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131-398: Ifẹ̀ ( Yoruba : Ifẹ̀ , Ilé-Ifẹ̀ ) is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria founded sometime between the years 500 BC - 1000 BC . By 900AD , the city had become an important West African emporium producing sophisticated art forms. The city is located in present-day Osun State . Ifẹ̀ is about 218 kilometers northeast of Lagos with a population of over 500,000 people, which

262-402: A phoneme /n/ ; the letter ⟨n⟩ is used for the sound in the orthography, but strictly speaking, it refers to an allophone of /l/ immediately preceding a nasal vowel. There is also a syllabic nasal , which forms a syllable nucleus by itself. When it precedes a vowel, it is a velar nasal [ŋ] : n ò lọ [ŋ ò lɔ̄] 'I didn't go'. In other cases, its place of articulation

393-490: A syllable has been elided. For example: nlá 'to be large', originally a compound of ní 'to have' + lá 'to be big' and súfèé 'to whistle', originally a compound of sú 'to eject wind' + òfé or ìfé 'a blowing'. Vowels serve as nominalizing prefixes that turn a verb into a noun form. Nominal roots are mostly disyllabic , for example: abà 'crib, barn', ara 'body', ibà 'fever'. Monosyllabic and even trisyllabic roots do occur but they are less common. Yoruba

524-420: A consonant has been elided word-internally. In such cases, the tone of the elided vowel is retained: àdìrò → ààrò 'hearth'; koríko → koóko 'grass'; òtító → òótó 'truth'. Most verbal roots are monosyllabic of the phonological shape CV(N), for example: dá 'to create', dán 'to polish', pọ́n 'to be red'. Verbal roots that do not seem to follow this pattern are mostly former compounds in which

655-400: A construction date of 1450–1500. It has been estimated that, assuming a ten-hour work day, a labour force of 5,000 men could have completed the walls within 97 days, or by 2,421 men in 200 days. However, these estimates have been criticized for not taking into account the time it would have taken to extract earth from an ever deepening hole and the time it would have taken to heap the earth into

786-566: A distinction between human and non-human nouns when it comes to interrogative particles: ta ni for human nouns ('who?') and kí ni for non-human nouns ('what?'). The associative construction (covering possessive /genitive and related notions) consists of juxtaposing nouns in the order modified-modifier as in inú àpótí {inside box} 'the inside of the box', fìlà Àkàndé 'Akande's cap' or àpótí aṣọ 'box for clothes'. More than two nouns can be juxtaposed: rélùweè abẹ́ ilẹ̀ (railway underground) 'underground railway', inú àpótí aṣọ 'the inside of

917-486: A forested, sacred grove (igbo) that housed shrines at which the goddess Olokun was worshipped. Igbo Olokun in the city of Ile-Ife, in south-western Nigeria, was said to have a history of glass makers with unique manufacturing techniques in West Africa. The recovery of glass beads and associated production materials were found there during excavation. Analysis of the composition of the artefacts and preliminary dating of

1048-583: A high bank. It is unknown whether slavery or some other type of labour was used in the construction of the walls. The walls were built of a ditch and dike structure; the ditch dug to form an inner moat with the excavated earth used to form the exterior rampart. The Benin Walls were partially demolished by the British in 1897 during their 1897 punitive expedition . Scattered pieces of the structure remain in Edo, with

1179-469: A keen understanding of the human form and of purity, and is therefore praised as often being more effective than other remedies. Burnt pipes (or tuyere ), stone tools, broken calabash , decorated potsherds , and pottery (e.g., rimsherd, plane-sherd body, broken, and washed pottery) were excavated at Iyekere. Iron smelting, charcoal utilized in the process of smelting , and iron slags involved in pitting were also discovered. Iron smelting occurred in

1310-481: A major calamity or national disaster was also an occasion for sacrifices. Humans were sacrificed in an annual ritual in honour of the god of iron, where warriors from Benin City would perform an acrobatic dance while suspended from the trees. The ritual recalled a mythical war against the sky. Sacrifices of a man, a woman, a goat, a cow and a ram were also made to a god called "the king of death". The god, named Ogiuwu,

1441-515: A mean relative humidity of 75% to 100%. Ife is east of the city of Ibadan and connected to it through the Ife-Ibadan highway; Ife is also 40 km (25 mi) from Osogbo and has road networks to other cities such as Ede, Ondo and Ilesha. There is the Opa river and reservoir, that serves as a water treatment facility for OAU college. In Ifé, the dry season is muggy and partially cloudy, and

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1572-500: A plural of respect may have prevented the coalescence of the two in NWY dialects. Central Yoruba forms a transitional area in that the lexicon has much in common with NWY and shares many ethnographical features with SEY. Its vowel system is the most traditional of the three dialect groups, retaining nine oral-vowel contrasts, six or seven nasal vowels, and an extensive vowel harmony system. Peculiar to Central and Eastern (NEY, SEY) Yoruba also

1703-558: A reply from the Foreign Office to his request where he stated that: F.O. 2/I02, Phillips to F.O. no. 105 of i6 Nov 1896. Phillips wrote that 'there is nothing in the shape of a standing army. ... and the inhabitants appear to be if not a peace-loving at any rate a most unwarlike people whose only exploits during many generations had been an occasional quarrel with their neighbours about trade or slave raiding and it appears at least improbable that they have any arms to speak of except

1834-526: A specialized unit of the Benin army. Archers and crossbowmen were trained in target and field archery . In 1514 or 1516, the Oba of Benin seized a Portuguese bombard for use. Benin's tactics were well organized, with preliminary plans weighed by the Oba and his sub-commanders. Logistics were organized to support missions from the usual porter forces, water transport via canoe, and requisitioning from localities

1965-685: A substantial body of literature in the Yoruba language, including books, newspapers, and pamphlets. Yoruba is used in radio and television broadcasting and is taught at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. The Yoruba dialect continuum consists of several dialects. The various Yoruba dialects in Yorubaland can be classified into five major dialect areas: Northwest, Northeast, Central, Southwest, and Southeast. Clear boundaries cannot be drawn, but peripheral areas of dialectal regions often have some similarities to adjoining dialects. North-West Yoruba

2096-588: A vague clause about ensuring "the general progress of civilization". A British delegation departed from the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1897 with the stated aim of negotiating with the Oba of Benin regarding the trade agreement, which they felt he was not keeping. The leader of the delegation, James Robert Phillips , had asked his superiors in the British Foreign Office for permission to lead an armed British expedition to depose

