ABSTRACT
Benin City, in southern Nigeria, is famous throughout the world. This is because of the existence of many items of Benin art, which over the last hundred years have become scattered through museums and art galleries in numerous countries. The art is of a distinctive style and consists of large numbers of brass castings showing extraordinary technical skill, ivory objects which have been carved with great delicacy, and objects of carved wood, wrought iron, and various other materials. Amongst the world’s art collectors, Benin art is extremely valuable and there is probably more of it in countries outside of Africa than there is even in Nigeria, where it actually came from. More important than the art itself, however, are the developments that it represents. If we ask who made it, and why and how and when they made it, then we uncover a remarkable story of how a group of people became one of Africa’s most powerful forest states.
