRICS space agencies. The ultimate goal is to address global challenges such as climate change, major disasters, and environmental protection. This ambitious initiative will be executed in two phases, further underscoring the collective commitment of the BRICS nations to international space cooperation.

In the first phase, a virtual constellation will be created using existing Earth remote sensing satellites. The second phase will involve establishing an actual satellite constellation. Integrating the five countries’ remote sensing satellites and ground receiving stations for coordinated network observation will reduce the investment needed for building individual satellites and ground stations and significantly enhance each satellite’s imaging capabilities. This will increase efficiency in BRICS satellite observations, resulting in a “value-added” observational impact.

Furthermore, Russia’s initiative to establish a space council within the BRICS group received significant interest among member states, including South Africa.

“We see the Russian proposal to create a BRICS space council. We will develop our cooperation in this direction; South Africa supports this initiative,” Humbulani Mudau, the Executive Director of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), stated. Beyond supporting Russia’s initiative, South Africa’s involvement in other collaborative projects with Russia, including its partnership with the country to Install PanEOS Station , the establishment of a Space Debris Monitoring Facility, and proposed projects in terms of “the extraction of mineral resources, specifically, platinum, issues overseen by Russian Railways, the Russian State Nuclear Energy Corporation and the use of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) base station, will significantly contribute to the success of the proposed space council and enhance international space cooperation.

Furthermore, Egypt, which recently joined BRICS, has been involved in discussions on space collaboration with Roscosmos to foster its space economy’s growth. These discussions encompassed various areas such as satellite manufacturing and launches, the development of manned programmes, and the establishment of surface space infrastructure. Shedding light on Cairo’s involvement in BRICS, Sherif Sedky, the head of the Egyptian Space Agency, emphasised in an interview with RT during the space agency chiefs meeting on Thursday that Egypt’s membership in BRICS facilitates the extension of its longstanding relations with Russia to other member states within the organisation.

On the other hand, this is the first time Ethiopia will attend the BRICS Heads of Space Agencies meeting. This milestone will present an opportunity for Ethiopia to establish new partnerships and collaborations within the space community. Attending the BRICS meeting gives Ethiopia access to valuable knowledge, expertise, and best practices in space technology and exploration. This can support Ethiopia in strengthening its space programme and building local space science and technology capacity.

“It is our first meeting to join the heads of space agencies. So it’s a perfect opportunity for us to gain experience in the existing opportunities,” Abdissa Yilma, Director General of the Ethiopian Space Science and Geospatial Institute, stated.

This collaborative approach to space activities, where all member countries contribute their unique perspectives, resources, and expertise, is a key strength of the BRICS space cooperation and a testament to the shared commitment to advancing space science and technology for the benefit of all.

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Stories

Lessons from the tragic story of Emmanuelle Eboue

By knowafricaofficial May 21, 2024

The Emmanuelle Eboue Story

The story is about two football players from Ivory Coast named Emmanuelle Eboue and Didier Drogba. The Ivorians both played for two big London football clubs at the same time, from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. This meant that each one made tens of thousands of pounds every week for eight years on average. So by the end of their time at Arsenal and Chelsea FC, they should both have been worth a billion pounds, right? Yes!

Didier Drogba, on the other hand, is now the second-biggest investor in mines in the Ivory Coast and a part-owner of two MLS soccer teams in North America. He is worth about $100 million (Sh10 billion), but Eboue’s story is one of “woiye” (pity). After a nasty divorce from his white wife, in which the judge gave her even his mansion in Enfield, Eboue is now angry and broke. He hides in the empty house with the electricity turned off because he is afraid that bailiffs will come to get him.

He washes his clothes by hand because he can no longer afford a washing machine (and thanks to his late grandmother for teaching him domestic chores when he grew up in the village). He used to roll around in fancy expensive cars for years, but now uses public transport.

And he blames it all on his conniving ex-wife. “Emmanuelle, you were very naïve,” Eboue now laments. “Every document your wife tells you to sign, you sign (even for property)!” He revealed that of the 8 million euros (almost a billion bob) he earned playing with Galatasaray in Turkey, seven million was sent to his (ex) wife Aurelie “because she was living behind with our three kids in London.”

