In 1897, the British, an uncouth tribe of callous, shameless
barbarians, in the name of their monarch, and out of envy and greed,
called the Edo people savages to destroy a brilliant African
civilization that was far ahead of theirs, because they had big guns.
The
rogue Imperialists thus viciously set back Edo's advancement by
stealing Edo's sacred artifacts and things for profit and growth and
burning what they could not take away, to turn a once accomplished
people into common beggars for measly foreign aids. Edo people must
begin preparation now to sue Britain and her monarch for 50 billion pounds reparations.
The
greatest African force and the most important, most scintillating
civilization to endure in the last two thousand years in the West
African sub-region was the Benin civilization. It began its
uninterrupted aggressive ascendance from the era of Oba Ewuare the Great
(1440 -1473 CE), until it was sacked by British Imperialists in 1897,
to steal and usurp Edo artifacts and civilization to advance. The
arts, particularly brass casting in Benin Kingdom, flourished during Oba
Ewuare's reign 1440 - 1473. He set up a war machine that extended Edo
notion of kingship, objects, aesthetic, ideas and power, across the West
Coast of Africa, and through dominance lent their name to the Bight of
Benin. It was towards the tail end of Emperor Ewuare's reign that the
Portuguese first made their visit to West Africa in 1472. Oba Ewuare the
Great died in 1473.
At the actuaries on the bank of what is today
known as the Bight of Benin, the local people the Portuguese met there,
when asked about the Kingdom in the interior, told the Portuguese it
was called Ubini.
The Portuguese abbreviated this to Benin/Bini
because they could not properly pronounce Ubini. When the Portuguese
arrived in the kingdom of Benin, they were stunned by what they found on
the ground in terms of level of administrative sophistication, social
engineering and military activities.
They found a monarchy dating
back many centuries, with complex structures of chiefs and palace
officials presiding over a kingdom expanding in all directions, and a
highly developed kingdom with unique and very sophisticated political,
artistic, linguistic, economic, cultural and military traditions, in the
process of territorial conquests. Edo kingdom was in the throes
of great conquests and had healthy, disciplined citizens; well planned
and laid out streets, a palace extending over kilometres of territory
and a king and his nobles, civilized to their bones. The Portuguese felt
honoured to be accepted by the Bini and quickly entered into treaties
of cooperation with Oba Ewuare, (the first such between any European and
West African countries), deepening political and trade obligations.
There
is a hint that they tried to preach Christianity to the monarch but
were not rewarded with favorable response. It was taboo to talk about
alien Gods in a civilization ruled by vibrant African Gods.
It was
during Oba Ewuare's reign, however, that an Aruosa delegation visited
Portugal in 1472. A British adventurer called Ling Roth, was the first
to refer to Benin as great, a tribute not only to the extent of the
Benin Empire but also to the elaborate, detailed and efficient
administrative machinery the people had evolved. The Portuguese
made strong efforts to convert Oba Ozolua (1481 -1495), to Christianity
with preachments. The Portuguese King exchanged several friendly
correspondences with the King of Benin between 1481-1495. The Oba of
Benin had no respect for White gods and deities and even for the Portuguese items of trade, which were being offered to build close links between the kingdom and Portugal. He
was, however, impressed with their guns, a weapon strange to warfare in
the West African region at that time. Oba Ozolua introduced bronze
casting to Benin.
He did it through Iguehae, a great bronze
caster, whose descendants have continued the tradition through the guild
of bronze casters at the present day Igun Street in Benin City.
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.” Oba Esigie (1504-1550 CE). The Portuguese, a
major European power at Oba Esigie's time, finally happily succeeded in
negotiating and establishing strong diplomatic and trade relations with
Oba Esigie and his kingdom, Benin, the first such relationship between a
West African country and a European country.
Oba Esigie's
son was the first accredited African envoy to the Portuguese court. The
King of Portugal receiving the ambassador from the King of Benin in
1505 CE, described him as "a man of good speech and natural wisdom"
Today, White historians lie that we were savages on our first encounter
with Whites. One of the numerous Oba of Benin 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 a mixture of Portuguese and Edo languages, is spoken by
members of the association. Portuguese mercenaries fought along-side the
Bini 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 Bini offered
tobacco, spices, cola nuts, ivory, earthenware, jewelry, artifacts,
woven cotton materials, etc.
