The Oba of Benin Kingdom: A history of the monarchy

Who is the Oba of Benin Kingdom in Nigeria and why is he so important to so many people?

 

Benin City, Nigeria - A wooden staff thumps on the landing in front of the temporary palace. "Long live the king!" bellows Chief Osa, as he raises his fist. The sun reflects off the golden decorations on his horn-shaped red hat.
The other Iwebo chiefs who have followed Osa in a procession onto the palace grounds and now stand behind him say "Isee" in agreement.
Then Osa and Chief Osuan, the crown prince's escorts on his way to the ascension, enter Usama palace, a nondescript bungalow on fallow terrain in the centre of town.
It is 8am and it will be at least seven hours until Crown Prince Eheneden Erediauwa shows himself in public, but his subjects have already come out in great numbers. Thick crowds clog the roads in the heart of Benin City in the south of Nigeria, in expectation of the coronation of the new Oba of the centuries-old Benin Kingdom.
Coronation day in Benin - not to be confused with the West African country that used to be known as Dahomey - on October 20 was preceded by 10 days of ceremonies and rites.
Banners with the crown prince's portrait and flags with his name fluttered all over the city, the pavements received a new daub of black and white paint and the lawns in front of the cultural centre were trimmed. It didn't matter which local radio or TV station you tuned into, all of their bulletins started with what the crown prince had been up to that day on his way to the throne.
"The Oba is a father to all of us," says 24-year-old student of mass communication Esosa, who left home at 5am on coronation day to get a good view of the proceedings.

'The king's court is as large as the city of Haarlem' 

Nigeria is a constitutional democracy that elects its representatives.
But the 250-plus ethnic groups that have been gathered into one country by the British colonisers also acknowledge their own traditional rulers. Of these leaders, the monarch of the Bini people of Benin is among the most respected. But what kind of power does the Oba of Benin wield? And what is his influence on the development of Nigeria's Edo State, of which Benin City is the capital?
When the Portuguese first set foot there at the end of the 15th century, Benin was a city-state in the middle of the rainforest that surpassed many late medieval European cities in urban development and where the streets were lit at night by palm oil lanterns.

"The king's court is as large as the city of Haarlem, and ... divided into many magnificent palaces, houses and rooms of the courtiers, and ... galleries, about as large as the Exchange at Amsterdam," the Dutch geographer Olfert Dapper wrote in 1668 about the Oba's court, based on accounts of explorers and missionaries who had visited Benin.
At the time, the Benin Kingdom was at the height of its military and political power and stretched far into the east and west of modern-day Nigeria.

That supremacy strengthened Benin's position towards the European intruders, explains history professor Osarhieme Benson Osadolor of the University of Benin.
"The Oba maintained his independence despite pressure from the Portuguese, Dutch, and British."

There was, however, a lively intercontinental trade relationship, during which Europeans provided the Oba with firearms and other items in exchange for slaves that his army brought back after their conquests.