Kingdom of Benin#Architecture

By the 1st century BC, the Benin territory was partially agricultural; and it became primarily agricultural by around A.D. 500, but hunting and gathering of animals still remained important. Also by A.D. 500, iron was in use by the inhabitants of the Benin territory.{{Cite journal|last1=Bondarenko|first1=Dmitri|last2=Roese|first2=Peter|date=1999-01-01|title=Benin Prehistory. The Origin and Settling Down of the Edo|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283567896|journal=Anthropos: International Review of Anthropology and Linguistics|volume=94|pages=542–552}}

Benin City (formerly Edo) sprang up by around A.D. 1000, and was located in a forest that could be easily defended. The dense vegetation and narrow paths made the city easy to defend against attacks. The rainforest helped in the development of the city because of its vast resources that could be exploited – fish from rivers and creeks, animals to hunt, leaves for roofing, plants for medicine, ivory for carving and trading, and wood for boat building. However, 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 a resistance to the disease.{{Cite book|title=Forgotten Africa: An Introduction to Its Archaeology|last=Connah|first=Graham|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-0415305914|pages=[https://archive.org/details/forgottenafricai00grah/page/125 125-6]|url=https://archive.org/details/forgottenafricai00grah/page/125}}

The earliest organized polity in the region that would become Benin was Igodomigodo, which coalesced from existing autonomous communities in the late 1st millenium CE. The ruler was called Ogiso – the ruler of the sky.{{cite web|author=Ben Cahoon |url=http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Nigeria_native.html |title=Nigerian Traditional States |website=Worldstatesmen.org |access-date=2016-11-17}} The Egiso{{Efn|Plural of 'Ogiso'.}} were responsible for putting in place many of the cultural and social traditions that have shaped Benin up to the present.{{sfn|Egharevba|1968|p=2-3}}

Around the 13th century CE, Ogiso Owodo was overthrown by the people of Benin after a tumultous and incompetent reign.{{sfn|Bondarenko|2003|p=65}} 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.{{sfn|Bondarenko|Roese|2004|p=104}} 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.{{sfn|Bondarenko|Roese|2004|p=110}}{{sfn|Bondarenko|2001|p=193}}

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 dynasty and the establishment of the title "Oba" for the rulers of Benin.{{cite journal |last1=Akinola |first1=G. A. |title=The Origin of the Eweka Dynasty of Benin: a Study in the Use and Abuse of Oral Traditions |journal=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria |date=1976 |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=21–36 |jstor=41971248 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/41971248 |access-date=14 March 2025}} This version serves as a 'stock narrative' used by the leaders of the Ife Empire to explain and justify the expansion of their cultural and economic sphere of influence into Igodomigodo during this period.{{sfn|Ogundiran|2020|p=111}}

Another tradition, first recorded in the 1970s, provides a different story. While several versions exist, they all 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.{{cite news | last=Osawe | first=Ambrose | title=Benin, kingdom of the sky-kings | newspaper=Vanguard | date=15 June 2013 | url=https://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/06/benin-kingdom-of-the-sky-kings/ | issn=0794-652X | access-date=17 November 2024}}{{sfn|Bondarenko|2003|p=68}} Historians generally see these alternative accounts as recent inventions or distortions of older historical traditions in response to the dynamics of modern Nigerian society.{{sfn|Bondarenko|2003|p=68}}

Whether he was ethnically Yoruba or the son of an Edo exile, Oranmiyan's claim to the throne was not universally acknowledged. Ogiamwen, son of Evian, had many supporters in the Efa wards of the city, and likely held power when Oranmiyan arrived. A battle ensued between the two sides, with the newcomers, supported by the Edionevbo, managing to enter the city. Despite his victory, Oranmiyan struggled to master the complex politics of the divided kingdom, particularly since he was a foreigner.{{sfn|Bondarenko|2003|p=79}} He married Erinmwinde, daughter of a local chief, and they had a son Eweka.{{sfn|Egharevba|1968|p=6}} 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.{{sfn|Egharevba|1968|p=7}}{{sfn|Bondarenko|2003|p=79}} Eweka was crowned the first Oba of Benin using special regalia sent by his father from Ife, and several local chiefs were appointed to help the young king rule.{{sfn|Egharevba|1968|p=8}}

In 1440, Oba Ewuare,{{Cite web |title=Ewuare the Great {{!}} African king {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ewuare-the-Great |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} also known as Ewuare the Great, came to power and expanded the borders of the former city-state. It was only at this time that the administrative centre of the kingdom began to be referred to as Ubinu after the Portuguese word and corrupted to Bini by the Itsekhiri, Urhobo and Edo who all lived together in the royal administrative centre of the kingdom. The Portuguese who arrived in an expedition led by {{interlanguage link|João Afonso de Aveiro|pt}} in 1485 would refer to it as Benin and the centre would become known as Benin City.{{Cite journal|last=Ryder|first=A. F. C.|date=March 1965|title=A Reconsideration of the Ife-Benin Relationship|journal=The Journal of African History|volume=6|issue=1|pages=25–37|doi=10.1017/s0021853700005314|s2cid=161293672 |issn=0021-8537}} The Oba had become the mount of power within the region. 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.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}} Excavations also uncovered a rural network of earthen walls {{convert|4000|to|8000|mi|abbr=on|order=flip|km|-3}} 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 he commanded the building of Benin's inner wall, and {{convert|7|mi|km|-long|adj=mid|order=flip|0}} earthen rampart girded by a moat {{convert|20|ft|m|0|abbr=on|order=flip}} 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.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}} 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.{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 3: From c. 1050 to c. 1600|last=Oliver|first=Roland|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1977|isbn=978-0521209816|page=476}}

File:Memorial bust of a king's mother iyoba, Nigeria, Benin Kingdom, early 16th century AD, gunmetal bronze - Ethnological Museum, Berlin - DSC02225.JPG

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.{{sfn|Ryder|1969}} 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.{{Cite web |last=Bridge |first=Mark |date=2023-04-05 |title=West Africa's Benin Bronzes were cast from German brass |url=https://historyfirst.com/west-africas-benin-bronzes-were-cast-from-german-brass/ |access-date=2025-05-12 |website=History First |language=en-US}}{{Citation |title=The Blade Weapons Trade in Seventeenth-Century West Africa |date=2011 |work=The Forgotten Diaspora: Jewish Communities in West Africa and the Making of the Atlantic World |pages=103–134 |editor-last=Horta |editor-first=José da Silva |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/forgotten-diaspora/blade-weapons-trade-in-seventeenthcentury-west-africa/45F9F02F4C4A681D35EE70020D5BD05E |access-date=2025-05-12 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-511-92153-7 |editor2-last=Mark |editor2-first=Peter}}

File:Benin, portoghese, XVI-XVII sec.JPG depicts a Portuguese merchant with manillas in the background]]

