Anthropos (Sankt Augustin). 1999. Vol. 94, № 4/6. P.

542-552

Dmitri M. Bondarenko (Moscow)

Peter M. Roese (Lautertal)

Benin Prehistory: The Origin and Settling Down of the Edo

Introductory
Of all the West African societies, the Kingdom of Benin is the one most mentioned in con-
temporary European literature. Since the end of the 15th century, a great deal of material about Be-
nin has been supplied by sailors, traders, etc., returning to Europe. However, information on the
Edo people before this date is very difficult to obtain, as there was no written record and the oral
record is at best rather fragmentary. Thus, there is a shortage of information on the early days of the
migration and settling down of the Edo in their present-day home. At the same time, a re-
investigation of sources dealing with the early history of Benin showed that some information has
not been fully exploited yet, although there remain gaps in our knowledge which may never be
filled.

First of all, let us set-up in chronological order a number of different statements from the
mythology of the Edo. One of the earliest reports comes from the English trader Cyril Punch who
stayed on the coast and visited Benin City from the end of the 1880s up to the 1890s several times.
He had good contacts to the royal court. He reported: “ ... tradition says the Bini came from a place
north of the Niger originally, and lived under a King Lamorodu.”1
The Benin chronicler J.U. Egharevba collected material in the 1920s and 30s. He writes:
“Many, many years ago, the Binis came all the way from Egypt to found a more secure shelter in
this part of the world after a short stay in the Sudan and at Ile-Ife, which the Benin people call Uhe.
Before coming here, a band of hunters was sent from Ife to inspect this land and the report fur-
nished was very favourable. ... they met some people who were in the land before their arrival.
These people are said to have come originally from Nupe and the Sudan in waves.” 2 In another
work Egharevba specifies that the first wave of migration took place from Sudan via the present day
Nupeland in the 7th century AD and the second, from Egypt via Sahara and Ife in the beginning of
the 8th century.3 But very soon he declares: “It is known that the Binis came to this Land in 3
 2

waves, and not 2 as was previously supposed...” The first (without a concrete date) was from Nupe,
the second — from Sudan via Nupe in about the 7th century AD and the last one, without a date
again was from Egypt via Sahara and Ile-Ife.4
At another place Egharevba writes about three migration waves. The first came from
Nupeland, the second from the Sudan via Nupeland, and the third from Egypt through the Sahara
and Ile-Ife (Ife). This was “... one of those migrations common to many tribes seeking more fertile
land and more secure retreat from an enemy during the Islamic crusade from 600 A.D.”5 The new-
comers united after some time.
But another, a later Bini chronist, prince Eweka, practically recognizing the Egyptian ver-
sion the most popular among his compatriots, considers the question open because there are no real
proofs of the exodus from Egypt. He admits that the Edo could be autochtonous in their area being
genetically connected with the population of Nok.6
Glottochronology suggests that the separation between the Kwa peoples’ proto-languages,
including the Edo and the Yoruba happened about 2-3,000 years ago by Darling,7 or even earlier,
between 3,200 and 4,600 or about 5,000 years ago according to Armstrong and Smith.8 Bradbury’s
date is a bit later than 4,000 years ago.9 Never mind, a part of the Yoruba Oduduwa myth (those not
deriving the Yoruba and the whole mankind from Ife created by him descended from the sky) have
much in common with the Edo ones cited above. This fact makes them helpful for our analysis.
Generally, such myths connect the Yoruba origin and migration to Western Africa with ba-
sically the same geographical regions and historical events as those of the Edo connect that people.
Studying Yoruba myths, Talbot has come to the conclusion that the Yoruba had arrived to Nigeria
from Egypt possibly in the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC being pushed out of their mother-
land by the Nubian wars of the 19th century BC or by the Hyksos conquest of the country.10 Samuel
Johnson, whose relation of the myth is the most well known has also argued that the Yoruba had
resettled from Upper Egypt or Nubia. Following Sultan Bello of Sokoto, 11 he writes that Lamurudu,
whose subjects they were, was Phoenician Nimrod, the conqueror of Egypt. Those people accom-
panied him in military campaigns and reached Arabia with him from where they were expatriated
for their devotedness to their religion, paganism or, more probable a kind of Eastern Christianity.12
Biobaku has developed the Egyptian version more than anyone else. He sees the Yoruba
home country in Upper Egypt and introduces the idea of two waves of migration from there to
Western Africa: in about 600 and about 1000 AD The latter, just reflected in the migration under
the leadership of Oduduwa myth was, by Biobaku provoked by the spread of Islam. Having crossed
the Niger in the Nupe area, the Yoruba went south-westwards, founded Ile-Ife and settled there.13
 3

