CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND TO STUDY
Introduction
Benin is located on 6’25N, 5’ 35S’1. It lies in lowlands which are part of the vast coastal plains of Southern Nigeria2. The total area of the Benin Division is about 4,000 square miles3. The Edo people are one of the largest known people of the forest belt who live in the Southwestern area of present day Nigeria4. The Edo speaking group of peoples covers an area extending from the broken hilly country that borders the Igbirra and Igala in the North to the edge of the coastal swamp forest in the South where their neighbors are the Ijo and the Itsekin5. Their other boundaries are with the Yoruba to the West, and the Ibo to the East6.
Although J.U Egharevba is of the opinion that the Bini came all the way from Egypt and settled at Uhe before finally moving to their present location7. This tradition of origin of the Benin people has been discredited as the theory gives credit to the hamitic hypothesis. However, contemporary Bini historians opine that the Benin did not migrate from anywhere and have been in their present location since the beginning of time, in relation to the Osanobua Bini hypothesis. What came to be known as a kingdom in the sense of its being headed by a King.8 The pre-Ogiso Benin was made up oGFf about thirty different autonomous communities or villages9. Headed by the oldest man in the meetings of several village known as Odionwere in about 900 AD it was in one of the meetings of several village heads (Eddionwere) that Odionwere Igodo proclaimed that he had divine mandate to unify the autonomous villages to form a kingdom. Appointing himself as Ogiso (Ogie-king, ruler; iso-the sky)10
There were thirty of these kings who were style Ogiso and their rule lasted for nearly 1000 years11. Due to some intricacies in the royal court Ogiso Owodo was not only banished from the throne for maladministration12. He also died headless leading the throne vacant, plunging the Benin Kingdom into a period of interregnum. The republican government that was instituted with time tottered towards to the verge of an outbreak of a civil war. The Iyase of the Uzama title holders sent from yonder to rule over the Benin people13. Oduduwa sent his son Oranmiyan to abode in the palace built for him at Usama by the elders. Soon after his arrival, he married Erinmwide by whom he had a son.14 Oranmiyan’s stay in Benin was short lived, after the birth of his son, he announced his departure from the Kingdom.
Eweka was instituted as the new ruler of the Benin Kingdom although at a young age, he pioneered a new ruling dynasty of the Benin Kingdom that exists till date. Oba Eweka 1 ruled in the shadows of the Uzama chiefs and so did the three subsequent Obas that succeeded him. Oba Ewedo broke the jinx of Uzama domination, after a struggle with an independent chief, Ogiave established himself on the site of the modern palace.15 The Benin Kingdom reached its zenith in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, hundreds of towns and villages were conquered under the leadership of strong warrior kings like Oba Ewuare the Great Oba Ozolua, Oba Esigie, and Oba Orhogbua. It is pertinent to note that the territories conquered were brought under the imperialist control of the Benin Kingdom for the sake of the Oba and the kingdom at large. It is no wonder an organized system of revenue collection was sustain the established in order in the name of sustain the kingdom, known as the tribute system. In the pre-colonial sense of the word tax was a near voluntary payment made by the citizens of the Benin Kingdom, be it foodstuffs, livestock and other materials to the Oba. Tax was levied on the people to support the Oba, tax was not full proof voluntary but the people equally viewed it as part of their customs to the monarchy, while tribute was the payment made by conquered territories or state. This was basically a relationship between the victor and the vanquished all over world, the payment of tributes to their new overlord signified loyalty.
However, refusal to pay tribute warranted military action been taken against the recalcitrant state. Tribute was most times involuntary, in the Benin Kingdom the military was mandated to descend on recalcitrant vassal states. This study will focus on the intricacies and system in which tax and tribute were collected from the Benin people and her vassal territories and the socio-political and economic relevance of this system to the Benin Kingdom.
Even as the Kingdom had began to decay towards the end the of the 18th century and continued all through the nineteenth century, the tax and tribute system of the kingdom equally began to wane, as more vassal states either declared their autonomy or were conquered by Fulani/Nupe Jihadists from the North. However, the centre continued to hold until the British punitive expedition of 1897 completely disrupted the intricately organized kingdom of Benin and down the drain went the tax and tribute system of the kingdom. Vassal states were given autonomy from Benin hegemony and brought under the umbrella of British colonial rule.
Aim and Objectives
The aim of this study is to explicate the tax and tribute system of pre-colonial Benin Kingdom; its structure and its relevance to ore-colonial Benin kingdom.
The objectives of the study include the following;
a. To study the emergence of the Benin kingdom.
b. To examine the system of taxation in the Benin kingdom
c. To study the Benin relationship with the vassal state during the period of imperial expansion.
d. To analyze the tribute system of the Benin kingdom.