Between the Ogiso and Oba Dynasties: An Interpretation of Interregnum in the Benin Kingdom

Abstract

The evidence for the period separating the times of the two Benin dynasties, that of the ogiso and that of the oba, is extremely scanty and does not look very trustworthy. There are not even any direct indications as to the time when the events under consideration took place. However, an analysis of the Second dynasty's history allows to arrive at the conclusion that the events preceding its advent to power could date from the late twelth and early thirteenth centuries (Bondarenko 2001:160n64; 2003). There are no possibilities for giving a more concrete date, nor for the exact calculation of the respective periods' length. However, the scant information about it still permits an interpretation of the very events of that time (though it looks like none of the professional Benin students has ever attempted it). In fact, we have either to operate with the sources which are in our disposal, or abandon trying to reconstruct an important episode of the Benin kingdom's history and concede that we must categorically deny the very possibility of giving any credit to information provided mainly by oral tradition and ethnography.