Edo people
The Edo or Bini people are an ethnic group found in Edo State, spread across the Delta and Rivers states of Nigeria. They are the descendants of the founders of the Benin Empire, they are related to other ethnic groups that speak Edoid languages, such as the Esan, the Afemai and the Owan. The name "Benin" is a Portuguese corruption from the word "Ubinu", which came into use during the reign of Oba Ewuare the Great, c. 1440. "Ubinu" was used to describe the royal administrative centre or city or capital proper of the kingdom, Edo. Ubinu was corrupted to Bini by the mixed ethnicities living together at the centre. See Oba of Benin. Benin people have one of the richest dress cultures on the African continent, their fashion accessories holds royalty and includes beads, body marks, anklets, raffia work and so on. In the traditional religion of the Edo, there exists, besides the human world, an invisible world of supernatural beings acting as interceders for the human world. Offerings are made to them in their respective shrines.
Osanobua is Supreme God. His son/daughter Olokun is ruler of all bodies of water and is responsible for the prosperity and fertility of his/her human followers. Another son Ogun, is the patron god of metalworkers; the epithet Osanobua Noghodua mean God Almighty. The word Osanobua encompasses a large number of divine principles - including the divine state of being merciful, goodness, justice and supreme. In the Edo belief system, Osanobua has the divine attributes of omnipresence and omnipotence; the Supreme Deity is believed to be present everywhere and at all times. Victor Uwaifo, writer and musical instrument inventor. Peter Odemwingie, professional footballer. Charles Novia, film director, screenwriter and social commentator. Osayuki Godwin Oshodin, former Vice-chancellor of University of Benin. Benson Idahosa and founder of the Church of God Mission International. Samuel Ogbemudia and former military Governor of the Mid-West State John Odigie Oyegun and first national chairman of All Progressives Congress in Nigeria Moses Odaro, academic and finance consultant Victor Ikpeba, professional footballer.
Cultural Wars and National Identity - The Saga of the Yoruba and the Bini-Edo Bini Names in Nigeria and Georgia Edoworld -The origin of Edo/Bini people Who are the Edos/Binis? Nature of God in Edo Religion Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on the Edo people
Akenzua II
Omo n'Oba n'Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Akenzua II was the Oba of Benin from 1933 until his death in 1978. Akenzua II was enthroned as Oba of Benin in April 1933 following the death of his father, Eweka II in February that year. Oba Akenzua II was dedicated to the provision of western education for the Edo people. In 1936, he began the movement to return to Nigeria the Benin Bronzes looted from the royal compounds and ancestral altars in the punitive Benin Expedition of 1897. During his reign, only two of the 3,000 royal court bronzes were returned. However, two coral crowns and coral bead garment, thought to have belonged to Ovonramwen, were returned to him in the late 1930s by G. M. Miller a son of a member of the Benin expedition, who had loaned the pieces to the British Museum in 1935. Oba Akenzua II died on June 11, 1978, when he was succeeded by his son Prince Solomon, who took on the title of Oba Erediauwa and duties as the traditional leader of the Edo people in Benin City, Nigeria. In 1923 his first son was born Prince Solomon Aiseokhuoba Igbinoghodua Akenzua, whose chosen title was founded on the name Ere, relating to Oba Eresonye, traditionally considered to be an wealthy Oba.
Princess Elizabeth Olowu Peju Layiwola https://books.google.com/books/about/Oba_Akenzua_II_C_M_G.html?id=Sr0MAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/benin/artwork/190979
Benin
Benin the Republic of Benin and Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso and Niger to the north; the majority of its population lives on the small southern coastline of the Bight of Benin, part of the Gulf of Guinea in the northernmost tropical portion of the Atlantic Ocean. The capital of Benin is Porto-Novo, but the seat of government is in Cotonou, the country's largest city and economic capital. Benin covers an area of 114,763 square kilometres and its population in 2016 was estimated to be 10.87 million. Benin is a tropical nation dependent on agriculture. Benin is a big exporter of palm oil; the substantial employment and income arise from subsistence farming. The official language of Benin is French. However, indigenous languages such as Fon and Yoruba are spoken; the largest religious group in Benin is Roman Catholicism, followed by Islam and Protestantism. Benin is a member of the United Nations, the African Union, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone, La Francophonie, the Community of Sahel-Saharan States, the African Petroleum Producers Association and the Niger Basin Authority.
