OVONRAMEN HUMILIATED AND SENTENCED: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED June in Edo kingdoms history 1897 June 24 Okaokuo Ebeikhimwin, Benin army commander and defender of Ughoton (Gwato), was executed by the British occupation forces. His crime was waging a resistance war against the British occupiers, who had captured Benin City.. The British started the invasion of Benin kingdom on February 9 1897. The invasion comprised of three assault columns: the Sapoba, the Gwato and the Main columns. The `Gwato Column, which was composed of Royal marines and sailors of the HMS Philomel and Barossa, was charged with the blockade of the Benin River and destruction of all Benin towns and villages from Ughoton (Gwato) up to the river port of Ikoro. On February 10 1897, after an extensive bombardment, the British marines and sailors of the Gwato column landed and tried to occupy Ughoton. Unfortunately for the invaders Ughoton was Benin kingdoms major seaport and point of interaction with Europeans, and hence it was the kingdoms most heavily defended position. Here the British invaders encountered a very determined and stiff resistance mounted by Benin and Igbile (Izon) militias commanded by Ebeikhimwin of Ova. The invaders were stopped dead on their tracks, and after incurring heavy casualties in a bitter and bloody battle they withdrew with their dead and wounded. In late February, Ebeikhimwin preceded to Benin City when information reached him that Omo nOba Ovonramwen had left the city. However when he arrived in the city, he found out that his militia was no match for the better-equipped British who were entrenched in their fort. So he unleashed his fury on the villages and settlements of ekhaemwẹn and nobles who had pledged loyalty to the British occupiers. It was however a short-lived and an uncoordinated insurgency, and in May 1897 his position was betrayed to the British. A British unit led by Captain Roupell, the acting Resident of Benin city captured him. In June he was tried by the British occupiers and hanged in June 24 1897. 1899 June 27 The British occupation forces executed okhaemwen Irabor, the Ologbose of Benin, a senior hereditary army commander of the Benin Armies, and hero of the battle of Ugbine (January 4 1897) after a kangaroo court trial. According to the British, he instigated and executed the `Benin Massacre in which a Niger Coast Protectorate force that was escorting Lieutenant James R Phillip, the acting Commissioner and Consul General of the Niger Coast Protectorate Authority and six British men were killed. In addition engaging in a resistance war against the British occupation forces On January 2 1897, Lieutenant James R. Phillip (RN), the acting commissioner and consul-General of the Niger Coast Protectorate, in company of six British trading agents: Clarke Crawford, Kenneth Campbell, Arthur Maling, Harris Powis, Thomas Gordon and Locke, a medical doctor; Dr. Robert Elliott, and Hubert Clarke, an interpreter of mixed race, set out of Sapele onwards to Benin City. Philips expedition was escorted by some 250 black African soldiers of the Niger Coast Protectorate Force under the command of Captain Alan Maxwell Boisragon. The expedition however was an extraordinary one, in fact the first, and the only one of its kind in British colonial history. Phillips objective was the abduction of Omo nOba Ovonramwen, and replacing him with a puppet `Native Council. In the words of the acting Consul General the cost of the mission was to be paid by the treasures that he expected to find in the Obas palace. On January 4 1897 Phillips expedition was surprised and annihilated at Ugbine a village just east of Ughoton Benin militias commanded by okhaemwen Irabor on the orders of the commander in chief of all Benin army, Iyase Okizi. This military victory in the opinion of the British and the experts of Benin history and art history was a `Massacre hence the British military disaster a Ugbine became known as the `Benin Massacre. After the British capture and destruction of Benin City Ologbose Irabor continued his resistance of the British occupiers. It was a resistance that lasted two years during which the Benin war commander defeated the Royal Niger Company private army at Okemue and prevented the British penetration of the hinterland and the European traders from establishing trading posts in Benin City. Eventually with the help of their collaborators, in May 1899 the British captured Ologbose Irabor. As expected the British occupiers, in their usual kangaroo court proceedings, the Ologbose was found guilty of being the chief instigator and perpetrator of the Benin `Massacre. On June 27 1899 he was hanged for defending his land against a group of marauding British thieves who hands were covered with blood and hearts fill with evil intentions. August in Edo kingdoms history 1897 August 5 Preceded by messengers carrying a white flag and a small musical band, led by flute players, Omo nOba Ovenramwen entered Benin City accompanied by the Ero of Urubi, ten of his loyal ekhaemwen and some of his wives, including the bulk of the palace community Captain Roupell ordered all British white officers and men in the city to keep out of sight so as not to scare away the capitulating