The Oba of Benin Kingdom A History of The Monarch PDF

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The Oba of Benin Kingdom: A history of the monarchy

Who is the Oba of Benin Kingdom in Nigeria and why is he so important to so
many people?
The palace chiefs kneel for the crown prince before they perform the coronation ritual [Femke van Zeijil/Al
Jazeera]
By Femke van Zeijl

12 Nov 2016
Benin City, Nigeria – A wooden staff thumps on the landing in front of the tem-
porary palace. “Long live the king!” bellows Chief Osa, as he raises his fist. The
sun reflects off the golden decorations on his horn-shaped red hat.
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grounds and now stand behind him say “Isee” in agreement.
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Then Osa and Chief Osuan, the crown prince’s escorts on his way to the
ascension, enter Usama palace, a nondescript bungalow on fallow terrain in the
centre of town.
It is 8am and it will be at least seven hours until Crown Prince Eheneden
Erediauwa shows himself in public, but his subjects have already come out in
great numbers. Thick crowds clog the roads in the heart of Benin City in the
south of Nigeria, in expectation of the coronation of the new Oba of the
centuries-old Benin Kingdom.
Coronation day in Benin – not to be confused with the West African country that
used to be known as Dahomey – on October 20 was preceded by 10 days of cere-
monies and rites.
Banners with the crown prince’s portrait and flags with his name fluttered all
over the city, the pavements received a new daub of black and white paint and
the lawns in front of the cultural centre were trimmed. It didn’t matter which
local radio or TV station you tuned into, all of their bulletins started with what
the crown prince had been up to that day on his way to the throne.
“The Oba is a father to all of us,” says 24-year-old student of mass communica-
tion Esosa, who left home at 5am on coronation day to get a good view of the
proceedings.
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The Oba’s subjects wait outside the coronation hall to see their new king [Femke van Zeijil/Al Jazeera]
‘The king’s court is as large as the city of Haarlem’

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But the 250-plus ethnic groups that have been gathered into one country by the
British colonisers also acknowledge their own traditional rulers. Of these
leaders, the monarch of the Bini people of Benin is among the most respected.
But what kind of power does the Oba of Benin wield? And what is his influence
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on the development of Nigeria’s Edo State, of which Benin City is the capital?
When the Portuguese first set foot there at the end of the 15th century, Benin
was a city-state in the middle of the rainforest that surpassed many late medi-
eval European cities in urban development and where the streets were lit at
night by palm oil lanterns.
“The king’s court is as large as the city of Haarlem, and … divided into many
magnificent palaces, houses and rooms of the courtiers, and … galleries, about
as large as the Exchange at Amsterdam,” the Dutch geographer Olfert Dapper
wrote in 1668 about the Oba’s court, based on accounts of explorers and mis-
sionaries who had visited Benin.
At the time, the Benin Kingdom was at the height of its military and political
power and stretched far into the east and west of modern-day Nigeria.
READ MORE: From illiterate child bride to famous Nigerian novelist
That supremacy strengthened Benin’s position towards the European intruders,

explains history professor Osarhieme Benson Osadolor of the University of
Benin.
“The Oba maintained his independence despite pressure from the Portuguese,
Dutch, and British.”
There was, however, a lively intercontinental trade relationship, during which

Europeans provided the Oba with firearms and other items in exchange for
slaves that his army brought back after their conquests.
The wives and daughters of the chiefs sing praise to the Oba, one of the few roles women have to play in the
10-day long coronation process [Femke van Zeijil/Al Jazeera]
Resistance to the British

From the 19th century onwards the empire went downhill. The slave trade had
been replaced by the trade in palm oil and the Oba enforced a personal export
monopoly that did not make him popular among his chiefs and the general
population, says the historian.
Therefore, when Oba Ovonramwen kept resisting annexation by the British – as

