Architecture of Unforgetting

The Benin State, History and Art. As early as January 1897 a name was already being suggested in England for what the British hoped would be their final take over what they termed the ‘Oil Rivers’. The name was ‘Nigeria’ and the Oil Rivers Protectorate was after the palm oil laden lands of Niger Delta belonging principally to the Benin Kingdom. The Oba of Benin held great influence and prevented the British ‘Royal Niger Company’ from forming a monopoly in the region. Since the so-called ‘scramble for Africa’ of 1884, Benin was a target for the colonial efforts of Britain. By the following February the British would invade the administrative center of the kingdom, Benin City, on the pretext of retaliation over the ambush of an ‘unarmed and friendly’ visit, and on February 18 1897 set the city on fire, burning as much as they could and looting works of arts and sacred documents and courtly objects directly from the palace of the Oba of Benin in the ancient city Benin City. Shortly after,...

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 k...

EXCERPTS OF AN ADDRESS GIVEN APRIL 29 2022 BY THE BENIN MONARCH OBA EWUARE II DURING A VISIT TO PRESIDENT BUHARI, ABUJA NIGERIA Purpose: To thank the president over his support and encouragement regarding the return of 2 items of the stolen Benin artefacts from foreign countries and to present to the president members of the board of the upcoming Benin Royal Museum. Excerpts: His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, President and Commander-In-Chief Of The Armed Forces Of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria First of all, we must thank the Almighty God and our ancestors for making this thank-you visit to our dear President possible today, after previous attempts proved unsuccessful, due to Your Excellency’s very busy schedule. As they say God’s time is the best, Mr. President, for finding time to receive us now despite your very tight schedule, we say thank you immensely. Mr. President, sir I bring warm greetings from the Benin Royal Family, the Benin Traditional Institution and the good peo...

Judging from the British Museum’s page, the primary purpose for the #EMOWAA project is continued colonial custody of repatriated Benin artefacts, and the custody as well of any archeological excavations in Benin, which they the British, in the name of the said proposed ‘EMOWAA’, intend on taking as on as some kind of inventory, thus continuing Britain’s legacy of looting by another name.  We are asking @governorobaseki to be clear and transparent on this difference, by which we mean, what exactly is intended for his proposed ‘EMOWAA’.  Clearly, the Oba’s Benin Royal Museum and this British Museum’s ‘emowaa’ are not the same proposal. Yet, the governor keeps failing to state exactly as much.  The 1897 artefacts do not belong to the Edo State government nor to the federation of Nigeria but rather to the spiritual and ancestral heritage of the Benin People, through the ancestral and legitimate representative of the Benin people, the Oba of Benin.  The artefacts from 189...

  ESIGIE, THE SCULPTOR KING  Image:  Commemorative Head, 1500s, Benin City Material: Bronze, Iron Igun  Eronmwon Guild  Benin City Current Location: British Museum One of the thousands of looted #BeninBronzes hidden from view in storage at the British Museum. This Commemorative Head, currently not on display at the British Museum, was stolen by Felix Roth from the palace at Benin City and later sold by his brother Henry Ling Roth. The former Roth served as ‘Advance Surgeon’ during the British invasion of Benin City, 1897, while the later Rother, published, right after, the infamous work of British propaganda, ‘Great Benin; Its Customs, Art and Horrors’ in 1903. Henry Roth would then sell this stolen Commemorative Head of Oba Esigie to the British Museum.  Interesting to note both the  damage to the vertical forehead marks and the quite visible dents to face, which may have occurred during the raiding, burning and looting of the palace. *comingsoon

Caption translation:   Fig. 18. Benin artist molding a group of Europeans. Photographer:     Erdmann. 1897. Text:  “Due to a particularly happy stroke of luck Mr. Erdmann himself was even able to photograph a modern Benin artist at work in 1897.  The instructive photograph is reproduced here in Fig. 18.  Similarly large reliefs appear very often in Benin serving the purpose of decorating the inner rooms; […].” (von Luschan,  Die Altertümer von Benin;   p. 26) 1897 and Erdmann the German The German foray in Africa is known for its genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples in Germany’s attempt to erase them from the face of the earth. On our West African coastline however, accounts of Germans are scant, as we all know, though not so scant as we may believe, especially as some of the surviving and earliest European accounts appear to have been written by German visitors and/or traders on the West African coastline. It would seem that on our c...

The Ugly Warrior who saw the nymph Agbagbon with his naked eye, the punishment of Oboro-Uku and how the abduction of Adesuwa caused a war… The Esigie ban on the sale of humans was fully effective as early as 1516 for both genders. However in the mid to late 1700s, during the reign of Oba Akengbuda, the kingdom suddenly allowed itself to participate in a trade that Esigie had decreed forbidden. Why?  Let us recall firstly that the 1700s was the zenith of the European Slave Trade on the West African coastline and that, for much of the up and coming merchant European class, the sale of Africans was one of the most profitable and colony expanding enterprise. Whereas for the so-called ’Great Benin’ mentioned in pre-1600s texts, in adhering to its beloved king’s century old ban on the trade, experienced rapidly receding boundaries with the advent of slaving European traders stationed all around the outskirts of its fast shrinking empire.  Why then did the reclusive kingdom, refusing...