2227-426: A very high bulwark, very thick of earth, with a very deep broad ditch, but it was dry, and full of high trees... That gate is a reasonable good gate, made of wood in their manner, which is to be shut, and there always there is watch holden. Estimates for the initial construction of the walls range from the first millennium to the mid-fifteenth century. According to Connah, oral tradition and travelers' accounts suggest

2358-700: A vision received in his sleep which he believed to have been granted by Oduduwa . This Oduduwa script has also received support from other prominent chiefs in the Yorubaland region of both countries. The syllable structure of Yoruba is (C)V(N). Syllabic nasals are also possible. Every syllable bears one of the three tones: high ⟨◌́⟩ , mid ⟨◌̄⟩ (generally left unmarked), and low ⟨◌̀⟩ . The sentence n̄ ò lọ ( I didn't go ) provides examples of three syllable types: Standard Yoruba has seven oral and five nasal vowels. There are no diphthongs in Yoruba; sequences of vowels are pronounced as separate syllables. Dialects differ in

2489-477: A workforce of 1,000 laborers working ten hours a day, seven days a week. Ewuare also added great thoroughfares and erected nine fortified gateways. Excavations at Benin City have revealed that it was already flourishing around 1200–1300 CE. In 1440, Oba Ewuare , also known as Ewuare the Great, came to power and expanded the borders of the former city-state. It was only at this time that the administrative centre of

2620-399: Is homorganic with the following consonant: ó ń lọ [ó ń lɔ̄] 'he is going', ó ń fò [ó ḿ fò] 'he is jumping'. C, Q, V, X and Z only appear in words borrowed from English. Yoruba is a tonal language with three-level tones and two or three contour tones. Every syllable must have at least one tone; a syllable containing a long vowel can have two tones. Tones are marked by use of

2751-444: Is mi . Apart from tone's lexical and grammatical use, it is also used in other contexts such as whistling and drumming. Whistled Yoruba is used to communicate over long distances. The language is transformed as speakers talk and whistle simultaneously: consonants are devoiced or turned to [h], and all vowels are changed to [u]. However, all tones are retained without any alteration. The retention of tones enables speakers to understand

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2882-485: Is 80 leagues [ sic ] long by 40 leagues [ sic ] broad, is always at war with its neighbours from whom it obtains captives, whom we buy at from 12 to 15 brass or copper manillas. Another description given around 1600, one hundred years after Pereira's description, is by the Dutch explorer Dierick Ruiters. Pereira's account of the walls is as follows: This city is about a league long from gate to gate; it has no wall but

3013-529: Is a descendant of Oduduwa, which was the 401st Orisha . The present ruler since 2015 is Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, Ọọ̀ni of Ifẹ̀ who is also a Nigerian accountant. Named as the city of 401 deities , Ifẹ̀ is home to many devotees/votaries of these deities and is where they are routinely celebrated through festivals . Ilé-Ifẹ̀ is famous worldwide for its ancient and naturalistic bronze, stone and terracotta sculptures , dating back to between 1200 and 1400 CE. According to Yoruba religion , Olodumare ,

3144-490: Is a highly isolating language . Its basic constituent order is subject–verb–object , as in ó nà Adé 'he beat Adé'. The bare verb stem denotes a completed action, often called perfect; tense and aspect are marked by preverbal particles such as ń 'imperfect/present continuous', ti 'past'. Negation is expressed by a preverbal particle kò . Serial verb constructions are common, as in many other languages of West Africa . Although Yoruba has no grammatical gender , it has

3275-413: Is a more modern series of buildings. The current Ooni, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, Ooni of Ife, (born October 17, 1974) is a Nigerian accountant and the 51st Ooni of Ife. He succeeded the late Oba Okunade Sijuwade(Olubuse II) who was the 50th ooni of Ife, and who had died on July 28, 2015. Ife is well known as the city of 401 deities (also known as irumole or orishas). It is said that every day of

3406-401: Is a rural area with settlements where agriculture is occupied by most. Ife has an undulating terrain underlain by metamorphic rocks and characterized by two types of soils, deep clay soils on the upper slopes and sandy soils on the lower parts. Within the tropical savanna climate zone of West Africa. It has average rainfall of 1,000–1,250 mm (39–49 in) usually from March to October and

3537-433: Is a widespread phenomenon, and it is absent only in slow, unnatural speech. The orthography here follows speech in that word divisions are normally not indicated in words that are contracted due to assimilation or elision: ra ẹja → rẹja 'buy fish'. Sometimes, however, authors may choose to use an inverted comma to indicate an elided vowel as in ní ilé → n'ílé 'in the house'. Long vowels within words usually signal that

3668-451: Is controversial. Several authors have argued it is not phonemically contrastive. Often, it is in free variation with [ɔ̃] . Orthographically , ⟨ọn⟩ is used after labial and labial-velar consonants, as in ìbọn 'gun', and ⟨an⟩ is used after non-labial consonants, as in dán 'to shine'. All vowels are nasalized after the consonant /m/ , and thus there is no additional n in writing ( mi, mu, mọ ). In addition,

3799-510: Is inconsistent with the perception of Phillips as a man of peace in January 1897. Igbafe posits that Phillips was going on a reconnaissance mission and that Phillips' haste to Benin can be explained by a belief that nothing bad would happen to him or his party. The expeditionary force also took the palace art as war booty. The looted portrait figures, busts, and groups created in iron, carved ivory, and especially in brass (conventionally termed

3930-492: Is particularly common with Yoruba–English bilinguals. Like many other languages of the region, Yoruba has the voiceless and voiced labial–velar stops /k͡p/ and /ɡ͡b/ : pápá [k͡pák͡pá] 'field', gbogbo [ɡ͡bōɡ͡bō] 'all'. Notably, it lacks a voiceless bilabial stop /p/ , apart from phonaesthesia , such as [pĩpĩ] for vehicle horn sounds, and marginal segments found in recent loanwords, such as <pẹ́ńsù> [k͡pɛ́ńsù~pɛ́ńsù] for "pencil". Yoruba also lacks

4061-411: Is said to have invented bronze casting and is honored in the form of a naturalistic copper life-size mask. The city was a settlement of substantial size between the 12th and 14th centuries, with houses featuring potsherd pavements. Ilé-Ifè is known worldwide for its ancient and naturalistic bronze, stone and terracotta sculptures, which reached their peak of artistic expression between 1200 and 1400 CE In

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4192-465: Is still re-enacted in the modern era by the votary groups of the two divinities during the Itapa New Year festival. On account of his creation of the world, Oduduwa became the ancestor of the first divine king of the Yoruba, while Obatala is believed to have created the first Yoruba people out of clay. The meaning of the word " Ife " in Yoruba is "expansion"; "Ile-Ife" is therefore in reference to

