BENIN EMPIRE

(Redirected from Kingdom of Benin)

The 'Benin Empire' or 'Edo Empire' (ca.600-1897) was a large pre-colonial African state of modern Nigeria.

Contents

Origin

Ubini

Edo

Destruction

References

External Links

Origin

'Igodomigodo'
The origin of Benin City is interwoven in the myths and legends of the people. Although there are no written records to ascertain when the city was founded, it is evident from oral narratives that a territory known as Igodomigodo with an urban center known as Ile existed in 600 AD. Around 1100 AD, this urban center was called Ile-Ibinu and a century later it was renamed Ubini. Since the
mid-fifteenth century, the locals refer to the city, their language and themselves as Edo. However the Portuguese voyagers who visited the kingdom in the late 15th century christened the city "Beny," the origin of its current name, Benin City. The indigenous population still affectionately and proudly identify their ancient city as Ore Edo n’Oba ye, "Edo the dwelling place of the Oba."
The Edo people refer to the early epoch of their history as the "Owere times," for the administrated of the city-state. The oldest male resident, or odionwere, administered each settlement or commune in the city-state. The edion ne ene, the commune's four most senior elders, assisted the odionwere. Soon after political and judicial decisions in the city-state were influenced by four edionwere (pl. odionwere) who became known as the city’s collective edion ne ene.
This period ended with the rise to prominence of an odionwere known as Igodo or Obagodo. Igodo was a visionary and philosopher, and hence he was popularly called ogiso (from the phrase ‘oye vbe ogie no rre iso’, he looks like the king that lives in the sky). Although many Edo writers, historians and researchers believe that Igodo established kingship in the city at about 900 AD, there are some who believe kingship was established around 600 AD. A few of them date the kingship as early 40 BC. Nonetheless all Edo writers, historians and researchers, in accordance with oral narratives, agree that 31 kings known as ogiso ruled Benin City. It is generally believed that there were two ogiso dynasties, the Igodo and the Orriagba dynasties. Some Edo writers think there were three: Igodo, Orriagba and Ohuede dynasties.
Igodo was succeeded by Ere, who was either his son or grandson, and Ere is believed to have introduced the unique Edo architecture, ada and eben and some vital guild, as well as the appointment of enigie (sing. enogie)(governors or minor kings) for the outlying villages. Many Edo narrators believed that Ere was the true founder of the city and the territories or kingdom known as Igodomigodo. His son and successor, Orrire, had no male heir. In the 300-year interregnum following Orrire's death, many believe that the independent communities began constructing the city's network of moats and wall (or iya) as defensive barriers and boundary markers.
The edion ne ene reintroduced the monarchy by appointing the oldest odionwere in the city as ogiso. There were 18 of these republican ogisos, whom some Edo writers call odionwere-ogiso or "weak ogisos." Prominent amongst them were Akhuankhuan, Emose, Efeseke,Ogbomo and Orriagba. Orriagba's son, Odoligie, after a series of military campaigns, reestablished the power and influence of the ogiso in the region. Oduwa succeeded Odoligie, and it was during his reign that brass casting began in the city. Oduwa’s successor, Ehenneden, is still fondly associated with elegance, harmony and peace by the Edo people. Ogiso Ehenneden died without a male heir, and the throne was passed on to Ohuede, a grandson of Odoligie. Ohuede, and his immediate successors Obioye and Arigho, are mostly remembered for the economic crisis that affected the kingdom during their reigns. Ogiso Owodo, Arigho’s son and successor, is remembered for his weakness, indecisiveness and misrule. Owodo was eventually forced into exile by the popular uprising, after he committed a series of blunders that included the ordering the execution of Ekaladerhan, his son and heir apparent, and the killing of a pregnant woman. When Ogiso Owodo died in exile, the elders of the city, the edion ne ene, appointed Evian, a popular hero, as regent mainly to perform the Ogiso’s priestly duties.
'Ogiso Dynasty'
Igodo Dynasty
Ogiso Obagodo,
Ogiso Ere,
Ogiso Orire
'Republican or odionwere Ogiso'
Ogiso Odia,
Ogiso Ighido,
Ogiso Evbobo,
Ogiso Ogbeide,
Ogiso Emehen,
Ogiso Akuankhuan,
Ogiso Ekpigho,
Ogiso Efeseke,
Ogiso Irudia,
Ogiso Etebowe,
Ogiso Odion,
Ogiso Imarhan,
Ogiso Orria,
Ogiso Emose,
Ogiso Orhorho,
Ogiso Irrebo,
Ogiso Ogbomo,
Ogiso Agbonzeke,
Ogiso Ediae
'Orriagba Dynasty'
Ogiso Orriagba,
Ogiso Odoligie,
Ogiso Oduwa,
Ogiso Ehenneden,
Ogiso Ohuede,
Ogiso Oduwa,
Ogiso Ọbioye,
Ogiso Arigho,
Ogiso Owodo

