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In this detail from the Seasons Sarcophagus are the angels of winter and spring, a goat being milked, and vines being picked.
I call this photograph, taken at the same time:
"Seasons Sarcophagus - 2"
(May
2, 2008) My intuition suggests that this could also be a ritual object.
Romans cremated their bodies, and this piece of marble is too large for
an ash-filled urn. Maybe this was a bath, or an altar of some sort.
Maybe a sacred vessel for a small tree, or garden ... (The "rite of
spring".)
(May 4, 2008) On Roman cremation versus burial see: Ivana della Portella's "Subterranean Rome". The prevailing practice among pagan Romans during the empire was cremation with the ashes placed in small urns called "Columbariums".
"...
Cremation was linked to ideas derived from neo-Platonism, according to
which the soul could free itself through cremation of its "earthly
prison" (the body), happy to join once more with the primary matter of
its astral constitution."
Ivana della Portella, "Subterranean Rome" (1999) at 117.
(May 6, 2008): Compare with the "Triumph of Dionysus and the Seasons Sarcophagus" (270 AD) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
(May 8, 2008): I also recently saw a seasons sarcophagus in the 1965 movie "Darling" - in the Italian princes' palace (I rented and saw Darling on May 7 - by a startling coincidence or what Jung would call
"synchronicity"). In this movie the impression is clearly that of a
bath. They were probably standard in late Roman aristocratic households.
(May 9, 2008) The marble of the Seasons Sarcophagus is probably from the same Phrygian (or Turkish) source as the Triumph of Dionysus Sarcophagus at the Met. My dream self projects "Trojan." Upper class
Romans considered themselves to be descended from refugees from the
fall of Troy. See: Virgil's Aeneid (19 BC). Also see: JPVD Balsdon's "Romans and Aliens" (1979):
"...
Rome had no rich and colourful mythology like that possessed by every
city of ancient Greece ... There was no time when divinities had been
around the place, as in Greece, leaving fairy-story romances as well as
colourful records of fornication, murder and other outrages, nothing
really before the arrival of survivors from Troy; and the Trojan war
was not myth but history. If Mars fathered Romulus and if the Dioscuri
appeared in Rome with news of the battle of Lake Regillus, these were
miraculous features of real history, mytho-historical.
JPVD Balsdon, Romans and Aliens (1979), at 2-3
(March
9, 2009) Both Romans and Greeks considered the Trojan war to have been
a real event that occurred about 1190 BC in modern day Turkey. Is there
a link between this event and the biblical Exodus from Egypt that is
supposed to have occurred around 1250 BC?
(March
10, 2009) As for the function of this object - maybe it was a wine
press - a Dionysian wine press. There is a small door carved on the
left side of the marble that could have been used to drain the crushed
grapes.
There
is no lid on this piece of marble, which would be expected if it
contained a body. Similar no-lid issues are found in other Roman
"sarcophagi" - for example the recently acquired sarcophagus at the
Getty Art museum "Sarcophagus representing a Dionysiac Vintage Festival" (290 - 300 AD), in Los Angeles, California.
This sarcophagus has a Lenos,
or wine-press motif carved onto its side. Three children are stomping
grapes inside the wine-press and a fourth child is draining away the
juice on the left hand side of the press. (See: New York Times article.)
On the other hand, see a paper "Roman Sarcophagi" by Heather T. Awan on the Met web site supporting the marble-as-sarcophagus theory.
The rule seems to be - a Lenos is a marble wine-press and lacks a lid, but also, starting in the 2nd
century AD, Romans began using marble sarcophagi: see for example a
Getty museum sarcophagus for a child complete with a lid and explicit
text on the lid describing it's function: "Sarcophagus with Scenes of Bacchus." (210 - 220 AD).
However, even this is problematic - the lid reads:
"To
the soul of the deceased. For Maconiana Severiana, the sweetest
daughter, Marcus Sempronius Faustinianus, vir clarissimus [holding a
senatorial rank], and Praecilia Severiana, clarissima femina [from a
senatorial family], her parents [had this made]."
My
original intuition would be that this is a Lenos or wine-press
dedicated to the soul of Maconiana Severiana and not a sarcophagus.
(March 26, 2009) There is an African link to the Dionysus myth.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus (484 BC - 425 BC), after his
birth by Zeus and a mortal woman, Zeus sewed the infant Dionysus into
his thigh and carried him away to "Nysa" in Ethiopia, beyond
Egypt. This is probably where the Panther or Leopard iconography that
is usually associated with Dionysus comes from.
