Benin

Who rules

Name

Not pinned. In the court tradition dated by Egharevba, Oranmiyan of Ife came about 1170 and left, and his son Eweka (Eweka I) is made king about 1200, so on 1 January 1200 the boy is on the point of accession or newly installed. In most other datings the kingdom is still in the interregnum after the last ogiso, Owodo: the elders' council governs and the house of Evian and his son Ogiamwen holds the old palace (Bondarenko and Roese put the interregnum in the second half of the twelfth century and the new dynasty in the early thirteenth; Bradbury about 1300; Freyer and Mowat the late fourteenth century; Darling about 1450).

Title

The kingship of the Edo at Benin City (the later title oba; the old title ogiso, 'ruler of the sky')

Since

not pinned

Family

The second (Oba) dynasty claims descent from Oranmiyan of Ife; the first dynasty of the ogiso ended with Owodo

Confidence

low

Egharevba, A Short History of Benin; Seshat's summary of the datings; Bondarenko and Roese (2001)

Overlord

None. The court tradition gives Ife a ritual claim (the new dynasty's founder came from Ife and the heads of dead kings were later sent to Ife for burial, a practice of later centuries).

What the realm holds

• Benin City and the villages near it
• a loose primacy over the Bini village chiefdoms of the forest
• a contested primacy over Udo

How it was acquired

The kingship descends from the ogiso in tradition; the change of dynasty is the matter of this winter or of later generations, depending on the chronology.

Allies and rivals

Ife, the source of the new dynasty in tradition. Udo, Benin's 'most violent rival for many centuries' (Bondarenko and Roese). The house of Ogiamwen, which resisted Oranmiyan and in Egharevba still held its ground in the city until Oba Ewedo took the palace site from Ogiamwen Irebor about 1255. Owo and the Yoruba towns to the north-west; the Edo-speaking chiefdoms to the east and north (later Esan, Owan, Etsako); the Urhobo and Ijaw to the south.

The realm that morning

The ruler of 1 January 1200 is not pinned (see holder). The elders hold the real power in every version. Udo is not known to obey Benin. No war is attested that winter.

Wealth

Farming of yams in the forest clearings, oil palm, kola, iron working; local markets; river trade by the creeks to the coast through Ughoton. Long-distance trade in this period is not attested; the brass casting guild is brought from Ife only under Oguola in the tradition (about 1280).

Military

No army is described for 1200: levies of the villages under their chiefs. Earthworks protected village territories rather than the city.

Threats

• A disputed succession between the Oranmiyan line and Ogiamwen's house
• Udo's rivalry
• The elders' power to refuse a king

Ruler and court

In Egharevba's version for about 1200: the boy Eweka, son of Oranmiyan and Erinmwinde, guided by his maternal grandfather, the ruler (ogie) of Ego, and by the elders who had invited his father; his residence at Usama, outside the old palace. Wives and children: none attested for 1200. In the interregnum version: the elders' council (Edionevbo) led by the Oliha, with Ogiamwen's house administering.

Ministers and officers

The council of hereditary elders (Edionevbo; the later Uzama), led by the Oliha, with the Edohen, Ero, Eholo-Nire and Oloton among the original members in the later tradition (the Ezomo and the crown prince's title Edaiken are later additions). The earth priest (Ogifa). The Ogiamwen, heir of Evian, as 'owner of the land' in the city. The Iyase and the town and palace associations are later creations (tradition gives many to Ewedo and Ewuare).

Great families

The house of Evian and Ogiamwen (see the lord record); the families of the elders; the ruler of Ego, Eweka's maternal grandfather; the ruling family of Udo.

Towns and castles

Benin City (not yet with its great moats); Udo (rival town with its own wall and ditch); Ego (Egor), Eweka's mother's home; Ughoton (Gwato), the river landing to the south-west; Usama, Oranmiyan's seat. Village territories enclosed by earth banks across the forest.

Religion

The Edo cults of the high god Osanobua, of Olokun (the sea and wealth), of the ancestors and of the earth (through the Ogifa).

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. about 1200 (Egharevba's date, a round reconstruction)Eweka, son of Oranmiyan, is installed as the first Oba by the elders and reigns until about 1235.Depends on: The elders' agreement and Ogiamwen's house yielding or being outvoted; Egharevba's chronology being right. Stopped by: The elders refusing the boy, Ogiamwen's resistance succeeding, or a later chronology (Bradbury, Darling, Freyer and Mowat) in which the interregnum continues for generations.
2. thirteenth century (not 1200)Eweka's successors at Usama; Ewedo moves into the city and breaks Ogiamwen's hold (about 1255 in Egharevba); Oguola digs the inner moat and brings brass casters from Ife (about 1280).Depends on: The Oranmiyan line holding the throne. Stopped by: Udo or Ogiamwen prevailing.

Places of note

• Usama: Oranmiyan's seat in the tradition and the first residence of the Oba line, on the north-west side of the old city.
• Ego (Egor): Home of Erinmwinde and her father, Eweka's maternal grandfather; now a district of Benin City.

Where the sources disagree

• Wikipedia's Kingdom of Benin gives Eweka I 1180-1246 in the infobox and about 1200-1235 in the text; Egharevba's own reckoning is about 1200 for the accession.
• A Benin palace tradition first recorded in the 1970s makes Oduduwa himself the banished ogiso prince Ekaladerhan, so that the second dynasty would be Edo after all; it is a late claim and is not followed here.
• Seshat lists the dates offered for the start of the Oba dynasty: about 1200 (Egharevba), about 1300 (Bradbury), about 1450 (Darling), late fourteenth century (Freyer and Mowat), 1140-1170 for Eweka (Struck), about 1300 for Oranmiyan (Talbot); Bondarenko thinks 1200-1250 most likely.

Evidence: Court tradition written down from 1934, with no contemporary record before the Portuguese (1480s); Connah's and Darling's archaeology of the earthworks and the city gives a frame but no names.

On the map: The kingship's real reach in 1200 is small; the wider Bini forest is drawn as a province under Benin's claim, Udo as a rival town.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Ife, Benin, Nri, the Yoruba towns and the Akan: archaeology and recorded tradition (no contemporary text; traditions written down from the 1890s). No text of any kind exists for the forest belt in 1200.