It is worth mentioning that the data of the first wave of the Yoruba migrations by Biobaku
corresponds to that of the last wave of the Edo’s advent in the final, of 1969 concept of Egharevba:
about 600 AD But while the latter connects just it with the Muslim pressure, the Yoruba historian
ascribes it to the second, Oduduwa migration of his people, of about 1000 AD
There is even no necessity to stop for a long time on the obvious fact that if someone of
these two prominent Africans were right, it could have not been Egharevba in any case. Islam only
appeared just in the beginning of the 7th century AD (622) in Arabia though in Africa Egypt and
especially Ethiopia played a major role in disseminating of the ideas which made the groundwork
for the emergence of Islam. But Egypt assumed a leading role in the development of the Islamic
civilization not earlier than in the 9th-10th centuries. Towards the brink of the millennia, Islam in
the form of Kharijism and Sunnism made its way with the caravans of merchants into the countries
of West and Central Sudan. In the 10th and mid 11th centuries, the new religion was formally ac-
cepted by the rulers of a number of states in this or that way subordinate to large Christian (Axum,
Nubia) and pagan (Ghana, Zaghawa) kingdoms. The movement of Almoravides in the name of ji-
had, a major event of this period, resulted in the integration of Sahara, West Sudan, Maghreb and
Spain into a political, religious, and ideological union. Concurrently, the entire regional system of
states was reshaped, effecting the disintegration of the Christian (Axum, the united Nubia) and pa-
gan (Zaghawa, Ghana) kingdoms that had been hindering the progress of Islam into the heart of
Africa.14 It seems reasonable to come to the conclusion that Islam could start indirectly influencing
the territories rather far south of the area of its immediate spread just at that time, not earlier.
The Biobaku’s and even Johnson’s vision of the problem has quite enough of supporters.15
But the situation is not so simple at all. On the one hand, there are at least not less scholars which
do not see just a grain of historical truth in the myths and criticize Biobaku and his followers se-
verely enough.16 And further more, this variant of the Oduduwa myth seems to be of late origin,
marginal in the Yoruba consciousness and culture, and even fabricated for political ends in the Oyo
Empire.17
But what is of greatest importance for both Edo and Yoruba studies, is that linguistic and ar-
chaeological data indicate these peoples’ presence in West Africa for a much longer period than
ascribed by the myth and its positive interpreters.
Pointing out that the Edo languages’ “... relationship to a number of languages, including
Igbo and Yoruba is considered to have been derived from a common proto-language located some-
where near the Niger-Benue confluence some 3-6,000 years ago”, Darling continues: “The split into
Proto-Yoruba, Proto-Edo and Proto-Igbo was probably due to easterly and westerly migrations
along the savanna zone, with the southern forest and forest swamplands being penetrated at least 2-
 4

