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Virtual Guide | West African Kingdoms | Benin Bronze

Africa | West African Kingdoms | Religions | Dogon Culture
Benin Bronze | Catalogue

The Bronscollection.

The kingdom of Benin is located in the tropical rain forest of southern Nigeria, on a sandy coastal plain west of the Niger river and north of the swamps and creeks of the Niger Delta.
The early phases of Benin history are shrouded in mystery. Benin grew into a vast military and commercial power by the time the first Europeans arrived, in the last quarter of the 15th century. The capital Benin City (in the 13th century no more than clusters of settlements, each surrounded by an earthen wall) had by then fused together and was the administrative center of the kingdom, home of te Oba (the king).

The Oba is still considered to be divine. He personally controls the forces that effect the well-being of the entire kingdom. He is the channel through which the powers of his ancestors continue to vitalize and protect his people and ensure their survival into the future. Numerous state rituals are performed in order to maintain the close connection between the Oba and his ancestors and to reinforce the Oba's personal capacity to serve as intermediary between them and the Benin people. The Oba exercises power in this world as well as in the spirit world.
The origin of the royal dynasty is recounted in the oral tradition. After the failure of the early kings of Benin, known as the Ogiso or 'Rulers of the sky', a group of chiefs requested a new king from the Oni of Ife, the ancient center of the neighbouring Yoruba people, which the people of Benin associate with the origin of the world and the spread of divine kingship. The Oni sent his son Oranmiyan to Benin. Oranmiyan chose not to remain in Benin, but before leaving he fathered a son by the daughter of a Benin chief. When that boy grew up he was enthroned as Eweka I, the first king of the dynasty that still rules Benin today. Eweka is believed to have taken the throne around 1300.

With the enthronement of Eweka I, the people of Benin were ruled by a king of foreign ancestry, a fact that has both enhanced the mystique of subsequent Obas and brought them into conflict with the autochtonous chiefs. The first Oba therefore reorganized the administration of the kingdom so as to maximize the power of the king. Certain insignia of power, such as the Ada ceremonial sword, were limited to the Oba; and only the Oba had the right to confer titles, thus reserving for himself the most powerful tool for manipulating the political system of the kingdom.
The 15th and 16th century were the period of Benin's glory; it was the period of Benin's great warrior kings. It was in this period the first Portugese sailed up the waterways into the area than known as the 'slave rivers', and made contact with the king of bening.
The kingdom of Benin was usually at war with its neighbouring tribes and many captives were taken; so the Oba could trade slaves freely with the Portugese and later the Dutch. Slaves, pepper and ivory were traded for brass and copper rings or bracelets, cowrie shells that were used as currency in Benin, and other luxury items. The trade took place exclusively with the king or his agents, thus adding immeasurably to the court's wealth.
The power of the Oba decreased in the 17th century and a series of bitter disputes over succession to the throne weakened the kingdom. Towards the end of the 17th century the ruling Oba restored the power of the king and the fortune of the kingdom. Throughout the 18th century, despite the renewed authority of the Obas, the kings of Benin retreated into the security and mystery of the palace. They developed the ceremonial and ritual aspects of kingship to enhance their power and reputation as the living representatives of the kingdom's royal ancestors. This led to a flourishing period for the art of brass casting and ivory carving. These objects were made exclusively for the king's court; only with permission of the Oba the guilds were permitted to make brass or ivory objects for other members of the court.
At the end of the 19th century Great Britain had gained power in the Benin territory. A dispute about a trade agreement and the killing of a group of Englishmen and their African bearers, who traveled to Benin City to discuss this matter, led to a punitive expedition in 1897. Benin City was captured and much of the palace and town destroyed. Thousands of art works found in the palace were seized and brought to England. Many were auctioned in order to defray the costs of the expedition and and provide pensions for the participants or their survivors.
Several years later the new Oba regained the royal coral beads thad had been seized by te British. He also revitalized the craft guilds, by commissioning brass and ivory objects to replace those that had been confiscated.

The art of Benin is unique in African art. Primarily made of cast brass and carved ivory, it provides an unbroken record of the artistic heritage of one of West Africa's greatest kingdoms. It is a royal art, made to glorify the divine king, and to honor the great kings of the past. It portrays past people and alludes to past events that have contributed to the kingdom's powers, wealth, and conceptual or spiritual greatness.
The Oba is the most important patron of the arts in Benin, and before 1897 he had a virtual monopoly on the work of many of the artists' guilds. Membership in the guild is herediraty, and the skills are passed on from generation to generation. The most important were the guilds of brasscasters and ivory and wood carvers.
Brasscasting was performed almost exclusively for the king. The brasscasters' guild 'Igun Eronmwon' dates back to the 15th or early 16th century. The technique of lost-wax casting was introduced at the end of the 14th century. It probably came from Ife, the capital city of the neighbouring Yoruba, who have a longer history of brasscasting.
This technique involves the making of an exact model of the object to be produced in wax, over a clay core. All of the details desired in the finished work are incised or modeled in the wax. Wax projections are added, which eventually serve as sprues or channels for the metal to flow into the mold and for gases to come out. The entire wax model is then covered with a layer of fine clay, and further layers of increasingly coarse clay are added. The mold is then heated, firing the outer clay investment and melting the wax within it. When the wax is poured out, it leaves an empty space which is filled by pouring in molten brass. After the metal cools and hardens, the clay mold is broken, revealing a brass object identical to the original wax model. The sprues are removed, the surface polished, and as much as possible of the interior clay core removed. Sculputures made by the lost-wax process are unique, because the mold is broken and cannot be used again.