Benin ruled over the tribes of the Niger Delta including the Western Igbo Tribes, Ijaw, Itshekiri, Isoko and Urhobo amongst others. It also held sway over the Eastern Yoruba tribes of Ondo, Ekiti, Mahin/Ugbo, Hausa, Fulani, and Ijebu.{{cite book |last1=Aisien |first1=Ekhaguosa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B5QuAQAAIAAJ&q=orhogbua+portugal |title=The Benin City Pilgrimage Stations |year=2001 |publisher=Aisien Publishers |isbn=9789783153356}} At its height in the 16th century, Benin dominated trade along the entire coastline from the Western Niger Delta, through Lagos reaching almost Accra in the West.{{cite journal | last1=Bondarenko | first1=Dmitri M. | last2=Roese | first2=Peter M. | last3=Roese | first3=Tobias | year=2001 | title=Ludewig Ferdinand Römer's 'Nachrichten von der Küste Guinea' (Mid-18th Century) as a Source on the Benin Kingdom History and Culture | journal=Tribus | volume=50 | pages=135–149 | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220033042 }}

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 and Iyobas of Benin. These plaques also included other human, including Portuguese merchants, and animal figures as well as items like ceremonial belts. Ivory was also used, as seen in the carving of ivory into ornate boxes, combs, and armlets. The most well-known artifact is based on Queen Idia, now known as the Benin ivory mask. Ivory masks were meant to be worn around the waist of kings.

Ruling in the late 16th century, Oba Ehengbuda was the last of the warrior kings; after his reign the empire gradually shrank in size, losing control over territories in the west.{{Cite web |last=Cartwright |first=Mark |title=Kingdom of Benin |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Kingdom_of_Benin/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}{{harvp|Thornton |1999|p=76–77}} The end of his reign saw a rise in the power of prominent officials, and during the following decades many Oba's enjoyed short and turbulent reigns as various branches of the royal family fought for position. The death of Oba Ohuan in 1641 may have marked the end of the direct father-to-son line of succession going back to Eweka I.{{sfn|Girshick|Thornton|2001|p=363}} Officials also increasingly controlled the military and trade, as cloth came to replace the previously dominant pepper and ivory as trade commodities.{{sfn|Girshick|Thornton|2001|p=367}}

A civil war broke out around 1689, around the time that Oba Ewuakpe ascended to the throne. Iyase Ode and lower-ranked members of the royal administration revolted against their superiors attempts to control them. The Oba brought in troops from another city but could not defeat the rebels, and Benin city was sacked. The war continued for roughly 10 years before negotiations brought them to an end.{{sfn|Girshick|Thornton|2001|p=369–371}} Ewuakpe's succession, however, was disputed between his two sons Ozuere and Akenzua. Akenzua and his close ally, a traditional chief who bore the title Ezomo, eventually prevailed over the younger Ozuere and his ally, the Iyase Ode in a decisive battle in 1721. Cleanup and reconquest of rebel areas, however, took another 10 years.{{sfn|Girshick|Thornton|2001|pp=373–374}} With renewed stability in the kingdom and, Oba Akenzua benefited from trade with Europeans and was to be one of the richest obas in the kingdom's history.{{Cite book|title=The Kingdom of Benin in West Africa|last=Millar|first=Heather|publisher=Benchmark Books|year=1996|isbn=978-0761400882|page=[https://archive.org/details/kingdomofbeninin00mill/page/14 14]|url=https://archive.org/details/kingdomofbeninin00mill/page/14}}

File:Costumes de Differents Pays, 'Femme de Qualite, et Femme du Commun du Royaume de Benin' LACMA M.83.190.307.jpg

Benin's economy was thriving in the early to mid 19th century with the development of the trade in palm oil, and the continuation of the trade in textiles, ivory and other resources. To preserve the kingdom's independence, the Oba gradually banned the export of goods from Benin, until the trade was exclusively in palm oil.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

By the latter half of the 19th century, Britain desired a closer relationship with the Kingdom of Benin; as British officials were increasingly interested in controlling trade in the area and in accessing the kingdom's palm oil, kola nut, ivory and potentially rubber resources, following the introduction of Hevea brasiliensis saplings, via Kew Gardens in 1895.{{Cite book |last=Boisragon |first=Alan Maxwell |url=http://archive.org/details/beninmassacre00bois |title=The Benin massacre |date=1897 |publisher=London : Methuen |others=Smithsonian Libraries}}{{cite thesis |url=https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3658&context=etd |title=The Sustainability of Agriculture in Nigeria Using Rubber as a Case Study |first=Owen Osahon |last=Ogbebor |type=Master |publisher=East Tennessee State University |year=2013}}

Several attempts were made to achieve this end beginning with the official visit of Richard Francis Burton in 1862 when he was consul at Fernando Pó. Following that came attempts to establish a treaty between Benin and the United Kingdom by Hewtt, Blair, and Annesley in 1884, 1885 and 1886 respectively. However, these efforts did not yield any results. The kingdom resisted becoming a British protectorate throughout the 1880s, but the British remained persistent. Progress was made in 1892 during the visit of Vice-Consul Henry Gallwey. This mission was the first official visit after Burton's. Moreover, it would also set in motion the events to come that would lead to Oba Ovonramwen's fall from power.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

In the late 19th century, the Kingdom of Benin managed to retain its independence and the Oba exercised a monopoly over trade which British merchants in the region found irksome. The territory was coveted by an influential group of investors for its rich natural resources such as palm-oil, and ivory. After British consul Richard Burton visited Benin in 1862 he wrote of Benin's as a place of "gratuitous barbarity which stinks of death", a narrative which was publicized in Britain and increased support for the territory's colonization.{{sfn|Igbafe|1970|p=385}} In spite of this, the kingdom maintained its independence and was not visited by another representative of Britain until 1892 when Henry Gallwey, the British Vice-Consul of the Oil Rivers Protectorate (later the Niger Coast Protectorate), visited Benin City hoping to open up trade and ultimately annex Benin Kingdom and transform it into a British protectorate.{{sfn|Igbafe|1970|pp=385–400}} Gallwey was able to get Omo n’Oba (Ovonramwen) and his chiefs to sign a treaty which gave Britain legal justification for exerting greater influence over the Empire. While the treaty itself contains text suggesting Ovonramwen sought Benin to become a protectorate, this was contrasted by Gallwey's own account, which suggests the Oba was hesitant to sign the treaty.{{sfn|Igbafe|1970}} Although some suggest that humanitarian motivations were driving Britain's actions,E.G. Hernon, A. Britain's Forgotten Wars, p. 409 (2002) letters written between colonial administrators suggest that economic motivations were predominant.{{sfn|Igbafe|1970|p=387}} The treaty itself does not explicitly mention anything about Benin's "bloody customs" that Burton had written about, and instead only includes a vague clause about ensuring "the general progress of civilization".{{sfn|Igbafe|1970|p=387}}

{{Main|Benin Expedition of 1897}}

File:West African flag RMG L4479.tiff supposedly brought to Britain by Lieutenant (later Admiral) F. W. Kennedy after the expedition]]

