British Conquest of Benin 1896-1899

With Ralph Moor (the Consul-General of the Niger Coast Protectorate) away in London, his deputy, Lieutenant James Phillips, requested permission from the Foreign Office in December 1896 "to depose and remove the King of Benin". He also sent a messenger to Oba Ovonramwen, the ruler of Benin, announcing an impending visit to investigate reports of ritual human sacrifice in Benin. Then without waiting for a reply, Phillips advanced into Benin with a small force of 10 British officers, a column of 200 African porters and a drum-and-fife band.

In Benin, it was decided that Chief Ologbosheri, the oba's son-in-law should be sent out with an armed group to check the British advance. On January 4, 1897, on the road to Benin City, the British force was ambushed by Ologbosheri. Many of the African carriers were captured and many left dead. Phillips and eight British officers were killed. Only two of the whites escaped. It was an unexpected and unusual victory.

In reprisal, the British organized a punitive expedition under the command of Admiral Sir Harry Rawson. Within a month, a force of 1200 British marines had landed on the Nigerian coast. The marines were reinforced with several hundred locally recruited black troops, for Admiral Rawson's three pronged attack on Benin City in February 1897.

Each of the advancing British columns met strong resistance from Bini forces. Despite ambushes on the columns within three weeks they were in Benin City. Along the routes of advance the British found the remains of hundreds of men and women sacrificed to the Bini gods. Benin City was captured on February 18, 1897. In the capital they found crucified victims and blood stained alters. The British put the palaces and compounds to the torch. After three days the fires got out of control, burning up what was left of the city as well as the equipment of the British forces. For a further six months, a small British force patrolled the countryside in search of the oba and his chiefs who had fled. Cattle were seized and villages destroyed. Not until August 1897 was the oba cornered and brought back to his ruined city.

While the life of the oba himself was spared, six of his chiefs were condemned to death. One of them, Ologhosheri, continued a guerrilla struggle against the British for another two years. But he too was eventually captured and hanged. The reigning oba was sent into exile, and Benin was administered indirectly under the protectorate through a council of chiefs. The conquest of Benin in 1897 effectively completed the British occupation of what would become southwestern Nigeria.

Benin's extraordinary collection of bronze sculptures, depicting the chief events of its history, survived. These treasures were removed by the British troops and subsequently auctioned by the Admiralty to defray the cost of the expedition. The Benin bronzes catalyzed the beginnings of a long reassessment of the value of West African culture, which had strong influences on the formation of modernism.

References

Nigeria - A Country Study; Descriptions of the Various States of British West Africa; Midwest Invasion of 1967; The Looting of Benin; Punitive Expedition.

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