You have probably heard of the British Invasion of Benin in 1987, if not from school, then from that Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen film. But if by any chance, you do not know, in this article, we will spill all that ancient tea. So just relax as we get into it.
The whole thing started with the so-called scramble for Africa when the leaders of Western Europe decided to share Africa in their parlor with the Berlin Conference of 1884.
January 1897
Fast-forward to early 1897, one British Oga they were calling James Robert Phillips decided to visit Benin to straighten out some trade deals the British believed the Oba was defaulting on.
However it was during a time when the Oba could not received visitors, and Phillip was informed of this but he persisted. Consequently, he and his men were massacred on the way by Benin soldiers.
This angered the British and they approved military action against Benin in what they called “Benin Punitive Expedition”. Their goal was to sack the Oba and to show the Benin people “that white men cannot be killed with impunity”.
February 1897
Another British Oga, Rear-Admiral Harry Rawson, led the British Royal Navy in the invasion. The invasion took nine days with 1200 British marines, but some accounts say around 5000 men were mobilized.
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There were air strikes and land mines that destroyed towns and villages in the Benin Kingdom. On the 18th of February, 1897, the city was burnt down by the British.
On the Benin side of things, many human sacrifices were made to stop the destruction and prevent to Oba’s capture. He was eventually captured and exiled to Calabar with two of his eighty wives, odd. Some chief were hanged at the marketplace.
After the destruction of Benin, the British stole as much as they could. The official figure for stolen religious artifacts is 2500. The British invasion of Benin ended with the colonization of the Benin Kingdom.
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