CONTROVERSY: The Benin Influence and Origins Among Anioma and Southeast Igbo (Part Two)

(Continued from Part One)

It is important to further reveal that within the East Niger Delta region, Benin influence also held sway up to the present historic town of Bonny. The British Slave merchant Captain Hugh Crow in his Memoirs published in 1830 after his death, informed us that not only was Bonny a vassal State to Benin Kingdom, but gave account of the visit of Benin agents to Bonny for the purpose of collecting tributes.

In his description of the extent of the Benin Kingdom to the east Captain Crow stated: “The streets of Benin are long and broad, so that it covered a considerable extent of ground. The kingdom extends twenty days’ journey from north to south, and it claims sovereignty over Bonny and New Calabar.”

On the visit of Benin officials to Bonny for the purpose of collecting tributes for the Oba, the Memoirs recounts:   

Our author was not perhaps aware that Bonny owes its sovereignty to Benin, otherwise he would naturally attribute the visit, which he records in the following passage to that circumstance. ‘While I lay’ he remarked, ‘at Bonny, on my last voyage, two large canoes arrived from Benin, full of presents, consisting of the manufactures and produce of the country, and with these canoes two remarkably fine looking men of from thirty to forty years of age, well formed, and about six feet high, their look and manner were of a superior order, and they walked in a majestic style, followed by a retinue of servants. They were robed in a loose flowing dress; I found they spoke pretty good English, and I conversed with them on several occasions, particularly on the subject of slave trade. They expressed their conviction that so long as there were lands to cultivate, and seas for ship to sail on, slavery would continue to exist. These men were near relations of King Pepple, and had been sent to Bonny, as ambassadors by the king of Benin. They remained about one month feasting in their way, and then returned with their large canoes laden with presents.

From the foregoing we can arrive to the conclusion that the issue of some groups of Anioma people of Delta State claiming Benin origin cannot be taken as an isolated historical phenomenon, but part of a larger web of migrations that fanned out of the Benin center of power encompassing the greater part of Southern Nigeria.

Arising from this therefore, our next task will be to determine the actual points of such migrations within the Benin Kingdom. In determining this issue, we should bear in mind that before the 16th century, the present kingdom of Benin was not one whole kingdom but consisted three rival kingdoms. 

(Concluded)

Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD, is the Odogwu of Ibusa; Former Director, Centre for Igbo Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). He is a historian, critic, an activist and lives in exile