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A Reconsideration of the Ife-Benin Relationship1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

A. F. C. Ryder
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Extract

The traditions now current among the Edo of Nigeria trace the origin of the Benin dynasty and the associated cire-perdue technique of brass-casting to Ife. Some of the information recorded by European visitors to Benin since the fifteenth century is not easily reconcilable with this tradition. Material evidence, especially that contained in the Benin bronzes, and the results of archaeological investigation have also raised difficulties. It is suggested that many conflicts in the evidence could be resolved by adopting a hypothesis which would ascribe a more northerly origin to the dynasty. The Nupe-Igala area straddling the confluence of the Niger and Benue emerges as the key area in such a reconstruction of Benin dynastic affiliations. The Yoruba States would seem to be related to the same general complex, but the chronology and direction of dynastic movements still remain obscure, and the seemingly fixed points of reference become far less certain when placed in context.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 1965 , pp. 25 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

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References

2 The best traditional account of Benin history is that of Chief Egharevba, J. U., A Short History of Benin (third edition, Ibadan, 1960).Google Scholar

3 Royal Gold Coast Gazette. vol. I, no. 21, Tuesday, 25 March 1823, 73–4.Google Scholar

4 Cf. Dupuis, J., Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (London, 1824), xliii.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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6 E.g. Duarte Pacheco Pereira gave a reasonably accurate rendering of the name Ijebu (ho Geebuu) and of its ruler the Awujale (Agusale) in Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, written c. 1506.

7 de Barros, J., Da Asia (Lisbon, 1552), decada I, livro III, cap. iv.Google Scholar

8 This has been the general assumption. Cf. Bradbury, R. E., The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-speaking peoples of south-western Nigeria (London, 1957), 20.Google Scholar

9 Okojie, C. O., Ishan Native Laws and Customs (Yaba, n.d.), 210.Google Scholar It must also be remembered that, in questioning the Benin envoy, the King of Portugal was seeking a link between Benin and the land of Prester John, which maps then available represented as being some 250 leagues apart.

10 In a personal communication, Dr R. E. Bradbury points out that ‘the Edo speak of the messengers who carried the Oba's remains to Ife taking about three years over the journey. It was not only the length of stay at Ife that counted, but the ritual progression itself from site to site along the route which the first Oba is supposed to have followed.’

11 Ward-Price, H. L., Dark Subjects (London, 1939), 238.Google Scholar

12 I am indebted for this information about the Benin concept of direction to Dr Bradbury, who also points out that the quickest way to the sea from Benin is more or less due west.

13 For example, in the seventeenth century the Dutch were told that much cloth sold in Benin came from a place named ‘Koffo, one day's journey east of Benin’ (Dapper, O., Naukerige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Gewesten (Amsterdam, 1668), 500). Most probably the reference is to the distant Nupe town of Kulfo, to the north-west.Google Scholar

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19 In the opinion of William Fagg, the stylistic homogeneity of Ife art suggests that it flourished for no more than one or two centuries. Fagg, W., Nigerian Images (London, 1963), 28.Google Scholar

20 See also pp. 34–5 below.

21 The term ‘bronze’ is here used to describe objects which are sometimes referred to as ‘brasses’. Very little work has been done to ascertain the precise composition of the metals employed in objects found at Benin and Ife.

22 Ref. Clarke, J. D., ‘The Stone Figures of Esie’, Nigeria, no. 14 (1938); K. C. Murray, ‘The Stone Images of Esie and their Yearly Festival’, Nigeria, no. 37 (1951).Google Scholar

23 Among the variations on the name which appear in Portuguese documents of the early sixteenth century are—Benym, Benim, Bynym, and Beny. The final m indicates a nasalization of the preceding vowel. Usually the name was preceded by the Portuguese definite article ‘o’, which is pronounced like the ‘oo’ in ‘food’.

24 In Dapper, O., Naukerige Beschnjvinge der Afrikaensche Gewesten (Amsterdam 1668), 495. The information upon which Dapper based his description of Benin was gathered in the 1640s.Google Scholar

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34 Cf. Temple, O. (ed. Temple, C. L.), Notes on the tribes, provinces, emirates and states of the northern provinces of Nigeria (Lagos, 1922), 455.Google Scholar

35 The Tada figure is well illustrated in Nigeria Magazine, no. 73, June 1962, 59.Google Scholar

36 de Barros, J., Da Asia, decada I, libro III, cap. iv.Google Scholar Bronzes of this kind are illustrated in von Luschan, F., Altertümer von Benin, vol. III, plates 68 and 84.Google Scholar

37 Temple, , Notes on the tribes …, 334; Nadel, A Black Byzantium, 22, note I.Google Scholar

38 Part of a terracotta head bearing similar facial markings has been excavated at Ife (illustrated in The Art of Ife, Lagos, 1955, 4), but this single piece does not suffice to establish the ‘cat's whisker’ as an Ife mark; rather the contrary.Google Scholar

39 Personal communication from Dr Bradbury, who suggests that the same markings might be found among other peoples of the Niger-Benue confluence.

40 Johnson, S., The History of the Yorubas (London, 1927), 144 and 155.Google Scholar It is interesting to note that this work, regarded as the standard version of Yoruba tradition, makes no mention of Oranmiyan's visit to Benin.

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42 The bronze figures of Jebba and Tada are traditionally associated with Tsoede.

43 Other Igala traditions derive their dynasty from a Yoruba kingdom around the Middle Niger and from Benin. Possibly Yoruba, Jukun, and Benin all influenced the Igala at different periods. There is strong support in both Igala and Benin tradition for a close relationship between the two dynasties. Ref. ‘Notes on the Origin of the Igala’ by Boston, J., Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, vol. II, no. 3.Google Scholar

44 Ref. Meek, C. K., A Sudanese Kingdom (London, 1931), 123, 156, 161.Google Scholar

45 Ref. Talbot, P. A., The Peoples of Southern Nigeria (Oxford, 1926), vol. 1, 29.Google Scholar

46 Egharevba, , A Short History of Benin, 14–18.Google Scholar

47 Cf. Bradbury, R. E., ‘Chronological problems in the study of Benin history’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, vol. I, no. 4.Google Scholar

48 Egharevba, , A Short History of Bernn, 28–9.Google Scholar For the Igala traditions concerning this war, ref. Boston, J., ‘Notes on the Origin of the Igala’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, vol. II, no. 3. There is a substantial area of agreement between the two bodies of tradition.Google Scholar

49 Historical notes on the Yoruba country and its tribes (Lagos, 1895?), 28. The original Ile-Ife founded by Oranmiyan had, he says, two sections named Owara and Mefun.Google Scholar

50 Bowen, T. J., Adventures and missionary labours in several countries in the interior of Africa (Charleston, 1857), 265. It has already been suggested in relation to Benin tradition that such references to the sea may refer to the great rivers of the interior.Google Scholar