TechTweets


hook The author poses a common misconception and a question that many people likely don't know the answer to. This hook hinges on the reader being interested in a gap in their history knowledge.		Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 I always find the “Africa is better off from the results of colonization” arguments amusing. What do people think happened with African empires & their European counterparts prior to colonization? Perhaps a history lesson is in order. Thread. 1/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 There were so many different African empires, so I’m gonna stick to the empire from which I’m descended--the Benin Empire (what is now Benin City in Edo State in southern Nigeria)--and its relationship with the Portuguese since the early 15th century. 2/17
dramatic narrative The author walks us through the story of how the Benin empire traded with the Portuguese prior to colonization. This narrative is filled with rich details that draw the reader in, like the name of the city "Lagos", the specific items that were traded back and forth, and quotes. It also has a major conflict (when Britain wanted a monopoly) and a resolution, albeit a sad one.		Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 The Benin empire interacted with the British, French, Dutch and Portuguese throughout its existence, but the Benin-Portugal relationship was the chummiest. They traded goods, languages, histories, lessons. They sent emissaries and scholars to each other & threw big shindigs. 3/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 The Lagos y’all know? Portuguese word for “lake,” named back when the land that is now Lagos was still a part of the Benin Empire. Benin Obas spoke Portuguese and sent their subjects to learn about Christianity. Early Benin art had crosses mixed with its own pantheon. 4/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 The Portuguese wanted slaves so Benin sold its POWs. They wanted spices, ivory & coral beads, and offered textiles, tools & weapons in return. They established a factory at Ughoton, Benin’s then seaport city (long before Lagos became one of West Africa’s key slaveports). 5/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 David van Nyendael, on visiting Benin in 1699: “When it comes to trade, they are very strict and will not suffer the slightest infringement of their customs...when one is willing to accept these customs, they are very easy-going and will cooperate in every way possible.” 6/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 No surprise, then, that the first point of contention arrived when King Manuel of Portugal wanted commercial monopoly, as well as for the Binis to fully accept Christianity, to which Oba Esigie was like, “Excuse you?” The decline in trade relations began after that. 7/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 Then, there was also disease. Them weak-ass sailors would get bitten by one tiny-ass anopheles mosquito and be like, “cough cough Ugh, tell my wife I love her.” The French especially suffered from this. Then the British arrived, and it all went to shit from there. 8/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 Buoyed by that nonsense Berlin Conference of 1885 (smh), the British started asking for trade monopoly and control. They were so aggressive about it that the Oba banned all other trade with them, save for palm oil (to aid lubrication in the burgeoning European machine age). 9/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 Proud-ass Britain didn’t like being told what to do. They wrote stink pieces, commenced disinformation campaigns. Here’s Consul Richard Burton, in 1862: “...a place of gratuitous barbarity which stinks of death." (Like we haven’t seen Oliver Twist. Pot/kettle much?) 10/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 By 1897, the consuls had convinced the Queen with enough lies to gather an army to take Benin by force. “Liberate the people” and convert them to Christianity. (Sound familiar, y’all summer missionary cruisers to the Caribbean with a side-dish of “converting the natives?”) 11/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 The 1897 Benin Expedition & deposition of Oba Ovonramwen happened then. You can read about it anywhere (except the British Museum’s revisionist take, to which I cackled when I visited). TL;DR, Benin was overrun, palace burnt, Oba exiled, art carted to Britain’s museums. 12/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 In similar fashion, the British colonized everywhere that is now Nigeria, sucked off resources of countless groups until 1960. Then they drew border lines, binding this mix of tribes, languages & customs, & threw a few coins at them. “Shoo, now. Go take care of yourselves.” 13/17
payoff In the payoff the author returns to the original misconception he often hears, and, prepared with knowledge from the narrative, easily refutes it. In addition, we get several more details to bolster his point, and finally we end the tweetorial with a summary of the harms of colonization.		Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 So when people say, “colonialism benefited Africans,” this is why I want to wash their mouths with a soap bar. “But the Africans got technology,” you say. “Became modern.” You mean like they would’ve done if they had continued to, I dunno, trade on their own terms? 14/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 Why do folks behave like Europe & Asia didn’t once have limited tech? They progressed through partnerships & exchange, like all colonized peoples should’ve had the chance to. Name one never-disenfranchised nation that is not currently working toward global contention. 15/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 In fact, Benin was actually one of the leaders in architecture at their time. Google “Walls of Benin.” The largest-ever earthwork project prior to mechanization, at one point “four times longer than the Great Wall of China.” Seriously, look it up: https://t.co/lCwNG6gYAa 16/17
	Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27 TL;DR, Colonialism benefits one party: the colonizer. None would be half what they are today without it. If you want to make an argument about one power subsuming another by wielding might, make that. But take that White Supremacist “it helped you too” bullshit outside. 17/17

hook
The author poses a common misconception and a question that many people likely don't know the answer to. This hook hinges on the reader being interested in a gap in their history knowledge.

