R. E. Bradbury - Benin Studies

Volume 10

R. E. BRADBURY

First published in 1973 by Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.

This edition first published in 2018

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1973 International African Institute

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-8153-8713-8 (Set)

ISBN: 978-0-429-48813-9 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-49208-0 (Volume 10) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-351-03126-4 (Volume 10) (ebk)

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer

The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

R.E. BRADBURY

Edited,
with an Introduction, by
PETER MORTON-WILLIAMS

Foreword by DARYLL FORDE

Published for the

INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN INSTITUTE

by the

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON NEW YORK IBADAN
1973

Oxford University Press, Ely House, London, W.l.

Glasgow New York Toronto Melbourne Wellington
Cape Town Ibadan Nairobi Dar Es Salaam Addis Ababa
Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Lahore Dacca
Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo

ISBN 0 19 724192 1

International African Institute, 1973

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the International African Institute

Set by Gavin Martin Limited, London England.

Genealogy of the early Obas according to Egharevba

The Benin dynasty (from 1700)

The principal orders of chieftaincy in Ovnramwns reign

Proliferation of ancestor-worshipping groups

Line of Enigie and Edayi at Ekho village

IdunbhEka, the Onogies ward at Ekho, showing kinship links between household heads

IdunbhOgo ward at Ekho, showing kinship links between household heads

Movement of yams in the igibizu rite at Ugboko

Key to figures on vertical and horizontal surfaces of Ezomos ikegobo

Map: The kingdom of Benin

The original sources of the papers reprinted in this book by kind permission of the editors and publishers concerned are as follows:

The historical uses of comparative ethnography with special reference to Benin and the Yoruba, in J. Vansina, R. Mauny and L.V. Thomas (eds.) The Historian in Tropical Africa. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute. 1964, pp. 14564.

Chronological problems in the study of Benin history, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 1, 4, 1959, pp. 26387.

Continuities and discontinuities in pre-colonial and colonial Benin politics (18971951), in I.M. Lewis (ed.) History and Social Anthropology. London: Tavistock Publications, 1968, pp. 193252.

Patrimonialism and gerontocracy in Benin political culture, in M. Douglas and P.M. Kaberry (eds.) Man in Africa. London: Tavistock Publications, 1969, pp. 1736.

The kingdom of Benin, in D. Forde and P.M. Kaberry (eds.) West African Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1967, pp. 135.

Father and senior son in Edo mortuary ritual, in M. Fortes and G. Dieterlen (eds.) African Systems of Thought. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1965, pp. 96121.

Fathers, elders, and ghosts in Edo religion, in M. Banton (ed.) Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion. London: Tavistock Publications, 1966, pp. 12753.

Ezomos ikegobo and the Benin cult of the hand, Man, LXI, 165, 1961, pp. 12938.

Ehi: three stories from Benin, Od, No. 8, October 1960, pp. 4048.

Our thanks are due to the Association of Social Anthropologists for a grant from the Radcliffe-Brown Memorial Fund towards the printing costs of the plates and the re-drawing of some of the figures. We are also grateful to Mr. W.B. Fagg of the British Museum for supplying prints of the photographs taken by himself and Dr. Bradbury.

When R.E. Bradbury came up to University College London in 1947, he developed so strong an interest in Anthropology, initially his subsidiary field of study, that he transferred to Honours in the subject, joining a group of very able students in the recently established department, among whom there was lively debate and no little emulation. Brads thoughtful and lucid seminar papers and his quiet but always cogent comments in discussion commanded everyones respect. He took a First Class Degree and was able to embark on his first research with the award of a Horniman field studentship in 19512.

Bradbury greatly welcomed the suggestion that he should undertake a study of the Kingdom of Benin among the Edo-speaking peoples of southern Nigeria on which little had been written of ethnographic value since the studies of Ling Roth and Northcote Thomas early in the century after the bronzes and ivories of Benin art first became widely known in Europe following the military expedition. Jacob Egharevba had published the first of his valuable accounts of Benin oral traditions and there were some general indications and challenging clues in unpublished government reports, but the complex political and ritual organization of the Benin Kingdom had not been studied. There were only fragmentary indications of the roles of offices and associations in the life of the palace and the capital and even less was known about social organization and cults of the villages or their modes of economic and political integration in the kingdom.