Ahenzae

Accession and dynastic background

Ahenzae came to the throne after Ohuan died without an eligible child to continue his direct line. His death began a sequence in which the kingship passed among separate branches of the Benin dynasty over six successive reigns. Ahenzae represented one of these collateral lines and was descended from Oba ('king') Orhogbua as his great-grandson. If Egharevba's accession date is accepted, the reported coronation age of sixteen suggests that Ahenzae was born around 1625. Talbot presents Ohuan as a son of Oba Ehengbuda whose reign was peaceful and who may correspond to the ruler named Kambadje in the writings of Olfert Dapper. Although Talbot likewise states that Ohuan had no son, he describes Ehenzai only as a relative and gives no descent from Orhogbua. Despite their disagreement over genealogy and dates, both accounts state that Ohuan's lack of a son allowed a collateral relative to succeed him. The succession formed part of a wider period of seventeenth-century political instability in Benin. Tradition assigns short reigns to several rulers of the period, associates a number of reigns with uprisings, and records the eventual deposition of the later Oba Ahenkpaye. Political disputes after Ohuan's death also disrupted the work of the royal bronze-casters' guild.

Reign

Court politics and royal authority

Because Ahenzae came to the throne at a young age, experienced court officials were able to exercise considerable influence over him. Courtiers used his inexperience to extend their authority, while the ceremonial restrictions surrounding the monarch limited his direct knowledge of events outside the palace. Ryder interpreted this arrangement as one in which the ruler retained extensive ritual significance but exercised little independent control over the officials around him. These conditions were partly connected with the structure of royal succession and court politics in seventeenth-century Benin. The right to inherit the throne, once confined to an Oba's sons, was later broadened to include his brothers, giving the senior palace and town chiefs involved in selecting rulers greater scope to form alliances and influence succession. Ryder identifies the principal officeholders among them as the Uwangue or Umangue, who headed Iwebo, the foremost palace society, and the Iyase. Senior chiefs could also pressure a reigning monarch to meet their demands; one seventeenth-century Oba was reportedly removed after withholding their customary portions of state income and other established privileges.

European observers writing in the seventeenth century described the Oba as a ruler who rarely left his palace and whose officials controlled access to him. A Spanish Capuchin narrative from the 1651 mission described an elderly court official as exercising considerable power over Ahenzae, advising him on important matters while attempting to keep him uninformed about conditions among his subjects. According to the same narrative, the official persuaded the Oba to appear outside the palace only once each year and filled the royal compound with diversions intended to make continued seclusion acceptable.

Those diversions were said to include musicians and at least five hundred concubines in the royal household, while another account placed the number above three thousand. Yakubu identifies the influential official as Uwangue and dates the provision of more than five hundred concubines to 1651. In Yakubu's interpretation, they occupied Ahenzae while Uwangue enriched himself and pursued private interests without effective royal oversight. Ryder argues that the Capuchin testimony simplified and exaggerated conditions at court but considers its general account of royal isolation and ministerial influence compatible with other evidence. A monarch with limited personal authority did not, however, make the institution of kingship constitutionally irrelevant. Because palace and state offices were granted by appointment rather than inheritance, formal promotion and authority continued to derive from the office of the Oba. Competition among senior chiefs could therefore preserve the influence of the throne even when its occupant exercised little direct authority.

Royal treasury and coral regalia

A traditional account of Ahenzae's reign concerns the loss of wealth accumulated in the palace by earlier Obas. According to this account, court officials exploited the young ruler while longstanding collections of bronze and ivory objects passed out of royal custody. Egharevba states more generally that treasures accumulated by previous kings were squandered during the reign. The royal coral beads, in particular, were said to have passed to Osuan through repeated games of dice. Osuan also held a formal position in palace ritual. The earlier Oba Ewuare had appointed Osa and Osuan as priests connected with the royal divinities Uwen and Ora. At major observances, they ritually supported the Oba's hands, including during coronation rites, visits to shrines located at former Roman Catholic church sites, the Ague fast and the Ododua masquerade.

Ben-Amos and Thornton attach significance to this tradition because the Edo regarded coral beads with reverence and treated them as visible emblems of royal office. They contrast Ahenzae's reported loss with the royal display observed in 1790 by Pierre Labarthe, who travelled with Jean-François Landolphe to a large, orderly Benin capital and a palace described as richly ornamented. The reigning Oba, probably Akengbuda, presented the kingdom's coral holdings to the visitors as evidence of monarchical power. Ben-Amos and Thornton contrast this later account of restored material abundance with the tradition of Ahenzae gambling away the palace's coral regalia.