one of the few local leaders who still maintained their independence at the time
– he did not receive the usual military back-up from his chiefs.
On February 18, 1897, the once glorious city fell within a day. In the process, the
British set a large part of Benin ablaze – though only after ransacking the
palace’s treasures, of which the famous bronze sculptures can be seen in the
British Museum to this day.
Following the defeat, Oba Ovonramwen was banished to Calabar town, not far
from Nigeria’s border with Cameroon.
But theor
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status of the monarchy in modern times, says Osadolor: “He wasn’t popular at
status o t e o a c y ode t es, says Osado o : e as t popu a at
the time he came to the throne, but his resistance made him hugely popular
afterwards.”
Contemporary subjects of the Benin Kingdom often quote the royal resistance as
one of the reasons for their appreciation of the monarchy.
READ MORE: What does it mean to be Nigerian?
After Ovonramwen died in exile in 1914, the British, who needed a traditional
leader for their indirect rule, convinced his son to ascend to the throne. This
great-grandfather of the current crown prince had none of the powers of his
father, but was presented by the colonial rulers as the new authority, Osadolor
explains: “The Oba had become a ceremonial position, but people saw him as
the one deciding.”
Even after independence in 1960 the monarch did not regain his previous abso-
lute power. So, on what then is his influence on Benin society based?
The ekasa dancers ritually cleansing the ground the crown prince will soon walk on [Femke van Zeijil/Al
Jazeera]
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A long chain of coral beads, a gift from the Oba, decorates the bare chest of bar-
rister Godwin Aigbe, the Enogie of Ukhiri. It is two days until the coronation and
together with the other traditional leaders in the village of Useh, the chief is
waiting for the arrival of the edaiken, the crown prince. It is ancient custom
that the crown prince choose the name he will answer to as Oba in this dense
little forest in front of which an expectant crowd has gathered – a name that
won’t be divulged until his coronation.
As a lawyer, Aigbe explains how the Oba’s authority relates to Nigerian law. “In
our legal system we recognise traditional law, as long as it is not repugnant to
natural justice, equity and good conscience.” Simply put: the constitution recog-
nises customary law, and as long as he remains within the boundaries of the
law, the Oba’s voice still counts for something. He can mediate, but not
adjudicate.
“The Oba settles disputes and is a peacemaker. He cannot legally punish

anyone, but he will make you realise when you have committed an offence and
you will learn from it,” the chief adds, as he tightens the white fabric wrapped
around his waist.
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The Oba has some authority over land issues, when it concerns land owned by
indigenes in the south of Edo State, and his decisions are quoted in regular
court. To many Nigerians, property is a matter of life and death: land equals
wealth and the possession of it is often their only pension plan.
In addition to that, the Oba’s subjects consult him about family feuds and com-
munity disputes. The inertia of the Nigerian justice system – the average length
of a court case is four to 10 years – turns the relatively quick arbitration by tra-
ditional rulers into a welcome alternative form of justice.
That explains part of the Oba’s popularity in the modern Benin City society. But
there is more.
The newly crowned Oba with a handkerchief he placed in front of his mouth, a sign that he does not speak in
public regularly, but when he does, his word is final [Femke van Zeijil/Al Jazeera]
Hereditary
“Our Oba stands above the parties,” cheers the plumber Osatohanmwen, as he
sees the red and blue parasol covering the Oba moving through the crowd.
Kings are born not made

BINI PROVERB
The woman next to him, who wears a dress sewn of fabric with the Oba’s
portrait, agrees: “He is not into politics. That’s why we trust him.” A Bini pro-
verb says that kings are born, not made. And citizens have so little confidence in
the game of politics that they prefer a hereditary monarch whose appointment
cannot be manipulated.
Not everyone in Benin is Bini. There are many other ethnicities living and work-
ing in the modern city, from Hausa and Igbo, to Ijaw and Bajju. That doesn’t
matter, they say at the palace: the Oba is sovereign over all of them, and his im-
partiality exceeds his ethnic background. An Igbo man, they say, has come to the
Oba for a ruling and was put in the right. But does everyone in the city feel as
invested in the royal festivities as the Bini do?
In front of a student dormitory on the University of Benin campus, 20-year-old

