The Ogiamien's dormain in Benin kingdom is known as
Utantan where he has chiefs assisting him in his traditional duties. The
present Ogiamien of Utantan-Benin is Ogiamien Osarobo Okuonghae, a graduate of
history from the University of Benin.
Oba Ewedo's reign was followed by that of Oguola,
Edoni, Udagbedo, Ohen, Egbeka, Orobiru and Uwaifiokun in that order, none of
which was considered particularly spectacular in Benin history.
The mid 15th century AD through the 16th century AD,
withnessed the period of the warrior kings in Benin history. Ewuare the
great, Ozolua, Esigie, Orhogbua and Ehengbuda consolidated, developed and
expanded the kingdom through innovative leadership ideas, closely knit,
disciplined community organization, warfare and conquests. A British
adventurer called Ling Roth, was the first to refer to Benin as great, a
tribute not only to the extend of the Benin empire but also to the elaborate,
detailed and efficient administrative machinery the people had evolved over a
period of more than 1,000 years.
At its height, the Binis controlled vast Yoruba land
with populations several times larger than that of Benin. The Benin kingdom
extended in the West to Lagos, where the Binis set up a military camp of
occupation which they called Eko, in the North-east to Ekiti, Owo, Ondo, most
of Delta state and all of the North-west to the river Niger.
The Binis established their influence and authority
along the West Coast of Africa and through dominance lent their name to the
Bight of Benin. The Binis have very close affinity with the Ashantis of Ghana
and are considered of similar or common stock.
However, the frontiers of the Benin Empire were
constantly expanding and contrasting as new conquests were made and as vassals
on the borders rebelled only to be re-conquered.
The Binis spread their culture and traditions,
particularly their Obaship ideology and system by sending royal brothers to
rule over tributaries, or holding hostage, sons of conquered chiefs to be
trained in Benin City or by sponsoring candidates for thrones of conquered
territories. Objects such as Ada and brass masks were introduced to vassal
lords as emblems of their authority and these symbols have endured in
virtually all the territories that experienced Bini control. Even in places
outside direct Benin influence, such as in the Niger Delta area, the
reputation of the Oba of Benin was such that leadership disputes were brought
to him for arbitration and the winners took back home, Benin regalia to form
part of their leadership traditions.
The city of Benin, like the ancient Egyptian cities
walled against predators, has a giant protective moat dug around it between
1280 - 1295 AD, without using mechanical equipment. The engineering feat
still marvels in modern times. The Benin moat is described in the Guinness
Book of Records as second in magnitude only to the Great China wall.
Ewuare, the first Bini warrior king, was himself
forced into exile as a young prince and nearly would not have ascended the
Benin throne. With death penalty hanging on his head as a result of some
misdemeanor, he fled into the woods although regularly, secretly visiting the
city of Benin at night.
The elders (Edionisen) heard about his secret visits
and set a trap to capture and kill him. Just as he was about to be caught, he
escaped to the home of Ogieva Nomuekpo, who hid him in a well covered on top
with leaves. Ogieva then went to invite the elders to come and arrest Prince
Ogun as he was called then.
While Ogieva was on his way to call the elders, Edo,
the head servant of Ogieva's household alerted Prince Ogun about his master's
diabolical plan and helped the prince to escape. Ogieva returned with the
elders to find that he had been betrayed and he severely punished Edo for
this.
After several years in the bush, Prince Ogun began
to grow weary of his vagabond life and accepted to be crowned Oba Ewuare of
Ubini land around the mid 15th century AD. The father's throne had been
vacant for a while then and he was the oldest heir.
On the throne, one of his first acts was to reward
Edo with many valuable gifts. After Edo's death, he bought his corpse from
Ogieva and buried it at the entrance to the palace's inner tower. Then he
decreed that the land of Ubini should henceforth be known and called Edo.
This was later expanded to Edo O'Evho Ahire, meaning Edo the city of love, in
appreciation of Edo's love that saved young Prince Ogun's life and gave Benin
her greatest king.
Oba Ewuare the great, as he later came to be known,
was the most dynamic, innovative and successful Oba in the history of Edo
kingdom. Under him, Benin was completely transformed religiously,
politically, socially and physically.
Houses originally built with poles or palm ribs and
padded with mud were rebuilt with packed mud. The city was re-planned and
neatly laid out, with roads radiating from the center. It was divided into
two distinct segments with Ore ne Okhua, constituting the public sector and
the Oba's sector (Ogbe) the other.
