In Africa, there is the concept of fetishism which has been prevalent as a description of African beliefs. Thus, a fetish is an object which holds spiritual power or supernatural significance. Given that African statues hold deep cultural, spiritual, and symbolic significance [Authorship in African Art: The Case of Yoruba Art], the term fetishism has been historically associated to them. Early European anthropologists have linked African religions and statues to fetishism. However, we are learning that this was a technique designed by Europeans to denigrate and dehumanize the African person so as to justify slavery [Dum Diversas or The Vatican’s Authorization of Slavery] early on, and colonialism later on.
Cheikh Anta Diop, the great Senegalese historian, anthropologist, philosopher, physicist, and politician, showed in his book, Nations Nègres et Culture: de l’Antiquite nègre égyptienne aux problèmes culturels de l’Afrique noire d’aujourd’hui, that fetishism in Africa is not an inherent school of thought, but rather arose from the disconnection of modern Africans to their original religions due to violent exposure to centuries of attacks (slavery) from the West. Thus, he said,
Cheikh Anta Diop
“From one end of Black Africa to the other, passing through Egypt, the statues were originally intended to be the support of the immortal “double” of the ancestor after his earthly death. Placed in a sacred place, the statue was the object of offerings and libations: this fact, misinterpreted by Westerners, created the false idea of fetishism. In reality, there is a tendency towards fetishism, that is, idolatry, only where the meaning of the cult has been forgotten through a break in tradition.”
Cheikh Anta Diop, Nations Nègres et Culture, Présence Africaine, Paris p. 339 (1954). Translated to English by Dr. Y, Afrolegends.com.
We have previously talked about the Ishango bone, or rather the first evidence of a calculator in the world. Named after the place where it was found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Ishango bone is what is called a bone tool or the craddle of mathematics, and dates as far back as 22,000 years ago, in the Upper Paleolitic era; It is the oldest attestation of the practice of arithmetic in human history.
Map of Tanzania
This month, archaeologists have published in the journal Nature their discovery of the earliest known bone tools, showing evidence of their use 1.5 million years ago. These bone tools were found in the Olduvai Gorge, in Tanzania. The tools were carved from elephant and hippopotamus bones. The article, Systematic bone tool production at 1.5 million years ago by de la Torre et al., was published on March 5, 2025, and provides new insights into the intelligence and innovation of East African hominins who showed “a transfer and adaptation of knapping skills from stone to bone,” which until now were thought to be restricted only to European sites dating back 500,000 years.
As the authors say in the Nature article, “… East African hominins developed an original cultural innovation that entailed a transfer and adaptation of knapping skills from stone to bone. By producing technologically and morphologically standardized bone tools, early Acheulean toolmakers unravelled technological repertoires that were previously thought to have appeared routinely more than 1 million years later.”
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Flag of Tanzania
Archaeologists have discovered the earliest known bone tools, pushing back evidence of their use by around a million years.
The find suggests early humans had more advanced tool-making skills than previously thought. These 27 fossilised bones, shaped into tools 1.5 million years ago, are rewriting the history of early human technology.
The collection, found in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge, provides the earliest evidence of deliberate bone tool-making by ancient hominins. Carved from the thick leg bones of elephants and hippos, the implements reveal that early humans were using more complex toolkits than previously thought.
Researchers know that simple stone tools were being made as far back as 3.3 million years ago. But until now, bone tools were believed to be a much later innovation. The well-preserved artifacts, some measuring up to 40 centimetres, show clear signs of intentional shaping. At the time they were created, our ancestors lived a precarious hunter-gatherer existence on the plans of the Serengeti region, a landscape teeming with wildlife. They made them using a technique similar to how stone tools are made, by chipping off small flakes to form sharp edges, revealing skilled craftsmanship.
… The tools were likely used as handheld axes for butchering animal carcasses, particularly scavenged remains of elephants and hippos. Unlike later tools, they were not mounted on handles or used as spears. Researchers say the uniform selection of bones, primarily large leg bones from specific animals, suggests early humans deliberately sought out the best raw materials for making tools.
… The discovery dates back more than a million years before Homo sapiens emerged. At the time, at least three different hominin species lived in the region, including Homo erectus, Homo habilis, and Paranthropus boisei.