4323-482: Is surrounded by a large moat, very wide and deep, which suffices for its defence. The archaeologist Graham Connah suggests that Pereira was probably mistaken with his description by saying that there was no wall. Connah says, "[Pereira] considered that a bank of earth was not a wall in the sense of the Europe of his day." Ruiters' account of the walls is as follows: At the gate where I entered on horseback, I saw

4454-497: Is the ability to begin words with the vowel [ʊ:], which in Western Yoruba has been changed to [ɪ:] Literary Yoruba, also known as Standard Yoruba , Yoruba koiné , and common Yoruba , is a separate member of the dialect cluster. It is the written form of the language, the standard variety learned at school, and that is spoken by newsreaders on the radio. Standard Yoruba has its origin in the 1850s, when Samuel A. Crowther ,

4585-482: Is the clearest month of the year, with a 50% average percentage of clear, mostly clear, or partly overcast skies. Around February 13 of each year, the cloudier period starts, lasts for 9.1 months, and ends around November 17. April is the month with the most cloud cover; on average, 86% of the town has overcast or mainly cloudy skies during this month. A day is considered to be wet if there has been at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation . In Ifé,

4716-453: Is the dry season. December has an average of 1.4 days with at least 0.04 inches of precipitation, making it the month with the fewest wet days in Ifé. With an average of 25.4 days, September is the month in Ifé with the most rainy days. According to this classification, rain alone has the highest probability of all types of precipitation, peaking at 86% on September 22. Ife contains attractions like

4847-635: Is the highest in Osun State according to population census of 2006. According to the traditions of the Yoruba religion , Ilé-Ifẹ̀ was founded by the order of the Supreme God Olódùmarè by Obatala . It then fell into the hands of his brother Oduduwa , which created enmity between the two. Oduduwa created a dynasty there, and sons and daughters of this dynasty became rulers of many other kingdoms in Yorubaland . The first Ọọ̀ni of Ifẹ̀

4978-410: Is the most favourably used. This is because eti , the Yoruba word for Friday, means 'delay'. This is an unpleasant word for Friday, Ẹtì , which also implies failure, laziness, or abandonment. Ultimately, the standard words for the days of the week are Àìkú, Ajé, Ìṣẹ́gun, Ọjọ́rú, Ọjọ́bọ, Ẹtì, Àbámẹ́ta, for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday respectively. Friday remains Eti in

5109-562: Is traditionally considered the 401st spirit ( Orisha ), the only one that speaks. In fact, the royal dynasty of Ife traces its origin back to the founding of the city more than ten thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ. The present ruler is Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi (Ojaja II). The Ooni ascended his throne in 2015. Following the formation of the Yoruba Orisha Congress in 1986, the Ooni acquired an international status

5240-408: Is used in one syllable, the vowel can either be written once for each tone (for example, * ⟨òó⟩ for a vowel [o] with tone rising from low to high) or, more rarely in current usage, combined into a single accent. In this case, a caron ⟨ˇ⟩ is used for the rising tone (so the previous example would be written ⟨ǒ⟩ ), and a circumflex ⟨ˆ⟩ for

5371-560: The Ada and Eben sceptres as symbols of their authority from around ~16AD. A series of walls marked the incremental growth of the city from 850 AD until its decline in the 16th century. To enclose his palace he commanded the building of Benin's inner wall, and 11-kilometre-long (7 mi) earthen rampart girded by a moat 6 m (20 ft) deep. This was excavated in the early 1960s by Graham Connah . Connah estimated that its construction if spread out over five dry seasons, would have required

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5502-690: The Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly University of Ife), and Oduduwa University . It is also home to the Seventh Day Adventist Grammar School, Ile-Ife , Oduduwa College and Moremi High School among the notable schools established over 30 years ago. Yoruba language Yoruba vocabulary is also used in African diaspora religions such as the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé ,

5633-401: The Yoruba persisted into the seventeenth century. The main city of Ife is divided into two local government areas: Ife East, headquartered at Oke-ogbo and Ife central at Ajebandele area of the city. Both local governments are composed of a total of 21 political wards. The city has an estimated population of 355,813 people. Latitudes 7°28′N and 7°45′N and longitudes 4°30′E and 4°34′E. Ile-Ife

5764-478: The root of the tongue retracted (so ⟨ẹ⟩ is pronounced [ɛ̙] and ⟨ọ⟩ is [ɔ̙] ). ⟨ṣ⟩ represents a postalveolar consonant [ʃ] like the English ⟨sh⟩ , ⟨y⟩ represents a palatal approximant like English ⟨y⟩ , and ⟨j⟩ a voiced palatal stop [ɟ] , as is common in many African orthographies. In addition to

5895-469: The temperature is high all year round. The wet season is oppressive and overcast . The average annual temperature ranges from 66 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit , rarely falling below 60 or rising over 98. From January 22 to April 4, the hot season, with an average daily high temperature exceeding 91 °F, lasts for 2.4 months. In Ifé, March is the hottest month of the year, with an average high of 92 °F and low of 73 °F. From June 14 to October 6,

6026-582: The " Benin Bronzes ") were sold off to defray the cost of the expedition and some were accessioned to the British Museum ; most were sold elsewhere and are now on display in various museums around the world. In March 2021, institutions in Berlin, Germany and Aberdeen, Scotland announced decisions to return Benin Bronzes in their possession to their place of origin. The British occupied Benin, which

6157-522: The "Queen's Own". The Metropolitan and Royal regiments were relatively stable semi-permanent or permanent formations. The Village Regiments provided the bulk of the fighting force and were mobilized as needed, sending contingents of warriors upon the command of the king and his generals. Formations were broken down into sub-units under designated commanders. Foreign observers often commented favorably on Benin's discipline and organization as "better disciplined than any other Guinea nation", contrasting them with

6288-491: The 14th century. The Walls of Benin are a series of earthworks made up of banks and ditches, called I ya in the Edo language in the area around present-day Benin City , the capital of present-day Edo , Nigeria . They consist of 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) of city iya and an estimated 16,000 kilometres (9,900 miles) in the rural area around Benin. Some estimates suggest that the walls of Benin may have been constructed between

6419-621: The 17th century, Yoruba was written in the Ajami script , a form of Arabic script . It is still written in the Ajami writing script in some Islamic circles. Standard Yoruba orthography originated in the early work of Church Mission Society missionaries working among the Aku (Yoruba) of Freetown . One of their informants was Crowther, who later would proceed to work on his native language himself. In early grammar primers and translations of portions of