(Sept. 20, 2010) For a more in-depth discussion of "Nysa" see: "Africa and Africans as seen by Classical Writers"
by William Leo Hansberry, edited by Joseph E. Harris (1977). (Compiled
from private papers amassed by professor Hansberry who taught at Howard
University from 1922-1959.)
"
... Attention is called to Diodorus' assertion that the Egyptians held
that Dionysus of the Greeks was the same as the Egyptian god Osiris,
and that his worship was introduced into Greece in pre-Homeric times by
Orpheus, Musaeus, and Melampodes after they had visited Egypt. Although
it us impossible to verify the truth of this specific tradition, it is
nevertheless true that comparative studies in Greek and Egyptian
religions reveal that the older rites and worship associated with the
god were remarkably alike in the two lands. In later Greek traditions
Dionysus was looked upon as a son of Zeus and Semele as was said to
have been born in Greece, but Diodorus informs us that ancient
traditions affirmed that there were several gods by this name, and he
cites the Egyptians and the Libyans as saying that the son of Zeus and
Semele was one of the youngest and the most recent of the number.
The
original Dionysus, according the Libyan tradition recorded by Diodorus,
was the illegitimate son of Ammon, the king of a kingdom in inner
Africa. Ammon, fearing the jealousy of his wife Rhea, concealed from
her the birth of this son and secretly sent him away to the city of
Nysa, which was in a country surrounded by a river and hence resembled
an island. The legend gives that name of the all-embracing river as
Triton, but since this was kind of a generic name applied to many
rivers in early Greek geography, the name of it is of little assistance
in identifying the area. There are, however, several other
considerations which help in attempting to determine the probable
region to which the legend refers. For while it is true that there are
a number of ancient legends ascribing the name Nysa to places in many
different parts of the world - Greece, Libya, Arabia, Babylonia, India,
Egypt and Ethiopia - it is also true that most of the older legends
locate the Nysa associated with Dionysus in or near Ethiopia. Diodorus
records that the Egyptians said that Dionysus was brought up at Nysa, a
town in Arabia near Egypt. Herodotus has two passages of the same
import. In one he specifically states that tradition affirmed that
Dionysus was "carried off to Nysa, above Egypt in Ethiopia"; and in the
other he refers to "the long-lived Ethiopians who dwell above the
sacred city of Nysa and have festivals in honor of Bacchus [Dionysus]."
In
addition, the description of this island as preserved in the Libyan
traditions recalls at once what must have been in very ancient times
the natural conditions of the African region surrounded by the Nile and
its tributaries, the Atbara and the Blue Nile, and which was the heart
of old Ethiopia known to the classical geographers as "Island of
Meroe." Diodorus quotes an ancient poet who located "the sacred Nysa"
where Dionysus was reared as being the region "Where the streams of
Egypt's Nile begins."
Dionysus,
so tradition holds, first invaded Egypt and after installing as king
Jupiter (Zeus), the youthful son of Rhea and Saturn, taught the
Egyptians "all manner of planting, the use of the vine and how to keep
and store up wine, and other fruits." Following this Dionysus made a
world tour going as far as India; he taught the people there his
improved arts of husbandry and agriculture and by these acts obliged
all mankind to render him grateful remembrance and immortal honor. ..."
Africa and Africans as seen by Classical Writers, at 90- 91
***
(Feb 10, 2013) The principal pre-Christian Kikuyu deity was referred to as "Ngai mwene Nyaga" - "God, owner of the Ostriches", and his dwelling place was "Kirima kiri Nyaga" Kirinyaga or Mount Kenya -
"Mountain of the Ostriches" or "Mountain with Ostrich." This is probably an ancient link to Osiris
worship in east Africa. See this discussion of chiefly Ostrich
feather headgear in several precolonial Kenya tribal societies.
There
might also be yet-to-be discovered pyramids in the Kenyan Rift Valley.
See these recent photos of "Delamere's Nose" or "The Sleeping Warrior"
at Lake Elementaita.
(October 27, 2010) Modern - day Malawi used to be the British "Nyasaland Protectorate"
(from 1894 to 1964). My intuition is the entire central African
"highveld" is prime hunting ground for antiquities. From the Ruwenzori
- the "mountains of the moon" in Uganda, down to the ruins of Zimbabwe.
