Ancient Benin Kingdom
Established in the 1200s, the pre-colonial kingdom of Benin was one of the oldest & most highly developed states in West Africa. The empire was founded by the Edo people of southern Nigeria. No longer wanting to be ruled by their kings, the ‘ogisos’, the Edos requested a prince from Ife, another prominent West African kingdom, to take control. The first oba (king) of Benin was Eweka, the son of the Ife prince.
The Benin kingdom reached its peak power and size under Oba Ewuare the Great. He expanded the kingdom and improved its capital city, present-day Benin City. The success of Benin was largely fueled by its lively trade. Tradesmen and artisans from Benin developed relationships with the Portuguese, who sought the kingdom’s artwork, gold, ivory, and pepper. In the early modern era, Benin was also heavily involved in the West African slave trade, capturing men, women, and children from rival peoples and selling them into slavery to European and American buyers. This trade provided a significant source of wealth for the kingdom. As the kingdom grew in wealth, they also built an intricate city, the planning and design of which was done according to careful rules of symmetry, proportionality and repetition now known as fractal design - The city and its surrounding villages were laid out to form perfect fractals, with similar shapes repeated in the rooms of each house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village in mathematically predictable patterns.
When the Portuguese first “discovered” the city in 1485, they were stunned to find this vast kingdom made of hundreds of interlocked cities and villages in the middle of the African jungle. They called it the “Great City of Benin”, classifying it as one of the most beautiful & best planned cities in the world.
Benin began to lose power during the 1800s, as its royal family members fought for power and control of the throne. Civil wars broke out, weakening both Benin’s administration as well as its economy. In its eroded state, Benin struggled to resist foreign interference in its trading network, particularly by the British. Seeking to control West African trade and territory, the British invaded Benin in 1897, consequently looting and burning it to the ground. They later made the kingdom part of British Nigeria (which became Nigeria after the country gained independence in 1960).
Today, a modern Benin City has been built on the same plain of the lost ancient empire. Remnants of its history can however be found in ancient Benin art - The 'Benin Bronzes' are a group of sculptures which include elaborately decorated cast plaques, commemorative heads, animal and human figures, items of royal regalia, and personal ornaments. They can be seen in museums in Nigeria and London.
Cited:
Koutonin, M. (2016, March 18). Story of cities #5: Benin City, The Mighty Medieval Capital now lost without trace. The Guardian. Retrieved January 12, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/18/story-of-cities-5-benin-city-edo-nigeria-mighty-medieval-capital-lost-without-trace
National Geographic Society. (2022, May). The Kingdom of Benin. National Geographic Society. Retrieved January 12, 2023, from https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/kingdom-benin