The Benin Expedition Of 1897 How The British Destabilized One Of The Greatest Kingdoms In Africa
February 10, 2021 1014
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Until the late 19th century, one of the major powers in West Africa was a kingdom in what is now southwest/southeast Nigeria known as Benin. It was home to the Edo people who spoke the main Bini language.
When European merchant ships began to visit West Africa from around 15th century onwards, Benin came to control trade between the inland peoples and the Europeans on the coast. The kingdom was also well known to European traders and merchants―particularly the Portuguese―during the 16th and 17th centuries, when it came to its peak of wealth partly due to its trading in slaves.
Despite its commercial contact with several European nations, the kingdom did not come into the British official reckoning until well into the second half of the nineteenth century. During the last decade of the nineteenth century, however, the kingdom’s capital Benin City fell to British troops after a dramatic build-up of rapidly succeeding events culminating in what is today known as the punitive expedition of February 1897. These events, as revealed in Phillip A. Igbafe’s ‘The fall of benin: A Reassessment’ were prompted by economic rather than humanitarian considerations.
Prelude to the Expedition and the Raid on Benin
In
late 19th century Britain sought to expand their trade in the area of what is
now southern Nigeria. In January 1897, Acting Consul-General James Robert Phillips, of the Niger Coast
Protectorate, led an unarmed trading expedition to Benin City. In order to
prevent the British party from interfering with annual royal rituals, some Beni
chiefs―acting against Oba Ovonramwen’s wishes―ordered the expedition attacked. This led to the death of six British officials
and almost 200 African porters.
In
response, Britain mounted an expedition to capture Benin. In February 1897,
having successfully defeated the Beni forces, Benin city was sacked and the
palace burned and looted. The walls of Benin―hailed as the largest man made
structure ever built―was also razed to the ground. The oba (or
king) was captured and sent into exile to Calabar where he died in 1914.
To make their victory complete and to break the power of the monarchy, the
British forces confiscated all of the royal treasures and artefacts, giving
some to individual officers while most were taken to be auctioned in London―the
proceeds to pay for the cost of the expedition (then £30,000, equivalent to £36.6 million today).
The looted
objects eventually made their way into museum and various private collections scattered
around the world. Their arrival
and the reception caused a sensation in Europe with scholars left in wonder as
to how African craftsmen could have made such works of art, and bringing
forward various theories to explain them. These objects remain contested today, with many
Nigerian scholars and museum professionals, and the royal court of Benin
advocating for their return.
The
expedition is reported to have lasted for five weeks, with no true figures existing
on the number of casualties. It is noted that Black
troops did most of the fighting and were at the front of the advances. Benin Expedition 120 years on
states that “as they fell they were simply stepped over and left where they
fell”.
No reliable
record was kept by the British on how many of them were killed in action. The casualties
on the Benin side were hurriedly dumped in mass
graves across Benin City as the people fled. Oba Ovonramwen is said to
have evacuated Benin City and neighbouring countryside villages and towns to
minimise civilian casualties in the pending British invasion.
On why the
kingdom fell, Igbafe notes that “the Benin kingdom fell mainly because, in an
age when the traders and the British consular officials had reasons impelling
them to penetrate into the hinterland, Oba Ovonramwen was clinging to
traditional policies of economic exclusiveness and monopolistic practices which
inflicted economic losses on the revenues of the individual traders, the
Itsekiri middlemen and the Niger Coast Protectorate government”. He opines that “the increasing fear of
concerted European designs on his kingdom further strengthened the Oba's
adherence to his closed-door policy, which in turn increased the consul
Phillips’ determination to bring him and his kingdom under British economic and
political control.”
In 1914, Eweka II, son of the deposed king revived the Benin monarchy, now under British rule, restoring the palace and reviving the ancient traditions of the Benin monarchy.
SOURCES
OF AUTHOR’S INFORMATION
Benin Expedition 120
years on. (n.d.). Benin Expedition 120 years on. Retrieved June 14,
2020, from Benin Expedition 120 years on: https://beninexpedition120yearson.weebly.com/about.html
Igbafe, A. P. (1970).
The fall of Benin: A Reassessment. The
Journal of African History, 11(3); 385-400.
doi:10.1017/S0021853700010215
Khan Academy.
(n.d.). The Kindom of Benin. Retrieved June 14, 2020, from khan Academy:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-africa/west-africa/nigeria/a/the-kingdom-of-benin
SNMAA. (n.d.). Museum Insights / The Raid on Benin, 1897. Retrieved June 15, 2020, from Smithsonian: https://africa.si.edu/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/visionary-viewpoints-on-africas-arts/the-raid-on-benin-1897/