The Kingdom of Benin or Empire of Benin, also known as Great Benin, is a traditional kingdom in southern Nigeria. It has no historical relation to the modern republic of Benin, which was known as Dahomey from the 17th century until 1975. The Kingdom of Benin's capital was Edo, now known as Benin City in Edo State, Nigeria. The Benin Kingdom was one of the oldest and most developed states in the coastal hinterland of West Africa. It grew out of the previous Edo Kingdom of Igodomigodo around the 11th century AD; it was annexed by the British Empire in 1897, but endured as a non-sovereign monarchy.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the empire reached the height of its prosperity, expanding its territory, trading with European powers, and creating a remarkable artistic legacy in cast bronze, iron, brass, carved ivory, and other materials.
History
Ancient origin
The presence of the sickle-cell allele in the Sahara during the Green Sahara period suggests that ancient ancestors of the Edo people may have inhabited the Saharan region in prehistoric times before migrating southward. The gradual movement of Proto-Edoid people to West Africa may have been associated with the expansion of Sahel agriculture in the African Neolithic period, following the desiccation of the Sahara in c. 3500 BCE.
Early settlement
The state that became known as the Benin Empire developed in several phases. It was known by various names both inside and outside its borders.
By the 1st century BC, the Benin territory was partially agricultural; it became primarily agricultural by around A.D. 500, but hunting and gathering of animals still remained important. Also by A.D. 500, the territory's inhabitants used iron.
Igodomigodo (900–1180 CE) The earliest organized polity in the region that became Benin was Igodomigodo, which coalesced from existing autonomous communities in the late 1st millennium CE. The ruler was called Ogiso – the ruler of the sky. The Egiso put in place many of the cultural and social traditions that have shaped Benin.
Igodomigodo, meaning "town of Igodo", served as the first capital, and sprang up in a forest whose dense vegetation and narrow paths made the city easy to defend against attacks. The rainforest helped the city develop because of its vast resources – fish from rivers and creeks, animals to hunt, leaves for roofing, plants for medicine, ivory for carving and trading, and wood for boat building. Domesticated animals could not survive due to a disease spread by tsetse flies; after centuries of exposure, some animals, such as cattle and goats, developed resistance to the disease.
Ile-Ibinu (1180–1255 CE) By the start of the 13th century CE, Ogiso Owodo was overthrown by the people of the state after a tumultuous and incompetent reign. In his place they chose Evian, a popular and powerful Ogifa, earth-priest and chief of the local Efa people, as okaevbo or head of state. Evian's later attempt to pass power to his son Ogiamwen, thereby creating a new royal dynasty, was resisted. The Edionevbo (ruling council of chiefs) refused to sanction the move, and sent emissaries requesting that a prince of Ile-Ife restore order and legitimacy to their throne.
Historical traditions in Benin diverge on the details of these events. The 'official' tradition records that Oranmiyan, son of Oduduwa, accepted the council's invitation; his arrival marked the beginning of the new Yoruba dynasty and the establishment of the title "Oba" for the rulers of Benin. This version serves as a 'stock narrative' used by the leaders of the Ife Empire to explain and justify the expansion of Yoruba cultural and economic sphere of influence into Igodomigodo during this period.
Another tradition, first recorded in the 1970s, provides a different story. While several versions exist, some argue that the founding Oba was not a Yoruba but was instead the son or grandson of Ogiso Owodo, natives of Benin who were in exile in Ife. Some go further, claiming that Owodo's son Ekaladerhan and Oduduwa are the same person, and therefore that the Edo were responsible for the foundation or organization of Ile-Ife. Historians generally see these alternative accounts as recent inventions or distortions of older historical traditions in response to the dynamics of modern Nigerian society.
Whether Oranmiyan was ethnically Yoruba or the son of an Edo exile, his claim to the throne was not universally acknowledged. Ogiamwen, son of Evian, had many supporters in the city's Efa wards, and likely held power when Oranmiyan arrived. A battle ensued between the two sides, with the newcomers, supported by the Edionevbo, entering the city. Despite his victory, Oranmiyan struggled to master the complex politics of the divided kingdom, particularly since he was a foreigner. He married Erinmwinde, daughter of a local chief, and they had a son, Eweka. Exasperated and desiring to rule in Ile-Ife, Oranmiyan abdicated the throne of Benin in favor of his son, saying that only a native could rule effectively.
According to Egharevba, Eweka was crowned Oba around 1200, with special royal regalia and other insignia sent from Ife by his father. Because Eweka was still young, Oranmiyan appointed the Onogie of Ego, Ogiefa, Ihama, Oloton and others to care for him and govern the country until he came of age. Eweka’s maternal grandfather, the Onogie of Ego, served as his chief adviser and protector.
Eweka’s accession established a new dynasty within a polity that had already been ruled by the Ogisos. Bondarenko reconstructs Benin’s political development as a gradual consolidation of pre-existing Bini communities and chiefdoms. He argues that the first three Ogisos belonged to an Ife line that introduced monarchy from outside, while the subsequent Ogisos were Bini and hereditary kingship developed gradually during the later Ogiso period. In this reconstruction, Oranmiyan’s Ife origin linked him symbolically to the earliest Ogisos, helping present Eweka’s accession as a continuation of the Ogiso line during a period of political crisis. Effective central authority under the Oba dynasty was achieved only under Ewedo, the fourth Oba.