3,000 years ago by the ancestors of today’s Southern Edo...”18 Linguistic data indicate approximate-
ly the same date of penetration into the forest zone for the Yoruba ancestors, too.19 Jungwirth,20
Obayemi,21 and Smith22 expresses similar views. The former records: “Edo ist mit Yoruba entfernt
verwandt, wie auch Itsekiri und Igala mit Yoruba verwandt sind. Interessanterweise soll Igala mit
Idoma... verwandt sein. Diese sprachliche Verbindung wurde, wenn Idoma mit Jukun nachweislich
in Beziehung zu setzen ware, ein neues Licht auf die wanderungsmythe der Bini werfen. Auch sie
scheinen aus dem Raum des Niger-Benue Zusammenflusses nach Suden gewandert zu sein.”23 The
Jukun will be dealt with below.
The authors of “Nigerian History and Culture” are sure that the fact that the Kwa group
comprises languages of the Yoruba, Edo, Igbo, Igala, Idoma, Nupe “... indicates that the ancestors
of the speakers of these languages separated from the same parent stock. ... Furthermore, it can be
inferred from the linguistic evidence that the emergence of these closely related ethnic groups took
place in or near the areas they now occupy”.24 The same idea was also expressed, for example by
Armstrong.25 “Bini, Ibo, and Yoruba culture, as we know them today, are certainly the product of a
long process of development within what is today Nigeria”, Bradbury concludes.26 But Nigeria is
vast. Alongside with the opinion of the Edo and Yoruba migration from the North-Eastern part of
the present-day country, there exist linguistic concepts of the north-western, though still Nigerian
origin of these peoples.27
But archaeological evidence incline to agree with the north-eastern, the Niger-Benue conflu-
ence area version. As far as just the Edo is concerned, Es’Andah argues firmly that “archaeological
evidence available thus far, contradicts traditions which holds that the Edo came from Egypt via
Sudan and Ife. Rather it largely support linguistic evidence which suggests that the Edo have occu-
pied their present location for a period of almost four thousand years.”28 In attempt to explain the
contradiction between the oral tradition and the evidence of linguistics, Ryder suggests the hypothe-
sis according to which the problem can be solved by the admitting of the fact of minor, secondary
population movements between the savanna and the forest in both directions.29 This idea does not
seem unplausible: though the forest societies had basically no doubt been evolving escaping any
strong outside influence till the Europeans’ arrival, the forest-savanna borderline was not the Chi-
nese wall, too.30 What is important for us now, is that in any case the Kwa live in the forest belt
much longer than it is related by the tradition.
Archaeology also affirms the long period of the Kwa peoples’ presence in the forest zone.
For instance, Eluyemi, rejecting the myth of the Yoruba’s coming with Oduduwa from a distant
eastern country closer to the end of the 1st millennium AD, states that “the archaeological explora-
tion of Oke-Ora (one of the seven hills of Ife) shows that Oke-Ora was probably the place of origin
 5

from where Oduduwa descended into the bowl-like ancient city of Ile-Ife. Oke-Ora, archaeological-
ly was a late stone-age settlement occupied by folks who once lived around Ile-Ife before the
knowledge of metal”.31 But if Oduduwa even was an outsider, it is more probable, Willett, Smith,
and Law suppose that he migrated from much less distant than the Middle East savanna Nupe or
Borgu areas at the Niger-Benue confluence.32
Also, it stays not absolutely sufficiently proved, but if there really was the continuity of the
most ancient Yoruba and related to Benin Ife culture from that of Nok, now broadly dated 925 + 70
BC - 200 + 50 AD,33 to what a part of authoritative scholars incline,34 it must mean that the Kwa
peoples’ ancestors lived in the Niger-Benue confluence savanna (Nok) region for already a long
time span at least in the 1st millennium BC and, what is more important at the same time were not
recent inhabitants of the forest (Ife) zone by the end of the first half of the 1st millennium AD for
the earliest excavated artifacts belonging to the Iron Age Ife culture refer to the 6th century AD35
Thus here we could possibly obtain an additional proof for the idea of the Kwa’s coming to the for-
est from the Niger-Benue confluence region three thousand years ago.
One more not first-hand proof for this date and direction of the Kwa migration is that Ijebu
Yoruba “are said to have come via Benin” c. 1000 BC, i.e. they moved westwards.
What is of great value, is the evidence on the appearance of agriculture and metallurgy in the
region The former is to precede the latter chronologically for there is a general assumption among
archaeologists and anthropologists that iron smelting is basically characteristic of societies with
productive economy. And the time of general transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture is
likely in turn to come after some centuries of a society’s inhabiting a given territory because agri-
culturalists, due to the type of their economy and culture on the whole, are not inclined to distant
migrations, especially to another ecological niche. As Armstrong put it just for the region we deal
with, “West African agricultural societies tend to be intensely local in their cultural origin. They
move very little, and when they do migrate they do not go far”.36
So the first Edo-speakers in the forest were still foragers and it no doubt took them time for
all-sided adaptation under new ecological conditions to undergo not merely economic but also cor-
responding sociocultural and political changes. The Yoruba way of settlements, including towns’
origin as that of hunters’ encampments37 no doubt reflects the Edo model, too. It is likely that the
memory of the fact of pre-agriculturalist Edo migrations inside their present-day area in a broader
sense, transformed and corrupted by mythologically orientated popular consciousness is preserved
in the quoted above passage from the oral tradition’s relation concerning the band of hunters sent as
if from Ife to inspect the land of the people’s further settling. By the way, the Yoruba have a myth
of the same historical contents, much more extensive, developed and closer to the core of the myth-
 6