Benin City is where Christianity was
first preached in Nigeria. A Catholic church was opened in Benin in
1505. The Portuguese failed to persuade Oba Ewuare and Oba Ozolua to
convert to Christianity but made their first break through with Oba
Esigie, to the shock and disbelief of the Uzama nobles. Oba Esigie's
conversion to Christianity was considered an unforgivable act, a
betrayal, and a slap on the face of the traditional faith and the king's
Idu ancestary that confers legitimacy on the throne. This sacrilegious
act, eventually led to the Igalla war in Edo history.
European
slave trade in West Africa started with the acquisition of domestic
servants in 1522 CE, and warrior kingdoms like Benin had plenty of them
captured as war booties, but would not sell them. The slave trade was
very unpopular with the Edo people.
They thought it was silly to
sell fellow human beings. Their Obas and nobles were vehemently opposed
to the business of slave trade and to the export of the productive
fighting male.
The Edo, of course, could not control the day to
day happenings of the slave merchants, who apparently largely acted
under cover at first in the vast territories under Edo hegemony.
However, it was forbidden to sell or take a native Bini into slavery and
so elaborate identification marks on faces and chests were eventually
contrived. The Bini therefore were hardly ever captured by Arabs
or Europeans into slavery. Alan Ryder, writing on this in his book,
Benin and the European, narrated the experience of the Portuguese
merchant, Machin Fernandes in Benin as early as 1522 CE: That was during
the reign of Oba Esigie. “Of the whole cargo of 83 slaves bought
by Machin Fernandes, only two were males – and it is quite possible that
these were acquired outside the Oba's territory –despite a whole month
(at Ughoton) spent in vain attempts to have a market opened for male
slaves. The 81 females, mostly between ten and twenty years of age, were
purchased in Benin City between 25 June and 8 August at the rate of
one, two or three a day.”
None of the 83 slaves was an Edo person,
according to Ryder, and no Edo person could have been involved in the
sales. It was taboo in Edo culture. Edo Empire was vast, with a great
concentration of people from different ethnic backgrounds, Yoruba, Ibo,
Itsekiri, Ijaw, Urhobo, Igalla, etc., making a living in the lucrative
Ughoton route that was the main centre of commercial activities in the
southern area at the time, of what later became Nigeria.
Alan
Ryder, recording the experiences of yet another European merchant, the
French trader and Captain called Landolphe, in Benin in February 1778,
said, “The Ezomo was the richest man in Benin, owning more than 10,000
slaves, none of whom was ever sold.” The author then commented: “His
(the Ezomo's). Refusal to sell any of his slaves is also
noteworthy for the light it sheds upon the attitude of powerful Edo
chiefs towards the slave trade: however numerous they might be, a great
man did not sell his slaves.” Says Edo people: “vbo ghi da Oba no na mu
ovionren khien?” Meaning, “What need does the Oba want to satisfy by
putting out his slave for sale?”
The first British ship reached
Benin River in 1553. British trade with the Kingdom of Benin was mainly
in cloths, palm oil, cowries, beads and Ivory. Benin currency (igho),
the cowrie, was popularly accepted in North, West, East Africa, and it
greatly facilitated Edo's economic buoyancy as a portable medium of
exchange. Oba Ohuan (1604 1641 CE), was Oba Ehengbuda's son. He
ended the Eweka dynastic lineage. After him, powerful rebel chiefs
established private power bases and selected Obas from among themselves.
The selection process took the format of the Ihogbe (king makers),
picking an Oba from among their ranks and presenting him to the Uzama
for crowning.
This process produced a series of Obas, seven of
them, with doubtful claims to legitimacy, thus seriously weakening the
Edo monarchy. Lourenco Pinto, captain of a Portuguese ship that brought
missionaries to the ancient Benin port of Warri in 1619, sent the
following deposition about Benin to the Sacra Congregation at the
instance of Father Montelcone. “Great Benin were the king resides is
larger than Lisbon, all the streets run straight and as far as the
eyes can see.
The
houses are large, especially that of the king which is richly decorated
and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so
well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security
that they have no door to their houses. All the cities of this African
Empire are organized, large and harmonious.”
By the mid 17th
century and extending well over the period of confusion about who reigns
in Benin, the Portuguese, Dutch, English, French and other Europeans,
had expanded the slave trade in the area so much that they were calling
it the Slave Coast.