Ubini (1255–1440 CE) Oba Ewedo was crowned the fourth ruler of the state and is credited with moving the royal palace from Usama to its current location in Edo. He renamed the state from Ile-Ibinu "land of vexation" to Ubini, an Ilaje name meaning "land of inexhaustible resources". This rebranding coincided with a reformed political and administrative system, including a palace bureaucracy, and expanded territorial influence.
Edo (1440–1897 CE) In 1440, Oba Ewuare, also known as Ewuare the Great, came to power and expanded the borders of the former city-state. Around 1470, the capital city was renamed to Edo after a royal slave who saved Ewuare's life during an attempted coup. The name of the city was later expanded to the whole state and its people.
The term Bini from the earlier name for the state utilized by the Itsekhiri became popular among the Portuguese and was corrupted to "Benin" by the Portuguese who arrived in an expedition led by in 1485. These explorers would refer to the royal center as Benin City.
In the 15th century, Oba Ewuare is credited with turning Benin City into a city-state from a military fortress built by the Ogisos, protected by moats and walls. It was from this bastion that he launched his military campaigns and began the expansion of the kingdom from the Edo-speaking heartlands. Excavations also uncovered a rural network of earthen walls long that would have taken an estimated 150 million man-hours to build and must have taken hundreds of years to build. These were apparently raised to mark out territories for towns and cities. Thirteen years after Ewuare's death, tales of Benin's splendors lured more Portuguese traders to the city gates.Time Life Lost Civilizations series: Africa's Glorious Legacy (1994) pp. 102–104
A series of walls marked the incremental growth of the city from 850 AD until its decline in the 16th century. To enclose his palace, Ewuare commanded the building of Benin's inner wall, an earthen rampart long girded by a moat deep. This was excavated in the early 1960s by Graham Connah. Connah estimated that its construction if spread out over five dry seasons, would have required a workforce of 1,000 laborers working ten hours a day, seven days a week. Ewuare also added great thoroughfares and erected nine fortified gateways. Excavations at Benin City have revealed that it was already flourishing around 1200–1300 CE.
In the early 16th century, Oba Esigie expanded the kingdom eastwards, after defeating an invasion and attempted conquest of Benin by the Igala kingdom. Benin gained political strength and ascendancy over much of what is now mid-western Nigeria. Its wealth grew through its extensive trade, especially with the interior of the region, although the trade with Europeans that developed from the late 15th century onwards in pepper, slaves, cloth, and ivory provided a smaller, additional supplement to Benin's wealth, its economy, its technology, and art. Rhineland brass manilla bracelets, offered by Portuguese merchants, for Ivory, Peppers, and Slaves, from 1507 AD, have been found to be the metallic base for the Benin Bronzes, a few of the cast plaques depict the Portuguese merchants, manillas, and the weapons offered as trade goods.
The Oba ruled the Benin heartland around the capital directly, while Benin's authority over outlying regions varied in form and effectiveness. Before 1897, Benin rule extended over most Esan and Ivbiosakon communities, parts of the Urhobo–Isoko area, and certain Yoruba and Igbo populations.
According to Bradbury, Edo traditions appear to date the first Benin conquests of Igbo communities west of the Niger to the reign of Ewuare in the mid-fifteenth century. The ruling dynasties of most western Igbo chiefdoms claimed Benin origins, their title systems followed the Benin model, and their rulers had to be confirmed in office by the Oba. Benin control over the area appears never to have been complete for long, however, and the Oba repeatedly had to reassert his suzerainty. Bradbury considered the Niger to have been the ultimate effective boundary of Benin rule to the east, although he noted that early Portuguese maps depicted the frontier as extending as far as Bonny. He further noted that Onitsha, on the eastern bank of the Niger, and Aboh in the extreme south had Benin titles and ruling families that claimed Benin origins; a disputed succession at Aboh was reportedly referred to the Oba during the first half of the eighteenth century.
The southern and south-western parts of the kingdom included permanent Urhobo-Isoko villages, several Itsekiri settlements, and some Ijaw villages. Bradbury states that these communities had much the same relationship with the kingdom's central authority as its Edo villages. The Itsekiri kingdom of Warri, although established under a dynasty originating in Benin, became effectively independent of the Oba after its foundation.
From the mid-fifteenth century, Benin armies expanded westward into eastern Yorubaland. Most modern scholars credit Ewuare with the occupation of areas in Ekiti, Ijesha, and Ondo, while the extension of Benin power to Lagos is generally dated to the mid-sixteenth century. Afolayan writes that Benin forces subjugated Ado and overran many other Ekiti states, in some cases replacing their ruling dynasties. Akure also came firmly under Benin influence and became a base for trade with eastern Yorubaland.
Migration also contributed to Benin's westward connections during this period. Some people are said to have fled the strict mourning regulations imposed during Ewuare's reign, and Jungwirth suggests that some crossed Yorubaland and travelled as far as Ketu.