How the British Looted Benin City in 1897
Benin City was once one of the wealthiest and most well-planned cities in West Africa. It boasted a royal palace occupying about a third of the entire city, a network of streets adorned with enormous metal lamps fueled by palm oil, defensive walls, and an intricate underground drainage system. Before the British looted the city in 1897, stripping it of its prestige and autonomy and stealing thousands of precious ceremonial objectsfrom ivory altars and royal commemorative heads to brass armlets, carved ivory pendants, and ceremonial swordsBenin City was a cultural and economic center and a prime example of African artisanship and self-government.Before the BritishThe Monument of the Discoveries, on the northern bank of the Tagus River, in Lisbon, photograph by Sergio GuardiolaHerrador. Source: UnsplashIn 1897, the British arrived in Benin City. As they marched past its high walls, they foundand proceeded to loot and destroya thriving and rich capital, said to be one of the oldest, best-planned, and richest cities in West Africa.Benin is probably a Portuguese corruption of the Edo word Ubini, and the name by which the Edo people, and the kingdom they established in West Africa, became known to Europeans. In the 1200s CE, the Edo people were unhappy with their ogisos, the rulers of the sky, a semi-mythical dynasty of kings and queens who had ruled over the people of Western Africa since at least the 10th century. They set out to found a city in the tropical rainforest region of West Africa, amid trees giving palm oil, raffia palm fibre, and kola nut, on a branch of the Benin River, in what is now Nigeria.Brass statues of King (Oba) and Queen, Edo, 2006. Source: Weltmuseum WienThey invited Prince Oranmiyan from the neighboring West African kingdom of Ife to become their leader, but it was his son, Eweka, who became the first obathe first king of Benin. Edo, as Benin City was originally called, became the capital of the Kingdom of Benin, which eventually metamorphosed into an empire. This happened some two centuries later, under Ewuare the Great, who reigned between 1440 and 1480. He built up a powerful army, modernized Benin City, rebuilt the royal compound, and established a hereditary succession to the throne. It was under his rule that Benin City and the Benin Kingdom flourished.As the city developed and expanded, now equipped with moats and great walls, the role of the oba evolved as well. The king became a mythological figure, something between a magician and a mighty warrior, the object of state cults and human sacrifices, and the center of every form of powerpolitical, spiritual, economic, and judicial.King with two accompanying figures, 16th century, ownership transferred to Nigeria on August 25, 2022. Source: Staatliche Museen zu BerlinOba Ewuare was succeeded by Oba Ozolua and Oba Esigie, who promoted trade in ivory, palm oil, and pepper with the Europeans, especially the Portuguese and the Dutch, but also with Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The empire would never be as large and rich as it was during the reign of Esigies successor, Orhogbua. But with the death of the next king, Oba Ehengbuda, in 1601, the glory days of the Benin Kingdom came to an end.Until the 1800s, when the royal family began to lose control and civil wars broke out, the Benin Kingdom remained one of the most powerful and influential kingdoms in Africa. By the time the British invaded, looted, and burned Benin City, the Benin Kingdom was in decline, its economy plagued by succession disputes.Benin City, One of the Richest Capitals in West AfricaDrawing of Benin City by Italian artist, 1765. Source: Wikimedia CommonsIt seems that the houses in Benin City were separated by walls of red clay. That they had gables, staircases, and internal galleries, that they even had wells to provide their owners with fresh water. Above ground, huge metal lamps, similar to our street lamps and fuelled by palm oil, lined the streets, and stretched like a web of light all around the Obas palace. Deep moats surrounded the city to the north, while massive walls enclosed it to the south.The Portuguese captain Lourenco Pinto visited Benin City in the late 17th century, possibly in 1691, and described it as a city larger than Lisbon, a city that was wealthy and industrious and so well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.Horn Player, 1550-1680, made by an unknown Benin artist at the Court of Benin and seized by the British during the Punitive Expedition of 1897. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkFrom the kings court in the center of Benin City, at least 30 streets ran straight as far as the eye can see. About 120 feet wide, they were intersected by a series of narrower streets. Beneath the citys main streets ran a sophisticated underground drainage system. Another 17th-century visitor, Olfert Dapper (this time Dutch), described the care Benins inhabitants took of their houses and streets. He wrote that they kept the walls separating the rooms of their houses as shiny and smooth by washing and rubbing as any wall in Holland can be made with chalk, and they are like mirrors. The upper storeys are made of the same sort of clay.Cast brass Altar to the Hand (Ikegobo) made to celebrate the iyoba, the mother of the king, late 18th century. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtIt seems that the kings palace, which was looted and destroyed by the British a few centuries later, took up about a third of the entire city. It was richly decorated with ivory altars, magnificent columns, brass heads representing kings and queens (Queen Idia, Oba Esigies, played a key role in the success of her sons military campaigns) and elaborate plaques featuring animals and foreign traders, most of them Portuguese, and celebrating the kings prestige and success not only among his people, but also over the wilderness, the animal world, and foreign powers.Some sources also suggest that the king kept leopards at his court, again a symbol of his greatness and his power as master of the wilderness, which he would parade during the annual cycle of public ceremonies held at the palace and on other important occasions. A 16th-century brass plaque, for example, shows the king proudly holding two leopards and a mudfish belt.British soldiers posing inside the Obas compound during the siege of Benin City, photograph by Reginald Granville, 1897. Source: Wikimedia CommonsWhile power ultimately lay in the hands of the king, the city and the kingdom were administered by different powers. The city lords (or town chiefs) administered the provinces of the kingdom, while the palace lords (or chiefs) were in charge of the court. While the latter inherited their position, the city lords were appointed for their skills. Although the King could and did restrict foreign, especially European, access to the capital, Benin City was a city of commerce and cultural exchange. It was teeming with sculptors, artisans, brass smiths, ivory and wood carvers, all under the direct control of the palace.TradingA Sapi sculptor is said to have carved this ivory spoon as a gift or souvenir for a Portuguese sailor, ca. 1490-1530. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of ArtBy the mid-16th century, the Kingdom of Benin extended from the Niger River delta in the east to modern-day Lagos in the west. Due to its strategic location, it quickly became an important trading partner, as well as an active participant in the slave trade. The Portuguese first arrived in Benin at the end of the 15th century, and for the next four centuries, European cargos could be seen traveling from the coasts of Portugal to the coast of West Africa, carrying goods such as elephant tusks, hunting horns, leopard skins, precious textiles, stone beads, baskets, and ivory salt cellarsthe glorious and elaborate creations of West African craftsmen and artists organized into guilds and overseen by the Oba and the Royal Court of Benin.It was in Benin City that the famous Benin Bronzes saw the light of day. And while some were indeed made of bronze, others were crafted from ivory, wood, and coral. The Oba and Queen Mothers commissioned these elaborate works of art not only to commemorate their royal status and proclaim the kings prestige and military achievements, but also to honor their ancestors and cement their role as a bridge between the kingdoms past and future.Some of the artists employed by the Benin royal court came from what is now Sierra Leone, and others from present-day Ghana. And while many of their names have been lost to time and colonial propaganda, some remain ingrained in the collective memory of a people who have long been marginalized by colonial narratives of Western superiority (and African inferiority).Slave Trade, by John Raphael Smith (1752-1812), 1791. Source: Royal Museums GreenwichOne such craftsman was known as the Master of the Heraldic Ship and lived sometime in the 16th century. One of his ivory saltcellars, consisting of four standing figures clothed in typical Portuguese dress and regalia and shown only from the waist up, is housed in the National Museum of Scotland today. Another ivory saltcellar by the same artist, depicting a group of long-haired Europeans, is displayed in the British Museum. Yet another, finely decorated, depicting four wealthy Portuguese men and their attendants, is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.His creations and those of his fellow craftsmen tell us a story of trade cultural exchange that historians and art critics have described as a kind of pre-globalization, a pre-globalization