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

I always find the “Africa is better off from the results of colonization” arguments amusing. What do people think happened with African empires & their European counterparts prior to colonization? Perhaps a history lesson is in order. Thread. 1/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

There were so many different African empires, so I’m gonna stick to the empire from which I’m descended--the Benin Empire (what is now Benin City in Edo State in southern Nigeria)--and its relationship with the Portuguese since the early 15th century. 2/17

dramatic narrative
The author walks us through the story of how the Benin empire traded with the Portuguese prior to colonization. This narrative is filled with rich details that draw the reader in, like the name of the city "Lagos", the specific items that were traded back and forth, and quotes. It also has a major conflict (when Britain wanted a monopoly) and a resolution, albeit a sad one.

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

The Benin empire interacted with the British, French, Dutch and Portuguese throughout its existence, but the Benin-Portugal relationship was the chummiest. They traded goods, languages, histories, lessons. They sent emissaries and scholars to each other & threw big shindigs. 3/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

The Lagos y’all know? Portuguese word for “lake,” named back when the land that is now Lagos was still a part of the Benin Empire. Benin Obas spoke Portuguese and sent their subjects to learn about Christianity. Early Benin art had crosses mixed with its own pantheon. 4/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

The Portuguese wanted slaves so Benin sold its POWs. They wanted spices, ivory & coral beads, and offered textiles, tools & weapons in return. They established a factory at Ughoton, Benin’s then seaport city (long before Lagos became one of West Africa’s key slaveports). 5/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

David van Nyendael, on visiting Benin in 1699: “When it comes to trade, they are very strict and will not suffer the slightest infringement of their customs...when one is willing to accept these customs, they are very easy-going and will cooperate in every way possible.” 6/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

No surprise, then, that the first point of contention arrived when King Manuel of Portugal wanted commercial monopoly, as well as for the Binis to fully accept Christianity, to which Oba Esigie was like, “Excuse you?” The decline in trade relations began after that. 7/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

Then, there was also disease. Them weak-ass sailors would get bitten by one tiny-ass anopheles mosquito and be like, “*cough cough* Ugh, tell my wife I love her.” The French especially suffered from this. Then the British arrived, and it all went to shit from there. 8/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

Buoyed by that nonsense Berlin Conference of 1885 (smh), the British started asking for trade monopoly and control. They were so aggressive about it that the Oba banned all other trade with them, save for palm oil (to aid lubrication in the burgeoning European machine age). 9/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

Proud-ass Britain didn’t like being told what to do. They wrote stink pieces, commenced disinformation campaigns. Here’s Consul Richard Burton, in 1862: “...a place of gratuitous barbarity which stinks of death." (Like we haven’t seen Oliver Twist. Pot/kettle much?) 10/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

By 1897, the consuls had convinced the Queen with enough lies to gather an army to take Benin by force. “Liberate the people” and convert them to Christianity. (Sound familiar, y’all summer missionary cruisers to the Caribbean with a side-dish of “converting the natives?”) 11/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

The 1897 Benin Expedition & deposition of Oba Ovonramwen happened then. You can read about it anywhere (except the British Museum’s revisionist take, to which I cackled when I visited). TL;DR, Benin was overrun, palace burnt, Oba exiled, art carted to Britain’s museums. 12/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

In similar fashion, the British colonized everywhere that is now Nigeria, sucked off resources of countless groups until 1960. Then they drew border lines, binding this mix of tribes, languages & customs, & threw a few coins at them. “Shoo, now. Go take care of yourselves.” 13/17

payoff
In the payoff the author returns to the original misconception he often hears, and, prepared with knowledge from the narrative, easily refutes it. In addition, we get several more details to bolster his point, and finally we end the tweetorial with a summary of the harms of colonization.

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

So when people say, “colonialism benefited Africans,” this is why I want to wash their mouths with a soap bar. “But the Africans got technology,” you say. “Became modern.” You mean like they would’ve done if they had continued to, I dunno, trade on their own terms? 14/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

Why do folks behave like Europe & Asia didn’t once have limited tech? They progressed through partnerships & exchange, like all colonized peoples should’ve had the chance to. Name one never-disenfranchised nation that is not currently working toward global contention. 15/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

In fact, Benin was actually one of the leaders in architecture at their time. Google “Walls of Benin.” The largest-ever earthwork project prior to mechanization, at one point “four times longer than the Great Wall of China.” Seriously, look it up: https://t.co/lCwNG6gYAa 16/17

Suyi Davies Okungbowa @IAmSuyiDavies · Jun 27

TL;DR, Colonialism benefits one party: the colonizer. None would be half what they are today without it. If you want to make an argument about one power subsuming another by wielding might, make that. But take that White Supremacist “it helped you too” bullshit outside. 17/17