Pre-Colonial Succession Disputes and Civil Wars in Benin Kingdom

In this interview, Dr Mrs Enibokun Uzebu-Imarhiagbe recalls some of the stories during her childhood in Benin City. She speaks about the civil wars resulting from succession disputes among or between princes in the fifteenth, sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The first account is about the struggle between the children of Ọba Ọzọlua, Ọba Uwaifiokun and Ọba Ẹwuare I (Prince Ogun). During the sixteenth century, another civil war broke out in Benin Kingdom between two sons who were warlike like their father: Prince Osawe, who became Ọba Ẹsigie, and his elder brother, Prince Aruanran, the giant prince. A reference is made to the roles of the queens in the palace politics of the time. The nineteenth-century civil war also reveals a similar trend, but all the wars were fought at different scales. This war was between princes whose seniority could not be determined, Prince Erediauwa and Prince Ogbẹbo, hence the need to struggle for the throne. This led to the burning down of the palace in the nineteenth century by Ọba Ogbẹbo following the revenge enacted by Prince Erediauwa, later Ọba Osẹmwẹndẹ.