Royal rider and horse Bini Edo

Horse and rider in African art

A very beautiful attitude of the character, particularly detailed with numerous apparatuses that can be found as far as the "Oyo" region of Nigeria (South-West). A very unusual circular shield with a superb fine mesh; the classic helmet, the ceremonial sword, the finely designed armour, the base of the breastplates chiselled with very harmonious details.

The horse is also in a singular aesthetic bordering on the baroque, as was customary, with chiselling that can also be found among the Tiv. This was quite common after the 16th century. A so-called bronze piece, made of brass cast with lost wax, probably because of its colour, combined with a small amount of copper and tin, a beautiful and very well preserved Edo piece.

The Kingdom of Benin in African Art

More than half a dozen equestrian statues and a brass plaque depicting a man on horseback have been found in Benin and have been the subject of many interpretations. Von Luschan was probably the first to speculate on the identity of the figure on horseback. In his opinion, it must have been a foreigner. The attributes and clothing of the rider led Dark to suggest that he was a Yoruba warrior. As for Fagg, he was convinced that he was dealing with an emissary from one or other of the northern emirates.

Tunis and Karpinski questioned these assertions. For them, it was a king from Benin. According to Tunis, the horseman is the Oba Ehengbuda (ca. 1578-1608) who wears the uniform of the Yoruba cavalry of Oyo, and the statue commemorates the conquest of Oyo by this Oba. Karpinski agrees with Ben-Amos that the horseman represents Oranmiyan (ca. 1200), founder of the present dynasty, who imported horses to Benin. According to oral tradition, these statues were intended to emphasise Oranmiyan's status as a foreigner from Ife.

As many of these figures bear the same cat's whisker scarification on their faces as the Nupe and Igala people who live in the northern kingdom of Benin, Nevadomsky suggested that the horseman could be the Attah of Idah, king of the Igala. Idah was the capital of a kingdom with a masterly centralised political system that in the years 1515-1516 made several attempts to wrest the Lower Niger regions from Edo control. The Oba Esigie and his army not only drove the Attah army back to the gates of Benin, but took revenge by successfully conquering Idah. A palace ceremony commemorates this victory and Idah became a vassal city-state of Benin.

In a more recent essay, Nevadomsky argues that the rider is the Oba Esigie (c. 1504-1550), one of the three great warrior kings of Benin, citing the fact that he wears half-European, half-Edo ceremonial clothing and that his weapons are locally made. The rider in the Liverpool Merseyside Museum has been dated to 1560 by thermoluminescence, with a margin of plus or minus forty years. This dating, which corresponds to the rule of the Oba Esigie, confirms Fagg's thesis that the most refined equestrian statues date from the 16th century. The British Museum also holds a brass plaque depicting Esigie on horseback celebrating his conquest of Idah.

Other plaques depict Benin warriors on horseback and their opponents. Ivory bracelets, fly-whiskers and idiophones depicting horsemen, the Attah of Idah and Portuguese visitors have also been found. 

The symbolic and ceremonial role of the horse is well documented. In a region infested with tsetse flies, whose bites are fatal to both cattle and horses, the king made his annual appearance on horseback, followed by a procession of jesters, musicians and servants. In 1505, King Manuel of Portugal sent the Oba Esigie a horse with a caparison, headdress and bonnets of silk and linen, decorated with coral beads.

These riders wear a strange headdress that adds to their prestige, the upper part of which is an ancient crown made of hollowed out corncobs or woven palm leaves and filled with amulets. Headdresses topped with red feathers (the colour of war, vitality and power) from the tails of grey West African parrots symbolise omniscience and supernatural powers. They are also worn by priests and in village ritual masquerades. The beaded headband, which serves to hold the headdress in place, is at the same time a chief's insignia.

The wide collar seems to be inspired by a German or Spanish watercolour of the time, or perhaps a copy of a collar that the King of Portugal would have given to the Oba. The leather tunic is an indigenous war uniform, ritually processed and decorated with cowrie shells which traditionally serve as currency and symbolise prosperity. One of the figures wears chain mail under the tunic. The wearing of metal armour in this region is well documented. Some of the horsemen are clad in a woven raffia loincloth or sewn leather strips, pulled up over the left hip.

This equestrian figure carries a flat shield made of woven reeds, a powerful good luck charm that is supposed to protect him from the enemy. These shields resemble the trays used by women in the market. They are the subject of aphorisms and are still worn today as pendants, not by soldiers as one might think, but curiously by thieves. The spear is a typical Beninese weapon.

The spurs are probably made of raffia or hemp fibre and symbolise strength like the spurs of the rooster. Horses are sometimes equipped with a saddle made of tree bark, first soaked, then shaped and finally dried. But most of the time, riders ride without a saddle, saddle cloth, pommel or reins. The horses' harness consists of a simple bridle without a bit and their mane is decorated with bells and bells whose ringing is intended to intimidate the enemy. The base is adorned with a motif that signifies long life. Only the cat's whiskers on some of the riders remain a question mark.

The history of these equestrian figurines spans several centuries, the latest ones even dating from the very recent past. They have multiple and sometimes overlapping meanings.

Several centuries after the creation of these bronzes, the explorer Belzoni sketched a series of similar figurines on an altar of royal ancestors. In 1892, the Oba Ovonramwen gave an equestrian statuette as a wedding present to the merchant J.H. Swainson, which is now in the Liverpool Merseyside Museum. The local population tends to associate a horseman with a chief and, more generally, with the spirit of conquest and imperialism. Thus horsemen, with or without facial scarification, came to be seen as statuettes commemorating the war between Benin and Idah to establish their hegemony over the Lower Niger regions, and as an iconographic manifesto of Benin's political and mystical power.

Bibliography: Collective (2007). Benin five centuries of royal art. Editions snoeck, 449-450 pp.

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Data sheet

Presumed dating
Mid XXth century
Size
53 x 40 x 17 cm
Ethnic group
Benin Kingdom / Bini Edo
Material(s)
Bronze
Country
Nigeria
Origin
Tribal Art Collection United Kingdom
Condition
Excellent

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