Word: benin
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...Owegbe was active as a kind of Ku Klux Klan to protect backward Beni tribesmen against the political inroads of their more aggressive, better educated neighbors, the Yorubas and the Ibos. When the pushy Ibos captured the post of provincial prime minister in the traditional home of the Benis-Benin City-Owegbe leaders were humiliated and ordered a rampage of terror, filling Nigerian newspapers with stories of Owegbe beatings and intimidations...
Police raided shrines in Benin, discovered banned devices used in juju ceremonies and two human skulls, feeding rumors that the cult engaged in human sacrifice. Finally, last spring, when Chief Dennis Osadebay, the Mid-West's Ibo prime minister, was threatened with death if he did not curb Ibo political activities, the federal government in Lagos decided to step in. Off to Benin went the respected judge D.A.R. Alexander to begin a full-dress federal inquiry...
...year-old Chief Humphrey Omo-Osagie, reputed founder of Owegbe, No. 2 man in the provincial government and, as a proud Beni, a natural opponent of Chief Osadebay. Witnesses told Justice Alexander that Omo-Osagie led Owegbe rites in his own home-grandly titled Osana House-in Benin City, even mixed Owegbe potions in a human skull. Second in Beni eyes only to the Oba of Benin-the titular ruler of the Benis-Omo-Osagie denounces the investigation as a plot to reduce the Benis to political impotence: seven of the province's 20 Cabinet ministers have been named...
Oaths on Iron. Benin sculpture is more naturalistic than most African totems, as evidenced in 30 of the original bronze plaques lent by the British Museum and currently on view at the University of Pennsylvania's museum. The bronze surfaces are intricately designed for the play of light-wound copper bracelets, brazen armor and engraved rosette backgrounds, which set off the bold, stubby torsos of the figures. Most remarkable was the high level of skill displayed in employing the complex craft of casting with the lost-wax process. Descendants of the great smiths of Benin still revere Igue-igha...
...Benin was wrought to please the despotic king, or Oba, and nearly all the paper-thin plaques bear holes where nails attached them to the columns of his royal palace. Since wood rots, almost no pre-19th century African art remains save Benin's miraculous bronzes...