Last week, the Kente cloth, Ghana’s national textile, has been recognized and added to the UNESCO list of Intangibla Cultural Heritage of Humanity. A few years ago, we published the article Kente Cloth: An Ashanti Tradition dating Centuries back. Here, we will go down memory lane.
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Have you ever seen those beautiful bright multicolored scarves worn on graduation day by thousands of African Americans and African students across the United States? Those scarves are usually hand-woven, bright, and multicolored, worn to represent the membership to a Black sorority, fraternity, or to just an African student organization at the different colleges and universities.
Kente cloth
Well, those scarves are made from a material commonly known as Kente cloth, which originates from the Ashanti people of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. The Ashanti people used to (and still do) hand weave these bright multicolored clothes for their kings and noblemen. The tradition of kentecloth is said to have been developed in the 17th century, and stems from ancient Akan weaving techniques dating as far back as the 11th century AD (this is one of Africa’s textile tradition). Kentecloth is known as nwentoma (meaning woven cloth) in Akan language, and is a type of silk, cotton, or rayon fabric made of interwoven cloth strips which is native to the Akan/Ashanti ethnic group of Southern Ghana (and also Cote d’Ivoire). It is woven on a wooden loom, which produces a band about 10 cm wide; several bands will then be sewn together to make a larger cloth. The elaborate patterns arise from the mixture of different weaving techniques applied to the same band of cloth. The quality of the fabric, and weaving indicates the rank of the person, the best being reserved for the kings. It is worn by men as a toga, and by women as upper and lower wrappers. The art of weaving kenteis passed down only to males, from generation to generation. The main center of weaving kenteis around the Kumasi region of Ghana.
Fenus unciarum refers to an ancient Roman concept of interest on loans. The term “unciarum” comes from the latin “uncia,” which means “twelfth,” and “fenus” means interest. Essentially, it was a legal term used to describe the interest rate of 1/12 (or about 8.33%) per month, which translates to an annual interest rate of approximately 100%. The Twelve Tables, an early Roman legal code, established this rate to protect borrowers from exorbitant interest rates. This was a common practice in Roman law which was applied in Africa during the slave trade. The debtor who cannot redeem himself becomes a slave: he can redeem himself by selling his son to the creditor. According to the law of the XII tables, the creditor can sell the debtor beyond the Tiber.
The fidelity of this scheme in Black Africa under the slave system is corroborated by Mungo Park, the Scottish explorer who visited West Africa in the 1790s. After an exploration of the upper Niger River around 1796, he wrote a popular and influential travel book titled Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa in which he theorized the Niger and Congo merged to become the same river, though it was later proven that they are different rivers. In this book, he shed a light also on the fenus unciarum use in Africa.
Slave capture
“When a Negro takes goods on credit from Europeans on the coast and does not pay at the agreed time, the creditor has the right, according to the laws of the country, to seize the debtor or, if he cannot find him, someone from his family, or finally, as a last resort, someone from the same kingdom. The person thus seized is detained while his friends are sent to search for the debtor. When the latter is found, an assembly of the chiefs of the place is called, and the debtor is forced, by paying his debt, to release his relative. If he cannot do this, he is immediately seized: he is sent to the coast, and the other is set free. If the debtor is not found, the arrested person is obliged to pay double the amount of the debt, or he himself is sold as a slave…”
From this, one can easily see how an entire kingdom could be captured.
We have been told by many that “Africans sold their brothers” into slavery. However, we have seen before, When the Kongo King, King Mvemba a Nzinga, most commonly known as Afonso I of Kongo, or Nzinga Mbemba, wrote to the King of Portugal against Slavery, that many kings fought against such. King Afonso I was concerned about the depopulation of his kingdom through the exportation of his own citizens into slavery, and complained to the Portuguese king against it. Below, we will see that the above statement is mostly a false statement invented by the guilty to turn the victim into an accomplice.
Here is Guillaume Bosman in La Traite des Noirs au Siècle des Lumières (Témoignages de négriers), p.38 who also confirms the disorganization of Black Africa by slave-trading Europe. He writes:
“there are many people among us who imagine that fathers sell their children here, husbands their wives, and brothers their brothers, but they are wrong. This never happens except out of necessity and for some crime; most of the slaves taken to us are people who have been taken prisoner in war, and whom the victor, considering as his booty, has sold to make a profit.”
