The Last African Empire

By MR Folorunso Eddo

The Benin Empire, located on the costal forest of the modern day Nigeria was established in the 13th Century. Prior to the current dynasty, the Empire was ruled by Ogiso's. An Ogiso was elected among the Benin Chiefs to rule for a period of ten years. Civil war broke out when the last Ogiso that was elected tried to transfer power to his son. To end the civil war, the warring parties agreed to bring a neutral person from a neighboring Kingdom of Ife to rule and produce a permanent line of succession of Kings to rule the Kingdom. Oranmiyan, a Prince from Ife Kingdom was elected to be the King. It was agreed that, the first son of the King from then on, will always be their King. It was customary that during the rule of the King, the first son (Prince) will live outside the City wall in Uselu until the death of the King. Oranmiyan married an Edo woman from Ugo'noba, who gave birth to a son named Eweka. Oranmiyan left Benin after 12 years to go back to Ife (he later created a new kingdom in Oyo) and his son Eweka became the King and ruled with the help of his mother. Since the 13th century, Oba Eweka descendants have been ruling the kingdom until the present day.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1517394236
• ISBN13: 9781517394233
• Release Date: September 2015
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 84 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 7.0" x 10.0"