The slave trade remained high in the area until 1840. The slaves were mainly war
captives
and were drawn from the entire area controlled by Benin all the way to
the communities near the coast and to northern peoples such as the
Bariba. The Atlantic slave trade had a destructive impact in Benin area,
causing devastating depopulation around Benin and greatly
militarizing the area.
Oba
Eresoyen (1735 – 1750 CE), had only just ascended to his father's
throne when trouble came calling. Commandant Willem Hogg, the resident
Manager of the Dutch Trading Station in Ughoton, had for nearly a year
been pleading with Eresoyen's father, Oba Akenzua I, to prevail on the
Benin Chiefs owing the Ughoton Dutch Trading Station, did not supplied goods
on which they had received credit lines. Also, Holland wanted to be
allowed to participate in the Ivory trade and break the monopoly the
monarch had granted the British and Portuguese ships calling at Ughoton.
Traders
of the two countries were offering better prices for the commodity. The
palace had seemed to Willem Hogg, unwilling to help the Dutch company
recapture slaves who had escaped from the Dutch company's dungeons at
Ughoton while awaiting their evacuation ship from Elmina Castle on the
Gold Coast, to arrive. Half-hearted promises had been extracted
from the palace over the issue of the runaway slaves, against the
overriding feeling at the palace that it was the responsibility of the
Dutch to secure their purchases after taking delivery. These were
the problems weighing on Willem Hogg's mind when he decided to visit the
palace to once more seek the help of Oba Eresoyen. In the presence of
the Oba and chiefs, while discussing the issues that brought him to the
palace, argument developed, leading to the loss of temper. The
Dutchman got up from his seat, pulled out his pistol and shot at the
monarch who was quickly shielded by his omada (sword bearer). The omada
took the bullet intended for the monarch and died on the spot.
Regicide
had been attempted and murder committed, and in the confusion that
ensured, Willem Hogg sneaked out of the palace. This incidence explains
the reluctance of the Obas of Benin to be exposed to European visitors
from that time on, and why the British Capt. Henry L. Gallwey, Vice
Consul for the Benin River District of the Niger Coast Protectorate and
his delegation, suffered frustration and delays in March 1892, when they
requested to meet with Oba Ovonramwen, to conclude a 'Treaty of
Protection' with Benin kingdom. It was the responsibility of the
Ezomo to take remedial action against the Dutchman because security
matters for Ughoton gateway were under his portfolio. Ezomo Odia was not
at the meeting. He had sequestered on his farm for a little while
because of misunderstanding with the palace over the issue of the runaway slaves who had mostly taken refuge at his farm. Most
of the other runaway slaves were with other chiefs. This was why
progress was not possible on the matter. Since the chiefs do not sell
slaves, they did not feel it was their business rallying runaway slaves
for the Dutch? That summed up the popular refrain on all lips at the
time.
To get Ezomo Odia to return to town, the oracle prescribed
that all the princesses of the realm should pay a courtesy visit to
Ezomo Odia.
The princesses, on being told that Ezomo Odia was at
his farm, when they arrived at Okhokhugbo village, braced up for the
long journey through shrubs and narrow bush paths. At the farm,
they met Ezomo Odia tending his yam crops. Before the Ezomo could ask,
to what he owed the honour, all the princesses were down on their knees,
between the yam heaps, to greet him and respectfully invite him back to
the city. The Edo Empire before it was vanquished by British
Imperialists was the greatest African force, and the most important,
most scintillating civilization, to endure in the last two thousand
years in the West African sub-region. It began its uninterrupted
aggressive ascendance from the era of Oba Ewuare the Great 1440 -1473 CE
until the British incorporated Edo Kingdom in 1897, into the Niger
Coast Protectorate, later known as the Southern Protectorate, which
included their newly annexed Arochukwu (Igboland) in 1902. Their
Northern Protectorate of Hausa Fulani emirates in 1903, was merged with
the Southern Protectorate in 1914 to form what in now Nigeria.
Before
the satanic British invasion, Edo Kingdom controlled vast Yoruba land
with populations several times larger than that of Edo, and exerted
considerable influence on eastern Yoruba land, maintaining trading
connection with Oyo.
