Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? - Travel (4) - Nairaland
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| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Reflect7: 12:30am On Sep 07, 2023 |
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| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by igwebuike01: 12:32am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Christistruth03:Una don start again oo. Always making false historical claims 2 Likes |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by igwebuike01: 12:37am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Reflect7:What concern courtyard with road? Meanwhile this is painting not real picture. Same Benin has been claiming all sorts of things with painting 8 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Reflect7: 12:38am On Sep 07, 2023 |
igwebuike01: SHUT UP THERE, YOU DUNCE. What is false? I just posted images of the ancient paved roads of Ife which are still visible even today, unknown to your mumu empty head. 6 Likes |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Reflect7: 12:40am On Sep 07, 2023 |
igwebuike01: STUPID DUNCE WITH NO BRAIN. THE FIRST TWO IMAGES ARE OF REAL LIVE PAVED ROAD REMNANTS. IFE HISTORY IS ACTUALLY SEPARATED INTO THE PRE-PAVEMENT AND POST-PAVEMENT ERAS BY HISTORIANS AND ARCHAEOLOGISTS. STUPID ILLITERATE. DON'T RESEARCH YOUR OWN AFRICAN HISTORY, YOU HEAR? SO YOU CAN KEEP FEELING INFERIOR. MUMU. 3 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by igwebuike01: 12:41am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Reflect7:Why all the cursing? No paved road in your pictures. Meanwhile, it's a painting from imagination 10 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Reflect7: 12:42am On Sep 07, 2023 |
igwebuike01: IF YOU CANNOT SEE THE TWO IMAGES OF ACTUAL PAVED ROADS I POSTED, THEN GO AND USE A PROPER COMPUTER IF YOU HAVE ONE, RATHER THAN THAT CHEAP ASS PHONE. And if you were not a historical DUNCE, you would know that artist renditions are made off of HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE. SO THEY LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE ON GROUND OF THE PAVED STREETS AND COURTYARD, AND THEN CREATE AN ARTISTIC RENDITION OF HOW IT WOULD HAVE LOOKED WHEN IT WAS FIRST CONSTRUCTED. SO IT IS NOT ''IMAGINATION'' YOU BUSH VILLAGE MUMU. 4 Likes |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by igwebuike01: 12:44am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Reflect7:I will rather work hard to achieve something today than spend time inventing ego massaging tales by moonlight. 12 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by igwebuike01: 12:46am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Reflect7:It's not showing, post again 2 Likes |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Reflect7: 12:49am On Sep 07, 2023 |
igwebuike01: NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU WOULD DO. Other sensible people around the world glorify their history and ancestors except you brainwashed-to-self-loathe, mentally colonised, self-hating buffoons in Nigeria, who believe yourselves to be inferior beings. You're disgusting and an utter disgrace to the black race in the way you reason. Proudly proclaiming your inferiority. I mean, who did this to you? You are a total wreck. This is a UK report on the ancient city of Benin as it was before it was blown up by the British in1897. I GUESS THEY ARE ALSO ''MAKING IT UP'' AND ''IMAGNING THINGS'' IN YOUR DUMB HEAD ABI? https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace 3 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by ednut1(m): 12:49am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Because we cant afford to maintain them. People also dont pay taxes. Politicians also love people to be in poverty easy to buy votes. 11 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by igwebuike01: 12:52am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Reflect7:Both Umahi and Otti fixed inner streets through direct labour and local contractors. But some still uses Chinese and Lebanese and later gloat over fabricated fake history 4 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Reflect7: 12:58am On Sep 07, 2023 |
igwebuike01: LISTEN, YOU SCHOOL DROPOUT. I WILL NOT BE HERE AND YOU CALL OUR GLORIOUS AFRICAN HISTORY ''FABRICATED''. I WILL SCHOOL YOU ALL NIGHT TO EDUCATE YOUR DENSE, THICK SKULL ON YOUR HISTORY. BRITISH REPORT ON THE ANCIENT BENIN CITY - HOW IT WAS BEFORE THEY DESTROYED IT IN 1897: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace 1 Like |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Reflect7: 12:59am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Benin City, The Mighty Medieval Capital Now Lost Without Trace  Benin City was described as ‘wealthy and industrious, well-governed and richly decorated’. Illustration: Decompiling Dapper: A Preliminary Search for Evidence Guardian Newspaper, UK https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace With its mathematical layout and earthworks longer than the Great Wall of China, Benin City was one of the best planned cities in the world when London was a place of ‘thievery and murder’. So why is nothing left? This is the story of a lost medieval city you’ve probably never heard about. Benin City, originally known as Edo, was once the capital of a pre-colonial African empire located in what is now southern Nigeria. The Benin empire was one of the oldest and most highly developed states in west Africa, dating back to the 11th century. The Guinness Book of Records (1974 edition) described the walls of Benin City and its surrounding kingdom as the world’s largest earthworks carried out prior to the mechanical era. According to estimates by the New Scientist’s Fred Pearce, Benin City’s walls were at one point “four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops [in Egypt]”. Situated on a plain, Benin City was enclosed by massive walls in the south and deep ditches in the north. Beyond the city walls, numerous further walls were erected that separated the surroundings of the capital into around 500 distinct villages. Pearce writes that these walls “extended for some 16,000 km in all, in a mosaic of more than 500 interconnected settlement boundaries. They covered 6,500 sq km and were all dug by the Edo people … They took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet”. Barely any trace of these walls exist today. Benin City was also one of the first cities to have a semblance of street lighting. Huge metal lamps, many feet high, were built and placed around the city, especially near the king’s palace. Fuelled by palm oil, their burning wicks were lit at night to provide illumination for traffic to and from the palace. When the Portuguese first “discovered” the city in 1485, they were stunned to find this vast kingdom made of hundreds of interlocked cities and villages in the middle of the African jungle. They called it the “Great City of Benin”, at a time when there were hardly any other places in Africa the Europeans acknowledged as a city. Indeed, they classified Benin City as one of the most beautiful and best planned cities in the world. In 1691, the Portuguese ship captain Lourenco Pinto observed: “Great Benin, where the king resides, is larger than Lisbon; all the streets run straight and as far as the eye can see. The houses are large, especially that of the king, which is richly decorated and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.” In contrast, London at the same time is described by Bruce Holsinger, professor of English at the University of Virginia, as being a city of “thievery, prostitution, murder, bribery and a thriving black market made the medieval city ripe for exploitation by those with a skill for the quick blade or picking a pocket”. African fractals Benin City’s planning and design was done according to careful rules of symmetry, proportionality and repetition now known as fractal design. The mathematician Ron Eglash, author of African Fractals – which examines the patterns underpinning architecture, art and design in many parts of Africa – notes that the city and its surrounding villages were purposely laid out to form perfect fractals, with similar shapes repeated in the rooms of each house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village in mathematically predictable patterns. As he puts it: “When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.” At the centre of the city stood the king’s court, from which extended 30 very straight, broad streets, each about 120-ft wide. These main streets, which ran at right angles to each other, had underground drainage made of a sunken impluvium with an outlet to carry away storm water. Many narrower side and intersecting streets extended off them. In the middle of the streets were turf on which animals fed. “Houses are built alongside the streets in good order, the one close to the other,” writes the 17th-century Dutch visitor Olfert Dapper. “Adorned with gables and steps … they are usually broad with long galleries inside, especially so in the case of the houses of the nobility, and divided into many rooms which are separated by walls made of red clay, very well erected.” Dapper adds that wealthy residents kept these walls “as shiny and smooth by washing and rubbing as any wall in Holland can be made with chalk, and they are like mirrors. The upper storeys are made of the same sort of clay. Moreover, every house is provided with a well for the supply of fresh water”. Family houses were divided into three sections: the central part was the husband’s quarters, looking towards the road; to the left the wives’ quarters (oderie), and to the right the young men’s quarters (yekogbe). Daily street life in Benin City might have consisted of large crowds going though even larger streets, with people colourfully dressed – some in white, others in yellow, blue or green – and the city captains acting as judges to resolve lawsuits, moderating debates in the numerous galleries, and arbitrating petty conflicts in the markets. The early foreign explorers’ descriptions of Benin City portrayed it as a place free of crime and hunger, with large streets and houses kept clean; a city filled with courteous, honest people, and run by a centralised and highly sophisticated bureaucracy. 1 Like |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Reflect7: 1:00am On Sep 07, 2023 |
The city was split into 11 divisions, each a smaller replication of the king’s court, comprising a sprawling series of compounds containing accommodation, workshops and public buildings – interconnected by innumerable doors and passageways, all richly decorated with the art that made Benin famous. The city was literally covered in it. The exterior walls of the courts and compounds were decorated with horizontal ridge designs (agben) and clay carvings portraying animals, warriors and other symbols of power – the carvings would create contrasting patterns in the strong sunlight. Natural objects (pebbles or pieces of mica) were also pressed into the wet clay, while in the palaces, pillars were covered with bronze plaques illustrating the victories and deeds of former kings and nobles. At the height of its greatness in the 12th century – well before the start of the European Renaissance – the kings and nobles of Benin City patronised craftsmen and lavished them with gifts and wealth, in return for their depiction of the kings’ and dignitaries’ great exploits in intricate bronze sculptures. “These works from Benin are equal to the very finest examples of European casting technique,” wrote Professor Felix von Luschan, formerly of the Berlin Ethnological Museum. “Benvenuto Celini could not have cast them better, nor could anyone else before or after him. Technically, these bronzes represent the very highest possible achievement.”   