From the 17th to the 19th century, the main political entities in the area were the Kingdom of Dahomey, along with the city-state of Porto-Novo, a large area with many different nations to the north. This region was referred to as the Slave Coast from as early as the 17th century due to the large number of enslaved people who were shipped to the New World during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. After enslavement was abolished, France renamed it French Dahomey. In 1960, Dahomey gained full independence from France; the sovereign state has had a tumultuous history since with many different democratic governments, military coups, military governments. A Marxist–Leninist state called the People's Republic of Benin existed between 1975 and 1990. In 1991, it was replaced by the current multi-party Republic of Benin. During the colonial period and at independence, the country was known as Dahomey. On 30 November 1975, it was renamed to Benin, after the body of water on which the country lies—the Bight of Benin.
This had been named by Europeans after the Benin Empire in present-day Nigeria. The country of Benin has no connection to Benin City in modern Nigeria, nor to the Benin bronzes; the form "Benin" is the result of a Portuguese corruption of the city of Ubinu. The new name, was chosen for its neutrality. Dahomey was the name of the former Fon Kingdom of Dahomey, limited to most of the southern third of the present country and therefore did not represent Porto-Novo, central Benin, the multi-ethnic northwestern sector Atakora, nor the Bariba Kingdom of Borgu, which covered the northeastern district; the current country of Benin combines three areas which had distinctly different political systems and ethnicities prior to French colonial control. Before 1700, there were a few important city-states along the coast and a mass of tribal regions inland; the Oyo Empire, located to the east of modern Benin, was the most significant large-scale military force in the region. It conducted raids and exacted tribute from the coastal kingdoms and the tribal regions.
The situation changed in the 1600s and early 1700s as the Kingdom of Dahomey, consisting of Fon people, was founded on the Abomey plateau and began taking over areas along the coast. By 1727, king Agaja of the Kingdom of Dahomey had conquered the coastal cities of Allada and Whydah, but it had become a tributary of the Oyo empire and did not directly attack the Oyo allied city-state of Porto-Novo; the rise of the kingdom of Dahomey, the rivalry between the kingdom and the city of Porto-Novo, the continued tribal politics of the northern region, persisted into the colonial and post-colonial periods. The Dahomey Kingdom was known for its culture and traditions. Young boys were apprenticed to older soldiers, taught the kingdom's military customs until they were old enough to join the army. Dahomey was famous for instituting an elite female soldier corps, called Ahosi, i.e. the king's wives, or Mino, "our mothers" in the Fon language Fongbe, known by many Europeans as the Dahomean Amazons. This emphasis on military preparation and achievement earned Dahomey the nickname of "black Sparta" from European observers and 19th-century explorers such as Sir Richard Burton.
