Ivie

‘Ai yẹ ivie rue ewmin oya’ (You can’t wear Ivie if you are dishonourable)

Ivie are coral beads which today anyone can wear as a decorative body ornament. However, in the past only the Ọba could wear them, along with those he bestowed them upon, such as chiefs and members of the royal court. The Ọba has the exclusive right of granting any deserving citizen the honour of his beads. Even today there are special shapes that can only be worn by the Ọba and chiefs, such as flat circular-shaped beads called Ikele.

In English, the term bead is used to describe both Ivie and Ekan. These beads may have once been part of necklaces, crowns or other regalia worn and used by the Ọba, his wives, and other high-ranking dignitaries. It is not known whether such beads were once part of other objects and were separated after being looted in 1897, or whether they were single beads at the time and part of the loot. The red colour of these beads symbolises ‘power, blood and danger’ (Curnow in Plankensteiner 2007, p.380 ) and is innately tied to the Ọba. These beads also speak to the wide-ranging trade networks that Benin Kingdom has been part of over time. Agate and jasper were imports from northern Africa via trans-Saharan networks, and it is thought that the Portuguese imported coral from the Mediterranean from the fifteenth century onwards.