The population of Ore ne Okhua was organized into
wards with each specializing in a peculiar craft or ritual services in
allegiance to the king.
The palace, which did not have a permanent site in
previous reigns, was constructed on a massive scale covering several acres of
land at its present location and turned into a beehive of activities as the
political and spiritual nerve centre of the vast kingdom.
The Binis have a saying that in the Oba's palace
there is never silence. The complex includes shrine areas, meeting chambers
for a variety of groups of chiefs, work spaces for ritual professionals, royal
artists and craftsmen, storehouses, residential sections for the Oba's
numerous wives, children and servants.
A seventeenth century Dutch engraving from Olfert
Dapper's Nauwkeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaansche Gewesten, published in
Amsterdam in 1668 described the palace thus:
" 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,
and are kept very clean. Most palaces and houses of the king are covered with
palm leaves instead of square pieces of wood, and every roof is decorated with
a small turret ending in a point, on which birds are standing, birds cast in
copper with outspread wings, cleverly made after living models."
Ewuare re-organized the government by centralizing
it and he set up three powerful palace associations of chiefs. The political
elite of the kingdom was made up of titled chiefs and members of the royal
family. The seven highest-ranking chiefs who were, in fact, descendants of
original elders of Benin were constituted into Uzama with leadership authority
next to the king.
The brothers of the king who tended to be potential
rivals were sent as hereditary rulers (Enogies) of administrative districts.
The mother of the king was given the title of Queen mother and set up in her
own palace in the town of Uselu just outside the city.
Ewuare restored the annual cycle of royal ceremonies
the most important ones being Ugie Erha Oba in honour of royal ancestors and
Igue to strengthen the mystical powers of the king. The present day elegant
ceremonial costumes of the kings and chiefs of Benin originated from Ewuare's
reign.
Ewuare set up a war machine that extended Benin
notion of kingship, objects, aesthetic ideas and power across the West Coast
of Africa. The arts, particularly brass casting, flourished during his reign.
The kings of Benin from the reign of Ewuare the
great until the 17th century AD were Ezoti, followed by Olua, Ozolua, Esigie,
Orhogbua, Ehengbuda, Ohuan, Ahenzae, Akenzae, Akengboi, Akenkpaye, Akengbedo,
Ore-Oghene, Ewuakpe and Ozuere.
When king Ozolua died, a bitter struggle for power
ensued between his two sons, Esigie in Benin City and Aruaran in the town of
Udo, about 20 miles from Benin City to the northwest. Udo then, was an
important centre almost as large and powerful as Benin City. Esigie triumphed
just as he did in the war against the Igala people from north of Nigeria who
had attacked the kingdom during his reign. The Binis drove the Igala soldiers
back across the river Niger and established their king, the Ata, as a vassal
of Benin.
The Portuguese first reached Benin which they called
Beny or Benin (although the Binis called themselves, their language, capital
city and their kingdom, EDO), during the reign of Ozolua between 1472 and 1486
AD. The Portuguese found a highly developed kingdom with unique and very
sohpisticated political, artistic, linguistic, economic, cultural and military
traditions in the process of territorial conquests.
Between 1504 and 1550 AD, the Portuguese, a major
European power at the time, happily negotiated and established diplomatic and
trade relations with Oba Esigie and his kingdom of Benin. Portuguese
mercenaries fought along side the Binis in many territorial wars after the
treaty. Trade between the Portuguese and Benin was mainly in coral beads,
cloths for ceremonial attire and great quantities of brass manilas which Bini
craftsmen melted for casting. In exchange for Portuguese goods, the Binis
offered tobacco, spices, colanuts, ivory, earthenware, jewelry, artifacts,
domestic slaves etc.
European slave trade in West Africa started with the
acquisition of domestic servants, and warrior kingdoms like Edo had plenty of
them captured as war booties. It was forbidden to sell or take a native Bini
into slavery and so elaborate identification marks on faces and chests were
contrived. Binis, therefore, were hardly ever captured by Arabs or Europeans
into slavery.
One of the numerous elite palace associations was
assigned the responsibility of conducting affairs with the Portuguese. Until
this day, a secret language which some claim is derived from Portuguese, is
spoken by members of the association.