There
used to be a vogue for African "King Solomon's mines" in the 1940's and
50's Hollywood - a lot of mythology, but little publicly available
scholarship.
The source of the mythology was Sir H. Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines" published in 1885. The 1950 Hollywood version of "King Solomon's Mines"
is a straightforward tour of eastern and central Africa; - a
pleasurable safari through Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Belgian Congo; -
but no ancient ruins and no antiquities besides a tub full of large
uncut diamonds hidden in a Tutsi mountain cave. (Tutsi, who are on
average over 6 feet tall, are probably related to the tribes of
Southern Sudan, some of whom are also very tall.)
(Jan. 24, 2011) Also compare with Kenyan "highveld". There was a surprisingly large Afrikaner (Dutch South African) population on the Uasin Gishu plateau
in western Kenya (Kalenjin, Luhya, Kisii and Maasai land) before
independence (1963). According to Elspeth Huxley, an English Kenyan
(and grand-niece of the 1st Duke of Westminster):
"
... [in 1931/33] I came back from Kakamega by way of Eldoret, then a
little farmers' township with a single dusty main street flanked by
squat tin-roofed shops and Indian dukas (small shops), and by
battered-looking box body cars angle-parked under rows of blue-gum
trees. It was the embryonic capital of the Uasin Gishu plateau. Here
you heard more Dutch spoken than English - we called it Dutch but it
was really Afrikaans.
...
When I saw it twenty-five years later, the plateau had been transformed
into a prosperous region of wheat and maize fields, fenced pastures
carrying grade cattle (native Zebus crossed with pedigree European
stock), flocks of sheep and plantations of black wattle trees, with
roofs of farmsteads winking at you through trees that had grown up
around them. Roads, telegraph wires, reservoirs stocked with fish and
used by sailing clubs, all these had come into being in a remarkably
short time and despite such setbacks as the First World War, the slump
that followed it and then drought and locusts. The plateau and the
Trans Nzoia beyond had become Kenya's major exporting area of wheat,
maize, wool and wattle bark and one of the granaries of eastern Africa.
Tractors crawled like beetles over the rolling plains, and the little
scarred, heroic oxen, like the wild animals, had had their day ...
Elspeth Huxley, Out in the Midday Sun, My Kenya at 22 - 24 (1985)
(Feb. 4, 2011) For a vivid description of the Afrikaner "trek" into the Uasin Gishu in 1908 see chapter 25 of Elspeth Huxley's "The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood"(1959). In 1908 the Uasin Gishu plateau was host to vast herds of game and large tracts of dense old-growth forests.
As
a historical curiosity, in 1903 the British empire offered the Uasin
Gishu to the Zionist Theodor Herzl to create a Jewish homeland.
(August
11, 2011) In addition to the Uasin Gishu plateau, another place of
interest on the western side of the Kenyan Rift Valley is the Maasai Mara game reserve;
- the Kenyan portion of the Serengeti. This insight came to me on a
recent re-viewing of the 1985 movie adaptation of Baroness Karen
Blixen's book "Out of Africa" (1937).
While
playing the commentary track to the DVD I was surprised to learn that
the famous picnic scene on the cover of the DVD was not shot in the
Ngong hills, near where Karen Blixen lived, but rather, further south
in the Maasai Mara game reserve.
The
video shot in the Maasai Mara is spectacular and garnered "Out of
Africa" an Oscar Academy Award. It is also very strange. In some ways
it reminds me of the National Mall here in Washington. It is both
uncanny and familiar at the same time. ...
(Jan 25, 2012) Also see "Mountains of the Moon," a 1990 movie about Burton and Speke's search for the source of the Nile in the 1850's. This movie does not actually go to the Ruwenzori mountain range (the "Mountains of the Moon")
but is more about a grueling trip from the Indian Ocean to Lake
Tanganyika in central Africa. (It's probably mostly shot in Kenya.
That's the impression I had when I first saw it in the early 1990's -
and many of the actors names are Kenyan.)
As in "Out of Africa"
the sunny and spectacular "royal hunting lodge" background scenery is
strikingly independent from, and in contradiction to the content of the
movie; which in "Mountains of the Moon" is death, slavery, violence etc.
Lake Tanganyika
itself is still a sunny mystery - despite being the 2nd largest
freshwater lake in the world and part of 4 countries - Tanzania,
Zambia, Belgian Congo and Burundi. Prior to World War I, it was a
German lake - which may be part of its' beguiling allure ...
