Uhan N’Ogie Esan

This is a song of lamentation which calls on an Esan Duke, who is an Obo ewawa and Obo Ighede (a soothsayer and physician) to run fast through the bushes. The song calls on the Isiemwenro guild, who are the royal warriors and guards of the Ọba, as the Ọba’s friends. By their name and royal charter, they are the defenders of the Ọba. This song relates to a specific episode like the British invasion of 1897, when the guild and towns like Utekon and Okhumwun could not prove their military prowess seven days after.

Ewawa is a way of divination and Ighede is a kind of drum used by great physicians at some deity cults in Benin Kingdom and during certain royal ceremonies. The Isienmwenro guild is praised as the ‘ants that stings the enemies of the Ọba’, while Utekon and Ukhumwun were towns that proved their medical and military prowess against Ọba Ọzọlua in the sixteenth century, but could not defend the Ọba against the Europeans in the nineteenth century.