Linda is chatting with fellow students. The student of philosophy welcomes the
state-wide day off the coronation has given her, but says she feels indifferent to
the monarchy: “You see, I am Delta Igbo, and we have never had such central-
ised authorities. What the Bini call royal does not exist in my culture.”
On the other side of town in GRA, two friends having a beer under a mango tree
are muttering about the lockdown of the streets in preparation for the
ascension. Because of it, the traffic all over town has reached gridlock.
One of the men has not been able to go to work; the other one turned around
halfway to an appointment and cancelled all others for the day. “Why must
everything else stop because of the coronation?” he complains. “People at the
palace think this coronation is the only thing going, so all of us go suffer. I am
Esan, not Bini. What do I have to gain from their Oba? Let me just do my work I
beg.”
Bini women were dresses made of fabric featuring portraits of the new Oba [Femke van Zeijil/Al Jazeera]
Mock battle
To the Bini, their history and tradition are still very much alive. That much be-
comes clear on a visit to Chief Ogiamien’s red clay palace, some two kilometres
away from the Oba’s. The single-storey building is one of the few of this stature
in Benin City that survived the ravaging flames in 1897.
The Ogiamien were a rival dynasty defeated in the 13th century by Oba Ewedu.
That military skirmish is usually commemorated by a mock battle between the
current Ogiamien and the Oba-to-be, on his way to the coronation hall. This
time, however, that tradition will not be honoured: the person holding this
hereditary title vanished almost two decades ago, and no one knows where he
is.
Under normal circumstances another representative of the Ogiamien family

would have taken his place, explains Moses Igbineweka in the palace courtyard,
where a shrine in the wall represents the presence of the ancestors, but the
Ogiamiens have been in court ever since a dissident faction of the family went
and crowned another man their leader. “Someone came to steal the title from
us,” says
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He shakes his head over the actions of the self-appointed Ogiamien, who be-
grudged his exclusion from the royal ceremony and even went to court to stop
the coronation process because of it, an injunction dismissed by the court of
appeal. Igbineweka does, however, hope that the newly crowned Oba will ob-
serve another tradition.
According to him, as part of the 13th-century treaty between the warring

dynasties, the Oba offered gifts to his former rival, including a royal stool, a tray
of kola nuts, and a bronze staff. He points to a spot in the outer wall that used to
be a doorway but is now bricked shut, calling it the gateway to heaven. Only the
Oba may pass through this gate, which will be unblocked when the monarch
pays a visit.
The representative of the Ogiamien family hopes that he will do so soon, with
his offerings: “We are waiting for him.”
‘Oba gha tokpere! [Long live the king]’ says Chief Osa [Femke van Zeijil/Al Jazeera]
‘That’s a secret’
On the morning of the ascension, the ekasa dancers – a group of about 60 men –
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the moment the drums start talking and they can perform their traditional
dance, which may only be staged during the coronation process and at the
burial of the queen mother.
The men – aged between 12 and way beyond retirement age – have some time
to chat. But there is not much they can say.
Only people who speak the old Bini will

understand.
A BINI CITIZEN
What do the symbols on your banners stand for? “That’s a secret.”
What text are you singing while you’re dancing? “Only people who speak the
old Bini will understand.”
In what way is your family related to the Oba? “We don’t speak about that.”
The practices surrounding the monarchy are rife with myths and taboos.
To many Bini, the Oba has a godlike status. When the previous king passed
away, the whole of Benin kept silent about it for months, until the chiefs offi-
cially announced that ‘the chalk had broken’. According to Bini tradition, an
Oba does not die.
The Bini may hold on to their customs, but that does not mean that traditions
don’t change, says Princess Elizabeth Olowu, a sister of the late king. She is at
her Benin home taking out the regalia she will wear at the coronation and try-
ing on the coral-bead headgear.
She remembers her father, Oba Akenzua II, who ruled from 1933 until 1978, as
a progressive man who refused to marry off his daughters at a young age, as
was the custom, but sent them to school instead: “He abolished so many things,
like the fact that he was not supposed to see his newborn children for three
months after their birth. He figured one of the pleasures of being a parent is to
see your children develop, so he put an end to that tradition.”
Princess Elizabeth Olowu, sister of the late king and aunt of the new one, tries on the headgear she’ll wear at
the coronation [Femke van Zeijil/Al Jazeera]
Abomination
Another palace taboo concerned bronze casting: it was a craft women were for-
bidden to perform, since the Bini believed a woman would go barren if she
handled the bellows. But then the princess told her father she was interested in
casting bronze, to which he responded, ‘Why not?’
“He was sure I would succeed,” the princess, now 71-year-old, says.
The bronze casters saw their female pupil as an abomination, but couldn’t say
much, because the Oba’s word is final. The princess would go on to become a
well-known
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“Culture is not static,” adds her daughter Peju Layiwola, who followed in her
mother’s artistic footsteps. Does that mean that one day the Bini will welcome a
female Oba to the throne? She smiles and shakes her head: no.
Apart from dancing and singing his praises, women hardly play a role in the
Oba’s coronation ceremonies. They are also absent from the customary leader-
ship structures. “Women traditionally face a lot of restrictions,” Layiwola
admits. “Benin is still very much a patriarchal society.”
She does, however, point out the important women in the history of Benin, like
Emotan, the market woman who warned a 15th-century Oba of a murder plot
against him, and Idia, the 16th-century queen mother, who successfully went to
war on behalf of her son. The Oba regularly commemorates them,
Layiwola says, recognising the role of women in society: “Bini women are no
pushovers, and the Oba acknowledges that.”
The whole of Benin City is decorated with flags and banners honouring the new Oba [Femke van Zeijil/Al
Jazeera]
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They are sure that ill fate will strike you if the Oba looks at you with angry eyes;
one family even went to plead with the late Oba Erediauwa, the father of the
present monarch, to lift a spell one of his predecessors had cast over their entire
line. Although the majority of the population in Benin City describe themselves
as Christian, many also believe in the indigenous spiritual customs.
We know our history and tell it to our