Now the woman has even cut off contact of the children from their Ivorian father. There are lessons to be learned from the tragic story of Eboue here (more than sad, because the once-pound millionaire has recently considered suicide, because of heartbreak, shame, depression, and near penury).

First of all, it is almost always better to try and marry within your own culture. Oh, I know, there are a few stories out there of loving and successful interracial and intercultural marriages, but these are in the minority. It is easier, if not better, to be near when it comes to matters of marriage – in color, religion, class, and education. ‘Opposites attract’ is fine – but an Eskimo man from Greenland marrying a Khoisan woman from the Kalahari desert, to use an extreme example – does that sound like a sound foundation for the long and happy union?

By all means, marry across tribes, because divided Kenya doesn’t need more ethnic insularity. If you can, even marry across a national border. Didier Drogba, an Ivorian, married a lady from Mali – which is like marrying a nice Tanzanian. But don’t stray too far from East(ern) Africa if you can. Build back home, or even in the city – but invest in real estate, if able to, close to your roots.

If Eboue had apartment buildings in Abidjan, greedy Aurelie wouldn’t have an English racist judge able to award her these properties – and he’d just have fled back to Africa a rich man. True, Drogba has invested in real estate in Marseilles, but these are rental properties, not home – and by investing in Ivory Coast mines during their civil war at low prices, Drogba showed patriotism and confidence in his country that has now paid off, pardon the pun, in spades.

Drogba is also a great philanthropist. He established a free hospital for poor Ivorians in Abidjan, in partnership with wealthy global contacts like Abramovich. “Those who give shall receive,” and by using his networks so wisely, Drogba is now so popular in Cote d’Ivoire, it is quite possible that – (like former footballer Weah of Liberia) – if he ran, he would easily win the presidency.

Eboue’s ‘investments,’ other than in his sly white fox of a wife, were in false friends and fast cars. He didn’t even bother to invest in himself, by going to school, even after he got money. While Drogba is a professional accountant (university level), Eboue had street talent, but is still semi-literate – which is how he could sign everything over. There are lots of ‘hustler’ millionaire stories these days in Kenya, but as kids go back to school, remember education is the best investment you’ll ever make for your children.

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Discover

Meet the 11-Year-Old Black Girl Mechanic Who Repairs Motorcycles

By knowafricaofficial May 21, 2024

Meet Susanna Adjakie-Apekor, a wonderful 11-year-old girl from Ghana who loves fixing motorcycles. Even though she is young, she already knows how to fix motorcycles. She can do things like change chains and sprockets and fix crankshafts and brakes.

She became interested in mechanics when she was 3 years old, thanks to her father, Amudu. It was when her busy father, a mechanic, complained about how busy he was that she decided to learn how to fix motorcycles herself. She moved in with her dad to learn how to be a good mechanic, and her mom was okay with it.

Meet the 11-Year-Old Black Girl Mechanic Who Repairs Motorcycles

Now that Susanna is 11, she told BBC News that she is sure she can teach anyone how to fix motorcycles easily. At first, her dad wasn’t sure how quickly she’d pick it up and thought she might have trouble. But Susanna quickly showed him he was wrong by showing off her great skills and drive to get better where she needed to.

Susanna is in class 3 and has a lot of other things she needs to do, but she still finds time for her hobby of mechanics. She goes straight to the workshop after school to keep improving her skills.

But she wants to do more than just ride motorcycles. When she grows up, she wants to work on bigger cars, boats, and even airplanes. Aside from that, she wants to open her own store one day.

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Discover

Who Built the Pyramids in Egypt? Not Slaves

By knowafricaofficial May 20, 2024

There are a lot of different ideas about who built the Pyramids in Egypt. A lot of the time, they are about aliens from the past, lizard people, the Freemasons, or a technologically advanced civilization that has been lost.

Scientists have tried to fight these silly ideas but have failed. But Egyptian scholars have had another wrong idea about how the pyramids were built for hundreds of years: slaves did not build the pyramids.