What impressed the first visiting Europeans most was the wealth, artistic beauty and magnificence of the city. Immediately European nations saw the opportunity to develop trade with the wealthy kingdom, importing ivory, palm oil and pepper – and exporting guns. At the beginning of the 16th century, word quickly spread around Europe about the beautiful African city, and new visitors flocked in from all parts of Europe, with ever glowing testimonies, recorded in numerous voyage notes and illustrations. Lost world Now, however, the great Benin City is lost to history. Its decline began in the 15th century, sparked by internal conflicts linked to the increasing European intrusion and slavery trade at the borders of the Benin empire. Then in 1897, the city was destroyed by British soldiers – looted, blown up and burnt to the ground. My great grandparents were among the many who fled following the sacking of the city; they were members of the elite corps of the king’s doctors. Nowadays, while a modern Benin City has risen on the same plain, the ruins of its former, grander namesake are not mentioned in any tourist guidebook to the area. They have not been preserved, nor has a miniature city or touristic replica been made to keep alive the memory of this great ancient city. A house composed of a courtyard in Obasagbon, known as Chief Enogie Aikoriogie’s house – probably built in the second half of the 19th century – is considered the only vestige that survives from Benin City. The house possesses features that match the horizontally fluted walls, pillars, central impluvium and carved decorations observed in the architecture of ancient Benin. Curious tourists visiting Edo state in Nigeria are often shown places that might once have been part of the ancient city – but its walls and moats are nowhere to be seen. Perhaps a section of the great city wall, one of the world’s largest man-made monuments, now lies bruised and battered, neglected and forgotten in the Nigerian bush. A discontented Nigerian puts it this way: “Imagine if this monument was in England, USA, Germany, Canada or India? It would be the most visited place on earth, and a tourist mecca for millions of the world’s people. A money-spinner worth countless billions in annual tourist revenue.” Instead, if you wish to get a glimpse into the glorious past of the ancient Benin kingdom – and a better understanding of this groundbreaking city – you are better off visiting the Benin Bronze Sculptures section of the British Museum in central London. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Reflect7: 1:05am On Sep 07, 2023 |
This is a rendition of the palace of the Oba of Benin as it was before its destruction by British forces in 1897, based on historical evidence that it had 209 Ikuns (courtyards) of which the image below shows only 20 or so, showing how MASSIVE the palace actually was. The palace was built in the 13th century. It shows the traditional Benin Ikun courtyard architecture. There were a total of 209 Ikuns at the palace. The picture shows about 24, which shows you how huge the palace was. I actually checked Google Earth to investigate this, and you can see on Google Earth that the new, modern palace is there which everyone can see from the road. But on Google Earth, looking from above, you can see the interior of the palace compound, and you will STILL SEE remnants of this building, several Ikuns - around 10 or so behind the current palace. Benin city of course was described by visiting Europeans as one of the most beautiful and best planned cities on Earth, with street lighting (from palm oil fuelled steel lamps) and underground drainage, houses with paved courtyards, and even some paved streets (paved with raised, broken potsherds). Royal Palace of the Oba of Benin, dated 13th century)  |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by 1Sharon(f): 1:08am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Raydos: I've said this before that the colonisers didn't set Africans back and whatever they took was just a bonus. Because Europe was already far developed than the people they met in Africa. Even Ancient Rome was far ahead compared to Nigeria. 11 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Reflect7: 1:13am On Sep 07, 2023 |
1Sharon: ILLITERATE OF AFRICAN HISTORY. NAME ME ONE AFRICAN HISTORY BOOK YOU HAVE READ IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. JUST ONE! Stupid school dropouts coming here to type about an African history they know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about. just ZIP your lips about AFRICAN HISTORY, because you know NOTHING. You haven't the slightest clue how many black African cities filled with MULTI-STOREYED BUILDINGS AND MONUMENTS, including our own Benin city, were bombed and burnt down by the colonialists across Africa, to erase evidence of African civilization. YOU HAVE ZERO CLUE ABOUT ANY OF THIS. So how the hell do you know ''how Africa was'' when the Europeans came here? You have NO CLUE how Africa was, so SHUT UP! 1 Like |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Christistruth03: 2:22am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Reflect7: igwebuike01: Thank you for all this photographic evidence |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by nairalanda1(m): 2:48am On Sep 07, 2023 |
