Tracing The Paths Of History In Africa; The City Kingdom Of Benin.

Benin City (the name of a powerful kingdom of the same name) rose to prominence in the fifteenth century. Located in the present-day southwestern Nigeria.

      The territory of the Kingdom extended from the western Ibo tribes on the shores of the Niger River, way through parts of the southwestern region of Nigeria. It expanded eastwards to Niger River, near the Oyo Kingdom, which extended through most of South Western Nigeria in the West to parts of present day Republic of Benin.

The Ogiso dynasty came to an end in 1180 AD by the help of Eweka 1 the first Oba who changed the ancient name of Igodomigodo to Edo and 'Ogiso' dynasty to Oba dynasty. The word "Oba" is a Yoruba title for king. Eweka 1 was the son of Oranmiyan a Yoruba prince from ile ife an the grandson of Oduduwa the Oba of ife. In this, Eweka 1 was the first "Oba" and architect of this title.

        Among the regalia of Benin was coral. i was believed that the Oba contested Olokun, the sea-god to a wrestling match at a beach, the Oba  won the match and seized all the coral from the sea-god Olukon. From this moment, coral became important in the empire of Benin.

          Benin traded with the peoples of the inlands and Europeans; first the Portuguese and later the Dutch and British among others. Endowed will skilled artisans, specializing in sculptural making, Benin made some of the world’s best sculptures that when the European critics looked at them, they declined to believe that these had actually come from Africa. These sculptures were made from bronze, gold, brass and wood.

The Oba, was given immense power and favor among all the people of Benin. Before we delve into the power and popularity off the Oba, let us first review the city of Benin itself.

The city of Benin.

             History about Benin was gathered by European mariners, traders and through oral tradition – first hand information from people who were there at the time and were somewhat impacted upon by these occurrences.

Igodomigodo was the name of the lands of the people of Benin. The name of the town was Ubinu – an Itsekhiri name for the royal administrative centre of the kingdom of Edo, however, the people living there changed the name to Bini. Hence the Portuguese took it as Benin City, this city was founded in the 8^th century A.D and was protected by earthen walls.

Oba Ewuare ordered the building of an 11-kilometer long earthen wall and 15 meters deep. Graham Connah excavated this in the early 1960s and his estimations were that it would take more a  than 1,000 men labor force for about 10 hours a day and 7 days a week to complete the structure today.

According to the account of some early mariners that came to Benin in the late fifteenth century, a good and favoring account is given of the city of Benin

[The city] looks very big when you go into it. You enter by a great broad street, not paved, which sees to be seven or eight times broader than the Warmoes-street n Amsterdam. This street goes right through, not bending; and the place where i was lodged with Mattheus Cornelison was at least a quarter of an hour from the gate and yet i could not see the the other end of it

This is an account of one Dutchman who traded in information in about 1600 A.D.

 The Dutchman continues with his account;

The houses in the town stand in good order, one close and even the with next as our Dutch houses are.....while the king's palace is very large, having within many four square plains, each surrounded by galleries which are always guarded, i went in as far into the palace as to cross four of the squares; but wherever i looked, i saw gate after gate for entry into the squares; and in this manner, i went in as far as any Dutchman had been permitted.

Based on this account, the city of Benin must have been a huge one. The dutch informer stresses the issue of order and organization in the city whose building somewhat struck a resemblance with those in Benin city.

The people of Benin.

In this the area of household manners the, Dutch trader pointed out that the people of Benin were equally when smart compared to his natives back home in Amsterdam. 

these people are in no way inferior to the Dutch in cleanliness. they wash and scrub their houses so well that they are as polished as a looking glass.

According to the account given by the Dutchmen, the people of  Benin were so hospitable and received all visitors well.

The power and influence of the Oba.

A German mariner by the names of Anderas Josua Ultzheimer docked at River Benin and embarked on a journey inland. A staunch and self-styled protestant he was, this is what he had to say about the Oba,

The king allows himself to be seen in public only once a year and that is on his birthday when he rides in progress around his city walls, clad in scarlet cloth and bejeweled with beads of coral. 

Here a stampede is created as everyone wants to take a glimpse of their king;

Everyone wants to see the king, just as in Rome when the Pope celebrates his "jubilee". six thousand people press towards him and when he comes they all go down to their and clap their hands in greeting. For his part, he waves his hand back and forth, just as does the Pope in Rome when he blesses the people.

Considerate to note should be the actuality that Ultzheimer was a son of the religious conflict between Catholism and Protestantism. He had also served as Landsknecht in battles in Hungary. Hence, he looked at things in Protestant-Catholic panorama

European contact.

             The European contact with the peoples of Benin was in 1485 A.D, a strong relationship developed based on mercantile trade. Trade was in ivory, pepper and palm oil while from Portugal, came guns and manila. This trade also saw the Oba sending an ambassador to Lisbon and the Portuguese sending Christian missionaries in return.

The British entered this trade in 1553 trading in palm oil, pepper and ivory; this trade grew but turned sour in 1897.

As earlier noted, the people of Benin were so hospitable to visitors (according to a Dutchman) this led to growth of trade in the region between Benin and Europe. As time moved on, with the benefits of trade and a new generation born and bred, the people of Benin changed their attitude towards Europeans especially the British. This was because they suspected them of interest in their lands. 

Following this, Britons in Benin were killed by the natives (the Benin peoples).

Decline of Benin.

          The news of the killed Britons were no received well back home, in 1897, an armed expedition was conducted in Benin and the results were devastating. The palace was destroyed, regalia dispersed and sculptures and plaques looted. The looted art pieces were sold off in Europe and some were bought by museums around Europe.

It was not until 1917 that the ruins of Benin were put together to forge a new start for the defunct, once glorious and mighty, artisan rich kingdom. To this date, the kingdom of Benin lies in silence to the south west of modern day Nigeria.