(Feb. 20, 2012) For video of a small slice of Lake Tanganyika, see National Geographic's "Lake Tanganyika: Jewel of the Rift" (1996) shot by Victoria Stone and Mark Debble in the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania. (10 minute YouTube sample.)
This
is an underwater documentary featuring the lake's sunny crystal clear
waters, as well as many species of cichlids, cichlid-eating birds that
hunt underwater; and underwater snakes like water cobras and
bird-devourng pythons and two kinds of catfish - an electric catfish
that kills cichlids with 300 volts of electricity and another catfish
that tricks cichlids into raising it's young; - also featured are two
species of otters, crocodiles, crabs, a freshwater species of jellyfish
and sardines! Lake Tanganyika is a full blown inland sea. ...
***
(June 19, 2014) Also of interest are two Rift Valley volcanos - Ol Doinyo Sabuk in Kenya and in Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania.
Ol Doinyo Sabuk
Ol Doinyo Lengai
Ol Doinyo Lengai 2
Ol Doinyo Lengai 3
Ol Doinyo Lengai 4
I
was previously unaware of Ol Doinyo Sabuk even though it lies close to
Thika where my parents are from. The name means "big mountain" in
Maasai. One of the reasons Ol Doinyo Sabuk is so unknown is because during
colonial times it was the private property of Sir William Northrup
McMillian (1872 - 1925) , an American expatriate and hunting partner of
President Teddy Roosevelt, who owned one of the largest ranches in the
Kenya colony. Today the entire mountain lies within the Ol Doinyo Sabuk
game reserve.
(July
4, 2014) Sir Northrup's father, William McMillan of St. Louis Missouri,
chairman of the board of directors of the American Car and Foundry
Company, made a large fortune manufacturing railroad freight cars. Even
though an American, Northrup McMillan was able to accept a knighthood
from the King of England because he was born British.
According to "Northrup: The life of William Northrup McMillan"
by Judy Aldrick (2012), " ... In early 1918 he was promoted to major
and recommended for a knighthood for "unusual services" and although an
American, he accepted. The notice duly appeared in The London Gazette
that Major McMillan was knighted by Letters Patent dated 6th February
1918. Later there was controversy about this acceptance of a British
Knighthood, as American citizens do not usually accept knighthoods, or
use the title "Sir." But Northrup became a substantive knight, open
only to British subjects and made use of the title "Sir," as he had
renounced his American citizenship at the beginning of the war and had
now become British. He could do this because his parents William and
Eliza were born in Canada, which was part of the British Empire, and
did not become American citizens until 1874, two years after Northrup's
birth. Technically, Northrup was born British." Northrup, at 176.
Facts
on Sir Northrup are still elusive, but according to "Northrup", he was
a close friend of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia who gave him permission
to hunt and explore along the Blue Nile. It was during preparations for
one of these expeditions that he experienced the lush game country
around Ol Doiyo Sabuk:
"...
Northrup was entranced by the hunter's paradise he found. Jenssen tells
us that Ol Donyo Sabuk, a small hump-shaped mountain, which was the
only high ground in the surrounding plains, was at that time owned by
five or six Englishmen. They had formed a syndicate to protect the game
on it, particularly the buffalo. The mountain was covered in grass from
top to bottom, but near the top and in all the valleys and ravines were
dense forests, frequented by varieties of game and a herd of buffalo,
the only herd existing in the neighborhood. From the top there were
wonderful views across the surrounding countryside. Towards the north
could be seen the snow-capped peaks of Mount Kenya. Due west the tin
roofs of Nairobi glittered in the sun and to the south the magnificent
Athi plains rolled out seemingly to infinity. The nearby river had
hippos and plentiful amounts of fish and the picturesque waterfalls and
running rivulets presented an idyllic picture ... Northtup then
acquired the mountain, Ol Donyo Sabuk, from the syndicate, bringing his
total land ownership up to 20,000 acres causing Jenssen to comment
dryly that Mr. McMillan now had his own game park. ... " Northrup at 98-102.
(July
17, 2014) Sir Northrup represented the Akamba district in the colonial
Kenya Legislative Council, placing Ol Doinyo Sabuk in Kamba land, not
Kikuyu land. However, it seems in the past the mountain was in Kikuyu
land, and also had a secret core:
"
... During Bixby's visit Northrup told his guests of the legend
attached to the Mountain, Ol Donyo Sabuk. Long ago the Kikuyu owned and
occupied the mountain, but later the Akamba tribe took it from them.