king. 1897 August 7 Omo nOba Ovenramwen formally surrender to Captain Roupell at the Court House, which had been built on a part of the ruined his palace complex. Captain Roupells public humiliation of the Omo nOba was, in the words of a writer to demystify, the Omo nObas mystique, and show the `natives that the white men were the new masters of the land. September in Edo kingdoms history 1897 September 1 Omo nOba Ovenramwen was charged with ordering the massacre of Phillip and his party. It was an ironic and absurd trial that would make mockery of a kangaroo court, in which the accused had been presumed guilty and a cotton tree earmarked for his execution. The trail was preside over by three unscrupulous, shameless and ruthless thieves, Sir R.D.R. Moor, K.C.M.G., Commissioner and Consul General, who stole most of Omo nOba Ovenramwens personal effects including the famous `FESTAC ivory mask, Captain E.S.P. Roupell, acting British political Resident, who personally directed the destruction and looting of the Iyoba Iheyas palace at Uselu, and Captain C.H.P. Carter, the commanding officer of the British occupying troops Benin City. Ekhaemwen Obakhavbaye, Obayuwana and Uso, and okaokuo Ugiagbe, commanders of the Benin militias that annihilated Phillips invasion force at Ugbine, who were present at the proceeding, were promptly arrested and detained. That night Obayuwana committed suicide in detention. 1897 September 2 Sir Moor, ordered Obayuwanas body hung up in the front of the ruined Obas palace. A desecration of the dead, which is a crime against humanity and all moral senses 1897 September 3 Ekhaemwen Uso and Obakhavbaye were condemned to death by Moors kangaroo court for defending their nation and loved ones against pitiless thieves.The murder of the ekhaemwen was to impress upon the natives the power of the white man 1897 September 4 Ekhaemwen Uso and Obakhavbaye were publicly executed. 1897 September 9 Omo nOba Ovenramwen is arrested, detained and his wives taken from him. 1897 September 13 Omo nOba Ovenramwen is taken out of Benin by a NCPF unit of sixty men commanded by Captains Carter and Henniker to Gele-Gele port, and transferred on to a Protectorate yacht on the final journey to Calabar. Phillips objectives, as stated in his letter dated the 16 November 1896) were finally achieved. The city had been `visited (invaded and captured), the `obstruction (Omo nOba Ovenramwen) had been removed and the `ivory (treasuries of Benin kingdom: Artworks, sacred and religious items, mnemonics and visual history, including personal effects) in his house(Palace) seized (as one shameless writer wrotey) or obtained (in the words of another shameless one). Some of the `ivory was shipped to England, and a fraction of it finally auctioned in Paris to pay for the `visit. A reference book has it that a large collection of art from Benin is brought to France; these works influence the artistic and formal concerns of modern artists, especially Pablo Picasso and the Cubist. October in Edo kingdoms history 1896 mid October An Itsekiri delegate, led by Itsie, an Itsekiri prince, visit Benin to implore Ovenramwen to annul the curse that Omo nOba Osemwende had placed on Olu Akengbuwa, the king of Itsekiri, in the late 1840s. His mission was joined by chiefs Dore and Dudu the principal Itsekiri traders. The traders mission was to beg Omo nOba Ovenramwen to lift the trade embargo he had imposed on the Itsekiri. In addition they came to ask (at the request of their European trading partners) to allow a British official to visit Benin. 1896 October 31 The acting British vice consul, Lieutenant J.R. Phillips (RN) (Major Moore was on leave) arrived in Sapele in response to the British traders petitions and appraise the situation in the district. The British traders successfully persuaded Phillips that Omo nOba Ovenramwen was not adhering to the Gallweys `Treaty, obstructing trade and massacring slaves. Coincidentally, it was same day the trading chiefs arrived from Benin, and in the subsequent talks they held Phillip, the vice consul was displeased with Ovenramwens terms for a resumption of trade and for not giving a concrete reply to the European traders request that a British official be allowed to visit Benin City. Phillip ordered the Itsekiri trading chiefs not to supply the roofing sheets and stop paying tributes to Benin. The British traders realising that Phillips decision had dashed their hopes and aspirations of total control of trade on the Benin River, and gaining direct access into Benin territories, the chief agent of one trading company made available to Phillips a confidential memo of Benin kingdoms resources, economic prospects and investment opportunities. This was what prompted Phillip to ask his superiors in London for permission to invade Benin City in Febuary 1897. ============================================== Africans Petitions for Benin Sovereignty Nation: HTTP://ipetitions/petition/african-peoples-movement-for-restoration-of-benin Edo National Anthem: https://soundcloud/uwagboe-ogieva/edo-national-anthem-voice SOURCE: ihuanedo.ning/profiles/blogs/june-august-september-and
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 17:12:25 +0000
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