AN EDOCATED NEXUS OF HISTORY AND TODAY: Edo N'MOSE, WHERE IS YOUR BEAUTY, HONOUR AND GLORY?

I am Edo or what people would refer today as Benin or Bini as some would derogatorily or ignorantly insist. Oba Erediauwa categorically stated that the spelling was Benin.The Oba's word is final authority and cannot be reasonably questioned.

Edo has been called many names in the past. At some point we were called Idu. Idu is the projenitor, if you like,patriach, of all Edo people, as you have Abraham for the Israelites and some Arabians.

At other times we were called Igodo, after the first known statutory King of the Kingdom, Obagodo.

During the reign of Ewuare N'Ogidigan ( Ewuare the Great), the name was further changed to Edo, around 1440 AD.

About 300 years before Ewuare, the first King of Benin in the present monarchical dynasty, Oranmiyan, son of Idoduwa ( more called Oduduwa by modern historians and our Yoruba brethren) called Igodo Ile Ubinu ( land of vexation or strife). Many started calling us Ubini, Bini and Benin. ( I have spoken and written a lot about idoduwa,an Igodo prince who strayed into the present day Ile Ife to fulfil a long time oracle in Ife that their Messiah will come from the east and Benin is to the east of Ife,  to avoid being killed or used as a sacrifice in fulfillment of a fraudulent oracle, following sophisticated Palace intrigues).

When the Portuguese and the Dutch visited between 1480 and 1550, they knew us as Great Benin. They interacted with us as equals. The Pope at that time also visited and established a Church in Benin. The street where the Church was established was named Popeville, corrupted by the Benins to Akpakpava. The Chuch, Aruosa N’ohuaren ( Holy Eyes of God or Eyes of a holy God ) was built on the spot where the Benins earlier saw the eye of God. That is to say where God earlier appeared to them and sealed the covenant with a mighty black stone, which fell down from the sky. The Church was burnt down during the evil Benin invasion by the British forces and the stone and other artifacts  stolen.

The Oba of Benin was the spiritual head of this Church and the priests dressed like Roman Catholic priests . The Church of Benin or The Benin Church was established long before the British established the Church of England or the Anglican Church. The British actually copied the Benin model by also making the England monarch the head of the Church of England.