There was said to be an enormous cave under the mountain where the
Kikuyu would take refuge whenever the Maasai or Akamba people
threatened them. The cave was so large that they would drive all their
goats and cattle into it and stay there until the danger was past.
There was also supposed to be a spring of water inside the cave.
Northrup said he had never managed to find this cave, but he believed
that it the mountain was mined, diamonds, garnets and white sapphire
would be found. ..." Northrup, at 204
[(July
17, 2014) A recent dream that I had sees something similar to this in
Mount Longonot. - A Shangri-La type space in the core of the volcano;
or a secret passage to another world.]
***
Ol
Doinyo Lengai, the Maasai "mountain of god", resembles Sabuk. I was
aware of it from previous reading. However, I was not aware that it is
an active volcano that has erupted as recently as 2008 and 1968. It
lies in a remote are of the Rift Valley in Tanzania, near the Kenya
border.
Ol Doinyo Lengai 1966 eruption
Ol Doinyo Lengai 2008 eruption
***
(September 2, 2016) What Sir Northrup McMillian did, i.e. abandoning his American citizenship and accepting a British title was more common than is generally know in between 1890 and the 1930's. Gilded age fortunes protected themselves from enhanced American taxation (income tax and estate tax) by moving to England and other european countries. See for example: "To Marry an English Lord: Tales of Wealth and Marriage, Sex and Snobbery" by Gail MacColl (1989). This book has a list of more than 100 gilded age heiress' who essentially bought titles by marrying less wealthy but titled British gentlemen in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
However since the end of World War 2 enhanced taxation of large fortunes in Britain (up to 70% estate tax of assets over $4 million at one time) has forced many of these large estates into trusts.
Depending on the terms of the trust, many of the heirs of these fortunes can end up with little or no income from the trusts. The fiduciary duty of the trustees is to the estate not to any beneficiaries of the the trust. Essentially, trust funds are a diminution of the estate.
This explains a phenomenon that I have noticed: there is no American aristocracy. There used to be a well defined American aristocracy during the Gilded age, as is well documented by Gail MacColl in "To Marry an English Lord."
An example, is the end of "Summer." Summer used to be well defined for the American upper classes and to a large part was centered in the Adirondack mountains, in upstate New York. Georgia O'Keefe memorialized this in her Lake George paintings and the nude portraits that her mentor, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz took of her at Oaklawn the Stieglitz family summer "cottage" (gilded age mansion) on Lake George.
A similar thing has happened to the British aristocracy. See for example the disappearance of "Happy Valley" in the Aberdare Mountain range, Kenya (the Wanjohi valley, Nyandarua county), the center of the British upper classes in colonial Kenya.
***
(September 6, 2016) "Happy Valley" is almost universally confused with the Rift Valley. However, there is little comparison between the two places. "Happy Valley" lies deep in high altitude Kikuyu country on the eastern side of the Rift Valley. The Rift Valley is warm to hot and dry most of the year. The Wanjohi Valley, and the surrounding Aberdare mountains are warm to cold and wet most of the year; - the Aberdares are also nicknamed "Scotland with lions".
This is a common misconception and was even repeated in the movie adaptation of the book "White Mischief" (1984) by James Fox which is an investigation into the 1941 murder of Josslyn Hay, the "first subject of Scotland" the 22nd Earl of Errol in Kenya. The movie "White Mischief" (1988) is entirely shot in the Rift Valley and spends no time in the Aberdares.
***
(Sept. 6, 2016) When I was researching "Happy Valley" I came across something new to me - several high altitude lakes in the Mount Kenya area. This has traditionally been the birthplace of the Kikuyu tribe, but conflict with British settlers has alienated most Kikuyu's from this area. Most of the best land in Kikuyu land went directly from the estates of British aristocrats into protected parkland and conservation areas. This has been good for the land, but the people have been alienated from their roots.
Examples of forgotten Mount Kenya lakes are:
- Lake Alice
- Lake Alice - 2
- Lake Alice - 3
- Lake Michaelson
- Lake Michaelson - 2
- Lake Michaelson - 3
- Lake Michaelson - 4
- Lake Michaelson - 5
- The Temple and Lake Michaelson
- Lake Ellis
- Lake Rutundu
- Hall Tarns
***
- Mount Kenya
- Mount Kenya - 2
- Mount Kenya - 3
- Point Lenana, Mt. Kenya
(British explorers in the 1890's reported an all-white peak on Mt. Kenya. There is much less snow today).
