The king's palace or court is a square, and
is as large as the town of Haarlem and entirely surrounded by a special wall, like
that which encircles the town. It is divided into many magnificent palaces, houses,
and apartments of the courtiers, and comprises beautiful and long square galleries,
about as large as the Exchange at Amsterdam, but one larger than another, resting
on wooden pillars, from top to bottom covered with cast copper, on which are engraved
the pictures of their war exploits and Battles......
The exiled Prince Ekaladerhan had changed
his name to Izoduwa meaning 'I have chosen the part of prosperity' and found
his way to Ile-Ife . It was during this period of confusion the elders led by
Oliha mounted a search for the banished Prince Ekaladerhan whom the Ife people
will now called Oduduwa . Oduduwa, who could not return due to age, granted
them Oranmiyan, his son, to rule over them. Oranmiyan was resisted by Ogiamien
Irebor, one of the palace chiefs and took up his abode in the palace built for
him at Usama by the elders (now a coronation shrine ). Soon after his arrival,
he married a beautiful lady, Erinmwinde, daughter of Ogie-Egor, the ninth
Enogie (Duke) of Egor, by whom he had a son. After some years residence here he
called a meeting of the people and renounced his office, remarking that the
country was a land of vexation, Ile-Ibinu Yoruba words (by which name the
country was afterward known) and that only a child born, trained and educated
in the arts and mysteries of the land could reign over the people. He caused
his son born to him by Erinmwinde to be made King in his place, and returned to
Yoruba land Ile-Ife. His son whom he left behind was deaf and dumb, and the
elders recoursed to Oranmiyan who gave them charmed seeds "omo ayo"
to play with which will make him to talk. The little Oranmiyan played with the
seeds with his peers at Egor, his mother’s hometown. While playing with the seeds
he announced "Owomika" meaning 'my hands catch it' in yoruba but
corrupted to 'Eweka' by the Edos. This is why every Oba of Benin must stay
seven days in Usama and announce his name at Egor. Eweka thus started the Oba
dynasty. Oranmiyan was also the founder of Oyo Empire where he ruled supreme as
the first Aalafin of Oyo and proceeded to ile ife to become the 6th Ooni of ife
while his descendants rules in Ile Ife, Oyo and Benin.
Nearly 36 known Ogiso are accounted for as rulers
of this initial incarnation of the state. According to Edo oral tradition, during
the reign of the last Ogiso, his son and heir apparent, Ekaladerhan, was sentenced
to death because one of the Queens deliberately changed an oracle message to the
Ogiso. In carrying out the order of the palace, the palace messengers set him free
recognizing his innocence.
On the death of the last Ogiso, a group of Benin
Chiefs led by Chief Oliha mounted a search for their banished Prince Ekaladerhan
who the Ife people will now call Oduduwa to Ile-Ife, pleaded for Oduduwa return(The
Ooni) but were granted one of his sons as King in Igodomigodo (later known as Benin
City).
Urhobo living together in the royal administrative
centre of the kingdom. The Portuguese who arrived in an expedition led by Joao Afonso
de Aveiro in 1485 would refer to it as Benin and the centre would become known as
Benin City.
The Kingdom of Benin eventually gained political
strength and ascendancy over much of what is now mid-western Nigeria. Nowadays,
scientists have discovered that the Edo people did have a writing system, their
artwork which had let the scientists discover their true history. Including the
armor, magnificent drawing skills.
By the 15th century, Benin had expanded
into a thriving city-state. The twelfth Oba in line, Oba Ewuare the Great
(1440–1473) would expand the city-state 's territories to surrounding regions.
It was not until the 15th century during
the reign of Oba Ewuare the Great that the kingdom's administrative centre, the
city Ubinu, began to be known as Benin City by the
Portuguese, later be adopted by the locals
as well. Before then, due to the pronounced ethnic diversity at the kingdom's
headquarters during the 15th century from the successes of Oba Ewuare, the
earlier name ('Ubinu') by a tribe of the Edos was colloquially spoken as
"Bini" by the mix of Itsekhiri , Esan , Igbo , Ijaw
Edo , Urhobo living together in the royal
administrative centre of the kingdom. The Portuguese would write this down as
Benin City. Though, farther Edo clans, such as the Itsekiris and the Urhobos
still referred to the city as Ubini up till the late 19th century, as evidence
implies.