ological corpus of the ethnos. In particular, it relates that Ore, the hunter was on the Earth and lived
on an island in the primordial Ocean before the advent of Oduduwa, in this myth the creator of the
solid soil who came from heaven being this way connected in the mythological consciousness with
the introduction of agriculture.38
As for the mentioning of the city of Ife in this legend, it is very likely that we deal with an
example of either a mixture of temporal shifts in human memory or an invasion of mythological
consciousness into the mode of recollecting and passing ethnohistorical events in the memory of
generations. In the first case, Igbafe maybe right in his discussion of the eastern origin of the Edo
and the stop in Ife on their way supposing that “probably,.. tradition of an eastern origin is a mere
extension of that which links the present ruling dynasty in Benin from Ife.”39 In the second case,
first of all it is evident that in the times when the Kwa peoples migrated still being foragers what is
reflected in the story about hunters who were the first to leave Ife for new lands, the city of Ife did
not exist. Hardly it appeared earlier than in the 6th century AD.40 But it is easy to explain this con-
tradiction if one recalls that for the Edo (and the Yoruba) Ife is the eternal sacred place of creation
of the world and the appearance of human beings. It is absolutely natural that the mythoritual tradi-
tional consciousness of the Edo simply could not but find a room for Ife’s involvement into the sto-
ry of their arrival in the Benin territory. If we do understand under the “migration from the east”
that from the savanna region many centuries BC, not from Egypt in the second half of the 1st mil-
lennium AD, the second version seems much more preferable.
Darling draws the right conclusions insofar as he thinks that yams (Dioscorea spp.) and the
oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) are better growing inside the transition zone between the forest and the
savanna than in the high forest. This may be a hint that the Edo carried those plants along with them
while travelling farther to the south.41 It is really proved that yams and oil palm were first domesti-
cated in the savanna-forest ecotone in the eastern part of West Africa and then spread southwards.42
The Benin territory was partially agricultural by the 1st century BC43 (a few centuries later
than Ife Yoruba44 precisely because they inhabit territories much closer to the forest-savanna bor-
der) and became so primarily during the 1st half of the 1st millennium AD45 though hunting and
gathering stayed rather important means of subsistence for a thousand years more.46
At the same moment, Connah suggests that famous polished stone axes (celts) could witness
about the first steps of forest agriculture in Benin47 as well as in Ife and Ilesha areas where they
were also found. Such a possibility must not be ruled out.48 But besides difficulties of their dating,
one must bear in mind their ritual character (none of those found bear traces of use just as axes). In
this quality they are well known in many parts of the archaic world. Thus, even if later iron axes do
demonstrate the succession from stone prototypes, the latter, quite possibly being produced for ritu-
 7

