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, the local people the
Portuguese met there, when asked about the
Kingdom in the interior, told the Portuguese it
was called Ubini.
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 favourable 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 Congregazione 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, unsupplied 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 boarder 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 splendour 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 neighbouring
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 –).
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