6550-465: The 19th century, Britain desired a closer relationship with the Kingdom of Benin; as British officials were increasingly interested in controlling trade in the area and in accessing the kingdom's palm oil, kola nut, ivory and potentially rubber resources, following the introduction of Hevea brasiliensis saplings, via Kew Gardens in 1895. Several attempts were made to achieve this end beginning with

6681-555: The British. The British burnt down numerous towns, and destroyed farms in an attempt to starve the rebels into submission. After the 1899 expedition, military resistance in the former Kingdom of Benin against the British occupation ceased. Below are several notable figures of the Kingdom of Benin Forty-one female skeletons thrown into a pit were discovered by the archaeologist Graham Connah . These findings indicate that human sacrifice or execution of criminals took place in Benin in

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6812-640: The Caribbean religion of Santería in the form of the liturgical Lucumí language , and various Afro-American religions of North America . Most modern practitioners of these religions in the Americas are not fluent in the Yoruba language, yet they still use Yoruba words and phrases for songs or chants—rooted in cultural traditions. For such practitioners, the Yoruba lexicon is especially common for ritual purposes, and these modern manifestations have taken new forms that don't depend on vernacular fluency. As

6943-574: The Edi festival for Moremi Ajasoro and the Ugbo with their Igare (Oluyare) masqueraders . Kings and gods were often depicted with large heads because the artists believed that the Ase was held in the head, the Ase being the inner power and energy of a person. Both historic figures of Ife and the offices associated with them are represented. One of the best documented among this is the early king Obalufon II who

7074-524: The Edo people. In all, they are four times longer than the Great Wall of China , and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops . They took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet. Ethnomathematician Ron Eglash has discussed the planned layout of the city using fractals as

7205-595: The Empire. While the treaty itself contains text suggesting Ovonramwen sought Benin to become a protectorate, this was contrasted by Gallwey's own account, which suggests the Oba was hesitant to sign the treaty. Although some suggest that humanitarian motivations were driving Britain's actions, letters written between colonial administrators suggest that economic motivations were predominant. The treaty itself does not explicitly mention anything about Benin's "bloody customs" that Burton had written about, and instead only includes

7336-607: The English Bible, Crowther used the Latin alphabet largely without tone markings. The only diacritic used was a dot below certain vowels to signify their open variants [ɛ] and [ɔ] , viz. ⟨ẹ⟩ and ⟨ọ⟩ . Over the years, the orthography was revised to represent tone, among other things. In 1875, the Church Missionary Society (CMS) organized a conference on Yoruba Orthography;

7467-493: The Ife region. The yield and efficiency were quite high as the iron smelting process yielded ore grade near 80 percent iron oxide , lean slag possessed less than 60 percent iron oxide, and no greater than the required amount of iron oxide in the slag was left for slag formation. While more excavation is needed to produce a more accurate estimate for the age of the smelting site, it can be approximated to likely being precolonial, during

7598-870: The Late Iron Age . Igbo Olokun, also known as Olokun Grove, may be one of the earliest workshops for producing glass in West Africa . Glass production may have begun during, if not before, the 11th century. The 11th - 15th century were the peak of glass production. High lime, high alumina (HLHA) and low lime, high alumina (LLHA) glass are distinct compositions that were developed using locally sourced recipes , raw materials , and pyrotechnology . The presence of HLHA glass beads discovered throughout West Africa (e.g., Igbo-Ukwu in southern Nigeria , Gao and Essouk in Mali , and Kissi in Burkina Faso ), after

7729-729: The Natural History Museum of Nigeria. Ife is home to a regional agricultural center with an area that produces vegetables, grain cocoa , tobacco, and cotton. Ife has a few open markets, such as Oja Titun or Odo-gbe market with about 1,500 shops. In terms of development, the Ife central area of Ilé Ifè is more developed. The areas include Parakin, Eleyele, Modomo, Damico, and Crown Estate Area. These areas are characterized by modern houses, good road network, constant electricity and security. Ife has several universities that are well-known both in Nigeria and internationally; such as

7860-522: The Niger–Congo family dates to deep pre-history, estimates ranging around 11,000 years ago (the end of the Upper Paleolithic ). In present-day Nigeria , it is estimated that there are around 50 million Yoruba primary and secondary language speakers, as well as several other millions of speakers outside Nigeria, making it the most widely spoken African language outside of the continent. There is

7991-532: The Oba of Benin not long before the expedition, but left for Benin City with a diplomatic delegation (or a reconnaissance mission disguised as a peaceful diplomatic delegation) before receiving a reply to his request. Perceiving this to be an attempt to depose the Oba, the Oba's generals unilaterally ordered an attack on the delegation as it was approaching Benin City (which included eight unknowing British representatives and hundreds of African porters and labourers) all but two of whom were killed. A punitive expedition

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8122-571: The Supreme God, ordered Obatala to create the earth, however on his way he over indulged in palm wine and got drunk. Thence, a contemporary Orisha to the former, Oduduwa , took the items of creation from him, descended from the abode of the Orisha on a chain and cast the handful of earth on the primordial ocean. The earth rose and became a mound called Oke Ora. He then put a five toed cockerel on this primordial mound so that it would scatter

8253-536: The Yoruba language. • Odu Ifa , • Oriki , • Ewi , •Esa, •Àlọ́, •Rara, •Iremoje, • Bolojo , •Ijala, •Ajangbode, •Ijeke, Alámọ̀ As of 2024, the Yoruba Misplaced Pages  [ yo ] is the most visited website in Yoruba. Kingdom of Benin The Kingdom of Benin , also known as Great Benin or Benin Kingdom is a kingdom within what is now southern Nigeria. It has no historical relation to

8384-415: The acute accent for high tone ( ⟨á⟩ , ⟨ń⟩ ) and the grave accent for low tone ( ⟨à⟩ , ⟨ǹ⟩ ); mid is unmarked, except on syllabic nasals where it is indicated using a macron ( ⟨a⟩ , ⟨n̄⟩ ). Examples: When teaching Yoruba literacy, solfège names of musical notes are used to name the tones: low is do , mid is re , and high

8515-469: The basis, not only in the city itself and the villages but even in the rooms of houses. He commented that "When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet." Military operations relied on a well trained disciplined force. At

8646-460: The city gates. In the early 16th century, Oba Esigie expanded the kingdom eastwards, after defeating an invasion and attempted conquest of Benin by the Igala kingdom. Benin gained political strength and ascendancy over much of what is now mid-western Nigeria. Its wealth grew through its extensive trade, especially with the interior of the region, although the trade with Europeans that developed from