The seventeenth century witnessed another period of
internal turmoil in Benin history. After the death of Ehengbuda, the last
warrior king in the late 16th century AD, his son Ohuan ascended the throne
but he did not reign for long and he produced no heir. With his death, the
lineage that produced the Eweka dynasty ended.
Powerful rebel chiefs established private bases and
selected kings from among their ranks. This produced a series of kings with
doubtful claims to legitimacy, which seriously weakened the Benin monarchy.
At the turn of the 17th century, a very powerful
Iyase (head of chiefs and the supreme military commander of the kingdom),
rebelled against Oba Ewuakpe and after the Oba's death, supported a rival
brother to the heir apparent, who won and became Akenzua I. This rebel (the
Iyase ne Ode), is remembered in Benin oral history as a threatening foe and a
very powerful magician who could transform himself into an elephant at will.
Oba Akenzua I, from 1715 AD and Oba Eresonyen from
1735 AD, successfully fought the rebellious chiefs and restored power and
legitimacy to the Bini manarchy. Their reigns were followed in 1750 by that
of Akengbuda; 1804, Obanosa and Ogbebo in quick succession; 1815, Osemwede and
1850 Oba Adolo.
During the British invasion of Benin City in 1897,
Oba Ovoranmwen Nogbaisi (meaning the great) was on the throne. The British,
viewing Benin as the main obstacle in their expansion drive into the
agricultural interior of the West African coast from the river Niger, decided
to provoke the kingdom to get an excuse to sack it. The British stubbornly
sent their scouts to Benin against the advice and tradition of the Binis,
during a sacred national ceremony when foreign visitors are not welcomed. The
British mercenaries were eliminated as hostile intruders, which was the excuse
the British wanted. The British then launched a full-scale war, which lasted
for eight days and went in their favour because of their superior weapons.
After capturing the ancient city of Benin, they scattered the inhabitants to
villages and farms. While the Binis were out of the way, and the invaders had
exiled Oba Overanmwen to Calabar (in South-east Nigeria), they ransac ked the
Oba's palace, all Bini shrines and chiefs' homes, stealing thousands of sacred
Benin works of art and other valuables which today adorn the leading museums
in Europe and America. Not content with their looting, they burnt the entire
city down to the last house.
From accounts of members of the British army that
invaded Benin City in 1897, we learn that the floors, lintels, and rafters of
the council chambers and the king's residence in the palace were lined with
sheets of repoussé, decorated brass covered with royal geometric designs and
figures of men and leopards. Ornamental ivory locks sealed the doors and
carved ivory figurines surmounted anterior. A brass snake, observed for the
first time by a European in the early eighteenth century, was still to be seen
on the roof of the council chamber house.
All of these the invading British, in the name of
their king and country carted away. What they could not steal or burn, they
destroyed. And sitting on the ruins, the British subdued and indirectly ruled
this outstanding African civilization for another 63 years as part of their
Nigerian colony.
Despite the British abuse of Bini culture and
marginalization of Bini history, the spendour of Edo civilization continues to
this day to astound and exite the world. Benin artifacts are among the most
exquisite and coveted in world's history and the kingdom of Benin ramains
famous for its sophistication in social engineering and organization. The
Bini Obaship institution is still one of the world's most revered apart from
being one of the most ancient.
Eweka II ascended the throne of Benin in 1814 and
Akenzua the II became Oba in 1933. Between them, they restored a great deal
of the tradition and dignity of Benin Obaship and rebuilt, although on a
smaller scale than the Ewuare palace, the grandeur, triumph and supremacy of
Bini traditions. Large walled areas have now replaced the numerous compounds
of former kings with enclosed individual altars for each of the three
immediate predecessors and one general altar for the rest. Decorated sheets
of brass adorn the rafters and lintels and terra-cotta plaques recount the
exploits of former kings.
The current king of this great African kingdom and
one of the most vibrant, colourful and enlightened civilizations in the
history of the world, is Oba Erediauwa, Uku Akpolo Kpolo, the Omo N'Oba N'Edo.
Copyright: The Secrets of the Ages by Naiwu
Osahon,
Published by
Heritage Books, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria.
Also published in the
children's book series:
Obobo Books, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria, under
the title:
EDO:
the kingdom of love, by Naiwu Osahon
Naiwu Osahon
Hon. Khu Mkuu,
The World
Pan-African Movement.