By NAIWU OSAHON & ANTHONY ELIKENE
Oba Ovonramwen (1888 – 1914 CE.) Oba
Ovonramwen Nogbaisi was on the throne during the British invasion of Benin City
in 1897. To prepare the grounds before the invasion, the British first sneaked
military spies into Benin, to infiltrate the nation’s security system during
the Igue festival, a period of acute spiritual sensitivity for Edo people, when
their monarch goes into seclusion for two weeks for spiritual cleansing and
cannot receive visitors.
The spies were eliminated for their
hostile acts. The British then sent a delegation to Benin in March 1892. The
delegation was led by Capt. Henry L. Gallwey, the Vice Consul for the Benin
River District of the Niger Coast Protectorate, supposedly to conclude a Treaty
of Protection with Oba Ovonramwen of Benin.
The British had deceived King Dosumu
of Lagos to sign a similar treaty that ceded Lagos to the British in 1861. They
forced the same kind of treaty on the Jaja of Opopo in 1887 to gain access and
economic control of the eastern coast of Nigeria. Quoting Capt. Henry Gallwey,
who after retirement became Sir Henry Gallwey, in a report on the 1892 visit to
Benin, for the Journal of the African Society of April 1930, under the title:
Nigeria in the (Eighteen) Nineties, he wrote in part: “Any idea I may have had
of being received by the king the day I arrived was very soon dispelled. After
being kept waiting for three days, I sent word to say that I could wait no
longer.
To support my threat, every
half-hour, I sent a carrier away with a load I did not require, telling them
where to wait for me. This artifice rather worried the king, and he sent word
to me asking me “not to be vexed,” as my interpreters put it. However, that
afternoon, it was arranged for me to have audience with the king. I accordingly
donned my uniform and sallied out with my companions into the burning heat of the
afternoon, a most unreasonable time of day at which to hold a palaver. I am
afraid, however, that the kings of Benin were never renowned for their
reasonable natures. In spite of these pinpricks, it was all very interesting
and amusing, and I never gave a thought to the discomfort of being encased in a
dress intended to be won at levees and such functions in temperate climes…….”
After attempting to compromise the
nation’s security earlier on, the British delegation could not be received by
the Oba of Benin immediately they arrived because of the need to check out
their real mission. When the Oba signaled readiness to receive the delegates,
they were in “encased dress intended to be worn at levees,” to the palace. In
other words, they were in military uniform to the palace of an Oba who was
weary of visits of Europeans. After the incidence of the Dutchman, Commandant
Willem Hogg, who pulled a pistol and shot at Oba Oresoyen in 1735, while on a
courtesy visit to the palace to discuss business matters with the Oba and his
chiefs, Benin Obas became a little more careful about granting direct audience
to European visitors.
This is the genesis of the
difficulties experienced by Capt. Gallwey while trying to have audience with
the Oba in 1892. At the palace, the disposition and mannerisms of the visitors
had to be carefully studied before the Oba could receive them, since they were
in military uniform. Capt. Gallwey said the Oba was “unreasonable” and then
generalized “… as all Benin Obas are wont to be.” He had made up his mind
before the visit and was looking for excuses to set up Benin kingdom for
British invasion.
To emphasize that Benin was a
special case to crack, the British rushed to force treaties on neighbouring
territories. They attacked the Nana of Itsekiri, in their ‘palm oil war’ in
1894 and exiled Nana to Ghana; attacked the Koko of Nembe in 1895, and the
Ashanti Prempeh of Ashanti in 1896, to produce duress inspired spurious
treaties to take control of the kings' respective areas of influence.
The British accused Oba Ovonramwen
of lack of cooperation, and to look good in the eyes of the rest of the world,
added “human sacrifice,” as their reasons for launching their full-scale war on
Benin in January 1897. The real reason for the British Expedition was that the
British viewed the Benin kingdom as the main obstacle in their expansion drive
into the agricultural interior of the West African coast from the River Niger.
The war lasted for eight days from
January to early February 1897, and went in their favour because of their big
guns and cannons, which the Edo army did not have. After capturing the ancient
city of Benin and slaughtering thousands of the natives in cold blood, to
grossly depopulate the city, and the few survivors had escaped to farms and villages,
the British ransacked the palace of the Oba, homes of nobles and chiefs,
artistes' workshops, and shrines, to rescue “pagan art” and relieve Benin of
the “evil.” Then the British burnt the entire city down to the last house.