On January 13, 2025, the people of Limbe stood together against the alleged ceding of the historic slave trade site to a private company GilGal Tours for 50 year lease!!! Can you imagine that? It’s like the government is once again trying to erase the history of this place. One day, Cameroonians will wake up and find out that their government has sold the entire country away! How can one even fathom selling a national historic site? This site waseven been added to the UNESCO tentative list of World Heritage lists in 2020. How can one even wrap their minds around the ceding of Bimbia to a private company, after so many descendants of slaves taken from its shores have just started to reconcile with their history? After the whole country has reconnected with their history? A few years back, a friend visiting the site was told by her guide that a business man had come to level the place down, and had been stopped just in time; now this? Sure, Limbe, and the country as a whole needs development. Cameroon is full of beautiful places and tourist sites that are not being valued. It is no doubt that the site would benefit from the development in Limbe or simply the road to Bimbia which will open access to the area, and increase touristic benefits. The entire area should be honored !
Names like Gorée (Senegal), Bunce Island (Sierra Leone), Elmina (Ghana) and Ouidah (Benin) are all synonymous to the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and have gained an iconic place in history as locations from whence millions of Africans (up to 15 million it is believed) were transported to Europe and the Americas to be sold as slaves. How about the island of Bimbia? Have you ever heard of her?
Dr. Lisa Aubrey is an associate professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Arizona State University. She is also a Fulbright scholar (2014-15) based at the University of Yaounde I.
Ruins at the Bimbia slave fort, in Cameroon
Since 2010, Dr Aubrey has been conducting research on Bimbia, a supposedly forgotten or not so often talked about slave trade port she refers to as “The Apertura”, located in the South West region of the central African nation of Cameroon. “It is the site at which African ethnicities in Cameroon were forcibly and cruelly whisked away from their homeland, or killed,” says Dr Aubrey in a recent special edition of Villages D’Afrique magazine. She goes on to note that the Transatlantic Slave Trade on the coast of Cameroon took place between the mid-17th to late 19th century. Dr Aubrey’s research team (between September 2010 and July 2014) were able to locate and validate some 166 slave ship voyages that left Cameroon bound mostly for plantations in the Americas, sometimes via neighboring Equatorial Guinea. “Bimbia is opening the door for broader research,” says the Louisiana, USA native.
A few years ago, a colleague of mine visited Antigua, and when he came back, he told me that during his tour of the island, his guide told him that most of the island was peopled by descendants of slaves who all came from Cameroon. I was stunned, as at the time, I did not know of a slave fort in Cameroon, and how could an entire island in the Caribbean be filled with descendants from Cameroon? This was when I started digging, and a few years later, Pr. Lisa Marie Aubrey’s research came out which validated the whole story.
Map of Cameroon, with the capital Yaoundé
Today, we will talk about a slave fort whose existence was not even known until the 2000s, yet, it is said that at least 10% of all African slaves taken to the new world must have passed through its “gates”. This slave fort is Bimbia, in Cameroon. It is listed nowhere in Cameroonian history books, and even in African books. Even today, children learning about the slave trade in Cameroon, do not know about Bimbia. There is indeed a great silence about the existence of slave forts in the crook of the Gulf of Guinea whether in Nigeria, Cameroon, or Gabon.
Welcome Sign to the Bimbia Site, in Bimbia, Cameroon
Located in the South West region of Cameroon, Bimbia is a small village about 5 km from the seaside city of Limbe, on the hills surrounding the city center. It is strategically located on the Gulf of Guinea, in the nook of its elbow, east of the Bight of Biafra, between Rio del Rey and Cameroons River (as the Wouri river was known back then). The site was only re-discovered in 1987 during the earthworks on the church dedicated to the memory of Alfred Saker church, and is now classified as a national heritage of Cameroon.
Vestiges of the slave fort at Bimbia
What brought Bimbia back from its oblivion? Most likely the fact that since Ancestry DNA has gained in popularity over the years, many African American actors, producers, politicians, such Spike Lee, Quincy Jones, Eddie Murphy, Blair Underwood, Chris Tucker, Condoleeza Rice, Oprah Winfrey, or Brazilian Regina Ribeiro, and more have found their origins in Cameroon. This was surprising, and led to more research to find out where their ancestors could have come from, given the absence of information on slave forts in the region.