***
(Sept. 7, 2016) According to the founding Kikuyu myth, the first man was created here. However, after that the Kikuyu were a ruled by women - the 9 clans of Mumbi. This matriarchy continued until the men staged a coup d'etat and took power after getting all the women in power pregnant at the same time.
This myth concurs with the myth of the lands of the "Queen of Sheba" - the Queen of the South who ruled the ancient Sabaeans.
***
" ... Under the collective name of Mumbi’s Tribe, women continued to be the heads of their family groups and clans for some generations. While holding superior and dominant positions in the community, women became domineering and ruthless fighters, practised polyandry and subjected men to capital punishment and all kinds of humiliation. Men were indignant at their treatment and planned to revolt. As the women were physically stronger than the men of that time, and also better fighters, it was decided that the best time for a successful revolt would be during the time when majority of women, especially their leaders were in pregnancy.
The men held a secret meeting and arranged a suitable date to execute their plan. They embarked on a campaign to induce the women leaders and a majority of their brave followers to have sexual intercourse with them. The women were unfortunately deceived by the flattery of the men, and blindly agreed to their inducements without knowing the wicked plan the men had made to overthrow the women. The men quietly waited for the result and after six moons elapsed, they clearly saw their plan had materialised. They organised into groups and finally carried out the revolt without much resistance.
Leadership was taken over by the men. They decided to change the name of the tribe as well as the names of the clans which were given under the matriarchal system, to new ones under the patriarchal system. They succeeded in changing the name of the tribe from Mumbi’s clan to Gikuyu’s clan. But when it came to changing of the clan names, the women were very infuriated and strongly decided against the change which they looked upon as a sign of ingratitude on the part of the men.
The men allowed the original clan names to remain unchanged and the nine clans in the Gikuyu tribe are still known under the names of the nine Gikuyu daughters who were founders of the Gikuyu clan system. ... " Kiboko Hachiyon, citing "Facing Mount Kenya" (1938) by Jomo Kenyatta.
***
(Sept. 7, 2016) There might also have been an Islamic phase to the Kikuyu. For example, until it was abolished by the British, Kikuyu women strongly supported female circumcision. The geographical distribution of this practice correlates with Islam. Very few Bantu tribes in central and southern Africa ever practiced female circumcision - or female genital mutilation (FGM) as it is more accurately called. FGM is designed to ensure female virginity before marriage and female fidelity within marriage. (FGM could also be a Kikuyu import from the Maasai. Maasai culture, and most Nilotic culture resembles Islam in this respect. )
***
(May
5, 2011) The key to unlocking the mysteries of central Africa, both
ancient and modern, probably lie with a deeper understanding of the
activities of the British East India Company or "John Company" (1599 - 1874). This insight came to me as I was watching Satyajit Ray's 1977 masterpiece "The Chess Players."
In
this hilarious movie 2 pampered moslem Indian noblemen are too
preoccupied with their chess tournaments to pay any attention to the
aggressive territorial expansion of "John Company" in 1856 India.
"John
Company" was a private corporation affiliated with the British crown
that facilitated the growth of the British empire. It is probably the
model for the super-wealthy CHOAM corporation in Frank Herberts' 1964
science fiction novel "Dune." In Dune, directorships in the CHOAM company are where real imperial power lies.
As far as real life is concerned, central Africa was probably a "John Company" fief controlled by Cecil Rhodes (1853 - 1902) - the entire central African highveld was probably the "House of Rhodes."
According to Wikipedia: " ... in 1889 Rhodes obtained a charter from the British Government for his British South Africa Company (BSAC) to rule, police and make new treaties and concessions from the
Limpopo River [Northern border of South Africa] to the great lakes of
Central Africa. " At his death in 1902, Rhodes had established a
monopoly on the global diamond industry - up to 90% - through the de Beers company, that he founded.
Also,
according to Wikipedia: " ... At his death he was considered one of the
wealthiest men in the world. In his first will, of 1877, (before he had
accumulated his wealth), Rhodes wanted to create a secret society that
would bring the whole world under British rule. The exact wording from
this will is:
To
and for the establishment, promotion and development of a Secret
Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of
British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of
emigration from the United Kingdom, and of colonisation by British
subjects of all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by
energy, labour and enterprise, and especially the occupation by British
settlers of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley
of the Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South
America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great
Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and
Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an
integral part of the British Empire, the inauguration of a system of
Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to
weld together the disjointed members of the Empire and, finally, the
foundation of so great a Power as to render wars impossible, and
promote the best interests of humanity. ... "
Wikipedia (May 2011), Cecil Rhodes
For more information on "The British East India Company" see: "The men who ruled India," (1954) by Philip Mason. I've always been fascinated by the opening page of this book:
" ... Elizabeth
by the Grace of God Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of
the Faith, to all our Officers, Ministers and Subjects ... Greeting.