that still relied heavily on the slave trade, on the suffering and exploitation of thousands of African men, women, and children.The British Arrive, the British DestroyThe Obas compound during the British attack on Benin City, photograph by Reginald Kerr Granville, 1897. Source: Wikimedia CommonsOver the years, the lucrative trading partnership between the Kingdom of Benin and the Europeans benefited not only Benin City, which grew in size and prestige, but also the king himself, who used the wealth generated to enrich his court with goods coming from as far east as India and as far north as Europe. The prosperity of Benin City, its prestige, and the power of the Oba were intertwined and inseparable, as they all depended heavily on long-distance trade.Because of its key strategic position, the Benin Kingdom represented the gateway to the interior, controlling trade between the Europeans and the inland peoples. Since it was the King who authorized who could travel inland, visit Benin City and trade with other African groups, the British came to see this figure as an obstacle. In 1892, they pressured Oba Ovonramwen (1857-1914), also known as Overami, into free trade with British trading companies.Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, the King of Benin, with his wives, Queen Egbe and Queen Aighobahi, and two of his children, Princess Orinmwiame and Prince Uyiekpen, in Calabar, long after the British looting of Benin City, c. 1912. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThe Consul for the Niger Coast Protectorate James Robert Phillips (1863-1897) and Captain Henry Gallwey (1859-1949) were particularly vocal in advocating the removal of Oba Ovonramwen and the British annexation of the Benin Empire. But Ovonramwen, the 35th Oba of the Kingdom of Benin and son of Oba Adolo, didnt give in.In late December 1896, a party of nine British colonial officials, led by James Robert Phillips, set off for Benin City. When King Ovonramwen asked them to delay their visit because of a religious ceremony that was taking place, they ignored his request. On January 4, a group of Edo chiefs ambushed them on the road to Benin City, near the village of Ugbine, and killed them all, including Phillips, along with their African servantsalthough some sources claim that a small number of them managed to escape the massacre. Only two Europeans, two British officers, survived.Six British men surrounded by the statues and tusks they looted in Benin City, photograph by Reginald Kerr Granville, 1897. Source: The British MuseumThe ambush was the casus belli in the history of Benin City. In February, a punitive expedition of 1,200 British troops, including African auxiliary soldiers, led by Sir Harry Rawson, arrived in Benin City. Villages along the route were destroyed. Hundreds of people were killed. When they arrived in Benin City, they set fire to and looted the Obas palace. In little more than a week, the citys fortifications, which had so impressed the Dutch and Portuguese sailors and traders, were destroyed.Between 3,000 and 5,000 ceremonial objects were looted. Hundreds of precious cast brass commemorative heads of kings and queens, brass plaques and armlets, brass bells, carved boxes, carved ivory pendants, brass ceremonial swords, masks, and ivory altars were hastily taken to Britain. From an influential West African empire, the Kingdom of Benin was stripped of its wealth and forcibly incorporated into the British Empire.Slave market in Calabar in the late 19th century. Source: Wikimedia CommonsOvonramwen died in exile in January 1914 in Calabar, a major port in the African slave trade, 17 years after the ambush near the village of Ugbine. His son, Eweka II, became King, but his role was nothing like that of his ancestors. He had limited powers and was under the direct supervision of the British. He did, however, manage to rebuild the royal palace and gave a new impetus to Benin art by setting up the Benin Arts and Crafts Council.Benin City is Nigerias fourth-most populous city, according to the 2006 census. It is a city that has experienced both wealth and destruction, prestige and colonial rule, a city that was attacked, looted, and subjugated by the British colonial forces in 1897 precisely because of its power in international trade. Over the centuries, Benin City has been home to skilled craftsmen and intelligent sovereigns who commissioned some of the most glorious works in the history of African art, artworks that were looted and dispersed across Europe and North America by Western collectors after the looting of the capital. Today, the Benin Bronzes are at the heart of the ongoing repatriation debate, serving as a poignant reminder of African artisanship and the devastation caused by colonial rule.
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