ABSTRACT
In March 1897 a British military expedition took possession of Benin City; in the following September Ovonramwen, the thirty-fifth ba of Benin, was deported to Calabar. The dynastic myth links up the Benin kingship with the dynasties of most Yoruba states, especially with that of the great Oyo empire, for Oyo, too, claims Oranmiyan as the founder of its royal line. The inhabitants of the Benin kingdom considered themselves to be the true evin-ba, 'slaves' of the Oba, that is free subjects of the throne. The population of Benin Division, which we equate with the Benin kingdom, was reckoned at about 292,000 in the 1952 census. The Benin capital was encircled by a massive earth wall and ditch some six miles in circumference. The kings of Benin seem to have had more security of tenure than many of their African counterparts.