Akin Adeoya in the Sunday Guardian
of March 29, 2009, wrote: “There was a great kingdom of Benin that lasted for
centuries with a highly stable administration and a civilization that built
great highways and produced works of such great significance that the British
who invaded and ultimately defeated the Ovonramwen’s gallant forces, nearly
went mad with envy that not all their Christian piety or civility could help
them resist the urge to steal these works of art, which their own civilization
could not rival. These works of art, till today, still grace the shrines of the
British Empire and civilization, the British Museum.”
The palace of the Oba of Benin,
according to Joshua Utzheimer, 1603, was about the size of the German City of
Tubingen.” This was razed down by fire by the British invading force, claiming
to be on a civilizing mission. Is razing cities after the surviving few victims
of their assault have surrendered, not the epitome of barbarism? Can any thing
be more callous than this? Oba Ovonramwen who could not be captured but who
surrendered to the British in August, 1897, was exiled to Calabar (in
south-east Nigeria) where he died in January, 1914.
From accounts of members of the
British army that invaded Benin City in 1897, we learn that the floors,
lintels, and rafters of the council chambers and the king’s residence in the
palace were lined with sheets of repoussé, decorated brass covered with royal
geometric designs and figures of men and leopards. Ornamental ivory locks
sealed the doors and carved ivory figurines surmounted anterior. A brass snake,
observed for the first time by a European in the early eighteenth century, was
still to be seen on the roof of the council chamber house.
All of these, along with other
invaluables, including precious works of arts, the invading British stole in
the name of their king and country. What they could not steal or burn, they
destroyed, including invaluable records of the Bini scintillating civilization,
to allow their historians to falsify human history and African contributions.
According to Prof. Akin Ibidapo-Obe
in: A Synthesis of African law, “the British stripped Benin of its pagan art
treasure…..almost 2,500 of the famous Benin bronzes, valuable works of art such
as the magnificent carved doors in the palace, were carried off to Europe for
sale. Today, almost every museum of the world possesses an art treasure from
Benin. It is important to relate the account of British brigandage and
deliberate and wanton stealing of Africa’s invaluable art treasures to show
that our culture was great and was envied.
The tradition and way of life that
spawned such great achievement was deliberately destroyed and history was
falsified to justify the introduction of their obnoxious laws, some of which
purported to forbid our traditional religion.”
This is how Prof. Felix Van Luschan,
a former official of the Berlin Museum for Volkerhunde, described what the
British deviously called Pagan art of Benin; “these works from Benin are equal
to the very finest examples of European casting technique. Benvenuto Celini
could not have cast them better, nor could any one else before or after him.
Technically, these Bronzes represent the very highest possible achievement.”
Only a highly civilized nation could have borne the expenditure and facilities
of such marvelous works of art, some of the best masterpieces in the history of
mankind.
When the Nigerian government
requested to loan a replica of the Idia Ivory mask for use during the 2nd World
Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) held in 1977 in Lagos,
Nigeria, from the British Museum of Mankind, the British authorities insisted
on the Nigerian government depositing a sum of three million dollars before
collecting the loaned copy. A 17th century Benin bronze head (nine inches high)
stolen from the palace of Oba Ovonramwen, by the British invaders in 1897, was
auctioned by Sotheby, New York, for US$550,000 in July, 2007.
Despite the British abuse of Edo
culture and marginalization of Edo history, the splendour of Edo civilization
continues to this day to astound and excite the world. Benin artifacts are
among the most exquisite and coveted in world’s history, and the kingdom of
Benin remains famous for its sophistication in social engineering and
organization. The Bini Obaship institution is still one of the world’s most
revered apart from being one of the most ancient.
Edo was incorporated into what the
British called the Niger Coast Protectorate, later known as the Southern
Protectorate, and after annexing Arochukwu (Igboland) in 1902, and Hausa Fulani
emirates in 1903, merged what they called Southern and Northern Protectorates
in 1914 to form what in now Nigeria.
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