Aside from Benin City, the system of rule
of the Oba in his kingdom, even through the golden age of the kingdom, was
still loosely based after the Ogiso dynasty, which was military and royal
protection in exchange of use of resources and implementation of taxes paid to
the royal administrative centre. Language and culture was not enforced but
remained heterogeneous and localized according to each group within the
kingdom, though a local "Enogie" (duke) was often appointed by the
Oba for specified ethnic areas.
Benin ivory mask of the Queen Mother Idia;
16th century; ivory, iron & copper; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York
City)
Bronze Head of Queen Idia; early 16th
century; bronze; Ethnological Museum of Berlin (Germany)...
The Oba had become the mount of power
within the region. Oba Ewuare, the first Golden Age Oba, is credited with turning
Benin City into a city-state from a military fortress built by the Ogisos,
protected by moats and walls. It was from this bastion that he launched his
military campaigns and began the expansion of the kingdom from the Edo-speaking
heartlands.
A series of walls marked the incremental
growth of the sacred city from 850 AD until its decline in the 16th century. To
enclose his palace he commanded the building of Benin's inner wall, an
11-kilometre-long (7 mi) earthen rampart girded by a moat 6 m (20 ft) deep.
This was excavated in the early 1960s by
Graham Connah . Connah estimated that its
construction if spread out over five dry seasons, would have required a
workforce of 1,000 laborers working ten hours a day seven days a week. Ewuare
also added great thoroughfares and erected nine fortified gateways.
Excavations also uncovered a rural network
of earthen walls 6,000 to 13,000 km (4,000 to 8,000 mi) long that would have
taken an estimated 150 million man-hours to build and must have taken hundreds
of years to build. These were apparently raised to mark out territories for
towns and cities. Thirteen years after Ewuare's death tales of Benin's
splendors lured more Portuguese traders to the city gates.
At its height, Benin dominated trade along
the entire coastline from the Western Niger Delta, through Lagos to modern-day
Ghana. It was for this reason that this
coastline was named the Bight of Benin . The present-day Republic of Benin,
formerly Dahomey, decided to choose the name of this bight as the name of its
country. Benin ruled over the tribes of the Niger Delta including the Western
Igbo, Ijaw, Itshekiri, and Urhobo amongst others. It also held sway over the
Eastern Yoruba tribes of Ondo, Ekiti, Mahin/Ugbo, and Ijebu. It also established the first colony of Lagos
hundreds of years before the British took over in 1851.
The state developed an advanced artistic
culture, especially in its famous artifacts of bronze, iron and ivory. These
include bronze wall plaques and life-sized bronze heads depicting the Obas of
Benin. The most well-known artifact is based on Queen Idia, now best known as
the FESTAC Mask after its use in 1977 in the logo of the Nigeria-financed and
hosted Second Festival of Black & African Arts and Culture (FESTAC 77)
Drawing of Benin City made by an English
officer, 1897
The first European travelers to reach Benin
were Portuguese explorers starting with Joao Afonso de Aveiro [ pt ] in about
1485. A strong mercantile relationship developed, with the Edo trading slaves
and tropical products such as
ivory , pepper and palm oil for European
goods such as Manilla (money) and guns . In the early 16th century, the Oba
sent an ambassador to
Lisbon , and the king of Portugal sent
Christian missionaries to Benin City. Some residents of Benin City could still
speak a pidgin Portuguese in the late 19th century.