The kings of Dahomey sold their war captives into transatlantic slavery. They had a practice of killing war captives in a ceremony known as the Annual Customs. By about 1750, the King of Dahomey was earning an estimated £250,000 per year by selling African captives to European slave-traders. Though the leaders of Dahomey appear to have resisted the slave trade, it flourished in the region of Dahomey for three hundred years, beginning in 1472 with a trade agreement with Portuguese merchants; the area was named the "Slave Coast" because of this flourishing trade. Court protocols, which demanded that a portion of war captives from the kingdom's many battles be decapitated, decreased the number of enslaved people exported from the area; the number went from 102,000 people per decade in the 1780s to 24,000 per decade by the 1860s. The decline was due to the Slave Trade Act 1807 banning the trans-Atlantic slave trade by Britain and the United States following in
Annexation
Annexation is the administrative action and concept in international law relating to the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state. It is held to be an illegal act, it is distinct from conquest, which refers to the acquisition of control over a territory involving a change of sovereignty, differs from cession, in which territory is given or sold through treaty, since annexation is a unilateral act where territory is seized and held by one state. It follows military occupation of a territory. Annexation can be legitimized via general recognition by international bodies. International law regarding the use of force by states has evolved in the 20th century. Key agreements include the 1907 Porter Convention, the 1920 Covenant of the League of Nations and the 1928 Kellogg–Briand Pact, culminating in Article 2 of Chapter I of the United Nations Charter, in force today: "All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations".
Since the use of force against territorial integrity or political independence is illegal, the question as to whether title or sovereignty can be transferred in such a situation has been the subject of legal debate. It is held that countries are under obligation to abide by the Stimson Doctrine that a state: "cannot admit the legality of any situation de facto nor... recognize any treaty or agreement entered into between those Governments... not... recognize any situation, treaty or agreement which may be brought about by means contrary to the covenants and obligations of the Pact of Paris of August 27, 1928". These principles were reconfirmed by the 1970 Friendly Relations Declaration. During World War II, the use of annexation deprived whole populations of the safeguards provided by international laws governing military occupations; the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 amplified the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 with respect to the question of the protection of civilians. The authors of the Fourth Geneva Convention made a point of giving the rules regarding inviolability of rights "an absolute character", thus making it much more difficult for a state to bypass international law through the use of annexation.
GCIV Article 47, in the first paragraph in Section III: Occupied territories, restricted the effects of annexation on the rights of persons within those territories: Protected persons who are in occupied territory shall not be deprived, in any case or in any manner whatsoever, of the benefits of the present Convention by any change introduced, as the result of the occupation of a territory, into the institutions or government of the said territory, nor by any agreement concluded between the authorities of the occupied territories and the Occupying Power, nor by any annexation by the latter of the whole or part of the occupied territory. In 1954, the residents of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, a Portuguese enclave within India, ended Portuguese rule with the help of nationalist volunteers. From 1954 to 1961, the territory enjoyed de facto independence. In 1961, the territory was merged with India after its government signed an agreement with the Indian government. In 1961, India and Portugal engaged in a brief military conflict over Portuguese-controlled Goa and Daman and Diu.
India invaded and conquered the areas after 36 hours of fighting, ending 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule in India. The action was viewed in India as a liberation of Indian territory. A condemnation of the action by the United Nations Security Council was vetoed by the Soviet Union. Goa and Daman and Diu were incorporated into India. During the British colonial rule in India, Sikkim had an ambiguous status, as an Indian princely state or as an Indian protectorate. Prior to Indian independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, acting as the leader of Executive Council, agreed that Sikkim would not be treated as an Indian state. Between 1947 and 1950, Sikkim enjoyed de facto independence. However, the Indian independence spurred popular political movements in Sikkim and the ruler Chogyal came under pressure, he requested Indian help to quell the uprising, offered. Subsequently, in 1950, India signed a treaty with Sikkim bringing it under its suzerainty, controlling its external affairs, defence and communications.
