The Kingdom of Benin: An African Civilization of Astonishing Beauty
If we had to pick one civilization, that more people need to know about, it would be the Kingdom of Benin. The Kingdom was a medieval African state formed in 1,100 ACE and lasted until the British invasion in 1,900 ACE. It was one of a large number of West African kingdoms that were scattered along to coast at the time, in modern-day Nigeria. Benin is known for many things, but in particular, its incredible art, particularly metalwork. Large portions of Africa were working iron in the 5th century when most of the Ancient world was collapsing and wouldn’t work out how to do intricate bronzes again for another millennium. Like so much of African history, it was plundered by Europe, many researchers assuming the art could not have been African, because of its sophistication. And most of the city itself was destroyed by Western invaders. Let’s dive in, to the Kingdom of Benin.
The Kingdom of Benin: The Basics
Benin was founded by the Edo people in roughly 1180 AD. Like many early civilizations, it started as a city, which grew powerful and then invaded and ruled over the cities around it. We know of 36 different rulers from Benin, they were referred to as the “Oba” and a lot of art is devoted to them.
Most of the ruins of Benin were destroyed by the British in the 1880s. The mission the British went on to destroyed them is literally called “the Punitive Expedition”, punishing them for resisting colonial rule. The remaining remnants of the Benin walls were torn down slowly by local people, being used for building materials. However, at their peak, they were four times as long as the Great Wall of China and consumed more than 1,000 times the amount of stone than the Egyptian Pyramids. They were by far the largest construction project in the world prior to the industrial revolution. The fact that no trace of them exists today is just the most abominable tragedy.
Benin civilization was incredibly advanced. The cities themselves were planned using fractal patterns – a repeating symmetry of shapes associated with a kind of mathematics not understood in the West until the 19th century. They had street lighting – using oil rag torches on posts around the city. A Portuguese traveler visiting there in the 17th century said “It is so well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.” Again, the truth of this statement is basically impossible to verify, because of what has been lost.
A large number of Early African settlements are planned using fractal shapes, re-occurring geometric patterns. This paper by R. Eglash talks about it a lot more. It is really one of the wildest things ever. We really want to know more about this because we just don’t understand how or why.
Benin: The Art
The most famous art coming out of Benin are the Benin bronzes. Once Benin started trading with Europe and surrounding kingdoms they almost immediately started making some of the most beautiful and incredible sculptures that humans had ever produced.
The most famous ones are the above panels – there were more than 1,000 of them decorating the royal palace. Each of them is unique – there was no mass production at all. Each shows different figures, soldiers with weapons, servants, farmers holding various implements and serving the King. Many western reliefs and panels are pretty shallow, only a few centimeters in depth. These panels often stick out 10 to 15 centimeters with the soldiers holding swords out in front of them. The particularly African features of the faces, the nose, and lips were exaggerated, but they still have a distinctly realistic quality, more than a lot of other contemporary African art.
As well as the panels, they did exquisite portraits. They carved traditional African masks out of ivory and did exquisite bronze busts. They even made carvings out of coral, which was considered a particularly sacred material (see some more on African Art here).
This is a modern recreation of some of the Benin bronzes by Osaize Omodamwen. It is so beautiful and is such a different approach to portraiture than in the west. It exaggerates the nose, the lips, the eyelids more than in traditional western busts. She has such grace and power (Image: Flickr).
Benin: Just spectacular
Like so much of African history, the evil of colonialism is very present in the history of Benin.
It is almost impossible to imagine the perspective of so much of Europe was at the time. Just imagine for a second, if you came across an uncontacted civilization. Maybe we found some aliens, or a lost underwater city full of mermaids. Imagine how excited you would be? You have just met some people who would have a completely different history and view of the world? What language would they speak? What did they think was the purpose of life? What would they know about the Universe, that you didn’t? Could we learn from their technologies or ways of living? We would be so excited.
Now imagine you just didn’t care and started killing them. You made them your slaves, started stealing their resources and art, trying to wipe out their culture and make them all Christian. This was genuinely what most Europeans believe was the right thing to do for most of the last 400 years. The arrogance and evil is unfathomable.
Elements of this view even continue today. We don’t go on “punitive missions” in quite the same way anymore, but we have certainly not taken significant steps to repair. Of the 1,000 known Benin bronzes, 700 of them are still in the British Museum. There are only a few dozen of them in all of Africa. It is atrocious.
It is even hard to find information about Benin. Because so much of its history is locked up in different European museums there is disturbingly little public information and knowledge about Benin and its other contemporary African kingdoms. We at The Universal Story have done our best trying to put together what we can, but we suspect there is so much more to know and understand out there. Imagine how differently Africa would be viewed in the modern world, if this history was more widely known? Lets hope the 21st century treats these places with more respect, deference, and love than they were given in the 20th.
