The Heist

Exploration, exploitation, and human error. These are some of the things on display on our tour today.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

(00:36):
If you travel around South Africa, you might wind up
Inclining Karu, an arid valley in the Western Cape. Nestled
between two mountain ranges, the valley is known for stunning
views and gorgeous weather. It's also home to nine elaborate mansions,
each looking like a tiny palace fit for a maharajah.
These are called the Feather Palaces. They were built by

(00:57):
nine South African families who became rich the feather craze
of the early nineteen hundreds. Yes, you've heard that right,
the feather craze. Now, if you've never heard of it before,
you are not alone. Most people have no idea that
at one point feathers were worth more by weight than diamonds.
Even more bizarre were the lengths that some people went

(01:17):
to to corner the feather market. They were ready to beg, borrow,
and literally steal just to get their hands on some
ostrich plumes. By nineteen ten, American women were obsessed with big,
stately hats adorned with bushy feathers. The bigger the feathers,
the better the hat. Some women even fixed taxidermy birds
to their brims. After all, why settle for a few

(01:39):
feathers when you can have the whole animal? And Ostrich
feathers were the fluffiest feathers on the market, so they
were the most sought after, and since they had to
be shipped from overseas, they were expensive. At the time,
South Africa was the ostrich farm capital of the world.
Ostrich feathers were the fourth largest X point, just behind
gold and diamonds, and interestingly enough, the ostrich trade was

(02:03):
largely run by a Lithuanian Jewish community. They had escaped
Czarist rule and emigrated to a town called Oatshorn in
the Klein Karu Valley, where they swiftly set up ostrich farms,
and before long they were raking in the dough. At first,
they enjoyed a feather boon and made money hand over fist,
but soon enough American competitors crowded into the market. The

(02:26):
South African ostrich industry needed an edge if they wanted
to stay competitive with American ostrich farmers. Now, the best
ostrich feathers in the world didn't actually come from South Africa.
They were plucked from barbary ostriches. The problem with that
was that nobody knew where barbary ostriches were from. The
prevailing rumor was that they were bred in Nigeria. So

(02:48):
the South African government decided to fund an expedition to
Nigeria to see if they could figure out where the
ostriches were bred and whether they could buy some. Naturally,
they hired a group of agricultural professors to lead this expedition.
So in nineteen eleven, a small group of professors landed
in Nigeria. They hired one hundred local men to carry

(03:10):
their luggage and equipment into the Sahara Desert and they
set up camp along a trade route, and every time
a trader passed through with ostriches, the professors would secretly
inspect the birds to see if they were these sacred
barbary ostriches, and eventually some traders passed through with a
flock of the desired birds, but there was a problem.

(03:30):
As it turns out, the ostriches were not from Nigeria.
They came from just across the border, which at the
time was a French military territory. The South African government
asked France if they could buy a flock of barbary ostriches,
and predictably, the French government said no, and that should
have been the end of the conversation. But remember ostrich

(03:51):
feathers were South Africa's fourth largest export. They desperately needed
to stay on top of the market, so they told
the professors if by the birds, just steal them. And so,
in the dead of night, these professors snuck over the
border and into military territory. They ducked past soldiers and
gangs of bandits until they finally located a massive flock

(04:13):
of barbary ostriches and they managed to make it back
to their camp with one hundred and fifty six birds
in tow. Of course, this presented the professors with a
new challenge. They couldn't just take the birds on a
train back to South Africa because that would arouse suspicion.
So how would they get the ostriches back across the
Sahara Desert. Well, remember those one hundred local men they

(04:35):
hired to set up their camp. Well, the professors hired
the men again to carry their belongings and help them
build crude ostrich pens out of sticks. They then loaded
the ostriches inside the pens, marched them about one hundred
and eighty miles across the desert to Lagos, where it
was safe to board a boat for home. And when
they arrived back in South Africa with these birds, the

(04:56):
professors were lauded as heroes. For the moment, it seemed
as if had saved the South African feather trade. But fate,
as always, would get the last laugh. Just a year
after this elaborate heist, the feather industry collapsed. In the
United States. Cars were becoming a popular mode of transportation,
and cars back then didn't have tops, so it was

(05:17):
impossible to wear giant, feathered covered hats while sitting in
the front seat of a car. Women traded in their
feather hats for driving caps, and the price of feathers plummeted.
In the end, the professors risked their lives for a
journey that wasn't worth the trip, but in terms of
great stories, it's safe to say that this one was
a real feather in their caps. In fourteen eighty five,

