Best Of Benin .com - Ancestral exploration & healing in the Motherland

25/01/2026

January 2027: small group tour of Benin republic. Contact us today!

05/11/2025

19/10/2025

In “The Negro Digs Up His Past,” Schomburg argues that Black people must reclaim, research, and celebrate their history — a history that has been systematically erased or distorted by white historians. He insists that recovering this past is not just about pride, but about power and identity. Through the rediscovery of African and diasporic achievements in art, science, politics, and culture, Schomburg calls for a historical reawakening that restores dignity and self-respect to people of African descent.

Schomburg critiques how traditional Western historiography omitted or minimized the achievements of Black civilizations and individuals.

He frames the act of uncovering Black history as an act of liberation — “The American Negro must remake his past in order to make his future.” Schomburg connects historical knowledge to cultural pride, intellectual confidence, and political solidarity. His essay helped inspire the institutional preservation of Black history — including what became the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.

Schomburg’s work laid the intellectual foundation for later movements like Black Studies, Pan-Africanism, and the Civil Rights Movement’s focus on cultural pride. His message remains timeless: that reclaiming the Black past is essential for shaping a liberated and self-defined future.

18/10/2025

12/10/2025

11/10/2025

The Oyo Empire was a large West African empire founded in approximately 1300 C.E. The largest West African empire to exist in present day Yorubaland (Nigeria), it was also the most important and authoritative of all the early Yoruba principalities.

Oyo empire, Yoruba state north of Lagos, in present-day southwestern Nigeria, that dominated, during its apogee (1650–1750), most of the states between the Volta River in the west and the Niger River in the east. It was the most important and authoritative of all the early Yoruba principalities.

According to traditions, Oyo derived from a great Yoruba ancestor and hero, Oduduwa, who likely migrated to Ile-Ife and whose grandson became the first Alaafin, or ruler, of Oyo.

The Yoruba people are a mixture of several ancestral components including incumbents who have inhabited the region for 700,000 years including archaic humans, due to the presence of acheulian and aterian archaeological evidence, from archaeological discoveries, and several of human migrants into the region. The Yoruba people have shared ancestry with all Niger-Congo speakers and Afroasiatic speakers tracing back 60,000 years to a super ancestor who carried M168.

Linguistic evidence suggests that two waves of immigrants came into Yorubaland between 700 and 1000, the second settling at Oyo in the open country north of the Guinea forest. This second state became preeminent among all Yoruba states because of its favourable trading position, its natural resources, and the industry of its inhabitants.

Dna evidence links the Yoruba people to proto-Niger Congo speakers and ancestors who split from the San people around 100,000-150,000 years ago.

Oyo was ruled by an alaafin (king) who shared power with the Oyo Mesi, aristocratic leaders from each of Oyo city’s seven wards. The Oyo Mesi were responsible for the selection of the alaafin. They could also call for an alaafin’s su***de if he abused his power.

Under Alaafin (King) Obalokun, Oyo expanded southwestward to the Atlantic coast, and became part of the Atlantic Ocean trade system. Trading in many products, Oyo was able to acquire much-needed foreign exchange. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Oyo further expanded westward under Alaafin Ajagbo, becoming a major empire, but never encompassing all Yoruba-speaking peoples.

In response to attacks by the Nupe people, Oyo became much more militarized, reorganizing its cavalry and infantry in the sixteenth century. The cavalry became the foundation of the army.

05/10/2025

25/09/2025

24/09/2025

21/09/2025

25/08/2025

Benin is reconstructing a slave ship.