Ubini

Ekaladerhan, the son of Owodo, was spared by his executioners and he found refuge at Ughoton (Gwato) but after realizing his folly Owodo forcibly tried to bring him back to Ile. Ekaladerhan and many of his admirers were forced to move further west and settled down in a place, which is today known as Ile-Ife (referred to as Uhe by the Edo people). Ekaladerhan, on account of his herbal skill became a respected person in the community. Later the indigenes appointed him as ruler of the town after a popular uprising against the city’s ruler. There is a festival, which is still celebrated up till date in Ile-Ife to commemorate the uprising against the ruler of the town who initially came from Ugbo a nearby community. In accepting the honor of being made ruler, Ekaladerhan declared Ima do ode uwa, ‘I have not missed the path of prosperity’, and this phrase was later altered to Ododuwa.
When Ogiso Owodo died in exile, the elders or edion ne ene of the city, appointed Evian, a popular hero, as regent mainly to perform the Ogiso’s priestly duties. However Evian seized the Ogiso’s stool and other symbols of office and also wanted to establish a new dynasty. This prompted the city elders to organize a search party to find Ekaladerhan the rightful heir, so as to place him on the throne. The search party, which was led by Oliha, one of the elders, found him at Ile-Ife, where he was known as Ododuwa. Initially Ekaladerhan refused the appeal to return home, but later agreed to send one of children to Ile after the elders were able to prove their ability to take care of the child. This feat, which was the taking care of seven lice for some years, earned the Oliha, the nickname ‘No gele’ (from the phrase No gele mu iru, he that took care of the lice).
The coming of Ododuwa youngest son, Orominyan, to Benin City was resisted strongly by Ogiamien, Evian’s son and successor. Oromiyan was thus forced to stay for sometime at Ego, a village northwest of Benin City, and here he fell in love with Erhinmwinde the daughter of the Enogie of Ego. Later he moved to the palace the elders had built for him at Usama. He was not referred to as ogiso or king but rather as Omo, child because he was considered to be the protégé of the elders. Oromiyan spent just three months in Benin before leaving because he did not understand the people and also the interference into his private affairs. However before leaving he left instruction that when his pregnant spouse delivered, the child should be crowned king, and in addition christened the city Ile-Ibinu, Ile, the land of quarrels.
Orominyan’s son was dumb and was only able to speak after wining a game known as akhue, which is played with the seeds of akhue (physotigma specie), his father had sent to him. It was the first word, owomika, which he uttered and later altered to Eweka that became his title as king of Benin City. Eweka, the first ruler of Benin City to be referred to as Oba, and his immediate successors, were essentially ceremonial priest-kings with virtually no authority and confined to the Usama enclave by the elders. Eventually Eweka’s grandson who took the title Ewedo defeated Ogiamien, Evian’s successor, reduce the power and influence of the elders and renamed the city Ubini. His son and immediate successor, Oguola, improved and strengthened the city defensive wall, regained control over northern part of the kingdom that had broken away during the turbulent reign of ogiso Owodo, and revived the art of brass casting.

Edo

In the mid 15th century after a lengthy struggle with the Uzama and his younger brother, Ogun, the third son of Oba Ohen, ascended the throne of Benin and took the title Ewuare. He fortified the city wall and moat network system, portioned the city into two; Ogbe, the royal quarter and Ore n’okhua the town proper, and reformed the city’s political system. Ewuare also expanded the kingdom by annexing over 200 towns and villages in the region, and renamed the city Edo. His heirs, Ozolua(r. ca. 1483-1504), Esigie(r. ca 1504-1550), Orhogbua(r. ca.1550-1578) and Ehengbuda(r. ca 1578-1608) improved the socio-political changes he had launched, and also they were able to suppress internal dissents, and expand the empire and exerted control over the neighboring city-states, towns and villages. However in the 17th century following Ehengbuda’s ill-fated expedition, the kings of Benin were barred from going to war, and consequently a series of rituals and festivals were introduced and existing ones modified to emphasis the mystique and divinity of the Benin king. It was during the period of these kings that Europeans adventurers made contact with Benin City. The Portuguese, the first to arrive in the late 15th century, brought guns and gunpowder, brass and copper, sea salt, coral and agates, which they exchanged for oil palm, spices, cotton, ivory and to some extent slaves. Although their attempts to annex and assimilate the kingdom failed there was an increased production of ivory, brass and iron artworks, which demonstrated the might of the Benin king, the splendour his palace and immortalised Edo heroes and heroines. In the mid 16th century the English paid a few trading visits to Benin City, while the Dutch came in the 17th century, and they were to dominated trade with Benin for about a century. However attempts by the French to establish trade in the late 18th century with Benin was thwarted by the British. Although some historians claim that Benin kingdom declined in the 17th century it is during this time, i.e. 17th and 18th century that the Dutch visitors reported that the influence and authority of the Benin king stretched from Ardrah in the present day Republic of Benin to Bonny east of the Niger Delta, and northwards to Idah near the Niger-Benue confluence of the present day republic of Nigeria.