(05:52):
a Portuguese sailor, let's call him Alvaro shall we strained
against the oars of a rowboat, swatting at mosquitoes as
he went. He and his fellow sailors were on a
river in the rainforests of Nigeria. They hoped to find
the rumored city of Benin, which was said to contain riches.
Unlike any scene in Europe, traveling through the jungle was exciting,

(06:14):
but also uncomfortable. There were bugs everywhere, and Alvao couldn't
remember a time when he wasn't sweating profusely, and there
was always a lingering fear in the back of his mind.
They could become lost in the jungle, possibly for nothing.
They were only even here on the word of travelers
and traders who claimed to have met people from Benin city.

(06:35):
Alvaro's heart sank when, after a few days of rowing,
the river finally came to an end they would have
to leave their boats and proceed on foot. The river
had at least provided some direction. Now they would be
completely at the mercy of the jungle, but after only
a short bit of walking, Alvaro and his crew were
stunned to find a dirt path clear as could be

(06:55):
leading them north. Their hearts soared. Perhaps this was the
way to the city, and so they continued on. Alvaro
kept his eyes on the horizon as always, hoping to
catch a glimpse of their destination, and his eyes were
eventually drawn to a strange bird perched atop the tree line.
At first, Alvaro thought that it was some kind of
huge condor with its wings expanded, but as they got closer,

(07:18):
he realized that it wasn't moving. It wasn't a real
bird at all. It was a carved one perched atop
a tower. They had found the city. Alvaro raced ahead,
hurrying up the road, unable to contain himself. When he
crested the next hill, he was unprepared for the site
that unfolded before him. Benin city was massive, stretching out

(07:39):
as far as the eye could see. Dozens of towers
with the carved bird toppers dotted the skyline, but most
impressive were the walls. They were about ten feet high
and they stretched for thousands of miles. It seems, surrounding
the city and also breaking it up into a series
of interconnected communities, and each community was constructed with order

(08:00):
and precision. The streets were long and wide, dividing up
the buildings in endless rings. They were also dotted with
metal lamps that Alvarro assumed illuminated the city at night.
He and his crew were greeted warmly at the gates.
The people of the city wore bright and colorful robes,
unlike any Alvaro had ever seen before. They guided the

(08:21):
crew through the streets, and Alvaro could peer into each
building as they went. They had no doors, Apparently the
citizens weren't worried about theft. Each home looked very similar,
with a central chamber and two rooms connected to it,
and he could see that the main room was for
the patriarch of each house and the side rooms were
for the women and children. In fact, the more he looked,

(08:42):
the surer he was that the town centers were full
of life, with people trading in the exact kinds of goods.
The crew had hoped to find, large elephant tusks, plentiful
cracked pepper, and textiles that would have surely impressed the king.
When Alvarro looked ahead again, he suddenly realized that the
gate guards had led them to what was surely the
royal palace. It was constructed out of incredibly smooth clay

(09:05):
walls that were so clean and polished that you could
almost see your reflection in them. Bronze artwork adorned the entrance,
showing the king's many accomplishments. Alvaro had expected to find
some thatched roofs and mud huts. He had not expected
a city that rivaled any in Europe. Once inside, he
and his men immediately bowed as they approached the throne

(09:26):
of none other than Oba Ozulua, legendary king of Benning City.
Alvaro and his fellow soldiers quickly produced bars of brass
and copper to show what they had to offer the king,
who smiled, telling them that they were welcome there. It
seems that a door had been opened between two kingdoms,
and it would change this legendary city forever. You see,

(09:47):
the additional bronze and copper from Portugal would allow the
king of Benning City to war with neighboring kingdoms. The
city soon became involved in the slave trade, selling their
captured enemies to the Europeans, and ruling over a large
empire soon meant that there was infighting and civil war
inside Benning City. By the late eighteen hundreds, it was

(10:08):
an easy target for British colonization, who destroyed the city,
so that today the only evidence of its former greatness
is found in the journals of the explorers who visited it.
For the European explorers of old, there might have been
no greater discovery than a lost city, But looking back,
it would have been better for those cities to remain

(10:28):
as hidden as possible. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make

(10:50):
another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the Worldolore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.