al ends also after the introduction of iron tools, hardly can help to determine the date of transition to
agriculture and, last not least, it does not go without saying that those celts were produced by the
Edo.
The time of the beginning of iron working (never mind appeared spontaneously or brought
from somewhere) marks that of the final transition to agriculture as the major means of subsistence
and hence could serve an additional proof for the dating of the end of the whole period of transition
to agriculture (the starting point of it should be some centuries preceding the date of the introduc-
tion of metallurgy. And the time of hunter-gatherers’ migration to the place of future agricultural-
ists’ settling is to be still earlier.
The Nok culture is entirely the Iron Age one.49 So, if the inhabitants of Nok really were the
ancestors of the Yoruba and hence the Edo, they could represent a part of that ethnic stock which
did not migrate to the forest belt and due to it transcended to agriculture and then iron working ear-
lier than Proto-Yoruba and -Edo being, together with them those places’ inhabitants for a consider-
able period of time preceding the appearance of their Iron Age type culture. Iron is known in the
forest zone from the 5th century AD50 In the Benin territory concretely, it has probably also been
used since the 1st half of the 1st millennium AD as Connah supposes. 51 The first relics of an Iron
Age culture, Ife, as it was mentioned date back to the 6th century AD The first excavated Iron Age
settlement in the Edo territory is of the 7th-9th centuries AD though iron appeared there on the
brink of the eras52 what seems logical from the point of view of the aforesaid.
Thus, the earlier ancestors of the Edo came to their final place of inhabitance from the sa-
vanna belt, most probable, the Niger-Benue confluence area in modern Central Nigeria. After about
three thousand years of life in the savanna, they started penetrating into the forest in the 3rd-2nd
millennia BC and finally migrated there in the 1st millennium BC still being foragers. It is also rea-
sonable to admit that a part of the Edo and Yoruba ancestors did not follow those groups and rested
in the savanna. They could become the founders of the Nok culture of the 1st millennium BC - the
early centuries AD, already characterized by agriculturalist economy. In the forest the transition to
agriculture took place later, in the end of the 1st millennium BC - the 1st half of the 1st millennium
AD In the social sphere this radical change was marked by the formation of the extended family
community and its institutions of government. In the middle of the 1st millennium AD on the back-
ground of developed hoe agriculture and iron smelting the conditions for further political centraliza-
tion and concentration of power riped (about sociopolitical processes in early Benin see correspond-
ing chapters below).
But still what to do with the legend about newcomers from Egypt? It is also worth analyzing
for some elements of the Edo culture, predominantly elitarian, connected with rituals, symbolics,
 8

and art seem to originate from North-Eastern Africa - 1st centuries AD Egypt as well as Nubia and
Meroe, related to the former. The ram which served the common symbol for the Benin (and Igbo-
Ukwu and Yoruba) chiefs, subordinates of supreme rulers could represent a transformation of the
Egyptian Amon. The ibis, a Benin royal symbol has parallels in its portraying in Egypt, too. The
Bini harp resembles those from Meroe. The cross as a sign of dignity is known in Nubia and again
Meroe. But all this should not a priori be considered a result of migrations. From ancient times cul-
tural ties have embraced the whole continent and even surpassed its boundaries though these rela-
tions are not sufficiently studied yet. Some separate North-Eastern African elements of culture were
no doubt able to reach the forest belt in the West of the continent by a chain of North-Eastern, Cen-
tral, and Western African peoples in the course of more or less considerable time. Furthermore,
these few and separate elements of culture are traced not in Egypt, Nubia, and Meroe, on the one
hand and among the Edo, Yoruba, and kindred peoples, on the other hand only. They (mentioned
above and some other) also present in cultures of ethnoses in between, in particular Western Suda-
nese (e.g., the Songhay, Jukun, Hausa) as well as those living father west like the Akan, Baule and
other, and outside the African continent at all.53 On the contrary to earlier scholars devoted to the
Hamitic theory, Africanists of a few recent decades elaborate more realistic theories of the penetra-
tion of the North-Eastern African culture elements into the forest in the West of the continent. They
postulate their gradual drift as a result of the dialogue of cultures but not a rapid appearance in the
area with any newcomers from Egypt, Nubia or Meroe.54
The same with the introduction of iron, if it really was of the Meroe, not Northern African
origin.55
It could well happen to the story of Lamurudu, too. This legend could spread (and did
spread) among many peoples and reach Upper Guinea being then appropriated as prestigious for
tracing origin from him and his followers
It is possible to find an explanation for the fact that North-Eastern culture elements and
traits, including the legend of the Egyptian origin were among prestigious, connected with the upper
strata of the Benin society; an explanation which avoids the idea of subjugation of local inhabitants
by invaders. According to the Arutyunov’s theory of penetration of innovations into the culture of
the ethnos, other cultures’ values are regularly introduced into a culture just via the upper strata as
prestigious and only then may go down to the popular level.56
But the different armed conflicts in which Egypt was involved in classical times may have
initiated migrations. Among those conflicts was the capture of Egypt by the Assyrians under Esar-
haddon 676 BC, by the Persians under Cambyses 525 BC, Alexander’s invasion 331 BC, and the
occupation of Egypt by the Romans 31 BC.
 9