The strongest evidence suggests that the people who worked on the pyramids were from the area and were paid well and fed well. This is known because their tombs and other things that show how they lived have been found by archaeologists.

The Lives of Pyramid Workers

A surprising number of simple tombs for pyramid workers were found not far from the tombs of the pharaohs in 1990. Inside, archaeologists found all the things that pyramid workers would need to get to the afterlife. These are simple things that common slaves probably wouldn’t have been given.

But that’s not all. Archaeologists have also spent years digging up a huge complex that they think was home to thousands of workers on the side. The place is known as Heit el-Ghurab, and it was probably part of a bigger port city on the Nile River.

Food, supplies, and building materials for the pyramids came from all over the area to this port city. In the ruins of Heit el-Ghurab, they found signs of large barracks where at least 1,600 workers could have slept together. Archaeologists also found a lot of evidence of the many foods they ate, such as a lot of bread and a lot of meat from animals like goats, sheep, cattle, and fish.

Graffiti from these workers can also be seen on the buildings they made. The Egyptian writing was hidden on blocks inside the pyramids so no one would ever see it. They write down the names of different work groups, such as “the Drunkards of Menkaure” and “the Followers of the Powerful White Crown of Khufu.” (Each gang was named after a different pharaoh from that time.)

In Egypt, other marks show towns and regions. Some of them look like mascots for groups of workers, and they have pictures of animals like ibises on them.

These hieroglyphs help archaeologists figure out where the workers were from, what their lives were like, and who hired them. Archaeologists have not found any evidence of slavery or work by people from other countries.

At the same time, there is a lot of proof that Egypt collected labor taxes. That’s why some researchers think workers may have been sent on tours of construction, kind of like national service. It’s not clear, though, if that means the workers were forced to do what they did.

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Featured

History Of The Acholi Tribe

By knowafricaofficial May 18, 2024

The Acholi Tribe speak a language that is spoken in northern Uganda and South Sudan. They speak a Western Nilotic language that is part of the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan family. There are more than a million of them as of the turn of the 21st century, and they are related to their traditional enemies, the Lango who live nearby.

The Acholi are descended from different Luo-speaking groups that are thought to have moved into what is now the Acholi district of Uganda three or four hundred years ago from nearby parts of what is now South Sudan.

Each Acholi village is part of a small chiefdom, and each chiefdom has several patrilineal clans. Chiefs are picked from the same family tree. These people, the Acholi, live in small towns with their male ancestors. Pastoralism is important to them, but not as much as it is to some other Nilotic groups.

The Acholi eat millet as a main food source and grow tobacco for trade. Other savanna crops that are grown are sorghum, corn (maize), beans, squash, peanuts (groundnuts), and others. Clans own the land where people hunt. It is important to fish in streams and swamps.

The Acholi were considered a martial people by the British, and many joined the military. Under Ugandan Pres. Idi Amin (1971–79) the Acholi were severely persecuted and their men systematically executed for their past association with the colonial army and for their support of Pres. Milton Obote (1962–71, 1980–85).

Economy Of The Acholi Tribe

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. When not disrupted or dispossessed by the violence endemic since the mid-1980s, most Acholi remain primarily mixed farmers. The old staples of eleusine (finger) millet, sorghum, sesame, and various peas, beans, and leafy green vegetables continue to be grown, along with twentieth-century crops such as cassava, maize, peanuts (groundnuts), fruits, and cotton. As they have for centuries, Acholi farmers rely mainly on iron hoes and other hand tools.

The most common domestic animals are (and have long been) chickens and goats, with some cattle, especially in the dryer portions of Acholi. Large, dry-season hunts were an important part of the precolonial economy; these gradually decreased in significance as the varied roster of both large and small game animals dwindled over the twentieth century.

Industrial Arts. Ironworking, mainly but not entirely confined to certain lineages, appears to be almost as ancient as agriculture, going back perhaps to the first millennium b.c. Pottery and basket making were widespread and relatively nonspecialized arts, carried out by both men and women. In most chiefdoms, only members of designated lineages could make or repair royal drums.

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