Ruins of the slave prison in Bimbia
According to Pr. Lisa Marie Aubrey of Arizona State University who published her study in 2014, thousands of Africans were taken from the slave fort of Bimbia, similar to Gorée in Senegal, or more. From her research, she found out that at least 166 slave ships left the coasts of Cameroon. Bimbia is not the only slave fort found in the country, Rio del Rey near the Bakassi peninsula and Cameroons Town (Douala) are the others. From the ships inventoried, 9 left the territory in 1600, 98 in 1700, and 59 in 1800. 15 left from Bimbia, 9 from Rio del Rey, and 32 from the Wouri River.
The slaves who arrived in Bimbia from hinterland came from everywhere, but the majority came from the Grassfields, the Bamileke region, Northwest, Noun, Mbam, Tikar region, and even as far north as the Hausa region.
Ruins of where the slaves were fed, the manger, at Bimbia
For anyone visiting today, the road to Bimbia from Limbe is a tough road, sometimes impracticable during the rainy season; the site is hidden in a deep and lush green forest, with huge bamboos around. As a matter of fact, the slaves who ran away used this hostile environment with treacherous ravines, hills, and volcanic rocks to hide, to their advantage.
Bimbia was considered such a good location for the ships traveling the coast because of Nicholls Island whose south coast constitutes a deep sea port with at least 6 m depth, thus allowing ships to accost easily with no fear of crashing. Nicholls Island is located 300 m away from Bimbia which is on the continent; thus providing slavers with a perfect path to the continent for slaves. Once the slavers had gotten slaves from Bimbia, they could also make transit on the nearby island of Fernando Po (Bioko – where Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea is located). Thus, slaves were brought from the hinterland, and kept in Bimbia, while awaiting the arrival of the slave ships; once the slave ship arrived, the slaves were taken from Bimbia to nearby Nicholls Island 300 m away, from where they were then moved into the ships to far away destinations never to see their continent again.
Nicholls Island, viewed from Bimbia
For today’s visitor, there are still vestiges that testify of Bimbia’s dark history: brick columns, rusty chains hooked on the falling walls, iron chunks here and there, bells, and the manger where the slaves were fed..
Although Bimbia has now entered the national heritage of Cameroon, it has not yet become as popular a destination as it should, like Goree, Elmina Castle, Cape Coast and others. This may be more due to the lack of organization in the overall tourism of the country, bad governance, and also the accessibility to the place. This is a call to more historians, particularly Cameroonian and African historians to restore the story of Bimbia and many of the other hidden slave forts of West and Central Africa.
This past weekend, I visited an Ivorian friend who served me Attiéké, Ivory Coast’s iconic dish made from fermented cassava roots, which is part of almost all Ivorian tables. Few days ago, the attiéké, has been inscribed on the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. What is the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, you may ask? The Intangible heritage focuses on the non-physical aspects of a culture, contrary to the tangible heritage which focuses on monuments and natural landscapes, working on the preservation of traditions, practices, expressions, and knowledge of entire communities. Thus, African treasures which are part of the UNESCO tangible heritage list would be Great Zimbabwe, the Rock-hewn churches of Lalibela (Ethiopia), Timbuktu (Mali), or Pyramids of Giza (Egypt), while intangible heritages would be the Congolese Rumba and now Attiéké.
A pack of Attieke
Attiéké is often nicknamed “Ivorian couscous,” because it is a staple made from grated, fermented cassava roots, which has a texture similar to the semolina couscous consumed in the countries of the Maghreb, in northern Africa. The Attiéké originated in the coastal regions of Ivory Coast centuries ago; today, it has become a culinary cornerstone across the country and even beyond its frontiers. The dish is versatile, often paired with grilled fish and served during meals and special ceremonies such as weddings, baptisms, and funerals. It also represents a livelihood for many women in Ivory Coast, as its production is an intricate, multi-day process which has been traditionally led by women and passed down from generation to generation. This tradition includes peeling, grating, fermenting, pressing, drying, and steaming the cassava pulp. These skills, which are central to its preparation, have also been recognized as intangible cultural heritage. Today, Cote d’Ivoire produces over 40,000 tons of Attieke per year, and its commercialization and consumption has expanded beyond the country’s border to other African countries, and other continents.