A British delegation departed from the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1897 with the stated aim of negotiating with the Oba of Benin regarding the trade agreement, which they felt he was not keeping. The leader of the delegation, James Robert Phillips, had asked his superiors in the British Foreign Office for permission to lead an armed British expedition to depose the Oba of Benin not long before the expedition,J.R. Phillips to Foreign Office. Advising the deposition of the Benin King. 17 Nov. 1896. Dispatches to Foreign Office from Consul-General, Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria, Enugu but left for Benin City with a diplomatic delegation (or a reconnaissance mission disguised as a peaceful diplomatic delegation)Philip Igbafe, Benin under British Administration: the Impact of Colonial Rule on an African Kingdom, 1897-1938 (1979), pp. 56–61 before receiving a reply to his request. Perceiving this to be an attempt to depose the Oba, the Oba's generals unilaterally ordered an attack on the delegation as it was approaching Benin City (which included eight unknowing British representatives and hundreds of African porters and labourers) all but two of whom were killed. A punitive expedition was launched in response, and a 1,200-men strong force, under the command of Sir Harry Rawson, captured Benin City. They deliberately sought out and destroyed certain areas of the city, including those thought to belong to the chiefs responsible for the ambush of the British delegation, and in the process a fire burnt the palace and surrounding quarters, which the British claimed was accidental.{{sfn|Usuanlele|Edo|2007|pp=72–74}}

There has much debate of why James Phillips set out on the mission to Benin without much weaponry.{{sfn|Igbafe|1970}} Some have argued he was going on a peaceful mission. Such commentators argue that the message from the Oba that his festival would not permit him to receive European visitors touched the humanitarian side of Phillips's character because of an incorrect assumption that the festival included human sacrifice.https://www.jstor.org/stable/180345, R. H. Bacon, Benin the City of Blood (London, I897), 17, [The assumption here again is that the festival meant a holocaust of human beings. The Oba was celebrating the

Ague festival, which was one of rededication. This did not involve human sacrifices.

See also W. N. M. Geary: Nigeria Under British Rule (London, 1927), II4. ] According to Igbafe, this does not explain why Phillips set out before he had received a reply from the Foreign Office to his request where he stated that:

F.O. 2/I02, Phillips to F.O. no. 105 of i6 Nov 1896. Phillips wrote that 'there is nothing in the shape of a standing army. ... and the inhabitants appear to be if not a peace-loving at any rate a most unwarlike people whose only exploits during many generations had been an occasional quarrel with their neighbours about trade or slave raiding and it appears at least improbable that they have any arms to speak of except the usual number of trade guns... When Captain Gallwey visited the city the only canon he saw were half a dozen old Portuguese guns. They were lying on the grass unmounted'. Compare this with the opinion of his immediate predecessor, Ralph Moor, who was convinced that 'the people in all the villages are no doubt possessed of arms' (F.O. 2/84, Moor to F.O. no. 39 of I2 Sept. 1895).

Igbafe also points to Phillips' November 1896 advocacy of military force regarding Benin, arguing that this is inconsistent with the perception of Phillips as a man of peace in January 1897. Igbafe posits that Phillips was going on a reconnaissance mission and that Phillips' haste to Benin can be explained by a belief that nothing bad would happen to him or his party.{{sfn|Igbafe|1970}}

The expeditionary force also took the palace art as war booty. The looted portrait figures, busts, and groups created in iron, carved ivory, and especially in brass (conventionally termed the "Benin Bronzes") were sold off to defray the cost of the expedition and some were accessioned to the British Museum; most were sold elsewhere and are now on display in various museums around the world.{{cite web |date=2020-11-29 |title=The kingdom of Benin was obliterated by the British, who still have the evidence on display |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-30/benin-bronzes-stuff-the-british-stole-museum-history/12837940 |access-date=2021-07-11 |website=abc.net.au |language=en-AU}}

The British occupied Benin, which was absorbed into the British Niger Coast Protectorate and eventually into British colonial Nigeria. A general emancipation of slaves followed in the wake of British occupationSlavery and Emancipation in Benin, 1897–1945, Philip A. Igbafe, The Journal of African History Vol. 16, No. 3 (1975), p. 418. but Britain also imposed a system of forced labour in Benin{{sfn|Usuanlele|Edo|2007|pp=76–7}} and in surrounding areas,Uyilawa Usuanlele and Victor Osaro Edo, "Violent Ethno-Communual Conflicts as a Legacy of Indirect Rule in Africa: Understanding the Jesse-Urhobo-Benin-Edo Land Conflicts of 1998", The Social Contract in Africa (2014), p. 149 as they did throughout other parts of southern Nigeria.Walter Ibekwe Ofonagoro, "An Aspect of British Colonial Policy in Southern Nigeria: The Problems of Forced Labour and Slavery, 1895–1928", in Boniface I. Obichere (ed.), Studies in Southern Nigerian History: A Festschrift for Joseph Christopher Okwudili Anene 1918–68 (2005) The British launched an additional operation in 1899, called the "Benin Territories Expedition", against rebels still holding out against the British. The British burnt down numerous towns, and destroyed farms in an attempt to starve the rebels into submission.{{sfn|Usuanlele|Edo|2007|pp=72–74}} After the 1899 expedition, military resistance in the former Kingdom of Benin against the British occupation ceased.

Oba Ovonramwen died in exile in Calabar, in January 1914. His son Aiguobasinwin was enthroned as Oba on 24 July, taking the regnal name Eweka II.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aYFHAQAAQBAJ&dq=eweka+ii&pg=PA233|title=History and Social Anthropology|last=Bradbury|first=R. E.|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=978-1-136-54137-7|editor-last=White|editor-first=I. M.|language=en|chapter=Pre-colonial and Colonial Benin Politics}} His coronation coincided with a shift in British policy towards indirect rule, and so he was allowed to return to Benin. Eweka II rebuilt the royal palace, which had been destroyed in 1897. He also reestablished the traditional officers of the kingdom, restored the craft guilds, commissioned objects to replace those looted by the British, and started the Benin Arts and Crafts School.{{cite book | last=Ezra | first=Kate | title=Royal Art of Benin: the Perls Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art | url=https://archive.org/details/royalartofbeninp0000ezra | location=New York | publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art | year=1992 | isbn=9780870996320 |page = 16| url-access=registration }}

Eweka II's rule marked Benin's transition to a non-sovereign monarchy within first colonial and then independent Nigeria. His successors have played important roles mediating political disputes{{cite web

|url=http://allafrica.com/stories/200903230873.html

|title= Oba Erediauwa Marks 30 Years on Benin Throne

|work=Vanguard

|author=Simon Ebegbulem

|date=23 March 2009

|accessdate=10 September 2010}} and working towards the return of the looted Benin Bronzes.{{cite web |url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/kriminalitaet/benin-die-beute-bronzen-15359996.html#trauma-in-nigeria |title=Benin: Die Beute Bronzen. Kapitel 3 - Trauma in Nigeria |trans-title=Benin: The looted bronzes. Chapter 3 - Trauma in Nigeria |author1=Lutz Mükke |author2=Maria Wiesner |work=Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung |language=de |date=15 January 2018 |access-date=15 January 2018 |archive-date=16 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180116021031/http://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/kriminalitaet/benin-die-beute-bronzen-15359996.html#trauma-in-nigeria |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Ceremony to complete the return of Benin Bronze |url=https://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/15479/ |website=www.abdn.ac.uk |publisher=Aberdeen University |date=27 October 2021 |access-date=28 May 2023 |archive-date=28 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028135744/https://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/15479/ }} In March 2021, institutions in Berlin, Germany and Aberdeen, Scotland announced decisions to return Benin Bronzes in their possession to their place of origin.