From about the 6th/7th centuries AD, there emerged mysterious leaders in the southern re-
gions of today’s Niger Republic and Northern Nigeria near Lake Chad. Their names still linger on
even today in the traditions of different ethnic groups. These state founding foreigners (or their de-
scendants) penetrated south from Borgu and Hausaland through Nupe, Jukun, Igala, and Yoruba-
land and eventually to Benin, Dahomey, and parts of Ghana. However, since especially the northern
parts of today’s Nigeria and some regions below the line Niger-Benue have been subjected by Mos-
lem conquerers at the beginning of the 19th century (“Jihad” of Uthman Dan Fodia) who left their
cultural mark on the conquered peoples, hardly any traditions survived and the few bits and pieces
are difficult to verify.
The carriers of these pre-Islamic cultures could be, according to Solken, identical with the
Zaghawa. They are: “... ohne Zweifel gleich den Tubu Athiopen und offenbar aus der Verlagerung
der altäthiopischen Garamantia entstanden. Sie und ihre Ableger im Sudan - Kanembu und Kanuri -
sind insgesamt Vertreter des Barbarvölkerkreises, der von der alten Phazania bis in den Mittelsudan
reichte und tief nach Süden und weit nach Westen hin kulturbefruchtend ausgestrahlt hat, angeregt
durch Hochkulturträger vom Typus eines Abd-ul Dar, eines “Kanaaniters” Namudu, dessen
Namensattribut sogar in der mauretanischen Tagant und in Futa Toro genannt wird, eines Bana
Turumi und der anderen Turaleute Kisra, Amina, Bakwa Turunku, Aguza und Tazar, die im letzten
alle aus der “Stadt Kisras” stammen, einst im Lande Badar oder Haiburra gelegen, d.h. in der
Erythräe oder in einem ihrer alteren innerafrikanischen Pflanzstaaten.”57
The above mentioned Namudu (Namarudu, Lemerudu, Lamorodu, Lamurudu, etc) is of in-
terest in view of Benin and in a broader sense, eventually Kisra. As the mentioning of the single
person Lamorodu shows one has to distinguish between leading persons and ethnic groups. John-
son, as was already mentioned saw in Lamurudu Nimrod, the Phoenician conqueror of Egypt which
further went to Arabia but was expatriated from there with his followers. The Namudu migration
from Arabia took place, according to old traditions, shortly after the birth of the Prophet Moham-
med (ca. 570 AD), i.e. Namudu eventually left the common home Haiburra (Haibirra) or Badar
(Badr, Bedr) before Kisra. Namudu is described as the leader of a caravan which set out from
Birnin Kissera via Kugome (Zinder) and Chirkao (Kanche) and finally reached Daura. At his place
Namudu ordered a well to be dug and appointed the snake Ki as the guard.58
Daura is actually situated in Northern Nigeria, however, as has been shown, the name
Namudu-Lamerudu-Lamorodu can be traced right down to Benin, as well as Yorubaland. The
astonishing fact in view of this statement is that local informants never mentioned Lamorodu again.
Since Kisra may eventually be identical with Namurudu or, he may have been his son or brother,
some comments about him may be appropriate. Kisra is also mentioned, as the below statement of
 10