8777-555: The clothes box'. Disambiguation is left to context in the rare case that it results in two possible readings. Plural nouns are indicated by a plural word. There are two 'prepositions': ní 'on, at, in' and sí 'onto, towards'. The former indicates location and absence of movement, and the latter encodes location/direction with movement. Position and direction are expressed by the prepositions in combination with spatial relational nouns like orí 'top', apá 'side', inú 'inside', etí 'edge', abẹ́ 'under', ilẹ̀ 'down', etc. Many of

8908-451: The consonant /l/ has a nasal allophone [n] before a nasal vowel (see below ), and this is reflected in writing: inú 'inside, belly' ( /īlṹ/ → [īnṹ] ). The voiceless plosives /t/ and /k/ are slightly aspirated; in some Yoruba varieties, /t/ and /d/ are more dental. The rhotic consonant is realized as a flap [ɾ] or, in some varieties (notably Lagos Yoruba), as the alveolar approximant [ɹ] due to English influence. This

9039-468: The cool season, which has an average daily high temperature below 84 °F, lasts for 3.8 months. August is the coldest month of the year in Ifé, with an average low temperature of 71 °F and high temperature of 82 °F. The average proportion of sky covered by clouds at Ife varies significantly seasonally throughout the year. Ile-Ife experiences 2.9 months of clearer weather, which starts about November 17 and ends around February 13. December

9170-508: The division of titles into war and civil is unknown. Linguistically, SEY has retained the /ɣ/ and /gw/ contrast, while it has lowered the nasal vowels /ĩ/ and /ʊ̃/ to /ɛ̃/ and /ɔ̃/, respectively. SEY has collapsed the second and third-person plural pronominal forms; thus, àn án wá can mean either 'you (pl.) came' or 'they came' in SEY dialects, whereas NWY for example has ẹ wá 'you (pl.) came' and wọ́n wá 'they came', respectively. The emergence of

9301-512: The earth around, thus creating the land on which Ile Ife, the first city would be built. Oduduwa planted a palm nut in a hole in the newly formed land and from there sprang a great tree with sixteen branches, a symbolic representation of the 16 clans of the early Ife pre-urban confederation; Elu Merindinlogun , (Thirteen initial and 3 later ones). The usurpation of creation by Oduduwa, gave rise to an ever-lasting conflict between him and his contemporaneous rival Orisha, Obatala. This symbolic rivalry

9432-487: The emergence of a common Yoruba identity. The earliest evidence of the presence of Islam and literacy goes back to the 14th century. The earliest documented history of the people, traced to the latter part of the 17th century, was in the Yoruba but in the Arabic script called Ajami . This makes Yoruba one of the oldest African languages with an attested history of Ajami (Cf. Mumin & Versteegh 2014; Hofheinz 2018). However,

9563-536: The end of the eighteenth century, three to four people were sacrificed at the mouth of the Benin River annually, to attract European trade, according to one source. The monarchy of Benin was hereditary ; the eldest son was to become the new Oba. In order to validate the succession of the kingship, the eldest son had to bury his father and perform elaborate rituals. If the eldest son failed to complete these tasks, he might be disqualified from becoming king. After

9694-597: The entire coastline from the Western Niger Delta, through Lagos reaching almost Accra in the West. The state developed an advanced artistic culture, especially in its famous artifacts of bronze, iron and ivory. These include bronze wall plaques and life-sized bronze heads depicting the Obas and Iyobas of Benin. These plaques also included other human and animal figures as well as items like ceremonial belts. Ivory

9825-639: The falling tone. In Benin , Yoruba uses a different orthography. The Yoruba alphabet was standardized along with other Benin languages in the National Languages Alphabet by the National Language Commission in 1975, and revised in 1990 and 2008 by the National Center for Applied Linguistics . In 2011, a Beninese priest-chief by the name of Tolúlàṣẹ Ògúntósìn devised a new script for Yoruba, based on

9956-524: The first native African Anglican bishop, published a Yoruba grammar and started his translation of the Bible. Though for a large part based on the Ọyọ and Ibadan dialects, Standard Yoruba incorporates several features from other dialects. It also has some features peculiar to itself, for example, the simplified vowel harmony system, as well as foreign structures, such as calques from English that originated in early translations of religious works. Because

10087-568: The first widely accepted ruler and Oba of the second Edo dynasty that has ruled what is now Benin from that day to this. Oranmiyan later migrated northwestwards into the savanna plains to found the Oyo . Oyo later became an empire that stretched at its height from the western or right bank of the Niger River to the eastern or left banks of the Volta River . It would become known as one of

10218-431: The forest and surrounding areas, could not survive, due to a disease spread by tsetse flies ; after centuries of exposure, some animals, such as cattle and goats, developed a resistance to the disease. The original name of the kingdom of Benin, at its creation some time in the first millennium CE, was Igodomigodo , as its inhabitants called it. Their ruler was called Ogiso – the ruler of the sky. The Ogiso began to use

10349-606: The head of the host stood the Oba of Benin . The monarch of the realm served as supreme military commander. Beneath him were subordinate generalissimos, the Ezomo , the Iyase , and others who supervised a Metropolitan Regiment based in the capital, and a Royal Regiment made up of hand-picked warriors that also served as bodyguards. Benin's queen mother, the Iyoba , also retained her own regiment –

10480-409: The keepers of the shrine because it is a sacred grove. Oduduwa Shrine and Grove: The shrine of the progenitor of the Yoruba race. Worshippers and initiates flood the place seeking blessings and pay obeisance to the originator of their civilization. Agbonniregun Temple: The grove of Ọrunmila an Orisha. He is the Orisha of wisdom, knowledge, and divination. This source of knowledge is believed to have

10611-520: The kingdom began to be referred to as Ubinu after the Portuguese word and corrupted to Bini by the Itsekhiri , Urhobo and Edo who all lived together in the royal administrative centre of the kingdom. The Portuguese who arrived in an expedition led by João Afonso de Aveiro  [ pt ] in 1485 would refer to it as Benin and the centre would become known as Benin City. The Oba had become

10742-500: The kingship. The Oba was shrouded in mystery; he only left his palace on ceremonial occasions. It was previously punishable by death to assert that the Oba performed human acts, such as eating, sleeping, dying or washing. The Oba was also credited with having magical powers. He also controlled a powerful bureaucratic apparatus whose decrees were obeyed to the letter. The Impluvium was used in Benin architecture to store rainwater. Among