{{royal house|

| surname = House of Eweka

| type = Nigerian royal dynasty

| parent house = Oodua

| founded = c.12th century

| founder = Oranmiyan

| region = Niger Delta

| current head = Ewuare II

| titles = * Oba of Benin

• Iyoba of Benin
• Edaiken of Benin
• Iyasere of Benin
• Enogie of Benin
• Okhaemwen of Benin
• Odionwere of Benin
• Olooi of Benin

| members = * Ewuare

• Idia
• Esigie

| styles = Omo n'Oba, Uku Akpolopolo
Majesty
Royal Highness

| traditions = Bini religion
Christianity

| other_families = Ife royal family
Oyo royal family

| cadet branches = * Akenzua (Benin)

• Ado, Lagos (Maternally)
• Osupa, Akure (Maternally)
• Abodi (Ikale)

| motto = Edo Orisiagbon (Bini for "Benin, the Cradle of the World")

}}

Below are several notable figures of the Kingdom of Benin{{cite web|title=Remarkable Historical Figures of Ancient Benin Kingdom – The Centenary Project|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/remarkable-historical-figures-of-ancient-benin-kingdom/OQLCiUQgLcccIw|access-date=2021-07-13|website=Google Arts & Culture|language=en}}{{cite web|last=Zeijl|first=Femke van|title=The Oba of Benin Kingdom: A history of the monarchy|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2016/11/12/the-oba-of-benin-kingdom-a-history-of-the-monarchy|access-date=2021-07-13|website=aljazeera.com|language=en}}{{sfn|Graham|1965|pp=317–34}}

• Queen Idia was the wife of Oba Ozolua, the Oba who reigned in about 1481 AD. She was a famous warrior who received much of the credit for the victories of her son as his political counsel, together with her mystical powers and medicinal knowledge, were viewed as critical elements of Esigie's success on the battlefield. Queen Idia became more popular when an ivory carving of her face was adopted as the symbol of FESTAC in 1977.{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pwmn_3/hd_pwmn_3.htm|access-date=2022-09-26|website=metmuseum.org |title=Women Leaders in African History: Idia, First Queen Mother of Benin |first=Alexander Ives |last=Bortolot |date=October 2003}}
• Emotan was a trader who sold her wares at the exact point where her statue now stands. She was historically credited with setting up the first primary school in the kingdom and saving the monarchy during one of its lowest moments. She helped the Oba Ewuare in reclaiming the throne from his usurper brother, Oba Uwaifiokun who reigned about 1432 AD.{{cite web|date=2020-01-04|title=Emotan, tale of ancient Benin Kingdom on MUSON stage|url=https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/c105-saturday-magazine/emotan-tale-of-ancient-benin-kingdom-on-muson-stage/|access-date=2021-07-13|website=The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News|language=en-US}}
• Queen Iden is yet another heroine whose sacrifice helped shape Benin Kingdom. She was the queen during the reign of Oba Ewuape in about 1700 AD. She is known to have volunteered herself as a sacrificial lamb for the welfare of her husband and that of the entire kingdom after she consulted the oracle and was informed that human sacrifice would be needed to appease the gods and restore peace and unity in the kingdom.{{cite web|date=2020-03-22|title=Queen Iden: Selfless intercessor|url=https://guardian.ng/sunday-magazine/queen-iden-selfless-intercessor/|access-date=2021-07-13|website=The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News|language=en-US}}
• General Asoro the Warrior was the sword bearer to King Ovonramwen (the Oba of Benin) in 1897. He participated in the defence of Benin during the 1897 expedition, engaging the British expeditionary force sent to capture the Oba. A quote uttered by the general that "no other person [should] dare pass this road except the Oba" (So kpon Oba) was later translated to "SAKPONBA", which a well known road in Benin was named after.{{Citation|title=Benin, Oba of Godfrey Okoro, (1899–1978)|date=2007-12-01|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u152217|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u152217|access-date=2021-07-13|url-access=subscription}}
• Chief Obasogie was not just an outstanding Benin warrior of old who defended the kingdom against external invasion but also a talented blacksmith and sculptor.{{cite web|last=Perishable|title=Benin Kingdom Loses Prominent Chief, As Obaseki Mourns the Obasogie |url=https://tell.ng/benin-kingdom-loses-prominent-chief-as-obaseki-mourns-the-obasogie/|access-date=2021-07-13|website=tell.ng|date=3 November 2020 |language=en-US}}

Many 19th century reports by European travelers and colonizers emphasize the practice of Juju human sacrifice, in Benin, and these have colored later scholarly works on the kingdom.{{cite journal |last1=Chouin |first1=Gérard |title=Reflections on plague in African history (14th–19th c.) |journal=Afriques |date=2018 |volume=9 |doi=10.4000/afriques.2228 |url=http://journals.openedition.org/afriques/2228 |access-date=5 May 2025|doi-access=free }} From the early days, human sacrifices were a part of the state religion. But many of the accounts of the sacrifices, says historian J. D. Graham, are exaggerated or based on rumour and speculation. He says that all of the evidence "points to a limited, ritual custom of human sacrifice, many of the written accounts referring to the human sacrifices describe them as actually being executed criminals".{{sfn|Graham|1965|pp=327–30}}

Forty-one female skeletons thrown into a pit were discovered by the archaeologist Graham Connah in the 1960s. He interpreted these findings as showing that human sacrifice or execution of criminals took place in Benin in the thirteenth century AD.{{Cite book|title=Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study|last=Trigger|first=Bruce G.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-521-822459|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/understandingear0000trig/page/479 479]|oclc=50291226|url=https://archive.org/details/understandingear0000trig/page/479}} The skeletons show no signs of violence, however, and may instead be a mass grave from a bubonic plague outbreak.

