Human world
Follow the links in the navigation panel to see some of the Edo Kingdom collection.
'Edo ore isi agbon' - Edo is the cradle of the world.
Prince Enawekponmwen Basimi Eweka, 1992
Benin City is the centre of the Edo kingdom. The ‘Oba’ of Benin is the political and spiritual head of the kingdom whose dynasty dates back to at least the 14th century.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to encounter the expanding Edo kingdom at the end of the 15th century. They viewed it as a sovereign state comparable to their own. Later, the Dutch, British and French also traded with Benin for pepper, cloth, ivory, gum arabic, palm oil and slaves.
Oba, Ovonramwen. Photograph by the Ibani Ijo photographer J A Green. From the Howie photo album in the archives of the Merseyside Maritime Museum
Towards the end of the 19th century, the British saw the Edo kingdom as an obstruction to their colonial expansion and their increased need for palm oil. After British emissaries were killed on their way to Benin City in 1897, Britain sent a ‘punitive expedition’ to take over the Edo kingdom.
The reigning Oba, Ovonramwen, was deposed. This photograph shows him with guards on board ship on his way to exile in Calabar in 1897. The unusual gown he is wearing hides his shackles. Bronze, brass, ivory and wood artworks - never seen before in the West – were removed from his palace and sold in London to help pay the costs of the expedition.
Sculptures taken by the British from Benin palace altars dedicated to royal ancestors in 1897 were bought by European museums. In their realism and skill in casting, they were compared with the art of the European Renaissance. But this did not immediately change 19th century ideas about West Africa as ‘primitive’ because most scholars explained these qualities as the result of Portuguese or Egyptian influence. Today, royal Edo arts are recognised as indigenous and regarded as a major world art tradition.
Many different peoples live in the diverse environments of Southeast Nigeria including:
Trade routes have linked these peoples for centuries. During the 18th and 19th centuries the trade with Europeans in slaves and then palm oil enabled Ijo and other Delta peoples to found the ‘city states’ of Brass, Nembe, New Calabar and Bonny.
In pre-colonial times, political power in Southeast Nigeria was exercised in a variety of different ways, often across cultural boundaries. For example:
‘Secret societies’ commissioned and maintained wooden sculptures in sacred shrines in honour of the spirits. They also performed periodic masquerades to invoke powerful spirits for the benefit of the community and to maintain law and order