10873-637: The late 15th century onwards in pepper, slaves, cloth, and ivory provided a smaller, additional supplement to Benin's wealth and its economy. Benin ruled over the tribes of the Niger Delta including the Western Igbo Tribes, Ijaw , Itshekiri , Isoko and Urhobo amongst others. It also held sway over the Eastern Yoruba tribes of Ondo, Ekiti, Mahin/Ugbo, and Ijebu. At its height in the 16th century, Benin dominated trade along

11004-403: The likelihood of rainy days varies a great deal from season to season. The 6.6-month wetter season, which runs from April 7 to October 27, has a more than 45% chance of precipitation on any one day. In Ifé, September has an average of 25.4 days with at least 0.04 inches of precipitation, making it the month with the most rainy days. From late October to early April, a period of about 5.4 months,

11135-599: The likes of which the holders of his title hadn't had since the city's colonisation by the British. Nationally he had always been prominent amongst the Federal Republic of Nigeria's company of royal Obas , being regarded as the chief priest and custodian of the holy city of all the Yorubas. In former times, the palace of the Ooni of Ife was a structure built of authentic enameled bricks, decorated with artistic porcelain tiles and all sorts of ornaments. At present, it

11266-475: The meaning of the whistled language. The Yoruba talking drum , the dùndún or iya ilu , which accompanies singing during festivals and important ceremonies, also uses tone. Written Yoruba includes diacritical marks not available on conventional computer keyboards, requiring some adaptations. In particular, the use of the sub dots and tone marks are not represented, so many Yoruba documents simply omit them. Asubiaro Toluwase, in his 2014 paper, points out that

11397-440: The mission to Benin without much weaponry. Some have argued he was going on a peaceful mission. Such commentators argue that the message from the Oba that his festival would not permit him to receive European visitors touched the humanitarian side of Phillips's character because of an incorrect assumption that the festival included human sacrifice. According to Igbafe, this does not explain why Phillips set out before he had received

11528-466: The modern republic of Benin , which was known as Dahomey from the 17th century until 1975. The Kingdom of Benin's capital was Edo, now known as Benin City in Edo State , Nigeria . The Benin Kingdom was "one of the oldest and most developed states in the coastal hinterland of West Africa ". It grew out of the previous Edo Kingdom of Igodomigodo around the 11th century AD, and lasted until it

11659-436: The most powerful of Africa's medieval states, prior to its collapse in the mid 19th century. Ojoye/Oloye Ife ÌHÀRẸ – Outer/Town chiefs (Àgbà Ifẹ̀): MỌDÉWÁ – Inner/Palace chiefs (Ẹmẹsẹ̀): Outside Ife (Several) The Oòni (or king) of Ife is a descendant of the godking Oduduwa, and is counted as the spiritual leader among the Yoruba kings however he does not reign supreme over the other descendants of Oduduwa . He

11790-852: The mount of power within the region. In the 15th century, Oba Ewuare is credited with turning Benin City into a city-state from a military fortress built by the Ogisos, protected by moats and walls. It was from this bastion that he launched his military campaigns and began the expansion of the kingdom from the Edo-speaking heartlands. Excavations also uncovered a rural network of earthen walls 6,000 to 13,000 km (4,000 to 8,000 mi) long that would have taken an estimated 150 million man-hours to build and must have taken hundreds of years to build. These were apparently raised to mark out territories for towns and cities. Thirteen years after Ewuare's death, tales of Benin's splendors lured more Portuguese traders to

11921-401: The myth of origin as "The Land of Expansion" (the word, Ile, as pronounced in modern Yoruba language, means house or home, which would make the name of the city mean "The Home of Expansion"). Oduduwa had sons, daughters, and grandchildren, who went on to found their own kingdoms and empires, namely; Ila Orangun , Owu , Ketu , Sabe , Egba , Popo and Oyo . Oranmiyan , Oduduwa's last born,

12052-501: The nearby kingdom of Benin which, like the Yoruba kingdom of Oyo , developed into a major empire. Bronze and terracotta art created by this civilization are significant examples of naturalism in pre-colonial African art and are distinguished by their variations in regalia, facial marking patterns, and body proportions. Ancient Ife also was famous for its glass beads which have been found at sites as far away as Mali , Mauritania , and Ghana . Igbo Olokun: Igbo Olokun used to be

12183-445: The ninth century CE, reveals the broader importance of this glass industry in the region and shows its participation in regional trade networks (e.g., trans-Saharan trade , trans-Atlantic trade). Glass beads served as “the currency for negotiating political power, economic relations, and cultural/spiritual values” for “Yoruba, West Africans, and the African diaspora .” In Osun Grove, the distinct glassmaking technology produced by

12314-401: The number of vowels they have; see above . Nasal vowels are by default written as a vowel letter followed by ⟨n⟩ , thus: ⟨in⟩ , ⟨un⟩ , ⟨ẹn⟩ , ⟨ọn⟩ , ⟨an⟩ . These do not occur word-initially. In the standard language, /ɛ̃/ occurs only in the single word ìyẹn ~ yẹn 'that'. The status of the vowel [ã]

12445-507: The official orthography of Standard Yoruba. However, they exist in several Yoruba dialects. The pronunciation of the letters without diacritics corresponds more or less to their International Phonetic Alphabet equivalents, except for the labial–velar consonant [k͡p] (written ⟨p⟩ ) and [ɡ͡b] (written ⟨gb⟩ ), in which both consonants are pronounced simultaneously rather than sequentially. The diacritic underneath vowels indicates an open vowel , pronounced with

12576-480: The official visit of Richard Francis Burton in 1862 when he was consul at Fernando Pó . Following that came attempts to establish a treaty between Benin and the United Kingdom by Hewtt, Blair and Annesley in 1884, 1885 and 1886 respectively. However, these efforts did not yield any results. The kingdom resisted becoming a British protectorate throughout the 1880s, but the British remained persistent. Progress

12707-563: The older orthography, it employs the Latin alphabet modified by the use of the digraph ⟨gb⟩ and certain diacritics , including the underdots under the letters ⟨ẹ⟩ , ⟨ọ⟩ , and ⟨ṣ⟩ . Previously, the vertical line had been used to avoid the mark being fully covered by an underline , as in ⟨e̩⟩, ⟨o̩⟩, ⟨s̩⟩; however, that usage is no longer common. The Latin letters ⟨c⟩ , ⟨q⟩ , ⟨v⟩ , ⟨x⟩ , ⟨z⟩ are not used as part of