Edo historian Professor Philip Igbafe states that in pre-colonial Benin, the tradition was that only slaves could be sacrificed. This could include hardened criminals and those who had committed serious crimes, who would either be executed or sold into slavery. Sacrifices were made at the anniversary of the Oba's father, at the annual bead ceremony, and to propitiate the gods when poor weather threatened crops or when an epidemic threatened. In addition, the threat of a major calamity or national disaster was also an occasion for sacrifices.{{Cite journal |last=Igbafe |first=Philip A |date=1975 |title=Slavery and Emancipation in Benin, 1897–1945 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/180474 |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=409–429 |doi=10.1017/S002185370001433X |jstor=180474 |s2cid=161431780 |url-access=subscription }}

Humans were sacrificed in an annual ritual in honour of the god of iron, where warriors from Benin City would perform an acrobatic dance while suspended from the trees. The ritual recalled a mythical war against the sky.{{sfn|Bradbury|2017|p=54-58}}

Sacrifices of a man, a woman, a goat, a cow and a ram were also made to a god called "the king of death". The god, named Ogiuwu, was worshipped at a special altar in the centre of Benin City.{{sfn|Bradbury|2017|pp=54–58}}

There were two separate annual series of rites that honored past Obas. Sacrifices were performed every fifth day. At the end of each series of rites, the current Oba's deceased father was honored with a public festival. During the festival, twelve criminals, chosen from a prison where the worst criminals were held, were sacrificed.{{sfn|Bradbury|2017|pp=54–58}}

By the end of the eighteenth century, three to four people were sacrificed at the mouth of the Benin River annually, to attract European trade, according to one source.{{Cite journal|last=Law|first=Robin|date=January 1985|title=Human Sacrifice in Pre-Colonial West Africa|journal=African Affairs|volume=84|issue=334|page=65|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a097676|jstor=722523}}

The monarchy of Benin was hereditary; the eldest son was to become the new Oba. In order to validate the succession of the kingship, the eldest son had to bury his father and perform elaborate rituals. If the eldest son failed to complete these tasks, he might be disqualified from becoming king.{{Cite book|title=Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study|last=Trigger|first=Bruce G.|date=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-82245-9|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/understandingear0000trig/page/77 77–78]|oclc=50291226|url=https://archive.org/details/understandingear0000trig/page/77}}

After the son was installed as king, his mother – after having been invested with the title of Iyoba – was transferred to a palace just outside Benin City, in a place called Uselu. The mother held a considerable amount of power; she was, however, never allowed to meet her son – who was now a divine ruler – again.

In Benin, the Oba was seen as divine. The Oba's divinity and sacredness was the focal point of the kingship. The Oba was shrouded in mystery; he only left his palace on ceremonial occasions. It was previously punishable by death to assert that the Oba performed human acts, such as eating, sleeping, dying or washing. The Oba was also credited with having magical powers.{{sfn|Bradbury|2017|p=40}} He also controlled a powerful bureaucratic apparatus whose decrees were obeyed to the letter.{{sfn|Girshick|Thornton|2001|p=359}}

File:Ancient_Benin_city.JPG by a Dutch illustrator in 1668. The wall-like structure in the centre probably represents the walls of Benin.]]

The Impluvium was used in Benin architecture to store rainwater. Among the residences of the nobility, a compluvium channeled the rainwater into the impluvium in order to permit light and air through the walls since windows were absent among these structures. The stored rainwater in the impluvium was discharged out of the house through a drainage system beneath the floor.{{cite journal |last1=Nevadomsky |first1=Joseph |last2=Lawson |first2=Natalie |last3=Hazlett |first3=Ken |date=2014 |title=An Ethnographic and Space Syntax Analysis of Benin Kingdom Nobility Architecture |journal=African Archaeological Review |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=59–85 |doi=10.1007/s10437-014-9151-x |jstor=43916862 |s2cid=145149202}} Archaeological works from the mid 20th century has revealed the existence of edge-laid potsherd pavements in Benin city, dated around or prior to the 14th century.{{Cite book |last=Connah |first=Graham |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TV-0AaV_4EsC&dq=Benin+kingdom+cistern&pg=PA160 |title=African Civilizations: An Archaeological Perspective |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521596909 |page=160 |author-link=Graham Connah}} The Walls of Benin are a series of earthworks made up of banks and ditches, called {{font|I|font=serif}}ya in the Edo language in the area around present-day Benin City, the capital of present-day Edo, Nigeria. They consist of {{convert|15|km|abbr=off}} of city iya and an estimated {{convert|16000|km|abbr=off}} in the rural area around Benin.{{cite book |author1=Patrick Darling |title=The Protection of Archaeological Heritage in Times of Economic Crisis |date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=9781443874113 |editor1-last=Korka |editor1-first=Elena |pages=341–352 |language=en |chapter=Conservation Management of the Benin Earthworks of Southern Nigeria: A critical review of past and present action plans |access-date=9 March 2019 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_imBgAAQBAJ&q=Walls+of+Benin+%22Patrick+Darling%22&pg=PA353}} Some estimates suggest that the walls of Benin may have been constructed between the thirteenth and mid-fifteenth century CE{{cite journal |last1=Ogundiran |first1=Akinwumi |date=June 2005 |title=Four Millennia of Cultural History in Nigeria (ca. 2000 B.C.–A.D. 1900): Archaeological Perspectives |journal=Journal of World Prehistory |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=133–168 |doi=10.1007/s10963-006-9003-y |s2cid=144422848}} and others suggest that the walls of Benin (in the Esan region) may have been constructed during the first millennium AD.{{cite journal |last1=MacEachern |first1=Scott |date=January 2005 |title=Two thousand years of West African history |url=https://www.academia.edu/831918 |journal=African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction |publisher=Academia}}

The Benin City walls have been known to Westerners since around 1500. Around 1500, the Portuguese explorer Duarte Pacheco Pereira, briefly described the walls during his travels. In Pereira's Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, 1505, we read:

{{Blockquote|The houses are built of sun-dried bricks covered with palm leaves. Benin, which is 80 leagues [sic] long by 40 leagues [sic] broad, is always at war with its neighbours from whom

it obtains captives, whom we buy at from 12 to 15 brass or copper manillas.{{Cite book |last=Roth |first=H. Ling (Henry Ling) |url=http://archive.org/details/greatbeninitscus00roth |title=Great Benin; its customs, art and horrors |date=1903 |publisher=Halifax, Eng., F. King & Sons, ltd. |others=Smithsonian Libraries}}}}

Another description given around 1600, one hundred years after Pereira's description, is by the Dutch explorer Dierick Ruiters.{{Cite journal |last=Connah |first=Graham |date=June 1967 |title=New Light on the Benin City Walls |journal=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=597–599 |issn=0018-2540 |jstor=41856902}}

Pereira's account of the walls is as follows:

{{Blockquote|This city is about a league long from gate to gate; it has no wall but is surrounded by a large moat, very wide and deep, which suffices for its defence.{{Cite book|title=Nigerian Perspectives: An Historical Anthology|last=Hodgkin|first=Thomas|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1960|isbn=978-0192154347|page=93}}}}

The archaeologist Graham Connah suggests that Pereira was probably mistaken with his description by saying that there was no wall. Connah says, "[Pereira] considered that a bank of earth was not a wall in the sense of the Europe of his day."