Towns such as Owo (called Ogho in Edo),
Ekiti, Akure, Ondo (or Udo in Edo), were all set up by Edo native
migrants. The kingdom established Lagos, where it set up military camp
of occupation which it called Eko (camp), and extended its dominance,
power and influence from there all over the West African region, taking
in modern countries like the Republic of Benin, Togo, Ghana and Sierra
Leone and all the way to the mouth of the River Volta, to lend its name
to the Bight of Benin, as a result of its influence and authority in the
region. Its authority and influence extended eastward to the delta of the River Niger, Benin River, and to the
new Benin (Warri), to Benin district, comprising of Sapele and Warri,
to towns like Asaba, Agbor, Isele-Uku, Ika (Agbor), Aniocha, which all
owe their corporate existence to Benin, to beyond the Gulf of Benin to
Ahoada and Onitsha across the River Niger, the later which was
established by Edo migrants led by Ogbogidi, an Edo military
generalissimo. Edo's dominance cut through to Idah (Igalla) in the north
to the fringes of Kogi state and to the present day Congo.
The
Edo spread their culture and traditions, particularly their Obaship
ideology and system, all over their empire, by sending royal brothers to
rule over tributaries, or holding hostage, sons of conquered chiefs to
be trained in Edo, 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 Edo control.
The
Isekiris, Urobos, Ijaws and the Yoruba of Owo, Ekiti, Akure, Ondo, just
to mention a few, all proudly trace their venerated royal lineages to
the ancient Benin kingdom. Even in places outside direct Edo influence,
the reputation of the Oba of Edo was such that leadership disputes were
brought to him for arbitration, and the winners took back home, Edo
regalia to form part of their leadership traditions. The fame of
the Great Benin Empire was such that several European states sought to
establish diplomatic relationship with her and trade with her through
the Ughoton corridor. In 1897, the British, an uncouth tribe of callous,
shameless barbarians, in the name of their monarch, and out of envy and
greed, called the Edo people savages to destroy a brilliant African
civilization that was far ahead of theirs, because they had big guns.
The
rogue Imperialists thus viciously set back Edo's advancement by
stealing Edo's sacred artifacts and things for profit and growth and
burning what they could not take away, to turn a once accomplished
people into common beggars for measly foreign aids.
Edo people
must begin preparation now to sue Britain and her monarch for 50 billion
pounds reparations. Oba Ovonramwen (1888 – 1914 CE). Oba Ovonramwen
Nogbaisi was on the
throne during the British invasion of Benin City in 1897. To
prepare the grounds before the invasion, the British first sneaked
military spies into Benin, to infiltrate the nation's security system
during the Igue festival, a period of acute spiritual sensitivity for
Edo people, when their monarch goes into seclusion for two weeks for
spiritual cleansing and cannot receive visitors.
The spies were
eliminated for their hostile acts. The British then sent a delegation to
Benin in March 1892. The delegation was led by Capt. Henry L. Gallwey,
the Vice Consul for the Benin River District of the Niger Coast
Protectorate, supposedly to conclude a Treaty of Protection with Oba
Ovonramwen of Benin. The British had deceived King Dosumu of Lagos
to sign a similar treaty that ceded Lagos to the British in 1861. They
forced the same kind of treaty on the Jaja of Opopo in 1887 to gain
access and economic control of the eastern coast of Nigeria.
Quoting
Capt. Henry Gallwey, who after retirement became Sir Henry Gallwey, in a
report on the 1892 visit to Benin, for the Journal of the African
Society of April 1930, under the title: Nigeria in the (Eighteen)
Nineties, he wrote in part: “Any idea I may have had of being received by the king the day I arrived was very soon dispelled. After
being kept waiting for three days, I sent word to say that I could wait
no longer. “To support my threat, every half-hour, I sent a carrier
away with a load I did not require, telling them where to wait for me. This
artifice rather worried the king, and he sent word to me asking me “not
to be vexed,” as my interpreters put it. However, that afternoon, it
was arranged for me to have audience with the king. I accordingly
donned my uniform and sallied out with my companions into the burning
heat of the afternoon, a most unreasonable time of day at which to hold a
palaver. I am afraid, however, that the kings of Benin were never renowned for their reasonable natures. In
spite of these pinpricks, it was all very interesting and amusing, and I
never gave a thought to the discomfort of being encased in a dress
intended to be won at levees and such functions in temperate climes…….” After
attempting to compromise the nation's security earlier on, the British
delegation could not be received by the Oba of Benin immediately on
arrival because the king's security agencies needed to check out their
mission this time. When the Oba signaled readiness to receive the
delegates, they were in “encased dress intended to be worn at levees.”