children. That is what everybody should
do
OWAEGHIANGE
Criminals have found ways to abuse that belief. A large number of the Nigerian
women trafficked into prostitution in Europe come from Benin City. And many
of these victims are controlled by their fear of juju rituals.
Sociology and anthropology professor Kokunre Agbontaen Eghafona at the Uni-

versity of Benin acknowledges that superstitious beliefs play a role in
trafficking, but argues that poverty and the patrilineal system, according to
which daughters traditionally do not inherit, also play a part in women search-
ing for prosperity abroad. “All the factors that gave rise to the problem must be
adequately addressed. Our Obas have declared trafficking for prostitution as
wrong, but the phenomenon has gone beyond traditional legislation. It is of
global concern,” she says.
In other ways the monarchy does appear to affect society positively. The high
degree of education and development of the royal family – the late Oba atten-
ded Cambridge University, his son the crown prince was an ambassador in sev-
eral countries including Sweden and Angola – serves as an example to the Bini,
who are
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formal education.
It’s after 5pm when the crown prince, wearing a dress covered with coral beads
said to weigh up to 20 kilogrammes, enters the coronation hall and one of the
palace chiefs places the crown on his head. Only then is the new name of the
monarch announced: Ewuare II.
“Named after Ewuare the Great, who had our city walls built in the 15th
century,” says 26-year-old Owaeghiange, who is awaiting the Oba outside with
thousands of others. The hairdresser effortlessly makes this historical
reference, which is extraordinary in Nigeria, where history hasn’t been on the
school curriculum for years.
“The Bini are not a traditional people, but we know our traditions. That is not
the same thing,” says the young woman. “We know our history and tell it to our
children. That is what everybody should do.”
SOURCE : AL JAZEERA
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Features | Arts and Culture

The Oba of Benin Kingdom: A history of the monarchy

By Femke van Zeijl

Arab Spring Cartoon: Now and Then … and 10 years on

Best of 2020: The top books by African writers

The race to save an Indigenous Brazilian language from extinction

#ChangeMusic Roadmap aims to redress racism in music industry

‘The king’s court is as large as the city of Haarlem’

Sign up for Al Jazeera's

Enter your email

By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy

READ MORE: From illiterate child bride to famous Nigerian novelist

That supremacy strengthened Benin’s position towards the European intruders,

There was, however, a lively intercontinental trade relationship, during which

Resistance to the British

Therefore, when Oba Ovonramwen kept resisting annexation by the British – as

READ MORE: What does it mean to be Nigerian?

“The Oba settles disputes and is a peacemaker. He cannot legally punish

WATCH: George Osodi on the Kings of Nigeria and Boko Haram

Kings are born not made

In front of a student dormitory on the University of Benin campus, 20-year-old

Under normal circumstances another representative of the Ogiamien family

According to him, as part of the 13th-century treaty between the warring

Only people who speak the old Bini will

What do the symbols on your banners stand for? “That’s a secret.”

We know our history and tell it to our

Sociology and anthropology professor Kokunre Agbontaen Eghafona at the Uni-

MORE FROM FEATURES

To survive Pakistan’s COVID pandemic,

‘Trapped’: The American women and girls

2020: The year a pandemic collided with

Another new COVID strain found in

Syria’s air defences ‘intercept barrage of

© 2020 Al Jazeera Media Network

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