Ruiters' account of the walls is as follows:

{{Blockquote|At the gate where I entered on horseback, I saw a very high bulwark, very thick of earth, with a very deep broad ditch, but it was dry, and full of high trees... That gate is a reasonable good gate, made of wood in their manner, which is to be shut, and there always there is watch holden.{{Cite book|title=Nigerian Perspectives: An Historical Anthology|last=Hodgkin|first=Thomas|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1960|isbn=978-0192154347|page=120}}}}File:Drawing of Benin City made by an English officer 1897.jpg

Estimates for the initial construction of the walls range from the first millennium to the mid-fifteenth century. According to Connah, oral tradition and travelers' accounts suggest a construction date of 1450–1500.{{Cite journal |last=Connah |first=Graham |date=January 1972 |title=Archaeology of Benin |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=13 |issue=1 |page=33 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700000244 |s2cid=162976770}} It has been estimated that assuming a ten-hour work day, a labour force of 5,000 men could have completed the walls within 97 days, or by 2,421 men in 200 days. However, these estimates have been criticized for not taking into account the time it would have taken to extract the earth from an ever-deepening hole and the time it would have taken to heap the earth into a high bank.{{Cite journal |last=Connah |first=Graham |date=June 1967 |title=New Light on the Benin City Walls |journal=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria |volume=3 |issue=4 |page=608 |issn=0018-2540 |jstor=41856902}} It is unknown whether slavery or some other type of labour was used in the construction of the walls.

The walls were built of a ditch and dike structure; the ditch dug to form an inner moat with the excavated earth used to form the exterior rampart.

The Benin Walls were partially demolished by the British in 1897 during their 1897 punitive expedition. Scattered pieces of the structure remain in Edo, with the vast majority of them being used by the locals for building purposes. What remains of the wall itself continues to be torn down for real estate developments in Nigeria.{{cite web |title=Home | Benin Moat Foundation |url=http://www.beninmoatfoundation.org/clarioncall.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725061950/http://www.beninmoatfoundation.org/clarioncall.html |archive-date=25 July 2011 |website=www.beninmoatfoundation.org}}

Fred Pearce wrote in New Scientist:

{{blockquote|They extend for some 16,000 km in all, in a mosaic of more than 500 interconnected settlement boundaries. They cover 2,510 sq. miles (6,500 square kilometres) and were all dug by the Edo people. In all, they are four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops. They took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet.Pearce, Fred. [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16322035.100-the-african-queen.html?page=2 African Queen]. New Scientist, 11 September 1999, Issue 2203.}}

Ethnomathematician Ron Eglash has discussed the planned layout of the city using fractals as the basis, not only in the city itself and the villages but even in the rooms of houses. He commented that "When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet."{{cite news |last1=Koutonin |first1=Mawuna |date=18 March 2016 |title=Story of cities #5: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace |access-date=2 April 2018}}

File:Benin kingdom Louvre A97-4-1.jpg

Military operations relied on a well trained disciplined force.{{cite thesis |last=Osadolor |first=Osarhieme Benson |title=The military system of Benin Kingdom, c. 1440–1897 (D) |url=https://ediss.sub.uni-hamburg.de/volltexte/2001/544/pdf/Disse.pdf |publisher=University of Hamburg |type=Doctoral dissertation |date=23 July 2001 |pages=4–264}} At the head of the host stood the Oba of Benin. The monarch of the realm served as supreme military commander. Beneath him were subordinate generalissimos, the Ezomo, the Iyase, and others who supervised a Metropolitan Regiment based in the capital, and a Royal Regiment made up of hand-picked warriors that also served as bodyguards. Benin's queen mother, the Iyoba, also retained her own regiment – the "Queen's Own". The Metropolitan and Royal regiments were relatively stable semi-permanent or permanent formations. The Village Regiments provided the bulk of the fighting force and were mobilized as needed, sending contingents of warriors upon the command of the king and his generals. Formations were broken down into sub-units under designated commanders. Foreign observers often commented favorably on Benin's discipline and organization as "better disciplined than any other Guinea nation", contrasting them with the slacker troops from the Gold Coast.Robert Sydney Smith, Warfare & diplomacy in pre-colonial West Africa, University of Wisconsin Press: 1989, pp. 54–62

Until the introduction of guns in the 15th century, traditional weapons like the spear, short sword, and bow held sway. Efforts were made to reorganize a local guild of blacksmiths in the 18th century to manufacture light firearms, but dependence on imports was still heavy. Before the coming of the gun, guilds of blacksmiths were charged with war production—particularly swords and iron spearheads. In addition, crossbowmen formed a specialized unit of the Benin army. Archers and crossbowmen were trained in target and field archery. In 1514 or 1516, the Oba of Benin seized a Portuguese bombard for use.{{harvp|Thornton |1999|p=81}}{{cite book|last1=Pargas|first1=Damian Alan |last2=Roşu|first2=Felicia|title= Critical Readings on Global Slavery|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wdBCDwAAQBAJ&dq=the+king+of+Benin+seized+a+Portuguese+bombard&pg=PA1141|year=2017|publisher=Brill Publishers|pages=1141|isbn=9789004346611}}

Benin's tactics were well organized, with preliminary plans weighed by the Oba and his sub-commanders. Logistics were organized to support missions from the usual porter forces, water transport via canoe, and requisitioning from localities the army passed through. Movement of troops via canoes was critically important in the lagoons, creeks and rivers of the Niger Delta, a key area of Benin's domination. Tactics in the field seem to have evolved over time. While the head-on clash was well known, documentation from the 18th century shows greater emphasis on avoiding continuous battle lines, and more effort to encircle an enemy (ifianyako).

Fortifications were important in the region and numerous military campaigns fought by Benin's soldiers revolved around sieges. Benin's military earthworks are the largest of such structures in the world, and Benin's rivals also built extensively. Barring a successful assault, most sieges were resolved by a strategy of attrition, slowly cutting off and starving out the enemy fortification until it capitulated. On occasion, however, European mercenaries were called on to aid with these sieges. In 1603–04 for example, European cannon helped batter and destroy the gates of a town near present-day Lagos, allowing 10,000 warriors of Benin to enter and conquer it. As payment, the Europeans received items, such as palm oil and bundles of pepper.R.S. Smith, Warfare & diplomacy pp. 54–62 The example of Benin shows the power of indigenous military systems, but also the role outside influences and new technologies brought to bear. This is a normal pattern among many nations.

The first European travelers to reach Benin were Portuguese explorers under João Afonso de Aveiro in about 1485. A strong mercantile relationship developed, with the Edo trading slaves and tropical products such as ivory, pepper and palm oil for European goods such as manillas and guns. In the early 16th century, the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon, and the king of Portugal sent Christian missionaries to Benin City. Some residents of Benin City could still speak a pidgin Portuguese in the late 19th century.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

File:Benin, portoghese, XVI-XVII sec.JPG

The first English expedition to Benin was in 1553, and significant trading developed between Europe and Benin based on the export of ivory, palm oil, pepper, and later slaves. Visitors in the 16th and 19th centuries brought back to Europe tales of "Great Benin", a fabulous city of noble buildings, ruled over by a powerful king. A fanciful engraving of the settlement was made by a Dutch illustrator (from descriptions alone) and was shown in Olfert Dapper's Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Gewesten, published in Amsterdam in 1668.{{cite book |last1=Dapper |first1=Olfert |title=Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Gewesten |date=1668 |publisher=Jacob van Meurs |location=Amsterdam |page=[https://archive.org/details/gri_33125009359999/page/n676 495]}} The work states the following about the royal palace:

