The fall of the Benin Empire began the present Urhobo history. It is a vital part of our history. It is a long carefully research piece, but not boring, Idugbowa, who as son of Oba Adolo ascended the Benin throne as Oba Ovonramwen in about 1888, he mounted the throne after a much depleted inheritance due to constant attacks by neighbouring powers on the Benin empire and as such diminished the size of the Obas dominion and the size of his income. Soon after his accession in 1888, Ovonramwen addressed himself to the problem of maintaining internal stability by suppressing centers of disaffection and bringing to justice all persons guilty of conspiracy against his accession. Many prominent chiefs like Obaraye, Obazelu and Erubo were executed in this first purge to rid the city of factions and dissident elements. Chief Uwangwes special position as the Obas favourite and as head of the senior palace of Ivebo, led to other palace chiefs of the association conspiring against him and finally murdering him in 1895 because they felt he had inspired Ovonramwen bold stroke against the chiefs. This political murder led to an enquiry and a second purge resulted in the execution of Erasoyen, Obaduagbon and others who were either accomplices or directly responsible for the murder. The execution of many nobles in Benin indicated that Ovonramwen was determined to rule as a king, was determined to be respected and was intolerant of saboteurs and rebels. The Oba also sent traditional chalk to outlying areas under his authority and none prefered hostility to peace.The liquidation of opposition in Benin City probably had an indirect effect of keeping subordinate areas quiet for some time after Ovonramwens accession. The only recorded disaffection in the early years of Ovonramwens reign was from Akure where the Deji in about 1889 attempted to make ceremonial state swords without reference to and sanction from Benin. The Oba sent one of his warriors to Akure with an army to seize the forbidden swords, which he easily did. When Agbor revolted against Benin control in 1896 Ovonramwen began collecting soldiers from various areas of his empire to build up a formidable army with which to overawe Agbor. To this end a camp was established at Obadan and ten thousand soldiers gathered there for the Agbor campaign. However, the crushing of the people of Agbor had still not been carried out when the preparations were overtaken by the events of the massacre of the Europeans and the subsequent expedition of conquest. It must be seen therefore that Oba Ovonramwen had a clear conception of his powers and a rigid determination to rule in the tradition of his ancestors. In ordinary circumstances he was not the man to surrender his independence willingly or to sign away his freedom to exercise his traditional powers In one other direction- that of commerce - Oba Ovonranwen consistently pursued the policy of his ancestors. It was the tragedy of Ovonramwens position that although robbed by Gallwey of the erstwhile traditional commercial monopoly of the kings of Benin, he still tried to carry on the practices of his forebears, thus running against the commercial interest of the British whose opposition had been strengthened by that treaty. Even after the treaty Ovonramwen continued to extract presents from the Itsekiri middlemen and to shut down the trade if the presents were withheld. It was his practice to keep up the royal monopoly in some products such as palm kernels, on which he could still place some embargo. The Acting Consul General J.R.Philips reported in November 1896 that Ovonramwen has permanently placed a juju on kernels, the most profitable product of the country... he has closed the markets and he has only occasionally consented to open them on receipt of presents from Jekri chiefs By April the same year, the Oba had stopped all the trade with the middlemen, and the Itsekiri chiefs on the advice of Consul General Moore sent him a present worth forty pounds which was contemptuously refused as insufficient. It was only accepted after it had been doubled. Under Ovonramwen, the traditional method of dealing with the middlemen was pursued. There were constant quarrels between the Itsekiris traders and the Benin and the Urhobo oil producers over the issue of credit facilities and arrangements. The Oba gave as his reason for the constant closure of markets the incessant complaints by his people that the Itsekiri traders were cheating them. The Oba agents often taxed these middlemen heavily and they ran the risk of having their goods confiscated if they refused to pay.Had the Acting Consul General not intervened the Itsekiri traders would have acceded to the Obas demands for one thousand corrugated iron sheets for the roofing of his palace as a condition for opening the closed markets in 1896. The British did not, of course, understand the Obas attitude to the closure of markets. When in 1896 a Lagos trader on the orders of Consul General Moore and with gifts worth about thirty pounds went to persuade Ovonramwen to start a rubber industry because rubber was so plentiful in the Benin forests, the Oba ignored the request. Apart from showing that the Oba Ovonramwen had the trade of Benin with the middlemen well in hand in the tradition of his forebears, his restrictions on trade and demands for presents show him clearly as one who did not accept limitation to his commercial authority. The Oba still permitted the activities of the trading associations was still not lost till well after