The Benin plaque as actual document, and as cinema.

Though the saying of the ancient Edo that ‘War is not beautiful’ has survived to date, the Edo Benin plaques are curiously in a contrary, even singular obsession with war and artefacts of war. In the plaque here is a narrative of the end of a successful war, with the king as warrior-king. This plaque would have been critically produced perhaps at the news of the crier/announcer, meaning ahead of the king's victorious return. 

The economy of Benin plaques' interest in war was largely as courtly objects -- as the beautiful depiction of events -- and how these provided livelihood for the guilds (which were not only ancient but remained within generations of artisan Edo-speaking families). More importantly however,  in their proper roles as documents and documentation of history in real time, where history was about the upkeep of the mystery and power of the king (and consequently the Edo Benin themselves, since the king represents the lineage of the race). Each plaque is collective marker often of a particular time, place, events and so on, that not only stores that memory but as well may be used as if 'cinema' to dramatically narrate a scene with the proper effects pertaining to motion images: action, purpose and declaration. 

Often times, the plaques are real, live documentations of actual historical events as they happen with the metal and bronze sculptor guilds quite able to produce real time capsules of present, contemporary events of their day, and capturing, for all time, dramatizations that would have been awe-inspiring to their audience.

In this plaque, for example, the king is represented as the warrior king, he is unusually dramatic in this role as evident in the 3-d nature of the 2-d plane and medium upon which the sculptor tells the story. From this, we can discern that the king here is likely Oba Ozolua, and subsequently, using oral history alongside the plaques, place any other notable character/s easily into place. There would have been (and still are to date), within the different departments in the place, learned elders able to point out exactly why and how this figure is Ozolua. 

Oba Ozolua, whose title was Oba Ozolua n'Ibaromi (King Ozolua the Conqueror), was a rare case, post-Ewuare the Great, of the king as active warrior. In this narrative, which I am stating here is a cinema of sorts, Oba Ozolua the warrior king holds an enemy combatant-captain, who has a sword already shot straight through him, and declares victory. 

The warrior (or the king himself) stands upright, his legs astride in a rare, wonderful 3/4 profile, which is heavily detailed with recurring Benin motifs. 

The figures surrounding the king/warrior-as-king are placed on a shared plane but at varying heights to show distance, and consist of an announcer with his trumpet, a medicine priest (he holds his bag of ancestral medicinal talisma and charms, including medicines), a foot man and at the far, solitary end, a courtly jockey who handles the king’s horse.

Alongside the king, at far lesser height to the king's, is a knight or a warrior enogie in combat armour. This figure is likely Ozolua trusted friend Laisolobi, who ultimately betrayed the king in order to free his exhausted soldiers. It is said that Ozolua, who was never the Edaiken ('prince in waiting') desired to be king at all costs supposedly over a promise he made to himself that he'll surpass his father's Oba Ewuare the Great's expansion of the kingdom. This Ozolua purportedly did, adding 200 settlements within a terrifically short and very bloody time to the 201 of Oba Ewuare, which took much planning and diplomacy.

Unlike his father who used treaties and diplomacy, such as sending his son Prince Ado to the Aworis, Ozolua's conquering successes were too violent (i.e. by war) to make for very happy new citizens of the empire.

It was likely during Ozolua' s time that the Edo saying (in the Edo language, which we will soon add here) of 'War is not beautiful' became popular. After Ozolua's death at the hands of his right hand man, Laisolobi, a new saying of 'May We Never Have a King (as mad about war) as Ozolua' became another favourite at libations. 

Possible date: circa 1200s-1400s, Benin Empire. 

Part of the British looted #BeninBronzes of 1897, Benin City 

Location: possibly the British Museum