I was going to log off nairaland, cos I have some stuff to do, but I came across this guy's thread, and as usual, I was amused at the 'Africans are inferior' schitck that I see on threads like this. It always ends up like this. So, why do our streets look bad? Simple answer....we don't pay the type of tax that should make our streets look good. In England, to use an example, every resident of a city (except university students for obvious reasons) pays something called a Council Tax. Which can range from anywhere between 120 pounds sterling to 200 pounds sterling MONTHLY. And it is that money that they use to develop their cities and make them look nice. In Nigeria, I doubt that 1) anyone pays council or any kind of tax to the city 2) and even if they did it is not enough. And even if a state governor or LG chairman were to attempt to raise money that way, Nigerians, including the OP will cry....LET THE POOR BREATHE. The harsh truth is that government in Nigeria is being nice to you. If they charged you the kind of taxes they charge in obodo oyinbo, you would cry tears of blood. Instead, they don't, so we share oyel money that is sufficent for a nation of ten million, not the 200 odd million we are. We better stop shouting at ourselves, and stop abusing our selves, and start facing some home truths. If the whites in England did not pay council tax, their streets would look like African streets in five months. Making cities livable and good COSTS MONEY. 9 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by nairalanda1(m): 2:55am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Raydos: That was a part of New York. There were other pictures of New York that you did not show. Slums of New York 2 Likes
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| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Cromagnon: 3:03am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Raydos:Jury's out on that one to honest But that person is right Just look at every black community except Botswana |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Cromagnon: 3:10am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Raydos:wrong We like foreign cos they are better quality usually |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by TheNobleProphet: 3:14am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Honestly, when I left Nigeria and landed in USA, I prayed very hard for Nigeria because it seems Nigeria as a Nation is lost! Nigeria is far far behind in almost everything most especially when it comes to "infrastructural development"!! Only a Miracle from The ALMIGHTY'S Throne can save Nigeria! 18 Likes 3 Shares |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by 1Sharon(f): 3:54am On Sep 07, 2023 |
oweniwe: Lots of money that Nigerians will rather use to invest in a church rather than their community. 3 Likes |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by 1Sharon(f): 4:00am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Reflect7: Why don't YOU shut up? Who do you think you are? You're just proving the Op's point. They were able to do all those things you alleged because they were able to outsmart you and were more advanced. If Africans had the capacity, why haven't they replaced those buildings and monuments since 1960? Singapore was able to build up their country in the same time period. The black race is the oldest race on the planet and has had a 200,000 year head start. But somehow, you're the babies of this world. 19 Likes 4 Shares |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by 1Sharon(f): 4:01am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Raydos: The culture also has to change. You can't have a street like this if you want to throw trash every where. 1 Like |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by 1Sharon(f): 4:06am On Sep 07, 2023 |
juman: No politician will save your life. 5 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by 1Sharon(f): 4:17am On Sep 07, 2023 |
Ibrahimlagosian: If it wasn't for white people criticising each other, slavery wouldn't have ended. We should be allowed to criticise other all we want. 18 Likes 4 Shares |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by 1Sharon(f): 4:21am On Sep 07, 2023 |
ovcwality: Only the tourist areas in some Caribbean countries are neat. In Jamaica, they advise tourists never to leave the hotel resorts. African countries are alot safer than Caribbean ones. 3 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by Reflect7: 4:50am On Sep 07, 2023 |
TheNobleProphet: You're the epitome of thougtlessness. Do you know how many countries are on this Earth? I know you haven't a clue, because you only know ''the USA''. Plus the rest of the 25% of nations that are 'advanced', in a world of majority DEVELOPING nations and populations who look NOTHING like the USA. The USA has acquired its wealth, which gives it a 7.6 trillion dollar annual budget (compared to Nigeria's 50 billion dollars), by invading directly or indirectly 198 of the 202 countries on Earth today, killing MILLIONS of people in the process. All geared at accessing resources on the cheap, and economic allegiance. THAT IS WHY THEY ARE SO RICH AND DEVELOPED TODAY. THROUGH BRIGANDAGE. So when you are there, and you see all those bright shining lights and facilities that are shacking your head, KNOW WHERE IT CAME FROM before demanding that Nigeria ''be like them'', or before ''praying for Nigeria''. Instead, pray for yourself that the wrath of God does not fall on America (Babylon the Great of Revelations) while you are sitting their praying for Nigeria. Or that an intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile from the Kremlin doesn't drop on your rooftop. |
| Re: Why Do Most Nigeria Streets Look Like This? by nairalanda1(m): 4:59am On Sep 07, 2023 |
TheNobleProphet: And the USA looks like that because cities collect TAXES , as does the state and their federal government...at rates we do not do in Nigeria. The honest thing is, if our cities want to look good, either every resident in a Nigerian city pays a council tax of at least 100000 naira monthly to the city, or we accept what we have, because that is what we get from relying on just one income stream. 1 Like |
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