I BET YOU DON'T KNOW THIS ABOUT EDO PEOPLE

Edo people are mostly feared, many men fear getting married to edo people, everyone claims they're fetish and all buut is that all about the Benin people? Ever heard about the Oba Ewuare who totally transformed Edo to a mighty empire? Do you also know their artworks are admired and copied all over Europe? Let's take journey about the rich history of Benin.

The Benin Empire was a pre- colonial empire located in what is now southern
Nigeria. Its capital was Edo, now known as Benin City, Edo. The Benin Empire was one of the most highly developed states in the coastal hinterland of West Africa, dating perhaps to the 11th century CE until it was annexed by the British Empire in 1897.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to come in contact in 1485 with the British, they were woawed by their development, a great mercentile relationship grew afterwards, after they came back from their expediture, they were astonished by their artistry, buildings and civilization.

The British expedition came afterwards in 1553 century,
and significant trading developed between England and Benin based on the export of ivory, palm oil and pepper. Visitors in the 16th and 17th centuries brought back to Europe tales of "the Great Benin", a fabulous city of noble buildings, ruled over by a powerful king.

Other Europeans also had good tales to tell, a 17th-century Dutch engraving from Olfert Dapper 's Nauwkeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaansche Gewesten, published in Amsterdam in 1668 says:

Sketch made by Portugese explorers

"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 Benin Empire was not only admired, she was also feared by neighbouring towns and foreigners as well, here's what another Dutch, David van Nyendael who in 1699 gave an eye-witness account had to say:

"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

By the 15th century, the monarch at that time, Oba Ewuare, between 1440 and 1473(the golden age) was able to expand the city-states of Edo into an empire. "Ubinu"(Benin) was the administrative centre, the name "Benin" was given by the Portuguese, due to the pronounced ethnic diversity at the kingdom's headquarters, the earlier name ("Ubinu") by a tribe of the Edos was colloquially spoken as "Bini" by the mix of Itsekhiri ,
Esan, Ika, Ijaw Edo, Urhobo living together in the royal administrative centre of the kingdom. Thus, the Portuguese put this down as "Benin City" as we have today.

As the sacred city grew, there were increments in walls to defend Oba Ewuare's kingdom, these walls kept increasing from 850 AD until Benin's decline in the 16th century. In the 15th century Benin became the greatest city of the empire created by Oba Ewuare. 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. Even  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." Such was the defense of the Kingdom! 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. 13 years after Ewuare's death tales of Benin's splendors, more Portuguese traders were lured to the city gates.

The empire grew and extended from the western Ibo tribes on the shores of the Niger river, through parts of the southwestern region of Nigeria (much of present-day Ondo State, and the isolated islands (current Lagos Island and Obalende) in the coastal region of present-day Lagos State). Benin was a big BIG deal!

[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.

Statue of Queen Idia later known as the face of FESTAC '77

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).] -excerpt from Wikipedia.com

By the early 1700s, the Benin empire began to go on a steady decline, this was caused by European activities on the land like slave trade which had  disruptive repercussions. However Benin rose to power once again in the 19th century and experienced another economic boom due to their trade in palm oil and textiles. The Oba at that time, Oba Ovonrenmen being conscious of the devastating influence the British were having on their economy began banning exports to the British till trade was exclusive to palm oil. This angered the British officials to great measure, they wanted to control the trade and needed rubber to support their tyre industries.


In order to annex the resources, they came back as "friends" who just wanted a closer relationship with them with the official visit of Richard Burton in 1862 when he was consul at Fernando Po. Following that was an attempt to establish a treaty between Benin and the United Kingdom by Hewtt, Blair and Annesley in 1884, 1885 and 1886 respectively. All these however were to no avail.

Vice Consul H.L Gallwey

The British never gave up, they remained ever persistent and brought up a very deceptive plot to make Benin Empire a British Protectorate, this Treaty was called the "Gallwey Treaty", it was orchestrated by Vice-Consul H.L. Gallwey, this was the first official visit since Burton. It was simply a plot to put Benin in total control of Britain. H.L Gallwey arrived during the Igue festival which prohibited the presence of non-natives. Gallwey however claimed the Oba Ovonremwen signed the treaty, Oba Ovonremwen was never known for signing one sided treaties and was also not willing to sign that particular treaty, the treaty read:

"Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India in compliance with the request of [the] King of Benin, hereby extend to him and the territory under his authority and jurisdiction, Her gracious favour and protection" (Article 1)."


The Treaty also stated:
"The King of Benin agrees and promises to refrain from entering into any correspondence, Agreement or Treaty with any foreign nation or power except with the knowledge of her Britannic Majesty's Government" (Article 2), and finally that "It is agreed that full jurisdiction, civil and criminal over British subjects and their property in the territory of Benin is reserved to her Britannic Majesty, to be exercised by such consular or other officers as Her Majesty shall appoint for the purpose...The same jurisdiction is likewise reserved to her Majesty in the said territory of Benin over foreign subjects enjoying British protection, who shall be deemed to be involved in the expression "British subjects" throughout this Treaty" (Article 3).

There was simply no way Oba Ovonremwen could have signed that Treaty, he was a very tenacious ruler and it would be inconceivable to say he could agree to a Treaty which stated in Article IV that:
"All disputes between the King of Benin and other Chiefs between him and British or foreign traders or between the aforesaid King and neighboring tribes which can not be settled amicably between the two parties, shall be submitted to the British consular or other officers appointed by Her Britannic Majesty to exercise jurisdiction in the Benin territories for arbitration and decision or for arrangement."

Even the Oba himself including his Chieves confirmed he never touched the 'White man's pen'. Either way Gallwey conspired against him and claimed without proof that he signed the Treaty.

