ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the broad outline of Benin political history between the years immediately before 1897, when the independence of this ancient West African kingdom was abruptly terminated, and 1951, when Nigerian regional and national politics had begun to make a direct impact on its internal affairs. The members of the Benin Community had quickly learned to pursue their quest for participation in the administration in the guise of appeals to traditionalist sentiments. Signs of a reaction began to appear as early as October 1948, with the formation of a new organization called the Reformed Benin Community, which the oba himself described as consisting of 'dynamic youths and progressive aristocrats'. The continuities to which sought to draw attention reside not in the formal framework of government, which was subject to a sequence of disjunctive, non-repetitive changes, but in the style and structure of political competition and conflict.