The first English expedition to Benin was
in 1553, and significant trading developed between England and Benin based on
the export of ivory, palm oil, pepper, and slaves. Visitors in the 16th and
19th centuries brought back to Europe tales of "Great Benin", a
fabulous city of noble buildings, ruled over by a powerful king. However, the
Oba began to suspect Britain of larger colonial designs and ceased
communications with the British until the British Expedition in 1896-97 when
British troops captured, burned, and looted Benin City as part of a punitive
mission, which brought the kingdom to an end. 17th-century Dutch engraving from
Olfert Dapper 's
Nauwkeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaansche
Gewesten, published in Amsterdam in 1668 says: Dutch traveler was David van
Nyendael , who in 1699 wrote an eye-witness account. the introduction of guns
in the 15th century, traditional weapons like the spear, short sword, and bow
held sway. Efforts were made to reorganize a local guild of blacksmiths in the
18th century to manufacture light firearms, but dependence on imports was still
heavy. Before the coming of the gun, guilds of blacksmiths were charged with
war production—particularly swords and iron spearheads.
The King of Benin can in a single day make
20,000 men ready for war, and, if need be, 180,000, and because of this he has
great influence among all the surrounding peoples ... His authority stretches
over many cities, towns and villages. There is no King thereabouts who, in the
possession of so many beautiful cities and towns, is his equal.
Olfert Dapper, Nauwkeurige Beschrijvinge
der Afrikaansche Gewesten (Description of Africa), 1668.
Benin's tactics were well organized, with
preliminary plans weighed by the Oba and his sub-commanders. Logistics were
organized to support missions from the usual porter forces, water transport via
canoe, and requisitioning from localities the army passed through. Movement of
troops via canoes was critically important in the lagoons, creeks and rivers of
the Niger Delta, a key area of Benin's domination. Tactics in the field seem to
have evolved over time. While the head-on clash was well known, documentation
from the 18th century shows greater emphasis on avoiding continuous battle
lines, and more effort to encircle an enemy ( ifianyako ).
Fortifications were important in the region
and numerous military campaigns fought by Benin's soldiers revolved around
sieges. As noted above, Benin's military earthworks are the largest of such
structures in the world, and Benin's rivals also built extensively. Barring a
successful assault, most sieges were resolved by a strategy of attrition,
slowly cutting off and starving out the enemy fortification until it
capitulated. On occasion, however, European mercenaries were called on to aid
with these sieges. In 1603–04 for example, European cannon helped batter and
destroy the gates of a town near present-day Lagos, allowing 10,000 warriors of
Benin to enter and conquer it. As payment, the Europeans received items, such
as palm oil and bundles of pepper. The example of Benin shows the power of
indigenous military systems, but also the role outside influences and new
technologies brought to bear. This is a normal pattern among many nations and
was to be reflected across Africa as the 19th century dawned..
Benin began to decline after 1700. Benin's
power and the wealth was continuously flourishing in the 19th century with the
development of the trade in palm oil, textiles, ivory, slaves, and other
resources. To preserve the kingdom's independence, bit by bit the Oba banned
the export of goods from Benin, until the trade was exclusively in palm oil.
By the last half of the 19th century Great
Britain had come to want a closer relationship with the Kingdom of Benin; for
British officials were increasingly interested in controlling trade in the area
and in accessing the kingdom's rubber resources to support their own growing
tire market.
Several attempts were made to achieve this
end beginning with the official visit of Richard Francis Burton in 1862 when he
was consul at Pó . Following that came
attempts to establish a treaty between Benin and the United Kingdom by Hewtt,
Blair and Annesley in 1884, 1885 and 1886 respectively. However, these efforts
did not yield any results. The kingdom resisted becoming a British protectorate
throughout the 1880s, but the British remained persistent. Progress was made
finally in 1892 during the visit of Vice-Consul Henry Galway . This mission was
the first official visit after Burton's. Moreover, it would also set in motion
the events to come that would lead to Oba Ovonramwen's demise.
Reporting the stoppage of trade by the Benin
King 1896 Apr 13, Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast
Protectorate , 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu.
Sir Ralph Moore to Foreign Office.
Reporting on the abortive Expedition into Benin. 1895 Sept.12 Catalogue of the
Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate , 268 3/3/3, p. 240.
National Archives of Nigeria Enugu...
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