The Oba consequently banned the British from their territories entirely. Since Major Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Consul General of the Oil River Protectorate authorities considered the 'Treaty' legal and binding, he deemed the King's reaction a violation of the accord and thus a hostile act.

In 1894, a combined British Royal Navy and Niger Coast Protectorate forces invaded and destroyed Brohomi, the trading town of the chief Nana Olomu , the leading Itsekiri trader in the Benin River. This made the Benin Kingdom increase her presence in the Southern borders.

The British had pre-planned to invade the Benin Kingdom in 1895 and dethrone the King which they considered an "obstruction" but this was alted due to the vigilance and the Colonial Office's refusal to grant approval for an invasion of City. Even so, between September 1895 and mid-1896 three attempts were made by the Protectorate to enforce the Gallwey 'Treaty'. Major P. Copland-Crawford, Vice-Consul of the Benin District, made the first attempt, Mr. Locke, the Vice-Consul Assistant, made a second one and the third one was made by Captain Arthur Maling, the Commandant of the Niger Coast Protectorate Force detachment based in Sapele.

However in 1896, there was a little conflict in the Benin Kingdom, the Itsekiri middlemen refused to pay the required tributes to the King, the King subsequently banned the supply of palm oil to them. This brought the trade in the Benin River region to a standstill, this subsequently alerted the British who saw a good opportunity to strike. The British traders and agents of the British trading firms quickly appealed to the Protectorate's Consul-General to 'open up' Benin territories, and send the King into exile. One of those who strongly appealed was the Acting Consul-General James Robert Phillips in October 1896.

In November Phillips made a formal request to his superiors in England for permission to invade Benin City, and, in late December 1896, without waiting for a reply or approval from London, Phillips embarked on a military expedition with two Niger Coast Protectorate Force officers, a medical officer, two trading agents, 250 African soldiers masquerading in part as porters, and in part as a drum and pipe band. His superiors sent a letter to him to delay the expedition but he was already on his way when the letter arrived. He tried disguising his true intentions by sending a message to the Oba that his present mission was to discuss trade and peace and demanding admission to the territory in defiance of Benin law explicitly forbidding his entry. His true intention was to unseat the Oba, replace him with a Native whom they could easily manipulate and pay for the expedition(expeditions were usually expensive) with the ivory he hoped to find at the King's Palace. In order to disguise his intentions even more, he hid the weapons he took along with his men in the baggage carried by the 'porters'.

Unfortunately for him, the Itsekiri traders sent a message to the that the "White man was bringing war". The Oba however argued that they should be allowed into the Kingdom to hear what they had to say, the Iyase ignored the King and subsequently organised a strike force composed mainly of border guards and servants of some chiefs which was headed by the Ologbosere.

On January 4, 1897, Robert James Phillips and his men were attacked totally unprepared at Ugbine village near Ughoton. Since they weren't expecting any opposition, their weapons were still hidden in their baggage, only 2 British survived this. It was later known as "The Benin massacre".

Rear Admiral, Harry Rawson

In retaliation of the death of Robert James Phillips. The British finally decided to embark on the much anticipated expedition, it was named the The Punitive Expedition. On 12 January 1897, Harry Rawson, the Rear-Admiral who commands the squadron at the Cape of Good Hope was appointed by the British Admiralty to lead the expedition. The order by the commander-in-chief was to burn down all Benin Kingdom's towns and villages.

On February 9, 1897, The invasion force of about 1200 Royal Marines, sailors and Niger Coast Protectorates Forces composed of three colums; the 'Sakpoba', 'Gwato' and 'Main' columns reached Benin City with the exception of the 'Gwato' which was routed at Gwato. [It must be pointed out that the major reason the British had always wanted to invade the land was mainly for profit. The British were well aware of the "babaric"(as they termed it) human sacrifices and inhumane handling of their slaves]. Homes, palaces and religious buildings were particularly targeted. At about 3pm on February 18, 1897, Benin City fell to the hands of the British.

The strategy of the British was to send scouts and spies to collect information about the potential routes of escape and how to secure and isolate them(by simultaneous attack or diversion) and then seize the City, all these were strategically planned. The British were also aided in no small measure by the fact that a huge component of the Army were at that in a war camp in Obadan(north-east of the City) preparing for other operations. By the time Generals Ologbosere and Ebohon still had about 60 European cannons at their disposal and began fighting back it was nothing more than a guerrilla battle against the British after the battle had been long lost, if those artilleries were readily available during the invasion, the battle would have been far from one sided.

Oba Ovonrenmen was deposed by Consul-General Ralph Moor and taken to exile. He later died in 1914. Houses of major Chiefs were burnt after being looted. The British troops and administrators looted over 6000 priceless artworks(along with the Queen Idia statue), many of Benin artwork are spread all over Europe and the USA today, parts of their artworks were auctioned and used to offset the cost of the expedition.

cockerel statue in Jesus College, Cambridge

Today,  the Nigerian government has been forced to buy back these looted artworks with exhorbitant prices. A Cambridge University College; Jesus College had to bring down a cockerel statue early last year and return back to Nigeria from the pressure of the protesting students of the College. Even with the conscious effort by the students, these is what a director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, had to say:
"Students always look for things to protest about and at present universities seem to be making a mistake of taking these protests too seriously
We can't be in the business of trying to re-write history. How a cockerel can make some students feel bad amazes me. It's something that they are projecting on to it, not something that it signifies in itself".

What the so called Professor said simply means it's insignificant to return what you have stolen way even if it's still very much useful.

Oba of Benin, His Majesty Ewuare II

There's still a bright future for Benin Kingdom however with the Coronation of Oba Ewuare II, the descendant of Oba Ewuare I, we hope to see a reetablishment of Benin City.




Let the revolution begin!!