{{Cquote|The king's court is square and located on the right-hand side of the city, as one enters it through the gate of Gotton. It is about the same size as the city of Haarlem and entirely surrounded by a special wall, comparable to the one which encircles the town. It is divided into many magnificent palaces, houses and apartments of the courtiers, and comprises beautiful and long squares with galleries, about as large as the Exchange at Amsterdam. The buildings are of different sizes however, resting on wooden pillars, from top to bottom lined with copper casts, on which pictures of their war exploits and battles are engraved. All of them are being very well maintained. Most of the buildings within this court are covered with palm leaves, instead of with square planks, and every roof is adorned with a small spired tower, on which cast copper birds are standing, being very artfully sculpted and lifelike with their wings spread.{{cite book |last1=Dapper |first1=Olfert |title=Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Gewesten |date=1668 |publisher=Jacob van Meurs |location=Amsterdam |chapter=Het Kongrijk van Benijn |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/gri_33125009359999/page/n679/mode/2up |pages= 494/495 }}

}}

Another Dutch traveler, David van Nyendael, visited Benin in 1699 and also wrote an account of the kingdom. Nyendael's description was published in 1704 as an appendix to Willem Bosman's Nauwkeurige Beschryving van de Guinese Goud-, tand- en Slave-kust.{{cite book |last1=Bosman |first1=Willem |title=Nauwkeurige Beschryving van de Guinese Goud-tand-en Slave-kust |date=1704 |publisher=Anthony Schouten |location=Utrecht |pages=212–257 |chapter=Beschryving van Rio Formosa, Anders gesegt de Benin. |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/nauwkeurigebesch00bosm_0/page/243/mode/2up}} In his description, Nyendael states the following about the character of the Benin people:

{{Cquote|The inhabitants of the Benin are in general a kind and polite people, of whom one with kindness might get everything he desires. Whatever might be offered to them out of politeness, will always be doubled in return. However, they want their politeness to be returned with likewise courtesy as well, without the appearance of any disappointment or rudeness, and rightly so. To be sure, trying to take anything from them with force or violence, would be as if one tries to reach out to the Moon and will never be left unreckoned. When it comes to trade, they are very strict and will not suffer the slightest infringement of their customs, not even a iota can be changed. Though, when one is willing to accept these customs, they are very easy-going and will cooperate in every way possible to reach an agreement.{{cite book |last1=Bosman |first1=Willem |title=Nauwkeurige Beschryving van de Guinese Goud-tand-en Slave-kust |date=1704 |publisher=Anthony Schouten |location=Utrecht |pages=[https://archive.org/details/nauwkeurigebesch00bosm_0/page/222 222 f.] }}

}}

British trader James Pinnock who visited the kingdom writes that he saw "a large number of men all handcuffed and chained" with "their ears cut off with a razor". T. B. Auchterlonie describes the approach to the capital through an avenue of trees hung with decomposing human remains. After the "lane of horrors" came a grass common "thickly strewn with the skulls and bones of sacrificed human beings".Hernon, A., Britain's Forgotten Wars, p. 409 (2002) {{ISBN|0-7509-3162-0}} The historian James D. Graham, in his article "The Slave Trade, Depopulation and Human Sacrifice in Benin History" (1965) has shown that the area where the skulls and bones of human beings were concentrated, called a "Golgotha" by a few European visitors, was actually a place where the bodies of dead and executed criminals were deposited, as noted by Captain H.L. Gallwey, who visited Benin in the 1890s: "Gallwey in 1893 stated that 'the king is all powerful though he would appear to be somewhat in the hands of his big men and very much tied down by fetish customs'. He also observed that the "Golgotha" was really 'the place where all criminals' bodies were deposited.' "{{sfn|Graham|1965}}

Scientific analysis of the brass (or "bronze") used to make the famous Benin plaques and other sculptures found that, beginning in the late 15th century, the metal (previously thought to have come from the Netherlands) began to derive from the Rhineland region of Germany. At that time, the brass was exported from Germany in the form of ring-shaped ingots which were used as currency in the trans-Atlantic slave trade (bought from the Portuguese and incorporated by the people in Benin as a metal source in sculpture), and subsequently melted down in Benin to produce Benin Bronzes.{{cite web |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2368057-famous-benin-bronzes-from-west-africa-used-metal-sourced-in-germany/ |website=New Scientist |title=Famous Benin Bronzes from West Africa used metal sourced in Germany |date=2023 |quote=The world-famous Benin Bronze artworks created by African metalsmiths between the 16th and 19th centuries were made of brass rings produced in Germany’s Rhineland region. These rings were used as currency in the transatlantic slave trade.}}

{{Cite journal |title=German brass for Benin Bronzes: Geochemical analysis insights into the early Atlantic trade | date=2023 | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0283415 |language=en | doi-access=free | last1=Skowronek | first1=Tobias B. | last2=Decorse | first2=Christopher R. | last3=Denk | first3=Rolf | last4=Birr | first4=Stefan D. | last5=Kingsley | first5=Sean | last6=Cook | first6=Gregory D. | last7=Benito Dominguez | first7=Ana María | last8=Clifford | first8=Brandon | last9=Barker | first9=Andrew | last10=Otero | first10=José Suárez | last11=Moreira | first11=Vicente Caramés | last12=Bode | first12=Michael | last13=Jansen | first13=Moritz | last14=Scholes | first14=Daniel | journal=PLOS ONE | volume=18 | issue=4 | pages=e0283415 | pmid=37018227 | pmc=10075414 | bibcode=2023PLoSO..1883415S }}{{cite web |last1=Alberge |first1=Dalya |title=Benin bronzes made from metal mined in west Germany, study finds |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/05/benin-bronzes-made-from-brass-mined-in-west-germany-study-finds |website=The Guardian |access-date=8 April 2023 |date=5 April 2023 |archive-date=8 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408050236/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/05/benin-bronzes-made-from-brass-mined-in-west-germany-study-finds |url-status=live }}

• Art of the Kingdom of Benin
• Edo people
• Edo language
• Festac Town
• Flag of the Kingdom of Benin
• History of Nigeria
• Iyoba of Benin
• Oba of Benin
• Walls of Benin

