The first major city in sub-Saharan Africa was founded in what is now Nigeria. Ilé-Ifè, the sacred city of the Yoruba, was a center of African civilization. Until its decline.
Outstanding work by the producer and the entire team! This is the kind of documentary that educates, challenges old assumptions, and inspires pride in our shared human history.
As a Yoruba, this fills me with both pride and responsibility. Our identity is rooted in a rich civilization, not in those race labels that were imposed centuries later. Ilé-Ifẹ reminds us that our greatest inheritance is our history, our culture, and our contribution to humanity. Ẹ ṣe púpọ̀ for this excellent documentary.
It’s important for Nigeria and Africans for have exposure to this and feel proud. Forget the West. There’s a reason why no one was going to the West to raid their land for “exotic works” I 3:53
If the European powers could, they would have carried the Egyptian pyramids, the pyramids of Sudan, the Monomotapa wall, and even the Nile river, if it were possible.
This was really interesting, thanks! The bronzes are quiet lovely to look at, in particular the ones with the parallel lines on the faces are truly marvelous and unique, have never seen anything like them before and I feel inspired now. How neat that you can find glass beads all over, they look so nice.
I wonder if an up and coming artist from the area is making something new based on the foundation of these old glass and bronze masterpieces. That would be a great thing to see, like I can imagine a multimedia technique that blends both the beads and the bronze together.
DW did an awesome job making this film. There are books on Yoruba history, but I find they can be very complex and very academic. They are written for a specific audience. That's cool. This film made the history more approachable and broke it down so that people can understand the progression from Ile Ife to other polities like Oyo, Benin, and Ijebu. I wish it could have spoken about the relationship between Ile Ife influencing Ewe speaking communities in modern day Benin and Togo too. Thanks for creating this.
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As a Yoruba, this fills me with both pride and responsibility. Our identity is rooted in a rich civilization, not in those race labels that were imposed centuries later. Ilé-Ifẹ reminds us that our greatest inheritance is our history, our culture, and our contribution to humanity. Ẹ ṣe púpọ̀ for this excellent documentary.
Translation- the European hands of death and destruction had torched it.
I wonder if an up and coming artist from the area is making something new based on the foundation of these old glass and bronze masterpieces. That would be a great thing to see, like I can imagine a multimedia technique that blends both the beads and the bronze together.
Funky background music fits really well too!