Palace art and the bronze-casters' guild

During the seventeenth century, changes in Benin's overseas commerce altered the conditions under which court artists worked. Portugal lost its exclusive position in European trade with the kingdom, which increasingly dealt with Dutch, French, and British merchants. At the same time, internal political disputes interfered with the royal bronze-casters' production. The manufacture of the rectangular palace plaques has generally been dated from the second quarter of the sixteenth century to around 1640. Eboreime places the approximate end of that production near Ahenzae's reign and relates this chronology to the tradition that he allowed earlier royal treasures to be dispersed. This association does not establish that Ahenzae ordered the guild to stop producing plaques. A separate chronology attributed to anthropologist Philip Dark argues that the approximately nine hundred surviving plaques, now distributed among collections worldwide, were produced over a shorter period than the broader sixteenth- to seventeenth-century dating allows.

Agbor succession dispute

Two brothers from the royal house of Agbor travelled separately to Benin with large followings after each asserted a claim to the Agbor throne. Ahenzae was asked to determine which prince held the stronger claim. Benin's asserted authority rested on a tradition that Agbor's first Obi ('ruler') had been dispatched from Benin to govern the community. After consulting his council, Ahenzae recognised one claimant as the lawful heir, installed him as Obi Eze, and provided an escort for his return to Agbor. To prevent a civil war between the brothers, he followed the advice of his chiefs and required the unsuccessful claimant to remain in Benin. Chief Ihama of Idumwihogbe was assigned responsibility for the prince, who stayed with him for several years. When the prince died without children, Ahenzae directed that Ihama should receive his possessions and enslaved dependants. The transfer increased Ihama's wealth and social standing.

Queen mother and court titles

Eson, Ahenzae's mother, occupied the office of Iyoba ('queen mother'). The title had been formally established in the early sixteenth century when Oba Esigie conferred it upon his mother Idia, its first recorded holder. By custom, an Oba invested his mother as Iyoba about three years after his coronation and provided her with a residence at Eguae-Iyoba ('queen mother's palace') in Lower Uselu. When the mother of an Edaiken ('crown prince') died before his accession, her remains could be preserved and later reburied with the status and ceremonies of an Iyoba at the customary point in his reign. Anthropologist William Buller Fagg assigns Eson's elevation to about 1643, a date broadly consistent with Egharevba's chronology placing Ahenzae's accession near 1641.

Egharevba labelled a plaster cast of a woman's head in the former Benin Native Authority Museum, now the Benin City National Museum, as an image of Eson. Although the original object was held by the British Museum, Fagg regarded the attribution as uncertain because it apparently depended only on a tradition that Eson had been notably beautiful. The head therefore cannot be identified securely as a contemporary likeness of Ahenzae's mother. Tradition also attributes the establishment of the court title Esenua to Ahenzae.

Christianity and European missions

Earlier missionary background

Christian missions had operated intermittently in Benin for more than a century before Ahenzae became Oba. Following his return from a military expedition, Oba Esigie instructed one of his sons and several chiefs to undergo baptism and learn to read. Whether Esigie himself received baptism remains uncertain, but his decision indicates that members of the court could accept Christian rites. A Jesuit named Father Barrerius was also said to have baptised another Oba around 1590. According to the account, that ruler threatened to embrace Islam when missionaries initially declined to baptise him. Early Portuguese missionaries frequently administered baptism before extensive religious instruction, assuming that conversion of a monarch would lead his subjects to follow. Developments in Benin and elsewhere demonstrated that the baptism of a ruler did not necessarily produce widespread Christian conversion.

Missionary activity continued into the seventeenth century despite recurring illness and limited institutional support. High mortality attributed to the climate caused European clergy to be recalled to Portugal, after which the remaining churches were entrusted to locally born religious officials called Ohensa. Portuguese visitors later examined the state of the mission at intervals of approximately five to ten years. The Sacra Congregazione de Propaganda Fide, created in 1622, subsequently organised Capuchin missionary work directed towards Benin. Talbot states that Capuchins from the Province of Britain sailed for Guinea in 1634, although he was uncertain whether any entered Benin before a mission associated with Angelo de Valenzia in 1648. Ryder's reconstruction instead dates Angelo de Valencia's departure from Spain to February 1651 and his arrival at the Benin capital to August of the same year.

Organisation and journey of the 1651 mission

The Sacra Congregazione planned the 1651 mission with limited and sometimes inaccurate information about Benin. Father Angelo de Valencia, appointed prefect, received permission to redirect the expedition elsewhere in Africa if the missionaries could not gain entry to the kingdom. Twelve Spanish Capuchins were selected, but three died during a plague outbreak while Spanish officials conducted negotiations over their departure. The remaining friars left Cádiz on 2 February 1651 aboard a Dutch vessel under a Spanish captain. They carried gifts and a letter from the Sacra Congregazione addressed to the Oba. Rather than sailing directly to the Benin River, the ship traded for more than two months along the coast between Cape Palmas and Takoradi. The missionaries then spent another three weeks assembling a small vessel constructed in Seville for travel through the waterways into Benin.