A state council was established in 1955 to allow for constitutional government under the Sikkimese monarch. Meanwhile, trouble was brewing in the state after the Sikkim National Congress demanded fresh elections and greater representation for the Nepalese. In 1967 India and China went to war in Sikkim, Cho La incident where a Chinese occupation was attempted and repulsed. In 1973, riots in front of the palace led to a formal request for protection from India; the Chogyal was proving to be unpopular with the people. In 1975, the Kazi appealed to the Indian Parliament for a change in Sikkim's status so that it could become a state of India. In April, the Indian Army moved into Sikkim, seizing the city of Gangtok and disarming the Palace Guards. A referendum was held in. A few weeks on May 16, 1975, Sikkim became the 22nd state of the Indian Union and the monarchy was abolished. On 18 September 1955 at 10:16 am, in what would be the final territorial expansion of the British Empire, Rockall was declared annexed by the British Crown when Lieutenant-Commander
Art of the Kingdom of Benin
Benin art is the art from the Kingdom of Benin or Edo Empire, a pre-colonial African state located in what is now known as the South-South region of Nigeria. Made of cast bronze and carved ivory, Benin art was produced for the court of the Oba of Benin - a divine ruler for whom the craftsmen produced a range of ceremonially significant objects; the full complexity of these works can be appreciated only through the awareness and consideration of two complementary cultural perceptions of the art of Benin: the Western appreciation of them as works of art, their understanding in Benin as historical documents and as mnemonic devices to reconstruct history, or as ritual objects. This original significance is of great import in Benin. Given the stylistic differences, the art of Benin has been divided by some authors, including Egyptologist Boris de Rachewiltz in the following periods: The royal arts of the Benin Kingdom of south-central Nigeria affirm the centrality of the oba, or divine king, portraying his divine nature.
While recording the kingdom's significant historical events and the oba's involvement with them, they initiate the oba's interactions with the supernatural and honor his deified ancestors, forging a continuity, vital to the kingdom's well-being. The materials used in Benin's royal arts—primarily brass and coral—are endowed with sacred power; the innate value of these materials within Benin and the time and skill, invested in working them reflect the earthly and otherworldly influence of the oba and the great wealth of his kingdom. Benin's royal arts belong to a tradition that favors convention as it promotes creativity and innovation as a reflection of royal prerogative. Through time, rulers have used the arts to interpret the history of the kingdom and to orient themselves with the past in an effort to support their own initiatives and define their images for posterity. Although only made popular to Western audiences after the Punitive Expedition in the 19th century, Benin art has been in existence since at least the 13th century.
A newly installed oba is responsible for creating an altar dedicated to his father, commissioning the appropriate objects to adorn it and activating it on a regular basis with sacrifices of food or animal blood. The oba does the same for his mother if she attained queenmother. While bells and rattle staffs are placed on all ancestral altars, ivory tusks and commemorative brass heads are made for royal altars. Associated with trade and brass are durable and valuable, their colors—white like sacred kaolin clay and red like fire and coral beads—relate to royal power. Before the British conquest, an oba's courtyard was the focal point for rituals in his honor. British troops reported 18 altars dedicated to previous obas when they took possession of the palace in 1897. Today, all of the royal altars stand together in a single courtyard. One of the objects unique to Benin art is an Ikegobo, or "altar to the hand," which celebrates the accomplishments of exceptional individuals; the hand is associated with action and productivity, is considered the source of wealth and success for all those who depend on manual skill and physical strength.
Altars of this kind are commissioned in terracotta, wood, or brass, depending on the status of the patron. For the full article on art related to rituals at court see Benin court and ceremonial art Private and public ceremonies mark many of the important moments in Benin's yearly calendar. In the past, an elaborate series of rites were performed throughout the year to secure otherworldly support for the kingdom's well-being and to celebrate decisive events in its history. For the sake of convenience, the current monarch, Oba Ewuare II, emphasizes the end-of-year festival called Igue, held during the winter holidays to allow the greatest number of people to attend. Igue includes a sequence of rituals that renew the oba's supernatural powers and cleanse the kingdom's unruly spirits. Benin's other important ritual festivals include Ague, where the first budded yams are blessed in hopes of a successful harvest. Finely carved, they are called “double” gongs because of second, smaller resonating cups at their front.