the conquest of Benin by the British. Under Ovonramwen, British pattern of trade still remained as it had been for centuries. Trade in some products was organised under royal monopoly and was carried on with the Itsekiri middlemen who, as well as trading under the aegis of associations made up largely of the higher palace nobility, had direct contact with the Europeans. The Oba was still in the habit of halting trade at will to the middlemen and this made trading difficult for the Europeans on the coast. The clash between the Bini and the British centered upon the issue of who - the British consul or the Oba - would control the trade of Benin Oba Ovonramwen was pursuing a rigidly controlled economic policy at a time when the pressure of industrial and economic needs in Europe heightened by commercial rivalries, colonial agitation and international competitions along the Bight of Benin and Biafra were making it necessary for Britain to make a push from the coast into the interior and to adapt a bold forward policy. It was the era of increased competition for colonial for colonial acquisition and Germany and France were speeding up their struggle for new territories. In these circumstances African potentates like Ovonramwen who refused to surrender their power to British officials were doomed by the economic imperialism of late Victorian England to be swept into war. It was during this period that an event which was to have momentous consequences for Benin occurred in Britain. This was the invention of the pneumatic tyre by the Scottish surgeon and inventor. J.B. Dunlop. He constructed a pneumatic tyre for his child in 1887 and after being tested. It as patented on December 7, 1888, the year of Ovonramwens accession. The production of the pneumatic tyre on a large scale, first for the use of bicycles and later for cars, in turn stimulated the demand for crude rubber and the desire to penetrate tropical forests like that of Benin, which abounded in large quantities of rubber producing trees. This increased the British urge to get into contact with the Oba of Benin and to gain access to areas and forests under his control. People like Chamberlain, the Colonial secretary in Lords Salisburys Government, began speaking of colonies as underdeveloped estates and sent out despatches to governors requesting information on the products available in their colonies. These goings-on at the Colonial Office were bound to influence the men at the Foreign Office who were in charge of the Niger Coast Protectorate.. Consuls Hewett, Blair, and Annesley attempted to visit Benin in 1884, 1885 and 1890 respectively. It is no wonder that as Vice-Consul on the Benin River in 1891, Gallwey prepared to visit Benin in 1892 after spending the previous year making exploratory journeys along the creeks, the Benin River tributaries and into the interior Urhobo markets Vice-Consul Gallwey decided to visit Benin in 1892 possibly to make the the Oba understand the extent of British interests and his visit was significant in more ways than one. It was the first official visit since Burtons of 1862 and was a harbinger of the events which finally brought Ovonramwen to defeat and deportation. Secondly, Gallwey apparently succeeded where Hewett, Blair and Annesley had failed.Thirdly Gallwey pushed through a treaty whose opening article claims to was signed at the request of the king of Benin and the Government of her Britannic Majestic was merely complying with Ovonramwens wishes. By this treaty the Oba signed away his freedom and independence and granted freedom of trade to all foreigners within his territories. The kindest thing that can be said about Gallwey is that he was naive, the most honest was that he was deceitful. The Oba of Benin did not request the treaty and neither he nor his chiefs were would have signed it had the clauses been faithfully explained to them. For the Oba to have willingly signed away his freedom and independence and for him to have granted freedom of trade to all foreigners within his territories against the practice which he had inherited is inconceivable. In Bini eyes it would have amounted to a reckless abdication of his responsibilities. By the treaty he had provided Britain with the legal grounds for subsequently holding Oba Ovonramwen accountable for practices which were adjudged obstructionist and hostile to British commerce and the policy of penetration into the interior of the country. While consuls were making efforts to make the Oba live up to the treaty of 1892, the traders were egging them on to take firmer action against him. Traders such as James Pinnock, the Miller Brothers, Bey and Zimmer and representatives of the Imperial African Association persistently complained against Ovonramwens stoppage of trade. Moores despatches at the instances of the traders, began to take on a more belligerent note saying that force would be necessary if peaceful means failed to make Oba Ovonramwen amenable. By the middle of 1896 the constant attempts by the consular officials to get in touch with Oba Ovonramwen, the vociferous clamour of the traders for consular action against the adamant Benin ruler, the foreign office demands for every steps being taken in the Protectorate to go into the interior, and the advocacy of the use of force by successive consul-generals, all pointed to an imminent clash. It was at this juncture that James Philip took over the duties of Acting Commissioner and Consul-General of the Niger Coast Protectorate. After reviewing the whole