12838-461: The oldest extant Yoruba Ajami exemplar is a 19th-century Islamic verse (waka) by Badamasi Agbaji (d. 1895- Hunwick 1995). There are several items of Yoruba Ajami in poetry, personal notes, and esoteric knowledge (Cf. Bang 2019). Nevertheless, Yoruba Ajami remained idiosyncratic and not socially diffused, as no standardized orthography existed. The plethora of dialects and the absence of a central promotional institution, among others, are responsible. In

12969-429: The period around 1300 CE the artists at Ife developed a refined and naturalistic sculptural tradition in terracotta, stone and copper alloy—copper, brass, and bronze—many of which appear to have been created under the patronage of King Obalufon II, the man who today is identified as the Yoruba patron deity of brass casting, weaving and regalia. After this period, production declined as political and economic power shifted to

13100-500: The previously dominant pepper and ivory as trade commodities. A civil war broke out around 1689, around the time that Oba Ewuakpe ascended to the throne. Iyase Ode and lower-ranked members of the royal administration revolted against their superiors attempts to control them. The Oba brought in troops from another city but could not defeat the rebels, and Benin city was sacked. The war continued for roughly 10 years before negotiations brought them to an end. Ewuakpe's succession, however,

13231-435: The primary beneficiaries. Adelabu , a Ph D graduate from Damascus cited—among many other common usages—the following words to be Yoruba's derivatives of Arabic vocabularies: Some common Arabic words used in Yoruba are names of the days such as Atalata ( الثلاثاء ) for Tuesday, Alaruba ( الأربعاء ) for Wednesday, Alamisi ( الخميس ) for Thursday, and Jimoh ( الجمعة , Jumu'ah ) for Friday. By far, Ọjọ́ Jimoh

13362-673: The principal Yoruboid language , Yoruba is most closely related to these languages Itsekiri (spoken in the Niger Delta ) and Igala (spoken in central Nigeria). Yoruba is classified among the Edekiri languages , which is together with the Itsekiri and isolate Igala from the Yoruboid group of languages within the Volta–Niger branch of the Niger–Congo family. The linguistic unity of

13493-454: The residences of the nobility, a compluvium channeled the rainwater into the impluvium in order to permit light and air through the walls since windows were absent among these structures. The stored rainwater in the impluvium was discharged out of the house through a drainage system beneath the floor. Archaeological works from the mid 20th century has revealed the existence of edge-laid potsherd pavements in Benin city, dated around or prior to

13624-418: The site, which puts the main timing of glass-working between the 11th and 15th centuries AD. The results of these studies suggest that glass bead manufacture at this site was largely independent of glass-making traditions documented farther afield, and that Igbo Olokun may represent one of the earliest known glass-production workshops in West Africa. The location is not divulged except on request and permission of

13755-536: The slacker troops from the Gold Coast. Until the introduction of guns in the 15th century, traditional weapons like the spear, short sword, and bow held sway. Efforts were made to reorganize a local guild of blacksmiths in the 18th century to manufacture light firearms, but dependence on imports was still heavy. Before the coming of the gun, guilds of blacksmiths were charged with war production—particularly swords and iron spearheads. In addition, crossbowmen formed

13886-412: The son was installed as king, his mother – after having been invested with the title of Iyoba – was transferred to a palace just outside Benin City, in a place called Uselu. The mother held a considerable amount of power; she was, however, never allowed to meet her son – who was now a divine ruler – again. In Benin, the Oba was seen as divine . The Oba's divinity and sacredness was the focal point of

14017-704: The spatial relational terms are historically related to body-part terms. Yoruba uses a vigesimal (base-20) numbering system. The wide adoption of imported religions and civilizations such as Islam and Christianity has had an impact both on written and spoken Yoruba. In his Arabic-English Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Quran and Sunnah , Yoruba Muslim scholar Abu-Abdullah Adelabu argued Islam has enriched African languages by providing them with technical and cultural augmentations with Swahili and Somali in East Africa and Turanci Hausa and Wolof in West Africa being

14148-529: The standard devised there was the basis for the orthography of the steady flow of religious and educational literature over the next seventy years. The current orthography of Yoruba derives from a 1966 report of the Yoruba Orthography Committee, along with Ayọ Bamgboṣe's 1965 Yoruba Orthography , a study of the earlier orthographies and an attempt to bring Yoruba orthography in line with actual speech as much as possible. Still similar to

14279-600: The thirteenth and mid-fifteenth century CE and others suggest that the walls of Benin (in the Esan region) may have been constructed during the first millennium AD. The Benin City walls have been known to Westerners since around 1500. Around 1500, the Portuguese explorer Duarte Pacheco Pereira , briefly described the walls during his travels. In Pereira's Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis , 1505, we read: The houses are built of sun-dried bricks covered with palm leaves. Benin, which

14410-508: The thirteenth century AD. From the early days, human sacrifices were a part of the state religion. But many of the accounts of the sacrifices, says historian J. D. Graham, are exaggerated or based on rumour and speculation. He says that all of the evidence "points to a limited, ritual custom of human sacrifice, many of the written accounts referring to the human sacrifices describe them as actually being executed criminals". Edo historian Professor Philip Igbafe states that in pre-colonial Benin,

14541-399: The tradition was that only slaves could be sacrificed. This could include hardened criminals and those who had committed serious crimes, who would either be executed or sold into slavery. Sacrifices were made at the anniversary of the Oba's father, at the annual bead ceremony, and to propitiate the gods when poor weather threatened crops or when an epidemic threatened. In addition, the threat of

14672-424: The underdots, three further diacritics are used on vowels and syllabic nasal consonants to indicate the language's tones: an acute accent ⟨ ´ ⟩ for the high tone, a grave accent ⟨ ` ⟩ for the low tone, and an optional macron ⟨ ¯ ⟩ for the middle tone. These are used in addition to the underdots in ⟨ẹ⟩ and ⟨ọ⟩ . When more than one tone

14803-426: The use of Standard Yoruba did not result from some deliberate linguistic policy, much controversy exists as to what constitutes 'genuine Yoruba', with some writers holding the opinion that the Ọyọ dialect is the "pure" form, and others stating that there is no such thing as genuine Yoruba at all. Standard Yoruba, the variety learned at school and used in the media, has nonetheless been a decisive consolidating factor in

14934-401: The use of these diacritics can affect the retrieval of Yoruba documents by popular search engines. Therefore, their omission can have a significant impact on online research. When a word precedes another word beginning with a vowel, assimilation, or deletion (' elision ') of one of the vowels often takes place. Since syllables in Yoruba normally end in a vowel, and most nouns start with one, it

