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Ohen

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Ohen
8th Oba of the Kingdom of Benin
Black-and-white photograph of a small cast-brass crowned figure standing on two curving mudfish-shaped legs. The figure wears multiple neck rings and a patterned wrap, holds forked ceremonial implements in raised hands, and has star-shaped terminals at either side of its lower body.
The mudfish legs on this figure of an Edo leader may represent Ohen's paralysis.
Oba of the Kingdom of Benin
Reignc. 1334 – c. 1370
PredecessorUdagbedo
SuccessorEgbeka
Diedc. 1370
Cause of deathStoning
SpouseElẹrẹ (according to oral traditions)
Issue
HouseHouse of Eweka
FatherOguola
ReligionEdo religion

Ohen was the eighth Oba ('king') of the Kingdom of Benin who reigned in the 14th century, generally dated to c. 1334 – c. 1370.[a] He succeeded Udagbedo and was later succeeded by his eldest son, Egbeka, after his death at about 1370. Historical writings, oral traditions, and ritual performances associate his reign with palace conflict, disability, guild reforms, and the development of Benin ceremonial traditions. Benin court art depicts mudfish-legged royal figures that are often associated with Ohen, although scholars have also interpreted the motif more broadly as an image of divine kingship, Olokun-linked power, royal dependence on elite support, and warning against the abuse of monarchical authority. According to traditional accounts, Ohen became paralysed after many years on the throne and concealed his condition from the court by arranging for attendants to carry him into council chambers before chiefs arrived. His disability was later discovered by the Iyase, a leading military chief, whose subsequent execution reportedly provoked unrest that ended in Ohen's death by stoning. Oral traditions and later scholarship connect these events with ideas about divine kingship, legitimacy, and political tensions involving the Ogiamiẹn lineage.

Several modern studies associate Ohen's reign with the reorganisation of palace guilds, especially weaving guilds connected to the royal court. Traditions also credit him with establishing the Olokun shrine at Urhonigbe and link his reign to ritual practices preserved in annual Iguẹ ceremonies. Stories surrounding his relationship with a woman named Elẹrẹ, together with accounts of secret journeys across the Ikpoba River, are connected in oral traditions to the origins of the Ekoko n'Utẹ masquerade festival.

Background and accession

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Centred on the Benin capital, the Kingdom of Benin comprised the capital and several hundred villages.[2] The capital was located in the forest belt at about 80 miles (129 km) west of the Niger River, in present-day Nigeria's Edo State.[3][4] Archaeological evidence from the Benin Iya, a network of earthworks dating from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries, indicates that it enclosed and connected more than 500 settlements in the Benin and Esan territories.[5] Before the first Portuguese visitors arrived in 1485, Benin was the centre of a politically complex state. The absence of contemporary written evidence makes the chronology of the period before Portuguese contact uncertain.[6] In 1897, British forces captured Benin City.[7]

Traditions concerning Ohen describe a political setting formed by dynastic consolidation and tensions involving the Ogiamiẹn lineage.[b] Later accounts place Ohen within the Oranmiyan dynasty, which established authority in Benin City after conflicts with the Ogiamiẹn lineage. Narratives concerning Ohen's reign also refer to the Ogiamiẹn family in connection with palace disputes and ritual restrictions.[12] Ohen succeeded Udagbedo around 1334 as the third son of Oba ('king') Oguola. Historian Jacob Egharevba described him as "a handsome and intelligent man".[13]

Reign

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Paralysis and concealment

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Historians know little about the first twenty-five years of Oba Ohen's reign. Then, around his 25th year on the throne, Ohen became paralysed in his legs. He concealed this by having attendants carry him into the council chamber before the chiefs arrived and remove him after they had left.[13] Traditions link his paralysis to ideas of kingship as a divine institution in which the monarch's body symbolised order.[14] A ruler with visible defects risked removal. Ohen explained his condition as partial transformation into a sacred mudfish.[15] Artists depicted him as half‑human, half‑fish, embedding his deformity within accepted royal imagery.[16][17]

A guild tradition recorded by Paula Ben-Amos in African Arts gives another account of how Ohen became paralysed. In this version, Ohen pursued one of chief Oliha's wives, prompting Oliha to appeal to Edion Edo, the ancestors of the Benin nation, and to n'Iyaton, a shrine associated with possession of the land. After Ohen later left Oliha's quarter, the account states that the ground split open beneath him, leaving his legs paralysed. It continues by stating that Ohen then avoided the women of his harem, and that a daughter of the Iyase[c] sent her father a cock with broken legs as a concealed message explaining why the king had stopped visiting. The version then returns to the wider Ohen tradition in which the Iyase investigated the king's condition, was executed, and was later avenged by chiefs who later killed Ohen.[19]