In other words, they were in military uniform to the palace of an Oba
who was weary of visits of Europeans.
After the incidence of the
Dutchman, Commandant Willem Hogg, who pulled a pistol and shot at Oba
Eresoyen in 1735, while on a courtesy visit to the palace to discuss
business matters with the Oba and his chiefs, Benin Obas became a little
more careful about granting direct audience to
European visitors.
This
is the genesis of the difficulties experienced by Capt. Gallwey while
trying to have audience with the Oba in 1892. At the palace, the
disposition and mannerisms of the visitors had to be carefully studied
before the Oba could receive them, since they were in military
uniform. Capt.
Gallwey said the Oba was “unreasonable” and then generalized “… as all
Benin Obas are wont to be.” He had made up his mind before the visit and
was looking for excuses to set up Benin kingdom for British invasion.
To emphasize that Benin was a special case to crack, the British rushed
to force treaties on neighbouring territories.
They attacked the
Nana of Itsekiri, in their 'palm oil war' in 1894 and exiled Nana to
Ghana; attacked the Koko of Nembe in 1895, and the Ashanti Prempeh of
Ashanti in 1896, to produce duress inspired spurious treaties to take
control of the kings' respective areas of influence.
The British
accused Oba Ovonramwen of lack of cooperation, and to look good in the
eyes of the rest of the world, added “human sacrifices,” as their
reasons for launching their full-scale war on Benin in January 1897.
The
real reason for the British Expedition was that the British viewed the
Benin kingdom as the main obstacle in their expansion drive into the
agricultural interior of the West African
coast from the River Niger. The
war lasted for eight days from January to early February 1897, and went
in their favour because of their big guns and cannons, which the Edo
army did not have. After capturing the ancient city of Benin and
slaughtering thousands of the natives in cold blood, to grossly
depopulate the city, and the few survivors had escaped to farms and
villages, the British ransacked the palace of the Oba, homes of nobles
and chiefs, artistes' workshops and Obo's shrines, to rescue “pagan art”
and relieve Benin of the “evil.” Then the British burnt most the city
down to ashes.
The palace of the Oba of Benin, according to Joshua
Utzheimer, 1603, was about the size of the German City of Tubingen.”
This was razed down by fire by the British invading force, claiming to
be on a civilizing mission.
Is razing cities after the surviving
few victims of their assault have surrendered, not the epitome of
barbarism? Can anything be more callous than this? Oba Ovonramwen who
could not be
captured but who surrendered to the British in
August, 1897, was exiled to Calabar (in south-east Nigeria), where he
died in January, 1914. 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, along with other invaluables, including
precious works of arts, the invading British stole in the name of their
king and country. What they could not steal or burn, they destroyed,
including invaluable records of the Bini scintillating civilization, to
allow their historians to falsify human history and deny African
contributions. According
to an article entitled: '100 years after the invasion of Benin' by
Richard Akinjide, a former attorney General and Federal Minister of
Justice and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, “The response of the
Kingdom of Benin against British Interference in the affairs of a
sovereign and independent nation was a legitimate self-defense in
accordance with the peremptory norms of customary international law
otherwise known as "ju cogens". If Britain could go to war just
because of Jenkin´s ear, why should not the ancient kingdom of Benin
protect her national interest against uninvited guests whose greed and
grab in other parts of sub-Sahara Africa was already well known?
We
must pass judgment in the light of prevailing circumstances at that
time. We must therefore unhesitatingly reject the British interpretation
as massacre the events of 1896 which led to
the British aggression of 1897. The
reputation of Major Edward Lugard preceded him in Africa, because of
what Major Lugard did in India and Uganda, and what he and George Goldie
did in Ilorin, Bida, Borgu and what other British soldiers perpetrated
in Yorubaland which were then matters of public knowledge. The
King of Benin was right in his suspicion of British intentions which
were definitely to lure the noble Kingdom of Benin into the so-called
British protectorate and therefore loss of the sovereign rights which
Benin had enjoyed for about 2,000 years.
At that time as it is now, the kernel of European policy in Africa was devious and
self-seeking.
Independent African nations should be nothing but vassal states of
Europe. The various European Navies were then the instruments of
colonial policy. Hence the navigation Acts of 1649 and 1660, the staple
Acts 1663 and the plantation Act 1673. They now advocate for us,
using the World Bank, the IMF, the devaluation of our currencies, the
exact opposite of the economic and monetary policies that ensured and
helped their own growth and good quality of life for their own people.
