On the Historical Evolution of the Benin Kingdom
Ron Schaefer
Francis Odemerho
Our understanding of the Edoid speaking Benin Kingdom of pre-colonial West Africa
derives in large measure from oral history (Egharevba 1934) and the highly stylized
bronze casting and ivory carving of the 14th through 17th centuries (Crowder and
Abdullahi 1979). Both focus on the Kingdom’s patrilineal, hereditary kingship and
centralized palace government in Benin City. As a consequence, there is little
understanding of Edoid populations and settlements outside the palace, especially those
on the fringes of the Kingdom, and how they interlaced with Benin City in the historical
evolution of the Kingdom.
Recent archaeological and ethnographic studies of West African forest states like Benin
have directed attention to how rural settlements consolidated into urban zones (Connah
2004). Portuguese explorers in the 15th century were impressed by Benin City’s size and
splendor far in advance of the 1897 British takeover. Nonetheless, Benin City is situated
in the Nigerian rainforest, far inland from the Atlantic Ocean, not on a major river and in
its day approached only via narrow footpath in dense vegetation. Although archaeological
investigation of Benin City has detailed its earthen embankments (Connah 1975), little
investigation has been directed at its concentration of economic and cultural resources as
well as its centralization of civil and religious authority relative to surrounding villages.
Benin City’s zone of urban complexity must have been dependent on an interregional
network of agricultural production, trade, exchange as well as military defense. Exercise
of these elements would require some degree of linguistic mutual intelligibility between
parties and a navigable terrain. Therefore, an analysis of the geographic spread of village
vernacular types in Edoid speaking regions as well as their geographic terrain should
prove insightful. For our presentation, we explore geographic and linguistic evidence
from across the entire Edoid speaking region in order to shed light on the historical
evolution of the Benin Kingdom.