The history of the former Kingdom of Benin is a fascinating subject which aroused the interest of many scholars during more than one hundred years. However, today, when Africa unfortunately attracts much less public and professional interest than in the times of de-colonisation and subsequent cold war struggle for the continent between the socialist and capitalist blocs, only a few specialists outside Nigeria are undertaking Benin researches and, therefore, the authors felt the need to make a new attempt for writing a history of this remarkable kingdom, including newest results of researches. Besides the general public, the book is destined for graduate and undergraduate students, as well as lecturers on African studies. To make easier reading for the general public, the book contains some elements of what may be called popular history .
The 16th century bronze plaques from the kingdom of Benin are among the most recognized masterpieces of African art, and yet many details of their commission and installation in the palace in Benin City, Nigeria, are little understood. The Benin Plaques, A 16th Century Imperial Monument is a detailed analysis of a corpus of nearly 850 bronze plaques that were installed in the court of the Benin kingdom at the moment of its greatest political power and geographic reach. By examining European accounts, Benin oral histories, and the physical evidence of the extant plaques, Gunsch is the first to propose an installation pattern for the series.
This collection of R. E. Bradbury's papers, originally published in 1973 includes edited sections of his (then hitherto) unpublished thesis on the Benin village in Western Nigeria. The book is arranged in 3 parts: historical and political studies of the kingdom of Benin; Benin village organization and religion and art. An introduction by Peter Morton-Williams traces bradbury's development as an interpreter of the culture, society and art of Benin, beginning with his first studies in the filed and culminating in the important anthropological and historical essays.
A Prospect Best Book of 2021 ‘A fascinating and timely book.’ William Boyd ‘Gripping…a must read.’ FT ‘Compelling…humane, reasonable, and ultimately optimistic.’ Evening Standard ‘[A] valuable guide to a complex narrative.’ The Times In 1897, Britain sent a punitive expedition to the Kingdom of Benin, in what is today Nigeria, in retaliation for the killing of seven British officials and traders. British soldiers and sailors captured Benin, exiled its king and annexed the territory. They also made off with some of Africa’s greatest works of art. The ‘Benin Bronzes’ are now amongst the most admired and valuable artworks in the world. But seeing them in the British Museum today is, in the words of one Benin City artist, like ‘visiting relatives behind bars’. In a time of huge controversy about the legacy of empire, racial justice and the future of museums, what does the future hold for the Bronzes?
This collection of Edo (or Benin) folk tales is an oral history of Edo culture and tradition. It tells the story of how the ancient Edo conceived of the world and how they attempted both to explain the origins of their human existence on earth and to interpret their environment.
Nestled in the southern section of modern-day Nigeria are the remnants of a civilization so vast that one of its crowning achievements has never been matched by any civilization that has ever existed on the planet--including all modern societies. Archeologically known as the Ancient Linear Earthworks of Benin and Ishan, the Great Wall of Africa, also known as the Great Wall of Benin is almost 10,000 miles long and at some points reaches more than 60 feet in height. Even though it holds a place in the 1982 Guinness Book of World Records as the most massive structure that has ever been constructed, almost no one outside of a select few archeologists and specialists has heard of its enormous breadth. This book attempts to change that forever.The Great Wall of Africa or Great Wall of Benin actually consists of a series of linear earthworks, many of them circular, some straight, some which stand on their own, and others that interconnect across a large area of Southern Nigeria. The Great Wall of Africa, like the Great Wall of China, is not a single wall, but a series of separate walls. Until the writing of this book, and another that I authored called: From Man To Superman: Dr. John Henrik Clarke vs. Herman Cain, the Great Wall of Africa, which stretches 9,941 miles long, was known popularly among African scholars as the Walls of Benin. However, as I shall show, like the Great Wall of China, they were created by a single civilization, and therefore, constitute one major wall system. Surprisingly, Benin is an area that cultural anthropologists, known as ethnographers have taken time to study and have written about extensively. However, as Dr. Ivan Van Sertima pointed out in one of his lectures, one of the great flaws of scholarship on Africa is that: "Anthropology has for a long time had a love affair with the primitive... man living on the edge of the world... The Great Wall of Africa consists of the Great Walls of Benin which are called Iya by the Beni people. To understand the enormity of The Great Wall of Africa, one must consider the magnitude of earth displaced to construct it. The Great Wall of Benin contains more than 100 times the material of the Great Pyramid of Egypt (Pharaoh Khufu's Pyramid). This is no minor feat because the Great Pyramid is a massive structure, containing more stone than 30 Empire State buildings. In all, more than 9.1 billion cubic feet of earth was used to build the Great Wall of Benin over an 800-year time period. The average height of each wall is 3 meters or just under 10 feet high, however, some of the Iya tower almost 60 feet in height (18 meters). The Iya cover more than 2,500 square miles of land area. This massive effort took more than 150 million man-hours to construct. Simply put, if all of the material was taken from all of the buildings on New York City's borough of Manhattan, there would not be enough substance to build the Great Wall of Africa. The Great Wall of Africa contains more material than all of the financial district's buildings, all of midtown Manhattan's buildings and all of uptown Manhattan's buildings (Harlem) combined.The ancient Bini and Ishan people, the people of the Benin Empire, who built their wall, had no bulldozers, cranes or other equipment from the Caterpillar Corporation. They had no backhoe loaders, articulated trucks, or asphalt pavers... What they had was in many ways more impressive than all of these things. They were standing on the history of a continent that built 4,500 year-old pyramids that were 48 stories high, smelted carbon steel 2,000 years before the present, sent 2,400 ships to America 181 years before Christopher Columbus, produced the first universities in the world, understood how to perform surgery on the eye to remove cataracts 700 years ago, and that had charted star systems that were not discovered by Europeans and Americans until the Einstein Orbiting Satellite observed them in 1996.
The Benin bronze and other beautiful artifacts of the Benin kingdom of Nigeria are popular and found in homes and museums in countries around the world. The ancient kingdom which conquered many kingdoms to become an empire in the 15 century was one of the greatest and most advanced ancient civilization in African history. The kingdom still exists today with a royal house that is almost a thousand years old. The long history of the great kingdom was shaped by interesting people and events, and their stories have been told for hundreds of years from generation to generation.This story takes us to an important time in history when the Benin kingdom was ruled by great warrior Obas (kings) who conquered other kingdoms far and wide, expanded the Benin kingdom into an empire, and trade with Europeans. It is a story of one of the biggest rivalries in the kingdom between two Benin princes and the two biggest towns in the kingdom which began when a newly born baby was robbed of his birthright to be king of the kingdom. The baby who later grew up to be a giant warrior desperately wanted to be the king but the giant who has been successful in several battles must have to defeat his half-brother, the crowned prince, and the crowned prince's mother who is a powerful sorcerer and warrior. The story is that of culture, tradition, battles, strategy, magic, family, desperation, defeat, and victory. This picture book was written for kids age 6 to 16 to help them learn about the history, legends, language, culture, and tradition of the ancient Benin kingdom but is a good read for adults too. It features the famous Benin moat (which is the longest ancient man-made earthwork in the world), bronze plaques, and architecture.