Pride
rings in the formal words, you can hear the trumpets peal along the
narrow city lanes. This is more than a charter of a company of
merchants; it is a move in the war with Spain. Trade is the object; but
Spain and Portugal claim a monopoly of the West Indies and the East and
there will be no trade without fighting.
That
much they must have known when they met on September 24, 1599, to
petition the Queen for their charter. But just how much they were
founding, not one of them could have guessed.
It
was for the honour of this our realm of England, for navigation, trade,
merchandise - and because it was what they liked to do. That was why
the bold eyes of the Queen's captains and merchants roved East as well
as West. They sought gold, fame and danger in every corner of the world
they opened and devoured with such zest. They had been East already in
ones and twos; they had found the Portuguese before them in India, the
Dutch in the Spice Islands. Both treated the English as poachers. The
Portuguese had the Pope's blessing; the Dutch had no blessing but the
plain advantage of being first in the field.
The
English were third in the field; they petitioned the Queen for the same
backing as their rivals. But in 1599 there were hopes of peace with
Spain; the Queen would not imperil the negotiations by licensing
trespass in the East; she kept her hand on the jesses. Next year, 1600,
the hope of peace died, and on the last day of the sixteenth century
the Queen gave the company their charter. ... "
Philip Mason, The Men Who Ruled India (1954) at 1 - 2
(Feb. 9, 2011):
Snowscape after Guo Xi (Mountain and Lake in Winter)
To beat the heat
I humbly beg a swig of Yuan Shao's drink.
To cool things off
I visualize the skin of a white dragon.
Snow lies helter-skelter
on this five-foot length of silk.
As I put the brush aside,
my gauzy shirt hides goose bumps.
(November 14, 2019) Further research in this field has to include the banking arm of the British empire which seems to have vanished from view but still exists as a family run enterprise: N M Rothschild & Sons:
According to Wikipedia :
" ... Nathan Mayer Rothschild first settled in Manchester, where he established a business in finance and textile trading. He later moved to London, founding N M Rothschild & Sons in 1811 at New Court, which is still the location of Rothschild & Co's headquarters today. Through this company, Nathan Mayer Rothschild made a fortune with his involvement in the Bonds Market.
According to historian Niall Ferguson, "For most of the nineteenth century, N M Rothschild was part of the biggest bank in the world which dominated the international bond market. For a contemporary equivalent, one has to imagine a merger between Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and probably Goldman Sachs too—as well, perhaps, as the International Monetary Fund, given the nineteenth-century Rothschild's role in stabilizing the finances of numerous governments."
During the early part of the 19th century, the Rothschild London bank took a leading part in managing and financing the subsidies that the British government transferred to its allies during the Napoleonic Wars. Through the creation of a network of agents, couriers and shippers, the bank was able to provide funds to the armies of the Duke of Wellington in Portugal and Spain. In 1818 the Rothschild bank arranged a £5 million loan to the Prussian government and the issuing of bonds for government loans. The providing of other innovative and complex financing for government projects formed a mainstay of the bank's business for the better part of the century. N M Rothschild & Sons' financial strength in the City of London became such that by 1825, the bank was able to supply enough coin to the Bank of England to enable it to avert a liquidity crisis.
Like most firms with global operations in the 19th century, Rothschild had links to slavery, even though the firm was instrumental in abolishing it by providing a £15m gilt issue necessary to pass the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. The money provided by Rothschild was used to pay slave owners compensation for their slaves and the gilt issue was only fully redeemed in 2015. ...
Nathan Mayer's eldest son, Lionel de Rothschild (1808–1879) succeeded him as head of the London branch. Under Lionel the bank financed the British government's 1875 purchase of a controlling interest in the Suez Canal. Lionel also began to invest in railways as his uncle James had been doing in France. In 1869, Lionel's son, Alfred de Rothschild (1842–1918), became a director of the Bank of England, a post he held for 20 years. Alfred was one of those who represented the British Government at the 1892 International Monetary Conference in Brussels.
