About Manillas

About the interview
Object Context

This video is about the monetary system in the Benin kingdom since the first dynasty of kings, the era of Ogisos. Here the interviewee, Mr. Ekhator-Ọbogie asserts that cowries as a monetary system could not have been a novel idea introduced by the Portuguese because there are accounts of reigns of kings documenting the existence of an established measure of value in the Benin Kingdom.

About the contributors

Referenced in this interview

Sensitive Content

Digital Benin collates digital material from institutions, and some of this material is inherently colonial and contains words, terms and phrases that are inaccurate, derogatory and harmful towards African and African diasporic communities. Catalogue transcriptions, book titles, exhibition titles and museum titles may contain harmful terms. We recognise the potential for the material to cause physical and mental distress as well as evoke strong emotions. Owing to the scale of the collection’s data, a process to implement sensitive-content warnings in the displayed data is still incomplete. The material within the catalogue does not represent Digital Benin’s views. Digital Benin maintains a strong anti-colonial, anti-racist position and affirms its support for centring the humanity of historically marginalised and disenfranchised communities. Read more about the background of this statement here