>>17415755
Timbuktu is truly a magical city but the desert around it is littered with plastic bags

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>>17416728
Timbuktu has always been fucking shit
For centuries Europeans believed it was made of gold and stuff because they had been fed Wakanda-tier tale, and ended up incredibily disappointed upon finding out it was a shitty favela of dried mud

>>17416903
you don't know shit it's comfy af

You didn't talk about spooky haunted furniture and Akan ghosts punished your last thread and they will punish this one until you do

>>17415755
The Akan used a system of computing weight consisting of 11 units. It began at dama and ended with bèna. It was possible to multiply bèna by infinity and the values went from single to double or were multiplied by two. There were three series of weights – small, medium, and large. They could be added and multiplied.

The small weights series consisted of ten monetary units and was used for all sorts of small transactions:

ba = unit = 0.148 g
ba (gnon) = ba × 2
ba (nsan) = ba × 3
ba (nan) = ba × 4
ba (nou) = ba × 5
ba (nzien) = ba × 6
ba (nzo) = ba × 7
ba (motchué) = ba × 8
ba (brou) = ba × 10

The medium weights series consisted of 7 units. The computation is done from simple to double, and each unit has multiples and submultiples.

Assan = 4 m.v.
Gbangbandia = 4 m.v.
Tya = 5 m.v.
Anui = 5 m.v.
Gua = 5 m.v.
Anan = 5 m.v.
Tyasue = 5 m.v.
Total = 33 m.v.

These 7 units comprise 33 monetary values. The smallest value is météba which equals 12 ba or 1.77 g.
The largest value is the ta, which equals 348 ba or 51 g of gold.

In practice, the system worked as follows. For example, the gua, the fifth unit, comprised the following five monetary values:

Météba = 12 ba = 1.77 g of gold
Adjratchui = 24 ba = 3.55 g of gold
Tra = 48 ba = 7.54 g of gold
These are all sub-multiples of gua.
Gua = 96 ba = 14.20 g of gold (Unit of this series)
Guagnan = 192 ba = 28.40 g of gold (Multiple of
gua)

The large weight and monetary values series had only 3 units. They were:

Banda = 384 ba = 56.80 g of gold
Banna = 432 ba = 67.44 g of gold
Pereguan = 478 ba = 71.92 g of gold.

(CONT.1)

>>17418404
In considering the weights and numeric representation, we will consider here only those weights with graphic signs which correspond with calculation and mathematics.

Concerning the signs and marks, the anthropologist François H. Abel has written: “A. Amélékia, a well known man named Diénélou confirmed for me that the Ancients knew how to read from the weights... In the village of Lomo-north, in the region of Toumodi, the village chief knew that the signs on the weights had meaning.”

An observer wrote : “Each weight is the product of two signs written on it... Reading it is sometimes simple, but often difficult. This is because some Black Africans had a different concept for numeric figuration and for the representation of the product of two numbers. [Also] zero did not exist...”. In the system, figures and numbers are represented by vertical and horizontal lines, such as marks and arrows similar to those still seen in charcoal in the houses of African villages. Commenting in 1605 on the Akan system of accounting and calculating, the Dutch explorer and historian Pieter de Marées made this remark: “The Negroes have weights of copper and tin which they have cast themselves, and, although they do not divide in the same way we do, it comes out the same, and the accounting is always correct.”

The weights provide knowledge of the weight and monetary value of the quantity of gold powder placed in the plate of the scale. There are three kinds of weights – figurative weights, weights with graphic designs, and geometric weights (Figs. 1, 2 and 3). Gold weights were (usually) made of an original alloy whose composition was similar to that of bronze and brass. However, there are also weights made of silver, copper, and solid gold. The weights were made by the Tounfouê, an artisans’ group, different from blacksmiths and jewelers. These artisans used the lost wax method to produce the weights.

>>17418408
Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: With a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of Other Parts of the Interior of Africa
By Thomas Edward Bowdich

>>17415755
From Major Denham's Journal of his residence during the rainy season at Kouka, we have extract an anecdote of an English- man employed by the sheikh.

>" Hillman had been for a long time employed in making a gun-carriage for a four-pounder, which the sultan of Fezzan had formerly brought as a present to the sheikh : the scarcity of iron, the awkwardness of the ..... blacksmiths, and clumsiness of their work when finished, were so distressing to the correct eye of an English shipwright, that even after the carriage was completed — and considering the means he had, it was very well done — Hillman was far from being satisfied with his work : not so, however, the sheikh. We took it to him this afternoon, and he was greatly pleased and surprised at the facility with which its elevation could be increased or decreased : both this and the wheels were subjects of great wonder. During the work, on several occasions, the sheikh had sent Hillman presents of honey, milk, rice, wheat, and sweet cakes, all of which he had shared with his companions. On one occasion, after he had finished a large chair, which pleased the sheikh excessively, he sent him a bag of gubbuk (money of the country ) this, after inquiring what it was, he returned with the true and honest pride of an English seaman, saying, ' No ! the king of England pays me — I don't want that ; but I am much obliged to the sheikh, nevertheless.'"

>>17416903
>Timbuktu has always been fucking shit
Looks pretty opulent to me.

>>17418404
Are you seriously giving them a cookie for knowing basic algebra?
"They knew how to multiply!"
"They had a currency!"
The standards for Africans are so low.

>>17415755
There was nothing there except mud huts until Europeans showed up.

>>17418583
>enter thread about African history and culture
>act bewildered when someone posts about African history and culture
Dude were not here to assign cookies were here to talk about west Africa
Do you get this assmad over ducats or florins