Krieger shows, in connection with the introduction of bronze casting. “Neben der Vermutung, dass
vielleicht Perser, Juden oder Griechen die Giesskunst im Niltal eingefuhrt haben und diese dann
westwarts verbreitet wurde, steht endlich die von der nigerianischen Lokaltradition unterstutzte An-
nahme, dass die Kunst im 7. Jahrhundert durch eine aus dem Osten kommende Einwander-
ungswelle unter dem Staatsgrunder Kisra gebracht worden sei.”59
Whereas we know only little about Namudu in view of the regions which are of interest for
us, the material about Kisra is much more substantial. One of the most interesting researches,
backed-up by his own fieldwork, to find traces of Kisra was undertaken by Mathews (1926). He
states: “The Kisra legend... is common in the Northern Provinces of Nigeria from Wukari on the
Benue River to Illo and Bussa on the Niger. It tells of a magician king of that name who was driven
out of Arabia by the Prophet and who founded a series of pagan states in the Western Sudan. It has
been stated that the Jukun of Wukari have no knowledge of the Kisra tradition. But this is not so.
The Aku Oka (the Priest-King, or rather, Divine King, of the Jukun) keeps a sword and a spear
which are said to have been left at Wukari by Kisra. The sword is called butren, “the sword of olden
time”, and the spear is called ishigh, which is not the usual word for a spear in Jukun and is applied
to this spear alone. ... The Jukun say that they came from the East (Egypt or Mecca) and in Bornu
and Katsina both Kororafa and Wukari (its off-shoot) are said to have been founded by descendants
of Kisra. The Kakau of Songhai assert that about 600 A.D. there was a great migration from east to
west across the Sudan called the Kisra Migration. The “Kisra” are made out to be Persians who
fought against Rum (the Byzantines) and were driven west, entering Nigeria by way of Lake
Chad.”60
Brentjes writes in this context: “616 besetzten persische Truppen Ägypten und zogen den
Nil aufwarts bis nach Nubien. Im fernen Nigeria fanden noch im 19. Jahrhundert deutsche und
englische Ethnographen Legenden uber einen Zug Chosraus zum Niger - wahrscheinlich waren
versprengte Einheiten nach der Niederlage vor Konstantinopel im Niltal abgeschnitten worden.”61
It is very much likely that Kisra can be seen in context with the Sassanidian ruler Chosrau
(Chosroes, Khosrow) II Parviz (590-628 AD) since the latter is called in Arabic Kisra as well. There
is a remarkable similarity of a type of sword from Benin with the Khopesh, a weapon very common
among the Babylonians, Phoenicians, Egyptians, etc.62
The above statements have been selected from among a vast number of references. Howev-
er, for the time being it is not possible to draw proper conclusions in the context. Egharevba’s
statements could eventually contain a bit of truth as the Edo reached their present habitations from a
north-easterly direction.
 11

The importance of the east in the Edo picture of the Universe is underlined by the fact that
just there they situate the supreme deity, Osa (or Osanobua).63 It seems natural for them that the
creator of the world should live where the sun rises and the new day begins.
And Ben-Amos points in connection with Osanobua and the Ogiso, rulers of the 1st dynasty
in Benin, to the east: “The east is the cardinal direction associated with the creator god, Osanobua,
and with the creation of land, which first rose out of the primordial waters in a place which today is
the Igbo town of Agbor to the east of Benin. All the sites where once the Ogisos built their palaces
and ancient quarters are on the eastern side of the present city.”64
Jungwirth reports in view of the indicated direction: “Interessanterweise deuten alle Aus-
sagen des Ohenso von Ugbekun, der Priester aller Altäre der Ogiso, darauf hin, dass der erste Ogiso
aus dem Nord-Osten gekommen ist. Andererseits erinnern die Erzählungen über den ersten Ogiso
an Ursprungsmythen der Yoruba. Dass es sich aber nicht um Yoruba-Könige handelt, wird durch
den Titel Ogiso angedeutet.”65
The east plays a certain role in the Edo calender which eventually corresponds to the above
said. Egharevba notes: “There are four days in the week representing the four corners of the earth.
Eken the east, Orie the west, Aho the south, Okuo the north. Eken is a day of rest.” “People do not
as a rule go to the farm on that day, but they may do any work in the home. Councils are usually
held on this day...”66 While the days associated with the south and the north were market ones, an-
other native writer amplifies, “... Eken and Orie, which also mean the rising and the setting sun,
belonged to the gods. It was dangerous to travel on these two days in case one met the gods.”67
The subject should not be concluded without mentioning one of the oldest sites of discovery
of bronzes inside the West African forest. T. Shaw made some astonishing discoveries at Igbo-
Ukwu (east of the Niger, Awka District). Prominent among the findings is the burial chamber of a
dignitary which was dated to about 900 AD.68 There is no evidence of connections between the Ig-
bo-Ukwu culture, whose origins are not known up till now, and Benin. The Igbo-Ukwu bronzes
show no stylistic similarity to those known from Ife and Benin. Nevertheless, two features are re-
markable: the facial marks depicted on a bronze head are nearly as prominent as we know them
from the Ife heads. Furthermore, there are some snake representations similar to those known from
Benin. However, this is not unusual in West Africa.

