Isaac Samuel
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rhaplord.bsky.social
Isaac Samuel
@rhaplord.bsky.social
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Early Christianity in the religious history of West Africa (ca. 1500-1820)

www.patreon.com/posts/146362...
Tomorrow's Patreon article is about proto-nationalists in African history
January 3, 2026 at 4:54 PM
Menelik Honours Makonnen
ca. 1906.
Ethiopia.

#ethnographxt
January 2, 2026 at 5:15 PM
-Kassala in Sudan, ca. 1880.
-The Taka Mountains and the town of Kassala, Sudan, ca. 1861.
-Mountainous Landscape near Kassala, Sudan, ca. 1896.
-Typical National Dress & Costume in the 1920's, Eastern Sudan.

#archivesxt
#ethnographxt
January 2, 2026 at 4:15 PM
-Costumes of the King of the Kongo, and a nobleman. they wear hats with brims, and carry scimitars. ca. 1843
-Pagazis people of Catumbela, province of Benguela. Angola. ca. 1877
-Loanda. Panorama of the port. ca. 1890
-Caconda in Angola, 1881

#archivesxt
#ethnographxt
January 2, 2026 at 4:04 PM
A gentleman of Ardra, Benin, ca. 1796
"Favorite of the King of Ouidah", Benin, ca. 1797

#ethnographxt
January 1, 2026 at 5:44 PM
A street in Zanzibar City, Tanzania. ca. 1860
Zanzibar, Tanzania. View of the town, ca. 1911

#archivesxt
January 1, 2026 at 5:12 PM
-Portrait of Hadji Moktar Bou el Mogdad in traditional white clothes and necklace, Saint-Louis Cadi, Senegal. ca. 1861

-Senegalese family of St. Louis, ca. 1872

#ethnographxt
January 1, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Happy new year everyone!

gold-plated time piece,
20th cent.
Baule, Cote D'ivoire
-British Museum
December 31, 2025 at 9:09 PM
The West African scholar al-Wālī (fl. 1688) was a rationalist whose writings combined classical/Greek philosophy and local oral traditions to challenge the ‘blind acceptance’ of religious authority

www.patreon.com/posts/17th-c...
December 31, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Manuscript cultures in West Africa's frontier regions.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/texts-from...
December 31, 2025 at 4:49 PM
It wasn't Malaria that defended Africans against colonialism

Portugal colonised Mombasa and the East African coast for 105 years in the 17th century; that was 37 years longer than the British lasted in 19th-20th cent. Kenya

The disease barrier is a myth
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/guns-germs...
December 29, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Isaac Samuel
Can’t trust anyone who uses the Mercator projection to talk about geography
Map of continental orientations according to Diamond.

In reality, Africa is almost as wide as Eurasia. The red line from Dakar (Senegal) to Ras Hafun ( Somalia) is 7,458 km, which is about is about 94% the distance between Brussels and Beijing at 7,958.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/guns-germs...
December 29, 2025 at 5:54 PM
I published this late, so here's a quick summary⤵️

-Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel is not anti-racist;

The chapter on "How Africa became Black" and the focus on South Africa, just 3 years after the end of apartheid, should have made this fact clear to any reader
December 29, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Isaac Samuel
This was a remarkable read. Pretty telling that Jared's book is popping up in bookstore in South Africa again. Read this rather.
December 29, 2025 at 6:24 AM
Reposted by Isaac Samuel
This is an incredible read.
December 29, 2025 at 3:12 AM
The dispersion of domesticated animals across Africa was relatively "rapid", at a rate of about 1.2-1.3km/yr
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/guns-germs...
December 28, 2025 at 11:19 PM
The misleading but popular Mercator projection makes Africa appear smaller than it is.
This is one of the reasons why the African Union is backing a campaign to adopt a world map that more accurately reflects the continent’s relative size.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/guns-germs...
December 28, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Map of continental orientations according to Diamond.

In reality, Africa is almost as wide as Eurasia. The red line from Dakar (Senegal) to Ras Hafun ( Somalia) is 7,458 km, which is about is about 94% the distance between Brussels and Beijing at 7,958.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/guns-germs...
December 28, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Portuguese invasions of west-central Africa (in red) and counter-attacks by Kongo (blue) and Ndongo (green)

www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/guns-germs...
December 28, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Apparently, the Sudanese and Ethiopians (who are literary named after the Arabic and Greek terms for 'black' folks) are counted among the "whites."
What on *earth* can this weirdo mean by 'whites' here??
December 28, 2025 at 10:51 PM
The stone ruins of the HighVeld in South Africa
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/guns-germs...
December 28, 2025 at 10:47 PM
The Portuguese (16th century) and Dutch (17th century) in south Africa
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/guns-germs...
December 28, 2025 at 10:34 PM
cave painting from Cristol cave, south Africa, showing the types of cattle herded by the region’s pastoralists.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/guns-germs...
December 28, 2025 at 10:31 PM
18th-century drawing of a village in the Khoe Kingdom of Gonaqua

Jared Diamond’s image of a widely distributed prehistoric Khoe-san population is based on Greenberg’s (1954) now-discredited theory that the language family formed a single genealogical unit
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/guns-germs...
December 28, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Jared Diamond’s map of Africa’s “races.”

Diamond uncritically reproduces antiquated theories of colonial scientific racism, despite acknowledging the limitations of this highly unscientific division of Africa into arbitrary races.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/guns-germs...
December 28, 2025 at 10:19 PM