15065-548: The usual number of trade guns... When Captain Gallwey visited the city the only canon he saw were half a dozen old Portuguese guns. They were lying on the grass unmounted'. Compare this with the opinion of his immediate predecessor, Ralph Moor, who was convinced that 'the people in all the villages are no doubt possessed of arms' (F.O. 2/84, Moor to F.O. no. 39 of I2 Sept. 1895). Igbafe also points to Phillips' November 1896 advocacy of military force regarding Benin, arguing that this

15196-470: The vast majority of them being used by the locals for building purposes. What remains of the wall itself continues to be torn down for real estate developments in Nigeria. Fred Pearce wrote in New Scientist: They extend for some 16,000 km in all, in a mosaic of more than 500 interconnected settlement boundaries. They cover 2,510 sq. miles (6,500 square kilometres) and were all dug by

15327-436: The west. The end of his reign saw a rise in the power of prominent officials, and during the following decades many Oba's enjoyed short and turbulent reigns as various branches of the royal family fought for position. The death of Oba Ohuan in 1641 may have marked the end of the direct father-to-son line of succession going back to Eweka I . Officials also increasingly controlled the military and trade, as cloth came to replace

15458-544: The year the traditional worshippers celebrate a festival of one of these deities. Often the festivals extend over more than one day and they involve both priestly activities in the palace and theatrical dramatisations in the rest of the kingdom. Historically the King only appeared in public during the annual Olojo festival (celebration of the new dawn); other important festivals here include the Itapa festival for Obatala and Obameri,

15589-626: Was absorbed into the British Niger Coast Protectorate and eventually into British colonial Nigeria . A general emancipation of slaves followed in the wake of British occupation but Britain also imposed a system of forced labour in Benin and in surrounding areas, as they did throughout other parts of southern Nigeria. The British launched an additional operation in 1899, called the "Benin Territories Expedition", against rebels still holding out against

15720-410: Was also used, as seen in the carving of ivory into ornate boxes, combs and armlets. The most well-known artifact is based on Queen Idia , now known as the Benin ivory mask . Ivory masks were meant to be worn around the waist of kings. Ruling in the late 16th century, Oba Ehengbuda was the last of the warrior kings; after his reign the empire gradually shrank in size, losing control over territories in

15851-544: Was annexed by the British Empire in 1897. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the kingdom reached the height of its prosperity, expanding its territory, trading with European powers, and creating a remarkable artistic legacy in cast bronze, iron, carved ivory, and other materials. By the 1st century BC, the Benin territory was partially agricultural; and it became primarily agricultural by around 500 AD, but hunting and gathering still remained important. Also by 500, iron

15982-464: Was coveted by an influential group of investors for its rich natural resources such as palm-oil, and ivory. After British consul Richard Burton visited Benin in 1862 he wrote of Benin's as a place of "gratuitous barbarity which stinks of death", a narrative which was publicized in Britain and increased support for the territory's colonization. In spite of this, the kingdom maintained its independence and

16113-457: Was disputed between his two sons Ozuere and Akenzua. Akenzua and his close ally, a traditional chief who bore the title Ezomo , eventually prevailed over the younger Ozuere and his ally, the Iyase Ode in a decisive battle in 1721. Cleanup and reconquest of rebel areas, however, took another 10 years. With renewed stability in the kingdom and, Oba Akenzua benefited from trade with Europeans and

16244-586: Was historically spoken in the Ọyọ Empire . In NWY dialects, Proto-Yoruba velar fricative /ɣ/ and labialized voiced velar /gʷ/ have merged into /w/; the upper vowels /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ were raised and merged with /i/ and /u/, just as their nasal counterparts, resulting in a vowel system with seven oral and three nasal vowels. South-East Yoruba was most likely associated with the expansion of the Benin Empire after c.  1450 . In contrast to NWY, lineage, and descent are largely multilineal and cognatic , and

16375-562: Was in use by the inhabitants of the Benin territory. Benin City (formerly Edo) sprang up by around 1000, in a forest that could be easily defended. The dense vegetation and narrow paths made the city easy to defend against attacks. The rainforest, which Benin City is situated in, helped in the development of the city because of its vast resources – fish from rivers and creeks, animals to hunt, leaves for roofing, plants for medicine, ivory for carving and trading, and wood for boat building – that could be exploited. However, domesticated animals, from

16506-459: Was launched in response, and a 1,200-men strong force, under the command of Sir Harry Rawson , captured Benin City. They deliberately sought out and destroyed certain areas of the city, including those thought to belong to the chiefs responsible for the ambush of the British delegation, and in the process a fire burnt the palace and surrounding quarters, which the British claimed was accidental. There has much debate of why James Phillips set out on

16637-426: Was made 1892 during the visit of Vice-Consul Henry Gallwey . This mission was the first official visit after Burton's. Moreover, it would also set in motion the events to come that would lead to Oba Ovonramwen's fall from power. In the late 19th century, the Kingdom of Benin managed to retain its independence and the Oba exercised a monopoly over trade which British merchants in the region found irksome. The territory

16768-611: Was not visited by another representative of Britain until 1892 when Henry Gallwey , the British Vice-Consul of the Oil Rivers Protectorate (later the Niger Coast Protectorate ), visited Benin City hoping to open up trade and ultimately annex Benin Kingdom and transform it into a British protectorate . Gallwey was able to get Omo n’Oba ( Ovonramwen ) and his chiefs to sign a treaty which gave Britain legal justification for exerting greater influence over

16899-467: Was one of his father's principal ministers and overseer of the nascent Edo kingdom after Oduduwa granted the plea of the Edo people for his governance. When Oranmiyan decided to go back to Ile Ife, after a period of service in Benin , he left behind a child named Eweka that he had in the interim with an indigenous princess of Benin, Erinmwinde, daughter of the King (Ogie) of Egor , a neighbouring settlement to nascent Benin. The young boy went on to become

17030-412: Was to be one of the richest obas in the kingdom's history. Benin's economy was thriving in the early to mid 19th century with the development of the trade in palm oil, and the continuation of the trade in textiles, ivory and other resources. To preserve the kingdom's independence, the Oba gradually banned the export of goods from Benin, until the trade was exclusively in palm oil. By the latter half of

17161-405: Was worshipped at a special altar in the centre of Benin City. There were two separate annual series of rites that honored past Obas. Sacrifices were performed every fifth day. At the end of each series of rites, the current Oba's deceased father was honored with a public festival. During the festival, twelve criminals, chosen from a prison where the worst criminals were held, were sacrificed. By

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