The central image is the oba in coral regalia supported by the high priests osa and osuan, officials who tend the altars of the kingdom's two patron gods. These gongs are still carried today by the oba during Emobo, the last of the empowering rites of the Igue festival; the oba taps the ivory instrument, creating a rhythmic sound to calm and dismiss unruly spirits from the kingdom. The oba is referred to metaphorically as “the leopard of the house,” and images of the beautiful and immensely dangerous cat appear in Benin's royal arts. Before the British invasion in 1897, domesticated leopards were kept in the palace to demonstrate the oba's mastery over the wilderness. Leopard imagery is frequently linked to the oba's military might; the oba's divine right to rule is reiterated in his regalia. His coral crowns, aprons and accessories refer to those that Oba Ewuare is said to have stolen from Olokun, the god of the waters and prosperity. Coral and red stones such as jasper and agate are filled with supernatural energy, or ase, as are elephant ivory and brass
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family in the context of a feudal or monarchical system, but sometimes appearing in elective republics. Alternative terms for "dynasty" may include "family" and "clan", among others; the longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, otherwise known as the Yamato dynasty, whose reign is traditionally dated to 660 BC. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a "noble house", which may be styled as "royal", "princely", "ducal", "comital" etc. depending upon the chief or present title borne by its members. Historians periodize the histories of numerous nations and civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties; as such, the term "dynasty" may be used to delimit the era during which a family reigned, to describe events and artifacts of that period. The word "dynasty" itself is dropped from such adjectival references; until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty: that is, to expand the wealth and power of his family members.
Prior to the 20th century, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. In nations where it was permitted, succession through a daughter established a new dynasty in her husband's ruling house; this has changed in some places in Europe, where succession law and convention have maintained dynasties de jure through a female. For instance, the House of Windsor will be maintained through the children of Queen Elizabeth II, as it did with the monarchy of the Netherlands, whose dynasty remained the House of Orange-Nassau through three successive queens regnant; the earliest such example among major European monarchies was in the Russian Empire in the 18th century, where the name of the House of Romanov was maintained through Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna. In Limpopo Province of South Africa, Balobedu determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mother's dynasty when coming into her inheritance.
Less a monarchy has alternated or been rotated, in a multi-dynastic system – that is, the most senior living members of parallel dynasties, at any point in time, constitute the line of succession. Not all feudal states or monarchies were/are ruled by dynasties. Throughout history, there were monarchs. Dynasties ruling subnational monarchies do not possess sovereign rights; the word "dynasty" is sometimes used informally for people who are not rulers but are, for example, members of a family with influence and power in other areas, such as a series of successive owners of a major company. It is extended to unrelated people, such as major poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team; the word "dynasty" derives from Latin dynastia, which comes from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to "power", "dominion", "rule" itself. It was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, "power" or "ability", from dýnamai, "to be able". A ruler from a dynasty is sometimes referred to as a "dynast", but this term is used to describe any member of a reigning family who retains a right to succeed to a throne.
For example, King Edward VIII ceased to be a dynast of the House of Windsor following his abdication. In historical and monarchist references to reigning families, a "dynast" is a family member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchy's rules still in force. For example, after the 1914 assassinations of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his morganatic wife Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg, their son Duke Maximilian was bypassed for the Austro-Hungarian throne because he was not a Habsburg dynast. Since the abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Duke Maximilian and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position; the term "dynast" is sometimes used only to refer to agnatic descendants of a realm's monarchs, sometimes to include those who hold succession rights through cognatic royal descent. The term can therefore describe distinct sets of people. For example, David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, a nephew of Queen Elizabeth II through her sister Princess Margaret, is in the line of succession to the British crown.