The Iyase grew suspicious of Ohen's council practices and hid in the chamber to investigate.[13] When discovered, he was executed on Ohen's orders.[20] Some accounts identify the chief as Iyase Emuze.[21] Oral traditions describe violent reactions to his death, culminating in Ohen's execution by stoning with kaolin‑coated rocks.[14] Another tradition recorded by author Heather Millar in her 1997 book The Kingdom of Benin in West Africa states that the revelation of his paralysis undermined his legitimacy (loss of the divine powers) and led to his death.[15][22] Literary traditions preserved by biographer Guida Myrl Jackson-Laufer in the Encyclopedia of Literary Epics recount that chiefs dug a concealed pit beneath the throne before stoning Ohen after he fell into it.[23] A similar version by Kathy Curnow records that chiefs trapped Ohen in a disguised pit beneath the throne before killing him.[24] He ruled for about thirty‑six years before his death.[25]

Mudfish-legged imagery

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Tall carved ivory tusk covered with small high-relief human figures. A larger central figure wearing a beaded headdress and layered regalia stands above a smaller figure holding a shield; geometric woven ornament encircles the lower end.
Carved ivory tusk from the Kingdom of Benin, decorated in high relief with a mudfish-legged Oba and attendant figure.
Dark cast-brass openwork ornament with a large central figure in elaborate beaded regalia holding hands with two smaller figures. Serpentine and animal motifs decorate its U-shaped outer frame.
Edo cast-brass sculpture of an Oba holding the hands of two attendants.
Tall patinated cast-metal altar bell formed as a crowned ruler. The figure has a long rectangular crown, large almond-shaped eyes, layered neck rings, and crossed straps across the chest; small figures and animals decorate the sides, and two curved fish tails form the lower body.
Edo altar bell in the form of a fish-legged king, 18th–19th century.

Mudfish-legged royal figures appear on Benin plaques, carved ivory tusks and other royal arts, and their interpretation is not limited to a representation of Ohen's paralysis. Barbara Blackmun identified one level of the motif as a reference to Ohen, whose misuse of royal authority made him a reminder that the people could resist an Oba who overstepped political and ritual limits. The same imagery also honours Ohen through traditions that identify him before birth with Olokun, who was allowed by Osanobua to enter the human world as an Oba of Benin. In this interpretation, Ohen's paralysis was a sign of sea-bound divine origin, and the king's feet were believed to possess dangerous power comparable to the electric shock of the mudfish called oriri.[26] Blackmun identified this motif as the "linked supporting triad," which Robert Thomas Soppelsa later analysed as a symbol combining royal authority, spiritual power, elite support, and political restraint. Scholars have offered several interpretations of the central group. Some view it spiritually, either as Ohen himself, as Olokun supported by other deities, or as Ohen flanked by Olokun and Osanobua. Others interpret it politically, representing the Oba supported either by the Edaiken ('crown prince') and the Ezomo,[c] or by the high priests Osa and Osuan.[27]

Scholars have disagreed over whether mudfish-legged figures should always be identified specifically with Ohen. In a 1971 exchange in The Art Bulletin, author Patricia Sloane cited anthropologist William Fagg's view that the motif might represent an Oba in divine aspect rather than Ohen specifically, while historian Esther Pasztory replied that the Ohen and Olokun interpretation had been presented cautiously and was part of the established literature on Benin art.[28] Pasztory also argued that Ohen's paralysis did not contradict the requirement that an Oba be physically whole, because the claim of Olokun possession functioned as a way to avoid removal until the deception was exposed.[29]

Guilds and court organisation

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Several modern studies associate Ohen's reign with changes in the organisation of court guilds.[30][31] The royal weaving guild Owina n'ido produced waist pennants, wall hangings, ceremonial gowns and other textiles used at court by the Oba, chiefs and priests. Its members occupied a separate street near the brasscasters and woodcarvers and served royal and ritual patrons.[19] Archaeological evidence indicates that cloth was used in Benin before Ohen's period. Archaeologist Graham Connah's excavations in the former palace area found cloth fragments in a context radiocarbon dated to around the mid-thirteenth century, although the finds do not establish whether the textiles were locally made or imported, or whether they were used at court or outside it. Benin oral traditions connect Ohen with the introduction or formal organisation of royal weaving, while also recognising that weaving predated his rule.[19]

