|
"These
Negroes…are people who have good laws and a well-organized police;
who live on good terms with the Dutch and other foreigners who come to
trade among them, and to whom they show a thousand marks of
friendship." Olfert Dapper, a Dutchman in 1622.1
The Kingdom of Benin
probably originated in the 13th century and lasted until the end of the
19th.
Government:
The nation of Benin
was an absolute monarchy, yet, because of tradition, the king allowed his
royal counselors and lower ranking government officials to make the
majority of the decisions. The king gave the chief’s of Benin
administrative responsibilities and high-ranking positions in the
government.
The king's duties were
considered greater than those of the natural world: his time was
consumed with countless religious ceremonies, sacrifices, and his one
hundred wives. He was considered
divine, and anyone who said otherwise was executed as a heretic.
Religion:
The religious life of Benin
was manifest. Once a month human
sacrifices, usually slaves and war captives, were offered to the devil
who was blamed for all problems.
The victims rarely struggled and many actually volunteered.
Nation and
architecture:
Benin had advanced architecture that included a
palace with at least four stories,2
large city walls, and earthworks that have earned a place in the
Guinness book of records.3
In the
late 16th century, the Hollander Dierick Ruyters wrote that the capital
of Benin was, "very great when you go into it (for) you
enter a great broad street, not paved, which seems to be seven or eight
times broader than the Warmoes street in Amsterdam; it goes straight in
and never bends." He
described his lodgings as, "at least a quarter of an hours going
from the gate, and yet I could still not see to the end of the
street." The houses "stand
in good order, one close and even beside the other as the houses in Holland stand. Those belonging to men of quality and
others have two or three steps to go up, and along the front of them
there is a kind of gallery where you may sit…The king's court is very
big, having within it many wide squares with galleries round them
where watch is always kept. I
went so far within these buildings that I passed through four such
squares, and wherever I looked I still saw gate after gate which opened
into other places."4
Top
Olfert Dapper wrote the king’s palace, "occupies as much
space as the town of Haarlem
and is enclosed within walls.
There are numerous apartments for the Prince's ministers, and fine
galleries most of which are as big as those on the Exchange at Amsterdam. They are supported by wooden
pillars encased with bronze, where their victories are depicted,
and which are carefully kept very clean."5
Benin’s city walls were built in the middle of the
15th century, before any European or Arab contact. The walls were 17.4 meters high and
11.6 kilometers in circumference. According to University of New
England Historian Graham Connah
construction would have taken 5000 men working 10hrs a day to complete
in one dry season.6 Medieval
Benin
also left a unique connection of Earthworks that covers an estimated
area of 16,000km; such an achievement would have needed 150,000,000hrs
of work over several centuries.
These Earthworks are so vast they have even earned a spot in the
Guinness book of records.7
International Trade:
Benin, Oxford historian John Iliffe tells us, had a, “high degree of
state involvement in foreign trade which the Portuguese found when they
arrived in 1486.”8
The Dutch mostly
purchased, "striped cotton garments which are retailed on the Gold
Coast, and blue cloths which are sold on the rivers of Gabon and
Angola, jasper stones, leopard skins, pepper," and a few,
"female slaves, for they refuse to sell men."[9] Dapper complained that they had to,
"bargain as hard as they can, sometimes for whole months."
Art:
Benin has gained much fame for its medieval
sculptures. “The regime,” Iliffe
notes, “patronized the brass workers who cast Benin’s famous royal heads
and other magnificent sculptures.”10
The Heritage
of World Civilizations, a book compiled by Harvard and Yale
historian, proclaimed, "Certainly the splendid terra-cotta, ivory,
and brass statuary sculpture of Ife-Benin are among the glories of
human creativity. These magnificent sculptures, initially
realistic or naturalistic and later sometimes highly stylized, seem to
be wholly indigenous African products.
Their artistic and technical lineage is today often traced by
scholars to the sculptures of the Nok culture of ancient West Africa."11
The Fall of Benin:
War was a way of life in Benin. Its military is believed to have had
around 100,000 soldiers. War was
used for expansion and the accusation of booty. As the slave trade escalated wars and
raids were used for acquiring slaves to sell to slave merchants. Soon, the slave trade was bringing in
so much money it supersedes the other economic functions of the
kingdom. The successful economic
functions of the past were set aside for the quick and easy wealth of
the slave trade. When the slave
trade ended, Benin
was left in ruins. The King of
Benin, believing his problem was the work of the devil, ordered more
human sacrifices. In 1897, a
British troop found the once great city devastated and nearly
abandoned. Commander Bacon in 1897 recorded: "Truly has Benin
called the city of blood. In the
earlier part of this century, when it was the center of the slave
trade, human suffering must her have reached its most acute form; but
it is doubtful if even then the wanton sacrifice of life could have
exceeded that of more recent times." This was obviously a far cry from the
organized and wealthy kingdom that awed the Portuguese several
centuries earlier.12
Top
|