BENIN: The Kingdom of Benin (not to be confused with the modern-day State of Benin, formerly called Dahomey) has existed in southern Nigeria for about one thousand years. It is historically attested from ca. 1200 A.D. to 1897. It is a free, independent city-state ruled by an absolute monarch, the ‘Oba’. In 1897, a 1000-man strong military ‘punitive expedition’ of the British destroyed the flourishing state of Benin. The British conquered Benin and thereby obtained approximately 3000 works of art. Amongst them the world-famous ‘memorial heads’ of the kings, out of bronze, from the altars of the ‘Oba’ (15th to 19th centuries), the majority of the relief-plaques out of bronze, with which the rooms of the king’s palace were faced, etc. With this ‘punitive expedition’ of 1897, however, the political existence of the kingdom of Benin was not brought to an end. It still exists today as a ‘local authority’, embedded in the structure of the modern state of Nigeria. The ruling Oba Erediauwa (since 1979) still enjoys the respect and trust of ‘his’ people today. After the English had taken away the majority of the bronze objects, there existed a great lack of usable metal for the bronze casters. Therefore, around 1900, they altered their practice and began to carve important objects, such as the bronze relief plaques, out of wood. Such as the present U-shaped relief plaque out of hard, dark brown wood: THE BENIN PLAQUE: The plaque displays in the middle a king of Benin (‘Oba’), supported at left and right by a companion. The companions represent the high priest of Benin, called ‘Osa’, and the most important healer ‘Osuan’. This representation of three figures (a triad) occurs often in the art of Benin. The ‘Oba’ in the middle displays, like his companions, a helmet-like ‘crown’ with an upper projection, called ‘Oro’. This crown has applications of long beads of red coral from the Mediterranean. Such red coral was traded by the Portuguese to West Africa since the 15th century. The shirts and the typical, high collars of the figures represented are also formed of red coral beads. Only the ‘Oba’ wears two crossed necklaces of coral over his chest; at the point where they cross, in front of the king’s chest, they support a large coral bead, the so-called ‘king’s pearl’. The king wears a skirt with a wide belt, which is decorated with a motif of a band of vines. On this belt hangs an attachment at the front in the form of a head. Both companions wear skirts with a motif of a band of vines, and anklets. The legs of the ‘Oba’ consist of the bodies, heads and front fins of two ‘hingemouth fish’, freely carved swinging out to the sides. This traditional representation of the legs of a king in the form of fish has multiple meanings: 1: Hingemouth fish can live in the water and on land. Just as the ‘Oba’ rules over land and water. 2: Fish are assigned to the powerful ‘Olokun’, the god of the sea and water, of fertility and prosperity. The fish legs therefore symbolise the close relationship between the king and the mighty god ‘Olokun’. 3: There is also a historical explanation for the representation of an ‘Oba’ with ‘soft’ fish legs: according to a legend, King Ohun, who reigned in the early 14th century, suffered from paraplegia and had to be supported by companions. On the present relief plaque, three additional images make clear the close connection between the ‘Oba’ and ‘Olokun’, the god of sea and water: the king rides on a turtle (a creature of the sea) and on both borders of the plaque, a crocodile is depicted (a creature of water and land). At the very bottom, in the middle, another typical symbol appears, which proves that this is the representation of an ‘Oba’: an arm with a hand curled into a fist, which holds a fly whisk (or a branch). In addition, the plaque displays the following decorative elements: two ‘flowers’ in the background, a ‘continuous braided band’ along the outer edge, a ‘herringbone band’ on the upper crossbar, and two ‘sun wheels’ on the upper corners. This extremely rare Benin plaque of wood has four fastening eyelets. The back is plain. The plaque shows overall an excellent, old, shiny patina and a corresponding, although not disturbing, level of age-related damage: The head of the hingemouth fish on the right is broken off (clearly an old break), the upper crossbar has a crack through it, as well as small cracks and breaks on the edge. H: 65 cm; W: 55 cm. Around 1900. Probably dates to the reign of King Eweka II (1897–1914). (ME)

Provenance: Austrian Private Collection.

Lit.: ‘Benin. Könige und Rituale. Höfische Kunst aus Nigeria’ by Barbara Plankensteiner 2007, fig. 166 (similar image out of bronze).

additional image:
FOR COMPARISON: A U-formed relief plaque made out of bronze, with a very similar representation of a King of Benin (“Oba”), with “bowfin-legs” and supported by two companions. This cast metal plaque is 40 cm tall and is dated to the 18th century. The relief belongs to the Museum of Ethnology in Leipzig, Germany (Inv.-No. MAf 34550, Coll. Hans Meyer).
Photos from: “Benin. Könige und Rituale” by Barbara Plankensteiner