Ohen introduced the weaving guild Owina n'ido by organising male and female weavers to produce cloth restricted to the elite, and they related this development to attempts to conceal his deformity.[32] Osarhiemen et al similarly mentioned that Ohen used specialist weavers to make patterned fabrics that covered his legs.[31] Michael, Yemi, and Duyile further argued that many guilds existed before Ohen's reign but became more formally organised during his reign and that of Ewuare.[30] A guild tradition recorded by Ben-Amos states that after becoming paralysed, Ohen went to Owina n'ido for treatment and had woven materials bound around his legs like a cast.[33] After his recovery, he was said to have admired the woven patterns and ordered the guild to continue producing cloth for the Oba. In this account, large wrappers concealed his deformity, while other woven pieces became part of his personal regalia and shrine equipment.[34] The same guild tradition also associates Ohen with remedies for broken bones, which explains the guild members' connection with chiropractic treatment.[33]

Academic Heidi Nast recorded oral traditions from a palace weaving guild that credited Ohen with changes to guild organisation. In this tradition, the guild initially consisted of seven palace women who wove royal cloth, while palace men spun the thread.[35] Ohen reassigned weaving to palace men after finding that women had begun selling royal cloth in markets. Women continued to spin thread, prepare dyes, assist with ceremonial weaving and contribute to hairstyles.[36] Ben-Amos recorded a comparable guild legend in which women first controlled weaving before men assumed the principal weaving role. Women were not entirely removed from guild production, since they still wove waist pennants for chiefs and priests and prepared ceremonial wigs and the three-pronged hairstyle worn by the Oba and some cult priests. Women born into Owina n'ido belonged to a separate subdivision known as Isiento, headed by the eldest woman in the group, the Okao Isiento.[37]

Male members of Owina n'ido were divided among titleholders, adult weavers and younger male assistants who carried messages and collected materials for dyeing and weaving. For royal work, the guild installed its looms in a special room within the Iwebo section of the palace,[d] while commissions for chiefs and priests were completed in members' houses.[37] Women prepared dyes and spun thread, including cotton and ikhuian, a thread used for cloth reserved for the Oba.[41] Ben-Amos treated the traditions concerning Ohen and Owina n'ido as important historically, even though their accuracy cannot be confirmed.[34]

Olokun associations and ritual memory

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Traditions connect Ohen with ritual attempts to cure his paralysis, crocodile imagery on Benin plaques, and medicinal symbolism intended to paralyse enemies or remove obstacles.[42] He is credited with establishing the Olokun shrine at Urhonigbe.[42][e] Blackmun mentioned that some Edo explanations present Ohen as Olokun before his human birth, making his paralysis a sign of divine sea origin as well as a source of royal danger and restriction.[26] Annual Iguẹ ceremonies preserve ritual gestures recalling the death of the Iyase during his reign.[42] During these ceremonies, chiefs symbolically gesture across ceremonial swords to ask "Where is the Iyasẹ?" while the reigning monarch ritually denies knowledge of his whereabouts.[42]

Legends and oral traditions

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Elẹrẹ traditions

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Oral traditions link Ohen to a relationship with a woman named Elẹrẹ (or variants such as Elẹyẹ and Onhẹrẹn).[43] Art historian Curnow in Umẹwaẹn: Journal of Benin and Ẹdo Studies recorded traditions collected by anthropologist Robert Elwyn Bradbury in which Ohen visited a woman in Utẹ village across the Ikpoba River, fearing her father's power as a native doctor.[14] One account stated that he improvised masks to conceal his identity when returning late, explaining the origin of the Ekoko n'Utẹ masquerade.[14][f]

Another tradition recorded by Bradbury attributed the relationship to a diviner's instruction that Ohen marry Elẹrẹ, daughter of the Ogi'Utẹ (duke of Utẹ), because he had no son.[45] In this account, Elẹrẹ later gave birth to Ogun, identified with Oba Ewuare.[45] Other versions state that a post‑menopausal woman named Onhẹrẹn bore Ogun after divinatory intervention. Curnow also documented traditions in which Ohen's paralysis resulted from traps set by rivals or jealous husbands.[45] She connected the traditions concerning Ohen's lover, paralysis, the Ekoko n'Utẹ masquerade and Ogun's birth with the unresolved dispute between the royal and Ogiamiẹn families.[46]