The colonial policy in French speaking African countries is even more
worrying. It is encapsulated in French; "plus ca change, plus ciest la
meme chose." (The more things change, the more they remain the same). In
short what makes the French decolonization special was that it was
never decolonized.
I end this monograph with a quotation from Sir
Alan Burns, a former Governor General of Nigeria, in his book: History
of Nigeria (4th Ed at 277) "No European nation has the right to assume
sovereignty over the inhabitants of any part of Africa, and claims put
forward by the various governments at the Berlin Conference in 1885 took
little account of the rights of the people who lived in the Territory.”
Akin
Adeoya in the Sunday Guardian of March 29, 2009, wrote: “There was a
great kingdom of Benin that lasted for centuries with a highly stable
administration and a civilization that built great highways and produced
works of such great significance that the British who invaded and
ultimately defeated the Ovonramwen's gallant forces, nearly went mad
with envy that not all their Christian piety or civility could help them
resist the urge to steal these works of art, which their own
civilization could not rival.
These works of art, till today, still grace the shrines of the British Empire and civilization, including the British Museum.” Prof.
Akin Ibidapo-Obe in: A Synthesis of African law, wrote: “The British
stripped Benin of its pagan art treasure…..almost 2,500 of the famous
Benin bronzes, valuable works of art such as the magnificent carved
doors in the palace, were carried off to Europe for sale.
Today,
almost every museum of the world possesses an art treasure from Benin.
It is important to relate the account of British brigandage and
deliberate and wanton stealing of Africa's invaluable art treasures to
show that our culture was great and was envied.
The tradition and
way of life that spawned such great achievement was deliberately
destroyed and history was falsified to justify the introduction of their
obnoxious laws, some of which purported to forbid our traditional
religion."
This is how Prof. Felix Van Luschan, a former official
of the Berlin Museum for Volkerhunde, described what the British
deviously called Pagan art of Benin; “These works from Benin are equal
to the very finest examples of European casting technique. Benvenuto Celini could not have cast them better, nor could anyone else before or after him. Technically,
these Bronzes represent the very highest possible achievement.” Only a
highly civilized nation could have borne the expenditure and facilities
of such marvelous works of art, which are among the best masterpieces in
the history of mankind. When the Nigerian government requested to
loan a replica of the Idia Ivory mask for use during the 2nd World
Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) held in 1977 in
Lagos, Nigeria, from the British Museum of Mankind, the British
authorities insisted on the Nigerian government depositing a sum of
three million dollars before collecting the loaned copy.
A 17th
century Benin bronze head (nine inches high), stolen from the palace of
Oba Ovonramwen by the British invaders in 1897, was auctioned by
Sotheby, New York, for US$550,000 in July, 2007.
Despite the
British abuse of Edo culture and the marginalization of Edo history, the splendor of Edo civilization continues to this day to astound and
excite the world. Benin artifacts are among the most exquisite and
coveted in world's history, and the kingdom of Benin remains 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 second only to Japan, as the most ancient. In fact, the
influence of ancient Benin Empire is still so strong today that Dahomey,
an independent neighboring country to Nigeria, decided in 1975 to
change its name to the Republic of Benin as a way of reconnecting with
its glorious roots.
The Republic of Togo, on the other hand, named
some of her landmark institutions such as Universite du Benin, Togo
hotel du Benin e.t.c. after the great Benin Empire. President Gnassingbe
Eyadema, during his 1974 visit to Benin City, publicly stated that the
Togolese people originated from the ancient Benin Empire.
Oba
Eweka II (1914 – 1933 CE), ascended his father's throne in 1914 and when
he died, his son, Oba Akenzua II (1933 – 1979 CE) took over. 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 ancient civilizations in the history of the
world, is Oba Erediauwa, Uku Akpolo Kpolo, the Omo N'Oba N'Edo (1979 CE
–).
***ENAIWU OSAHON, Hon. Khu Mkuu (Leader) World Pan-African
Movement); Spiritual Prince of the African race; MSc. (Salford);
Dip.M.S; G.I.P.M; Dip.I.A (Liv.); D. Inst. M; G. Inst. M; G.I.W.M;
A.M.N.I.M.
Naiwu Osahon, renowned author, philosopher of science, mystique, leader of the world Pan-African Movement.
