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.
well done.. voice over made it hard to get into the story.. would have loved to see this more from the perspective of the people of Ife and its surrounding areas. I think a version of this made with more focus on the cultural throughline and less on the gaps in knowledge would have been more interesting.
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
It is good for African and other peoples of the world to study their own history withought knowledge coloniality operating. We were not "peoples withought history wating until European enlightment" because we had our own social dynamics, culture and knowledge. Objects in Western museums must be return to the peoples that gave them origin. They must be socialized in their birth place. The question is: why european museums must have objects from the peoples they called "inferior"? why they stoled our objects and keep them in museums but don't want our people to be there for seeing them at least? It is about power.
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.
Thank you, everything is put together so well that I had watched it in one go.
Funky background music fits really well too!
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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!