Some traditions claimed that marriage between the royal family and the Ogiamiẹn lineage was forbidden under the Ẹkiokpagha treaty, and that Ohen's relationship with Elẹrẹ violated this restriction.[47] Cultural archivist Ikponmwosa Osemwegie recounted that Ohen deliberately sought such a marriage to resolve disputes over dynastic legitimacy. In this version, Ohen crossed the Ikpoba River at night disguised and accompanied by one or two emada ('pages').[47] Courtiers discovered his route and worked with the Ehuae ('duke') of Ikpoba to place charms beneath a bridge he crossed.[48] Another spell caused him to oversleep at Elẹrẹ's home, forcing him to improvise masquerade costumes to return unnoticed to the palace.[49] Curnow mentioned that this account connected Ogun's birth and Ohen's paralysis to these events.[50] She also recorded that Chief Ogiamiẹn acknowledged traditions identifying Elẹrẹ as part of his extended family.[51]

Ekoko n'Utẹ masquerade

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Oral traditions and later scholarship link Ohen with the origins of the Ekoko n'Utẹ masquerade performance.[52][53] Academic Stanley Obuh in The Crab: Journal of Theatre and Media Arts described the narrative as a legend.[54] According to this legend, Ohen secretly travelled to Utẹ to court Elẹrẹ despite traditions forbidding the Oba from leaving the palace.[54] A village headman allegedly used a magical sleeping charm to trap him until daylight, and sympathisers disguised him with a mask to escort him back to Benin in a ceremonial procession.[53] Once inside the palace, another performer replaced Ohen under the disguise while the king resumed his royal appearance before the audience.[55] Curnow described the continued ceremonial performance of the Ekoko n'Utẹ masquerade during Iguẹ celebrations.[56] She wrote that the masquerade retained visual references to Ohen's traditions, including feathered headpieces, mirrored lappets linked to water symbolism, and costumes recalling the Ikpoba River crossing.[57]

Succession and legacy

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Ohen left four sons: Egbeka, Orobiru, Ogun, and Uwaifiokun. Egbeka, the eldest, succeeded him around 1370. Traditions state that Egbeka fought civil wars against the Uzama Nihinron ('kingmakers') and was regarded as ineffective in governance.[25] Curnow mentioned that some traditions linked Ogun's exile and succession difficulties to disputes about his mother's identity and the circumstances of his birth.[58] Jackson‑Laufer summarized literary traditions portraying Ogun as the strongest of Ohen's sons but displaced temporarily through palace intrigue involving his brothers.[23]

Historian Peju Layiwola in Modern History of Visual Art in Southern Nigeria argued that images of Ohen illustrate the use of symbolic forms in Benin court art to preserve historical memory.[16] Curnow similarly interpreted fish-legged imagery and ritual gestures in Iguẹ ceremonies as references to episodes associated with his reign.[58] Soppelsa interpreted the mudfish-legged figure and its supporting attendants as representations of royal status, spiritual protection, political dependence and constraints on monarchical authority.[27] Blackmun argued that fish-legged figures could also commemorate later Obas by referring to powers inherited through descent from the deified Ohen.[59]

Explanatory notes

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  1. ↑ The Kingdom of Benin no longer exists as a governing entity, but the Oba of Benin still rules a tribal kingdom and holds an advisory role in the government of Benin City, Nigeria.[1]
  2. ↑ In Edo oral traditions, the Ogiamiẹn family denotes the Evian–Ogiamiẹn line, an indigenous lineage contrasted with the Oba monarchy.[8] Tradition holds that, after the Ogiso monarchy ended, Evian became administrator of Igodomigodo and sought to establish his eldest son, known by the nickname Ogiamiẹn, as his successor.[9] Curnow derives Ogiamiẹn from ogie mianmwẹn n'aga ('it is vexatious to serve a king').[10] In accounts of Ọba Ewedo's consolidation of Benin authority, Ogiamiẹn became a chief under the new monarchy while retaining a ritual connection to the land, expressed through the Ẹkiokpagha settlement and renewed in later coronation ceremonies.[11]
  3. 1 2 The Iyase is the commander‑in‑chief of the Benin warriors, followed by the Ezomo and the Ologbosere and Imaran.[18]
  4. ↑ The Oba's household was organised into three distinct associations, each responsible for particular aspects of palace life.[38] The first, Iwebo, originally managed clothing and regalia for the Oba.[39] Over time, its duties expanded to include oversight of financial and trading matters, under the authority of the Uwangue, a title linked to Ewedo.[40] The second group, Iweguae, consisted of attendants and domestic servants, led by the Esere.[40] The third, Ibiwe, was tasked with serving the Oba's wives and children, and its senior chief, Osodin, is traditionally traced back to Ewedo's time.[40]
  5. ↑ Urhonigbe is a town about 60 miles (97 km) from Benin City.
  6. ↑ Ekoko n'Utẹ is a Benin masquerade performance associated with the royal Iguẹ ceremonies, rather than a separate festival. In oral traditions summarised by Curnow, it is connected with Ohẹn's secret visits to a woman at Utẹ and with an improvised masquerade disguise used to return to the palace without exposing his absence. The performance appeared annually at the palace and consisted of two masqueraders, male and female, entering with attendants; the male covered his face with strip cloth, while the female wore an antelope mask. The costumes included feathered headpieces, locally woven cloth, mirrored lappets, and ankle rattles, and the performance used a simple repeated verse rather than a developed song.[44]