Attieke
The UNESCO’s recognition of this Ivorian treasure highlights the importance of preserving not just the dish itself but also the traditional knowledge and skills associated with its preparation. The generational transfer of these skills ensures attiéké’s role as a cultural bridge in Ivorian society.
Royal Kuba Masqueraders in Nsheng, Kasai, Congo, ca 1909 (Source: RandAfricanArt.com)
Below is a description of an African city by a well-known European explorer. In 1904, German ethnologist and archaeologistLeo Frobenius, entered the Kasai district in Congo, formulating the African Atlantis theory during his travels. Frobenius entered the heart of Africa, and described the cities as beautiful, and the local art work as comparable to European style. He described the intricate craftsmanship in the work of iron, copper, and the quality of the art found on cutlery, cups, pipes, and more. He was astounded by the graceful manners and moral cannon of the locals of all ages and classes, and depicted it as far superior to those of Europeans. Frobenius stated that he knew “of no people who could compare in terms of unity of civilization.” This was at the turn of the past century, and the place was still unpolluted by European influence. Later, as he described, the full arrival of Europeans corrupted the place.
As the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) has been going through so pain, war and genocide over the past decades, let us unite the way Frobenius saw it. Enjoy! This is from Leo Frobenius, La Civilisation africaine, Le Rocher, Paris, “Civilisation et Traditions”, Jean-Paul Bertrand Editeur (1984), p. 17-18 (translated to English by Dr. Y, Afrolegends.com).
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Leo Frobenius in Africa in 1910 (watercolor painting by Carl Arriens)
In 1906, when I entered the territory of Kassaï-Sankuru, I still found villages whose main streets were lined on each side, over several distances, with four rows of palm trees, and whose [houses], each charmingly decorated, were works of art. There was no man who did not carry sumptuous weapons of iron or copper, with inlaid blades and handles covered with snake skin. Velvet and silk fabrics everywhere. Every cup, every pipe, every spoon was an object of art perfectly worthy of comparison with the creations of the European Romanesque style. But all this was only the particularly tender and shimmering down which adorns a wonderful and ripe fruit; the gestures and manners, the moral canon of the entire people, from the small child to the old man, although they remained within absolutely natural limits, were marked by dignity and grace, in the families of princes and the rich as in those of vassals and slaves. I know of no people in the North who can compare with these primitives in terms of unity of civilization.
Alas, the last “Islands of the Blessed” were also submerged by the tidal wave of European civilization. And the peaceful beauty was swept away by the waves.
Last May, an Egyptian mission unearthed the remains of a 3,500-year-old fortified royal retreat at Tel Habwa archaelogical site in the Northern Sinai Archaelogical Area. This ancient fortified area is believed to have belonged to Pharaoh Thutmose III (Thutmosis III) and to be one of his vacation homes or rest palaces. The structure dates back to the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III, the sixth pharaoh of ancient Egypt’s 18th dynasty in the New Kingdom period. Thutmose III is thought to have ruled Egypt from 1479 to 1425 B.C.. He is regarded as one of the greatest military commanders in history, leading successive victorious campaigns that expanded Egypt’s empire to its greatest extent. This is the pharaoh’s whose Lateran obelisk still stands today in Rome. Everyday more treasures of Ancient Egypt are getting unearthed.
The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MTA) announced that the building is made of mud-brick and the site includes the presence of a royal palace to house the king. The building consists of two consecutive rectangular halls, accompanied by a number of rooms. It appears to have been fortified with a perimeter wall. The royal rest home features a grand main hall with three limestone columns, a secondary hall, and several adjoining rooms, all adorned with prominent pillars.
Researchers found the building’s remains at Tel Habwa, an archaeological site northeast of Cairo (Source: The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)
“It is likely that this building had been used as a royal respite due to the architectural planning of the building and the scarcity of pottery fractures [broken pottery] inside,” the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a translated statement shared on their Facebook page. The Egyptian Archaeological Mission, operating at the Tel Habwa (Tharo) Archaeological Site, made this discovery during excavations as part of the Sinai Development Project.
“This discovery is pivotal as it illuminates crucial aspects of Egypt’s military history, particularly in the Sinai region, during the New Kingdom era,” said Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, as reported by Ahram Online.
African Heritage 