OGISO - MYTHICAL KINGS

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The Benin Monarcy has evolved through the centuries begining from an era of kings who ruled over a small kingdom from which was established an increasingling complex political system that supported the expansion of the kingdom from a small state in the 11th to 12th century into a huge empire that gained the attention of European kings, explorers and traders in the 15th and 16th century.

Mythical Kings

In the beginning, according to oral tradition, Benin, then known as Igodomigodo, was ruled by paramount kings known as the Ogiso. Ogiso is coined from Ogie, the Edo word for king or ruler and Iso, the Edo word for sky, literally translated to King of the Sky or the God-King. 

Traditions credit the Ogisos with mythical powers. They feature in many folk tales, talking with personified animals, plants, and material objects and matching their wits against the trickster animal, Egui, the tortoise. Traditions also record that there were thirty-one Ogisos who ruled in succession, including two women but very few of these are known by their name. 

It is not clear whether these rulers were elected or followed the same rule of primogeniture that was the custom of the people. However, the fact that thirty-one Ogisos are believed to have reigned, and that some of them were women, suggests that seniority, perhaps within a family, played some part in determining the choice.  

Notable Kings of the Ogiso Era

Jacob Egharevba’s account names fifteen kings (Ogisos) of this period beginning from Igodo and then Ere, his first son, through to Owodo, the last king of this era who was childless, and who was banished when the people decided to do away with paramount kingship. 

The fifteen Ogisos recalled by tradition include: 

1. Igodo 

2. Ere 

3. Orire 

4. Akhuankhuan 

5. Ekpigho 

6. Oria 

7. Emose 

8. Orhorho 

9. Oriagba 

10. Odoligie 

11. Uwa 

12. Ehennenden 

13. Obioye 

14. Arigho  

15. Owodo 

Emose and Orhorho are believed to be women.   

System of Government During the Ogiso Era

During the Ogiso era, Benin was still very much a small state and not as advanced as it came to be in the centuries after or following the coming of a new dynasty. The system of government at this time consisted of the king and the council of state made up of two blocs of chiefs: one appointed by the king and the other, the Uzama, a group of principal chiefs who exercised control over the different quarters of the kingdom. 

The Uzama wielded some influence as can be seen from the fact that it survived the Ogiso era, and it was later to become a hereditary caste of kingmakers. Among the chieftaincy titles created by the Ogisos were: Esagho (the prime minister and war chief), Aragbua, Erhaghohen, Lamalua, Ogiama, Ukpoza, Giaghama, Oluo, and Ogievbeke. 

Other titles created by the Ogisos include: Nirokhin, Ogiodu, Ogikeke, Ogiogbon, and Iraghoghe. The Uzama at this stage were five and included the Oliha (leader), Edohen, Ezomo, Ero, and Eholo N’Ire.   

Political Interregnum and Introduction of a New Dynasty

The Ogiso period was ended by a revolt and the banishment of the ruler. There followed a brief phase where there was no royal ruler, described by Jacob Egharevba as an experiment in 'republican government', by which seems to be meant a change in the method of appointing the ruler, so that in place of hereditary succession within a family, a choice was made by the body of chiefs from among their own number. 

This experiment proved a complete failure, for the first ruler appointed under it, Evian, tried to have his son Ogiamien elected to succeed him, and the chiefs, having foiled that intrigue, were unable to agree on an alternative candidate from among themselves. The chiefs decided to send emissaries to the Oduduwa of Ife asking him to provide one of his sons to rule over them. Benin oral tradition insists Oduduwa is a curruption of Izoduwa, who is believed to be the exiled son of the last Ogiso who found his way to Ile-Ife after a long wanfering in the bush, assuming a new name in the process.

Oduduwa or Izoduwa sent his son, Oranmiyan who would later leave Benin after fathering a son that became Oba Eweka I. Thus, the deadlock was resolved with the introduction of a new dynasty, the Oranmiyan-Eweka Dynasty, related to that which about the same time was establishing its rule over several Yoruba groups. 

Both Benin and Yoruba traditions support the story of Oranmiyan as the first of the new line of Benin rulers, and the circumstances in which he and his followers went to Benin at the invitation of a party among the chiefs.