References

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Citations

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  1. ↑ Parks 2023.
  2. ↑ Bradbury 2017, p. 15.
  3. ↑ Bradbury 2018, p. 7.
  4. ↑ Schepers et al. 2025, p. 519.
  5. ↑ Schepers et al. 2025, pp. 520–521.
  6. ↑ Bradbury 2018, p. 6.
  7. ↑ Bradbury 2017, p. 14.
  8. ↑ Curnow 2017, p. 1.
  9. ↑ Curnow 2017, pp. 9–10.
  10. ↑ Curnow 2017, p. 10.
  11. ↑ Curnow 2017, pp. 15–16, 18.
  12. ↑ Curnow 2017, p. 19.
  13. 1 2 3 Egharevba 1968, p. 12.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Curnow 2017, p. 20.
  15. 1 2 Millar 1997, p. 43.
  16. 1 2 Layiwola 2003, p. 55.
  17. ↑ Curnow 2017, pp. 20, 27.
  18. ↑ Egharevba 1968, p. 80.
  19. 1 2 3 Ben-Amos 1978, p. 49.
  20. ↑ Egharevba 1968, pp. 12–13.
  21. ↑ Curnow 2017, pp. 19–20.
  22. ↑ Бабаев & Архангельская 2015, p. 420.
  23. 1 2 Jackson-Laufer 1996, p. 271.
  24. ↑ Curnow 2017, p. 24.
  25. 1 2 Egharevba 1968, p. 13.
  26. 1 2 Blackmun 1997, p. 159.
  27. 1 2 Soppelsa 1996, p. 47.
  28. ↑ Sloane et al. 1971, pp. 552–553.
  29. ↑ Sloane et al. 1971, p. 553.
  30. 1 2 Michael, Yemi & Duyile 2020, pp. 211, 213.
  31. 1 2 Osarhiemen, Yakubu & Odu 2020, p. 151.
  32. ↑ Michael, Yemi & Duyile 2020, p. 211.
  33. 1 2 Ben-Amos 1978, pp. 49–50.
  34. 1 2 Ben-Amos 1978, p. 50.
  35. ↑ Nast 2008, pp. 251–252.
  36. ↑ Nast 2008, p. 252.
  37. 1 2 Ben-Amos 1978, p. 51.
  38. ↑ Ryder 1969, p. 5.
  39. ↑ Ryder 1969, pp. 5–6.
  40. 1 2 3 Ryder 1969, p. 6.
  41. ↑ Ben-Amos 1978, p. 52.
  42. 1 2 3 4 Curnow 2017, p. 27.
  43. ↑ Curnow 2017, pp. 20–23.
  44. ↑ Curnow 2017, pp. 21–26.
  45. 1 2 3 Curnow 2017, p. 21.
  46. ↑ Curnow 2017, pp. 21–22.
  47. 1 2 Curnow 2017, p. 22.
  48. ↑ Curnow 2017, pp. 22–23.
  49. ↑ Curnow 2017, p. 23.
  50. ↑ Curnow 2017, pp. 23–24.
  51. ↑ Curnow 2017, p. 25.
  52. ↑ Curnow 2017, pp. 20–26.
  53. 1 2 Obuh 2005, pp. 113–114.
  54. 1 2 Obuh 2005, p. 113.
  55. ↑ Obuh 2005, p. 114.
  56. ↑ Curnow 2017, pp. 25–26.
  57. ↑ Curnow 2017, p. 26.
  58. 1 2 Curnow 2017, pp. 26–27.
  59. ↑ Blackmun 1997, pp. 159–161.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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