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 12

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1
Roth, 6
2
Egharevba 1960, 1; also see: Egharevba 1956, 1
3
Egharevba 1965, 8-9
4
Egharevba 1966, 7-9
5
Egharevba 1969, Preface; also see: Egharevba 1964, 6
6
Eweka, 9-10
7
Darling I, 63
8
Armstrong 1962; Smith 1988, 11
9
Bradbury, 150
 19

10
Talbot I, 276; II, 2
11
See: Hodgkin, 78-79
12
Johnson, 7-8
13
Biobaku 1955; Biobaku 1958, 24-25
14
Kobishchanov, 14-40
15
E.g.: Lucas; Davidson, 141-43; Atanda, 1; Crowder, 38; Falola et al., 57-58
16
E.g.: Beier, 17-20; Wescott; Ademakinwa, 37-38; Law 1973, 30-32; Agiri, 160-61; Obayemi, 200, 213; Beilis, 82;
Aderibigbe, 13-15; Deschamps, 233; Boahen et al., 63; Kochakova, 31-32, 177-81; Smith 1988, 9-10; Apter, 15-17
17
Aimiuwu, 85; Fabunmi, 22-23; Kochakova, 179; Laitin, 224, n. 4; Connah 1969, 47-48; Deschamps, 233
18
Darling I, 63
19
Agiri, 162-63
20
Jungwirth, 102
21
Obayemi, 200-01, 255
22
Smith 1988, 156
23
Jungwirth, 102
24
Olaniyan, 17
25
Armstrong 1964, 127-28
26
Bradbury, 150
27
Bascom, 8-9; Alagoa et. al., 91
28
Es’Andah, 12
29
Ryder, 372-73
30
See: Bondarenko, 5-7
31
Eluyemi, 80; also see: Obayemi, 213
32
Willett 1971, 357-58; Smith 1973, 226; Law 1977, 28-29
33
Oliver and Fagan 1978, 330-31
34
B.E.B. Fagg 1959; B.E.B. Fagg 1962; W.B. Fagg 1963; W.B. Fagg 1970; Willett 1967, 110-21, 125-27; Willett 1970,
322-24; Willett 1971, 354-58; Willett 1977, 72-76; Willett 1982, 11-21; Mirimanov 1973, 264-70; Mirimanov 1986,
50-55;Oliver and Fagan 1978, 338
35
Willett 1971, 323; Willett 1973, 130, 137; Willett 1977, 269
36
Armstrong 1964, 128
37
Mitchel, 283
38
Beier, 21-22; Murray and Willett; Willett 1967, 123-24
39
Igbafe 1974, 2
40
Willett 1977, 269
41
Darling I, 214
42
Posnanski, 106; Shaw 1972, 159-60, 163; Coursey, 85; Shnirelman, 234
43
Shaw 1978, 68
44
Ozanne, 32
45
Ryder, 371; Connah 1987, 140-41
46
Morgan, 52; Roese and Rees
47
Connah 1975, 112
48
Roese and Rees, 541-42
49
Willett 1982, 11
50
Ryder, 371
51
Connah 1972, 37
52
Darling, II, 302
53
Lawal; McCall; Deschamps, 231-32; Berzina, 157-58, 161-62
54
See, e.g.: Schuz; Berzina, 144-54, 157-58, 161-62
55
See, e.g.: Berzina, 135-42 vs Mauny; Oliver and Fagan 1978, 331-33
56
Arutyunov
57
Sölken, 891-92
58
Further details see: Solken, 835-36
59
Krieger, 33
60
Mathews, 144
61
Brentjes, 172
62
Roese 1992, 375
63
Talbot, II, 37
64
Ben-Amos, 13
65
Jungwirth, 68
 20

66
Egharevba 1949, 81; also see: Egharevba 1960, 84
67
Omoregie, 9-10
68
Shaw 1979