{{reflist}}

{{notelist}}

{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}

• Akenzua, Edun (2000). "The Case of Benin". Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix 21, House of Commons, The United Kingdom Parliament, March 2000.
• Ben-Amos, Paula (1999). Art, Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin. Indiana University Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-253-33503-5}}
• {{cite journal | last=Bondarenko | first=Dmitri M. | title=Ancient Benin: Where Did the First Monarchs Come From? | journal=Asian and African Studies | publisher=Institute of Oriental Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences | volume=10 | issue=2 | year=2001 | issn=2585-8793 | pages=185–198}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Bondarenko |first1=Dmitri |author1-link=Dmitri Bondarenko |title=Advent of the Second (Oba) Dynasty: Another Assessment of a Benin History Key Point |journal=History in Africa |date=2003 |volume=30 |page = 68|doi=10.1017/S0361541300003144 |jstor=3172082 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3172082 |access-date=12 March 2025|url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Bondarenko |first1=Dmitri |last2=Roese |first2=Peter |title=Between the Ogiso and Oba Dynasties: An Interpretation of Interregnum in the Benin Kingdom |journal=History in Africa |date=2004 |volume=31 |pages=103–115 |doi=10.1017/S0361541300003417 |jstor=4128520 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/4128520 |access-date=12 March 2025|url-access=subscription }}
• {{Cite book|title=The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-speaking Peoples of South-western Nigeria|last=Bradbury|first=R.E.|publisher=Routledge|year=2017|isbn=978-1315293837}}
• {{cite book |last=Egharevba |first=Jacob |author-link=Jacob Egharevba |title=A Short History of Benin |date=1968 |publisher=C.M.S. Press |isbn=9789781212390 }}
• European traders in Benin to Major Copland Crawford. Reporting the stoppage of trade by the Benin King 1896 Apr 13, Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu.
• {{cite journal | last1=Girshick | first1=Paula Ben-Amos | last2=Thornton | first2=John | year=2001 | title=Civil War in the Kingdom of Benin, 1689–1721: Continuity or Political Change? | journal=The Journal of African History | volume=42 | issue=3 | pages=353–376 | doi=10.1017/S0021853701007915 | jstor=3647167 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3647167| hdl=2022/3613 | s2cid=145691565 | hdl-access=free }}
• {{cite journal | last=Graham | first=James D. | year=1965 | title=The slave trade, depopulation and human sacrifice in Benin history: the general approach | journal=Cahiers d'Études africaines | volume=5 | issue=18 | pages=317–334 | jstor=4390897 | doi=10.3406/cea.1965.3035 | s2cid=143678155 | url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bd85/d5ced5503a4557c4f768db3e8563a6459663.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226100841/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bd85/d5ced5503a4557c4f768db3e8563a6459663.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-date=2020-02-26 }}
• {{cite journal| last=Igbafe | first=Philip A.| year=1970 | title=The fall of Benin: a reassessment | journal= Journal of African History | volume=11 | issue=3 |pages=385–400 | doi=10.1017/S0021853700010215 | jstor=180345 | s2cid=154621156}}
• J.R. Phillips to Foreign Office. Advising the deposition of the Benin King. 17 Nov 1896. Despatches to Foreign Office from Consul-General, Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu.
• Sir Ralph Moore to Foreign Office. Reporting on the abortive Expedition into Benin. 1895 Sept. 12 Catalogue of the Correspondence and Papers of the Niger Coast Protectorate, 268 3/3/3, p. 240. National Archives of Nigeria Enugu
• {{cite book |last1=Ogundiran |first1=Akinwumi |title=The Yoruba: A New History |date=2020 |publisher=Indiana University Press}}
• {{cite book | last=Strayer | first=Robert W. | title=Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources | location=New York | publisher=Bedford/St.Martin's | year=2013 | edition=2nd | isbn=978-0312583460 }}
• {{cite book | last=Ryder | first=Alan Frederick Charles | title=Benin and the Europeans, (1485–1897) | year = 1969| place=London | publisher=Longmans | oclc=959073935 }}
• {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MdI8DYItvg8C&dq=the+king+of+Benin+seized+a+Portuguese+bombard&pg=PA81|last1=Thornton |first1=John Kelly|author-link=John Thornton (historian)|year=1999|title=Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 1500–1800|publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=9781857283921}}
• {{cite book | last1=Usuanlele | first1=Uyilawa | last2=Edo | first2=Victor Osaro | year=2007 | title=African agency and European colonialism: latitudes of negotiation and containment: essays in honor of A.S. Kanya-Forstner | publisher = University Press of America | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pNmJE_KMeLEC | chapter = Migrating out of reach: fugitive Benin communities in colonial Nigeria, 1897–1934 | isbn=978-0-7618-3846-3 | editor-last1 = Kolapo | editor-first1 = Femi James |editor-last2 = Akurang-Parry |editor-first2 = Kwabena }}

{{refend}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal | last=Bondarenko | first=Dmitri M. | author-link=Dmitri Bondarenko | year=2005 | title=A homoarchic alternative to the homoarchic state: Benin Kingdom of the 13th–19th centuries | journal=Social Evolution & History | volume=4 | issue=2 | pages=18–88 | url=http://www.sociostudies.org/journal/articles/140520/ }}
• {{cite journal | last=Bondarenko | first=Dmitri M. | year=2015 | title=The Benin Kingdom (13th – 19th centuries) as a megacommunity | journal=Social Evolution & History | volume=14 | issue=2 | pages=46–76 | url=http://www.sociostudies.org/journal/articles/363729/ }}
• {{cite journal | last=Eisenhofer | first=Stefan | year=1995 | title=The origins of the Benin kingship in the works of Jacob Egharevba | journal=History in Africa | volume=22 | pages=141–163 | jstor=3171912 | doi=10.2307/3171912 | s2cid=161445279 }}
• {{cite journal | last=Eisenhofer | first=Stefan | year=1997 | title=The Benin kinglist/s: some questions of chronology | journal=History in Africa | volume=24 | pages=139–156 | jstor=3172022 | doi=10.2307/3172022 | s2cid=162291387 }}
• {{cite book | last=Igbafe | first=Philip Aigbona | year=1979 | title=Benin Under British Administration: The Impact of Colonial Rule on an African Kingdom, 1897–1938 | place=London | publisher=Longman | oclc=473877102 }}
• Jones, Adam (1998): Olfert Dapper's Description of Benin (1668). Madison: University of Madison.
• {{cite journal | last=Palisot-Beauvois | first=A. | author-link=Palisot de Beauvois | year=1800 | title=Notice sur le peuple de Bénin | language=fr | journal=Décade Philosophique | volume=2e Trimestre | issue=12 | pages=141–151 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JHxlAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA141 }}
• {{cite book | last1=Roese | first1=P.M. | last2=Bondarenko | first2=D. M. | year=2003 | title=A Popular History of Benin. The Rise and Fall of a Mighty Forest Kingdom | place=Frankfurt am Main | publisher=Peter Lang | isbn=9780820460796 }}
• Spahr, Thorsten (2006): Benin um 1700. Kommentierte deutsche Neu-Übersetzung eines Briefes von David van Nyendael an Willem Bosman über das Königreich Benin nebst einer Synopsis des im Holländischen zuerst 1704 verlegten Originals und der zeitgenössischen Übersetzungen ins Englische (1705) sowie ins Deutsche (1708). Mammendorf: Pro-Literatur-Verlag.
• Spahr, Thorsten (2006): Benin Bibliography. Mammendorf: Pro-Literatur-Verlag.

{{refend}}

{{Commons category}}

• [https://digitalbenin.org/ Digital Benin]
• [http://www.uq.net.au/~zzhsoszy/states/nigeria/edo.html Edo at Genealogical Gleanings]
• [http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/4chapter7.shtml The Story of Africa: Ife and Benin — BBC World Service]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090917223644/http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=964084686&dok_var=d1&dok_ext=pdf&filename=964084686.pdf The Military System of Benin Kingdom, c. 1440–1897]

{{Nigeria topics}}

{{Empires}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Benin}}

Category:Archaeological sites in Nigeria

Category:Prehistoric Africa

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Category:1890s disestablishments in Nigeria