On the other hand, the German aristocrat Prince Ernst August of Hanover, a male-line descendant of King George III of the United Kingdom, possesses no legal British name, titles or styles. He was born in the line of succession to the British throne and was bound by Britain's Royal Marriages Act 1772 until it was repealed when the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 took effect on 26 March 2015. Thus, he requested and obtained formal permission from Queen Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco in 1999. Yet, a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time, stipulating that dynasts who
Nigeria
Nigeria the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal republic in West Africa, bordering Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, Benin in the west. Its coast in the south is located on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean; the federation comprises 36 states and 1 Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Abuja, is located. The constitution defines Nigeria as a democratic secular country. Nigeria has been home to states over the millennia; the modern state originated from British colonial rule beginning in the 19th century, took its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914. The British set up administrative and legal structures while practising indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms. Nigeria became a formally independent federation in 1960, it experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1970. It thereafter alternated between democratically elected civilian governments and military dictatorships until it achieved a stable democracy in 1999, with the 2011 presidential election considered the first to be reasonably free and fair.
Nigeria is referred to as the "Giant of Africa", owing to its large population and economy. With 186 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world. Nigeria has the third-largest youth population in the world, after India and China, with more than 90 million of its population under age 18; the country is viewed as a multinational state as it is inhabited by 250 ethnic groups, of which the three largest are the Hausa and Yoruba. The official language is English. Nigeria is divided in half between Christians, who live in the southern part of the country, Muslims, who live in the north. A minority of the population practice religions indigenous to Nigeria, such as those native to the Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities; as of 2015, Nigeria is the world's 20th largest economy, worth more than $500 billion and $1 trillion in terms of nominal GDP and purchasing power parity respectively. It overtook South Africa to become Africa's largest economy in 2014.
The 2013 debt-to-GDP ratio was 11 percent. Nigeria is considered to be an emerging market by the World Bank. However, it has a "low" Human Development Index, ranking 152nd in the world. Nigeria is a member of the MINT group of countries, which are seen as the globe's next "BRIC-like" economies, it is listed among the "Next Eleven" economies set to become among the biggest in the world. Nigeria is a founding member of the African Union and a member of many other international organizations, including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations and OPEC; the name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was coined in the late 19th century by British journalist Flora Shaw, who married Lord Lugard, a British colonial administrator; the origin of the name Niger, which applied only to the middle reaches of the Niger River, is uncertain. The word is an alteration of the Tuareg name egerew n-igerewen used by inhabitants along the middle reaches of the river around Timbuktu prior to 19th-century European colonialism.
The Nok civilisation of Northern Nigeria flourished between 500 BC and AD 200, producing life-sized terracotta figures that are some of the earliest known sculptures in Sub-Saharan Africa. Further north, the cities Kano and Katsina have a recorded history dating to around 999 AD. Hausa kingdoms and the Kanem–Bornu Empire prospered as trade posts between North and West Africa; the Kingdom of Nri of the Igbo people consolidated in the 10th century and continued until it lost its sovereignty to the British in 1911. Nri was ruled by the Eze Nri, the city of Nri is considered to be the foundation of Igbo culture. Nri and Aguleri, where the Igbo creation myth originates, are in the territory of the Umeuri clan. Members of the clan trace their lineages back to the patriarchal king-figure Eri. In West Africa, the oldest bronzes made using the lost-wax process were from Igbo-Ukwu, a city under Nri influence; the Yoruba kingdoms of Ife and Oyo in southwestern Nigeria became prominent in the 12th and 14th centuries, respectively.
The oldest signs of human settlement at Ife's current site date back to the 9th century, its material culture includes terracotta and bronze figures. Oyo, at its territorial zenith in the late 17th to early 18th centuries, extended its influence from western Nigeria to modern-day Togo; the Edo's Benin Empire is located in southwestern Nigeria. Benin's power lasted between the 19th centuries, their dominance reached further. At the beginning of the 19th century, Usman dan Fodio directed a successful jihad and created and led the centralised Fulani Empire; the territory controlled by the resultant state included much of modern-day northern and central Nigeria. For centuries, various peoples in modern-day Nigeria traded overland with traders from North Africa. Cities in the area became regional centres in a broad network of trade routes that spanned western and northern Africa. In the 16th century, Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to begin significant, direct trade with peoples of modern-day Nigeria, at the port they named Lago