After a dispute with Dutch authorities at Shama, Angelo de Valencia and another friar were temporarily detained at Elmina. During his detention, Angelo delegated leadership of the expedition to Father José de Xijona. The Spanish captain carried the other missionaries onwards to the Benin River, but all became ill during the approach, and several could not continue beyond Ughoton. Accompanied by one other friar, José de Xijona proceeded to the capital and repeatedly requested an audience with the Oba. Ryder names him José de Xijona, whereas Egharevba gives Joseph Xison and Erivwo alternates between Joseph Xison and Joseph Sixton.

First approach to the Oba

José de Xijona did not obtain a meeting with Ahenzae. After being admitted to the presence of a high-ranking court official, he handed over the Sacra Congregazione's letter with instructions that it be delivered to the Oba. The official later claimed that Ahenzae had examined the letter and therefore had no need to receive the missionary personally. Egharevba similarly records that a chief undertook to present the papal letter directly to the ruler and later asserted that it had been read. After about a month in the capital without obtaining an audience, the friar returned to Ughoton. Believing that the official had misled him, José returned to consult the other members of the mission.

Angelo de Valencia and the missionary detained with him at Elmina later joined their companions at Ughoton. Illness had become severe among the group, and three friars, including José de Xijona, died within six days. Another was too weak to travel and remained behind with two companions, while Angelo and two friars continued towards the capital. Their party entered Benin City on 10 August 1651.

Audiences and initial reception

Although officials initially resisted Angelo's requests for a meeting, he eventually completed the ceremonial procedures regulating entry to the Oba's presence. Ahenzae received the missionaries courteously and appeared interested in their explanation of the mission. The letter left with the earlier court official had neither been translated nor read aloud to the ruler, and Ahenzae returned it to Angelo because no interpreter had been available. A Portuguese resident with sufficient knowledge of Edo was then found to communicate its contents. The Oba appeared to approve of the message and proposed housing the Capuchins inside the palace to facilitate further discussion. No such accommodation was ultimately provided, and during nearly ten months in the capital the friars obtained only two formal audiences.

At the second meeting, the missionaries distributed presents to the Oba, the Iyoba, and the leading chiefs. Ahenzae indicated that he would have a church constructed and provide interpreters to assist the Capuchins in explaining Christianity. He also identified a possible location, perhaps the site selected for a church in 1516 and later associated with European religious practice. Eson, the Iyoba, likewise appeared interested in the missionaries. These expressions of support did not result in continued contact with Ahenzae. For several months, an influential chief minister refused to arrange another audience. The friars attributed his opposition partly to dissatisfaction with the modest gift he had received, although Ryder considers political and religious concerns more likely to have determined his conduct.

On two occasions, the minister ordered the missionaries in the Oba's name to return to Ughoton. They ignored both commands after Ahenzae's brother-in-law told them that the ruler had not authorised their removal. Ryder suggests that this official may have been the same person who retained the letter originally given to José de Xijona. Seeking another means of reaching the monarch, Angelo sent Ahenzae a weight-driven alarm clock through a different court official. After the device stopped, it was returned with a request for an explanation. Angelo proposed demonstrating its mechanism directly to the Oba, intending to use the occasion to obtain another meeting. The chief recognised the attempt and returned the clock without arranging access to the ruler.

Restrictions on missionary activity

After regular contact with Ahenzae had been prevented, the Capuchins attempted to direct their preaching towards the wider population. Authorities prohibited them from leaving the capital, however, preventing missionary activity elsewhere in Benin. Within the city, they were further restricted by their lack of Edo and by the failure of the promised interpreters to assist them. Ryder states that residents able to speak both Portuguese and Edo either would not or could not interpret, possibly because officials had prohibited such cooperation. When the missionaries began assembling an Edo vocabulary, a chief warned that anyone teaching them even a single word would be executed. Those who had been providing linguistic information then withdrew.

As their resources declined, the friars exhausted much of their food and money. English merchants supplied provisions and a barrel of cowries. The Capuchins nevertheless continued secret lessons with a Portuguese speaker and acquired enough Edo to make one final attempt to intervene directly at the palace. They regarded the Oba's conversion as indispensable, believing that his subjects would not accept Christianity before he did. Ryder argues that the mission's experience undermined this assumption because palace conventions and senior officials constrained Ahenzae's ability to act. Angelo reported that Ahenzae appeared prepared to consider Christian teaching but was unable to pursue it against ministerial opposition.