The Rothschild bank funded Cecil Rhodes in the development of the British South Africa Company and Leopold de Rothschild (1845–1917) administered Rhodes's estate after his death in 1902 and helped to set up the Rhodes Scholarship scheme at Oxford University. In 1873 de Rothschild Frères of Paris and N M Rothschild & Sons of London joined with other investors to acquire the Spanish government's money-losing Rio Tinto copper mines. The new owners restructured the company and turned it into a profitable business. By 1905, the Rothschild interest in Rio Tinto amounted to more than 30%. In 1887, the French and English Rothschild banking houses loaned money to, and invested in, the De Beers diamond mines in South Africa, becoming its largest shareholders." Wikipedia
Video: "The House Of Rothschild "
***
This is not just an African issue: many conspiracy theorists insist that this bank is the muscle behind the New York Federal Reserve though which it exerts power over the American economy
***
The origin of all this money is still up in the air - My first guess was a protective golem created in a Jewish Ghetto - but other possibilities include Templars. This kind of money management was a Templar thing in the 1300's
One statistic from this video that I have heard before in another context is that at the end of the 19th century N M Rothschild & Sons controlled 1/2 of the worlds wealth.
I heave heard this exact statistic being used to describe the extent of wealth controlled by what was once called "John Company or the British East India company at the end of its period in India.
Recent heads of this dynasty:
***
(Feb. 8, 2010) "Nysa" may also be a Greek version of the Coptic "pa nhsy" (the Negro.) See: "Coptic Egypt: History and Guide" by Jill Kamil (1987):
"
... In view of centuries of contact between Egyptians and Jews in
Egypt, it is not surprising that some cultural diffusion is evident in
the Old Testament. It can be seen in names such as Pinehas and Pashur
which derive from the Egyptian pa nhsy (the Negro) and ps-Hr (part of Horus) ...
Coptic Egypt, at 23.
Greco-Roman
black Africa is still an unexplored field - and it might extend south
of Ethiopia into east and central Africa; as deep inland as the great
lakes region of Rwanda, and into Kivu province in eastern Congo. Kivu,
unlike the Congo rain-forest or jungle of myth, has a temperate, almost
alpine climate; - a Swiss-like atmosphere, despite the unending horror
stories coming out of it ...
(April 2, 2009) The immediate remnants of the Greco-Roman period in east African history would be Sabaean script and the coins of Axum (See page 43 of this site). But we can also trace a Roman presence in east Africa in other things: for example Maasai regalia: the red Toga, the sandals, the dagger, the shield, and the belt.
Ancient
Egyptian traces in Maasai regalia would be the traditional elongated
pierced ears and the beaded necklaces - both of which can be seen on
King Tutankhamen's mask (1342-1323 BC).
Wine making is not usually associated with east Africa, but in ancient Egypt it was associated with the worship of Osiris. (The
Greeks later came to identify Dionysus with the more ancient
Osiris/Horus cult; i.e.: a death and resurrection cult. This is
probably where the 2nd century AD Roman "sarcophagus" iconography comes
from.)
I also
think a study of Maasai language would provide ancient links to the
Nile valley. (As a general statement, if one wants to get a modern day
visual of what ancient Egyptians looked like, visit Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia. - Ancient Egyptians were "Habesha.")
When at the hour of midnight
an invisible choir is suddenly heard passing
with exquisite music, with voices -
Do not lament your fortune that at last subsides,
your life's work that has failed, your schemes that have proved illusions.
But like a man prepared, like a brave man,
bid farewell to her, to Alexandria who is departing.
Above all, do not delude yourself, do not say that it is a dream,
that your ear was mistaken.
Do not condescend to such empty hopes.
Like a man for long prepared, like a brave man,
like to the man who was worthy of such a city,
go to the window firmly,
and listen with emotion,
but not with the prayers and complaints of the coward
(Ah! supreme rapture!)
listen to the notes, to the exquisite instruments of the mystic choir,
and bid farewell to her, to Alexandria whom you are losing.
"
... The local reference of this exquisite poem is to the omen that
heralded the defeat of Mark Antony [by Octavian in 30 BC]. The poet is
eminent amoung the contemporary writers of Greece; he and his
translator, Mr George Valassopoulo, are both residents of Alexandria
[Egypt]. [Cavafy died in 1933.]"
Alexandria: A History and a Guide, by E.M. Forster Introduction by Lawrence Durrell (1982) at 104
[Alexandria was first published in 1922]
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