situation on the Benin River and listening to aggrieved Itsekiri traders on developments leading to the stoppage of trade in the middle 1896. Philips came to the conclusion that force must be used against Ovonramwen. The Foreign Office ultimately vetoed the decision to send an armed expedition in 1896 owing to lack of sufficient troops, but Phillips did not wait for this decision. He hurriedly set out for Benin, completely disregarding the remonstrances of the Itsekiri traders, the advice of Chief Dogho, the Obas refusal to see him and the traditions and the susceptibilities of the Benin people. Why against all advice did Philips set out for Benin? Firstly, the Obas defiance was lowering the prestige of the Protectorate government,.Secondly, Philips feared the Foreign Office would refuse to use force and he decided to go on a spying mission as he was convinced that force must ultimately be employed. Thirdly, he desired to advance his career and thought he would receive commendation, if he would persuade the Oba to adapt a policy of free trade. Lastly, Philips was arrogant and had a low opinion of the martial qualities of the people of Benin. Thus on January 2, 1897, Philips and his armed party set out on a spying mission, he arrogantly ignored repeated warnings, even pleadings by the Obas messengers. He and most of his party were wiped out on January 4 on the Gwato-Benin road by the Benin soldiers. A few African porters and two Europeans escaped. Since the bloody reputation of the Bini was later to be exaggerated it may be necessary to say that one of the escaped Europeans reported a certain reluctance on the part of some of the soldiers to carry out their duty. By this time the kingdom of Benin was in a state of high tension. British pressure on the kingdom had been mounting since the Gallwey treaty of 1892 and after the British had attacked and exiled Nan in 1894 the Bini had constantly expected the whitemans war. They did not believe that Philips party was unarmed as it was pretending to be and they suspected that the boxes carried by the party contained things with which to catch the king. They were right, since Philips issued revolvers to members of the party but ordered they be kept hidden, it is unthinkable that the Bini did not know this and the secrecy of the action suggest a plan of deception. As the Oba excited messengers returned to Benin to report the steady advance of Philips and his men the atmosphere in the capital must have been building up to an explosive point when the news came of the death of Philips. The relief was short for almost immediately the British immediately began preparation for the invasion of the kingdom. A month later the British mounted a three-pronged attack through Ologbo creek, the Jamieson river and Gwato creek, which aimed not only to destroy Benin but also to create an impression of British might and to strike fear into peoples for hundreds of miles around. Benin City fell to the invaders on February 17, 1897. On that day, the proud kingdom of Benin lost its independence, its sovereignty, its Oba, its control of trade and its ancient pride. Benin was humbled in a manner experienced by few others in the area later known as Nigeria. Benin the City of Blood got its reputation from the eyewitness accounts produced by individuals in the conquering army of 1897. The city fell to looters and trophy hunters. The ivory at the palace was eagerly seized. Nearly 2,500 of the now famous Benin bronzes plus other valuable works of art such as the magnificent carved doors of the palace were carried back to Europe for sale so that today almost every museum in the world possesses art treasures from Benin. Once they had sripped it of his tresures, the invaders set the city ablaze. After months in hiding, Ovonramwen appeared in Benin City on August 6, 1897, the trial of the Oba and his chiefs began on September 1st under the newly formed Council of Chiefs presided over bt Ralph Moore, with Captain Roupell and Carter in attendance. Moore claimed that the trial for the murder of Philips and his companion should be under African law and custom. There was no Bini law or custom which made white foreigners chiefs but Moore asked the asked the council to give the perpetrators of the massacre the traditional punishment for those who had killed chiefs. The trial was a sham because as the despatches show the chiefs had been presumed guilty long before the trial. Even before asking the Benin chiefs for their verdict, Moore summed up by saying that the chiefs were murderers and should be killed without arms as they had killed the unarmed white men. The evidence pointed to the Obas innocence. Perhaps the witnesses tried to save the Oba but it would appear that the events leading to the massacre show that just before the British invasion the influence of the Oba was declining and the power of the chief was increasing. Of the six chiefs held responsible for the massacre of Philips - Ologbosere, Obadesagbon, Obayuwana, Usu and Iguobasoyemi- only three were executed. The others committed suicide. Ovonramwen was deposed, deported and exiled forever on September 13 1897. From his home of exile in Calabar, he attempted to maintain touch with his people, but he was checked by the British officers. All efforts to get him returned to Benin failed, even after Nanas return from exile in 1906. Ovonramwen became very seriously ill on January 9, 1914 and died on the `13th in Calabar
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 14:57:25 +0000