As I have stated in a previous post on this platform, The Benins practiced a sophisticated parliamentary system of Government where the Oba was the head of the executive, legislature, the judiciary and the military long before the British did in the 17th century. This was some of the reasons the Benins resisted the British incursion. The British earlier came around 1700 but were sent packing by the Benins because of their arrogance, but the British smartly copied the system they saw in Benin and replicated same in their Country. We rejected the British because we were not used to being dictated to. We had a civilization and a system we believed was more advance or at least at par with the most advanced Nations of Europe and the known world. We exchanged ambassadors with Portugal as far back as 1500 AD and had street lights on well paved streets as at 1480 when there was no England as a Country.
At its height by around 1700, the Benin Empire covered most parts of southern Nigeria and parts of current kogi, extending to some parts of Ghana, Togo ( this the then President of Togo, Gnassingbe Eyadema alluded to in the 70s when he visited Benin City and thereafter named a University after Benin Kingdom) and Dahome, named after an Edo General of Esan extraction, Gen. Isidahome. The name Dahome was changed to Benin,in honour of Benin Kingdom.
We have also been called Aka by some of our Igalla, Urhobo, Igbo and Uzon ( Izon or Ijaw) neighbours.
Lastly, we have been called Ado, which I believe is a corruption of Edo. Lagos says the first Oba of Lagos was Prince Ado, a son of Oba Orhogbua. It is possible that was not exactly his name as every Benin noble was called Edo or Ado by many of our awe inspired neighbours. Anywhere you see Ado currently, know that it was inhabited by Edo people or was part and parcel of Benin Kingdom or Benin Empire. There is Abule Ado in Lagos. There is Iddo as well. There is Ado Ekiti, Idanre, Idoani all in Ekiti State.There are still people called Edo Akure ( Edo N’Ekue, Edo call Akure people Ekue till date. In short, we had settlements of direct Edo speaking people scattered around for the purpose of enforcing loyalty and royalty to the Crown- per Prof. Sophie Oluwole, who was born in Igbara Oke, grew up a Yoruba but her grand father was sent there from Benin by Oba Adolo to enforce royalty and loyalty from the Ijesha people.Her brother, the legendary Journalist, Ebenezer Williams has relocated to Benin, the land of his ancestors.
The full names of Onitsha is Onitsha N’Ado N’Idu, which ostensibly draws a nexus between Onitsha and environ with Benin.
Until about thirty or so years ago, Benin people were not known to travel. They preferred to remain, live and die in Benin. For them, Edorisiagbon ( Edo is the centre of the world), edokpolo ( Edo is great or big or awesome), Edowaye Edo is where wealth is, edo is where home is), Edoruwa ( edo is wealth) and Edoretin ( Edo is power). Even though this disposition was good, I concede that it affected us badly in an increasingly globalizing world. In a world where the dynamics of power were changing every day, we needed to face the stark realities that things were not the way they were and had changed forever. First, with the Fulani incursions into the Northern part of Nigeria and aim to deep the Koran into the atlantic ( by the way, Benin successfully repelled the Fulanis  and even helped Oyo to stop the marauding Fulani Army from invading Oyo through Ilorin and Ogbomosho); then the new sheriff in town, the British, who ruthlessly crushed Benin, deposed its Oba and sent him to Calabar( they could not capture the Oba, who willingly gave up himself after the British threatened to obliterate Benin from the face of the earth if he did not give up himself). Benin raised over 150 thousand strong Army in three days to fight the British, but there was nothing much they could do as the British had superior fire power and Benin, just about 70 years before had its artillery and Arsenal destroyed by an Oba who committed suicide because he lost in a political war against his brother. So at the time the British invaded Benin, it was still in a rebuilding process.
The above paragraphs were precursory look at Edo and her people. Today’s essay is about the present, which is a tale of shame,gory  and lack. It is on record that no Edo person was ever sold into slavery during the slave trade era. Now in 2017, many Edo people gladly send the children and wards to a lives of uncertainty in the desert and Mediterranean  sea, enroute Europe for prostitution and drug peddling. What went wrong to a once proud people?
TO BE CONTD
Extract from part two:
…we cannot be defined by the inelegance of some of our people, who in the quest for survival and to escape the artificial poverty forced on them by the Nigerian State, discard who they are and stoop to conquer and in the process, die unsung. We must be defined by the heroics of Anthony Enahoro, a descendant of Ogieuromi  Okogie, who, together with Gen. Ezomo, punished the rebellion of the Edayi ( Deji) of Akure and restored it to the Empire rule. Okogie was a descendant of Oba Esigie and of a mixed Benin and Portuguese lineage ( Mother was a Portuguese woman who lived in Benin). Olubunmi Okogie, a cardinal in the catholic Church is also from this illustrious Edo family. We are defined by Chris Imafidon, who together with his family, is considered the smartest in Britain and probably the world, today. There are Mike Ozekhome from Agenebode, a Military cantonment set up by Oba Esigie to watch over the River Niger against any further aggression from the Ida people, after crushing the Ida rebellion . Mike Ozekhome has risen to the highest pinnacle of the legal profession in Nigeria and an example to many. He is also a Chief in the Palace of the Oba of Benin.
We are defined by the heroics of Benson Idahosa, who as a child was so sickly that he was thrown into a pit to die, but grew up to lead the greatest revival of the Church in Africa and becoming the greatest preacher of the gospel of Christ in his time, pioneering many firsts and giving birth to other great preachers like a fellow Edo Chris Oyakhilome, David Oyedepo, Myles Munroe and too many others across the world.
Who we are is what Andrew Otutu Obaseki represented at the Supreme Court of Nigeria, where he is arguably the greatest Jurist Nigeria has ever had. Samson Odemwingie Uwaifo followed suit.
We are defined by Victor Uwaifo, Sunny Okosun, Raymond Dokpesi, John Momoh Felix Liberty, Osayomore Joseph, Majek Fashek, Soni Irabor and Betty Irabor, Adesuwa Oyenekwe, Pedro Obaseki, Lancelot Imasuen, Moji Danisa, Becky Madojemu, Osas Ighodaro, Ikponmwosa Osakioduwa, suleman Aledeh, men and women who against all odds have conquered the media and entertainment industries...

Those of us who have found our voice, must help others to find theirs.

Mr. Daniel Osa-Ogbegie is a Benin City based Legal Practitioner.