Destruction

At the onset of the 19th century the British Navy, under the guise of suppressing slavery and slave trade, embarked on the colonization of the major ports along the West African coastline. With the help of European traders and Christian missionaries by the mid 19th century the British had annexed the Benin colonies of Lagos and Badagry. In 1862 the king of Benin, Oba Adolo (r. ca. 1848-1888) made a request to the British Colonial Authorities in Lagos through Captain Richard Burton who had visited Benin City, asking them to establish a trading post at Ughoton (Gwato) port. The British officials were not keen on doing so because their goal was the annexation of Benin kingdom, and also the British traders were not ready to trade on Benin kingdom’s terms. Eventually in 1892, Captain Gallwey, the vice-Consul of Oil River (later Niger Coast) Protectorate visited Benin City ostensibly to sign a trade and friendship treaty with the Benin king, Oba Ovonramwen (ca. r. 1888-1914). The Benin king refused to sign the sham ‘treaty’ because it was neither a friendship nor trade accord, and as such he barred all Europeans from entering Benin kingdom. The rejection of the Gallwey’s ‘Treaty’ was viewed as an act of war by Major Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Consul General of the Protectorate and hence an expedition to enforce the Treaty was contemplated. Actually between October 1895 and June 1896 the Niger Coast Protectorate Force made several armed incursions into Benin kingdom to ‘enforce the Gallwey’s Treaty’, and an all occasions the attempts were routed. Then in late December 1896 Lieutenant James R. Phillip (RN), acting Commissioner and Consul-General Niger Coast Protectorate without waiting for a formal approval from his superiors in London and prompted by the British traders who were eager to wrestle control of trade from the Benin king, embarked on a stealth mission to kidnap the Benin king, replace him with a ‘Native council’ and ‘open up’ Benin territories. On January 4 1897 the mission comprising of six Niger Coast Protectorate officials, two British traders and 250 African soldiers who were posing as porters was ambushed and wiped out by an Edo strike Force commanded by Ologbose Irabo, and a senior hereditary commander of the Benin army. Only Captain Boisragon, Mr. Locke and a few African soldiers survived the Niger Coast Protectorate Force’s military defeat that became known as the ‘Benin Massacre’.
The incidence gave the British government the much-awaited excuse to invade Benin kingdom, and so war was ‘promptly’ declared on the kingdom of Benin. On February 19 1897 after about 10 days of heavy fighting a British Navy Task Force, ‘Benin Punitive Expedition’, captured Benin City, and three days later after a three-day orgy of looting and pillaging, the British forces burnt down the looted Benin king’s palace and the royal quarters. A number of the loot were kept as souvenirs by the members of the expedition, and about 2500 pieces (according to British official figures) were taken to England, and in late 1897 they were sold at auction in Paris (France) by the British Admiralty to offset the cost of the invasion and destruction of Benin City. The British Museum bought 289 pieces of the loot, 1,085 pieces were bought by German museums and the rest by private collectors. The majority of these stolen Edo artworks are today on display in many European museums, whose curators insist that the loot in their possessions were legitimately acquired.
In august 1897 the Benin king formally surrendered, and later on the 13th of September he was carted away from Benin City into exile in Calabar.
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References

★ Boisragon, Alan Maxwell. The Benin massacre.
London: Methuen, 1897.

★ Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu
1895 September 12. Sir Ralph Moore to Foreign Office. Reporting on the abortive Expedition into Benin. CSO 3/2/1, pp. 145-148, 268 3/3/3, p. 240.
1896 February 5.. Sir Ralph Moore to Foreign Office. Forwarding supplementary roll of men entitled for reward for the Benin Expedition., 268 3/3/3, p. 240.
1896 April 13. ENCL. European traders in Benin to Major Copland Crawford. Reporting the stoppage of trade by the Benin King, , 268 3/3/3, p. 240.
1896 November 17. J.R. Phillips to Foreign Office. Advising the deposition of the Benin King. Dispatches to Foreign Office from Consul-General, , 268 3/3/3, p. 240.

★ Egharevba Jacob. A Short History of Benin. Ibadan: University of Ibadan Press, 1968.

★ Ekhaguosa Aisien. Benin and her Neighbors. Benin City: Aisien Publishing Co, 1996.

★ Ena Basimi Eweka. The Evolution of Chieftaincy Titles in Benin. Benin City Nigeria: University of Benin Press, 1992.

★ Erediauwa, Omo n'Oba (King of Benin) I Remain, Sir, Your Obedient Servant. Benin City 2004.

★ Omoregie O.S.B. Benin Historical Essays. Benin City: University of Benin Press, 1997.

★ Oronsaye Daniel N. The History of the Ancient Benin Kingdom and Empire. Benin City: 1995.

★ Osemwingie-Ero Osayomwanbo The History of Benin: Ogiso Dynasties 40BC-1200AD. Benin City 1999

★ Osifo Nosakhare Guy. A System of Traditional Health Care. Benin City: 1989.

External Links

★ Edo at Genealogical Gleanings

★ The Story of Africa: Ife and Benin — BBC World Service