Palace confrontation of 1652

In May 1652, the Capuchins used a major court observance to reach Ahenzae without relying on the chief minister. Ryder considers the event likely to have been the Ugie-Ivie ('festival of beads'), which involved sacrifices connected with the Oba's coral regalia. Angelo de Valencia and Father Felipe de Hijar entered with the crowds moving towards the palace and remained near the principal gate until they could proceed farther inside. Felipe later estimated that more than two thousand senior men, dressed in the regalia appropriate to their titles and the occasion, entered the compound. Once the palace became crowded, the missionaries crossed into the first courtyard. An elderly man previously unknown to them indicated that they should follow and guided them through several courtyards to the palace interior. There they reported seeing swords, which Ryder identifies as ada, prepared for the sacrifice of five men and various animals. The friars entered the courtyard and spoke before the Oba and his chiefs, denouncing the sacrifices and the religious system with which they were associated. Palace servants removed them by force before the address could continue. They attempted repeatedly to return but were stopped, and a crowd ridiculed them as they returned to their lodgings.

That evening, ten messengers from the palace instructed the Capuchins to leave Benin immediately because they had disrupted the ceremony. Angelo and Felipe remained under guard overnight and were removed from their residence the following day. For four days they were held without food in a grove or shrine containing five domesticated leopards. The keeping of tame leopards formed part of the royal court environment described by European observers of the period. The two friars were then transferred to Ughoton and confined there for about six weeks. Afterwards, they spent six months at Arbo before boarding an English ship travelling to the Portuguese island of Príncipe. Ryder interprets this sequence as indicating that Benin officials were primarily concerned with preventing interference in the capital's established religion rather than immediately expelling every missionary from the kingdom.

The friars who remained in the capital experienced shortages but were not held under strict guard. At night, they visited Eson and Ahenzae's brother-in-law while seeking permission to join their companions. Members of the Oba's family eventually secured approval, and canoes carried the missionaries from Ughoton to Arbon, where English and Dutch trading establishments were located. Eson supplied provisions for their journey. Although the expedition had failed, Felipe retained a favourable view of Benin's inhabitants and considered later conversion possible. The Capuchins continued to believe that successful missionary work depended chiefly on learning Edo and obtaining access to the Oba. Ryder instead concludes that they had overestimated Ahenzae's ability to transform the kingdom's religious institutions through his own decision.

Oracle tradition

Egharevba and academic Samuel Erivwo explain the initial denial of an audience through an oracle said to have foretold that a Benin king would die through European action. Father Gavonzi reportedly mentioned the unsuccessful approach in his written narrative of the mission. According to Erivwo, Gavonzi wrote to the pope in frustration and portrayed Benin and its population as hostile to Christian preaching. Ryder records a comparable tradition from Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi, who referred to a prophecy that a European would kill an Oba. The prediction was said to have produced restrictions on meetings between the ruler and foreigners, including screens or barriers that prevented visitors from viewing him directly. Ryder proposes that these precautions may explain the ceremonial limitations imposed during Angelo's audience. Egharevba and Erivwo later interpreted the 1897 British invasion and the removal of Oba Ovonramwen as fulfilment of the oracle. British authorities deported Ovonramwen to Old Calabar, where he died in January 1914.

Death and succession

Egharevba assigns Ahenzae a reign of twenty years. Taken together, his approximate accession in 1641, the stated length of the reign and the accession of the next ruler around 1661 indicate that Ahenzae died at about that date. Akenzae succeeded him and was reportedly approximately sixty years old at his accession. Talbot's alternative chronology places the succession about eleven years earlier, around 1650. He names the succeeding ruler Akengbayi and presents him as either Ehenzai's brother or son.

Historical interpretation

Ryder uses Ahenzae's reign to illustrate the reduced practical authority exercised by some seventeenth-century Obas. He describes Ahenzae as a weak monarch whose youth allowed senior courtiers to use royal government for their own purposes. Ceremonial confinement increased this dependence by restricting the information available to him and enabling ministers to control contact between the palace, foreign visitors and the wider kingdom. The Capuchin narratives distinguish Ahenzae's conduct towards the missionaries from the opposition of his senior officials. During the formal audiences, he was described as courteous, responsive to the translated letter and willing to consider providing a church and interpreters. Court ministers prevented these proposals from being implemented and blocked later attempts to reach him. Ryder therefore uses the mission to argue that the sacred institution of the Oba remained essential to Benin's political order even when the reigning monarch exercised little direct control over policy at court.