BENIN KINGDOM - THE EXPEDITION AND MASSACRE

 

Background

At the end of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Benin had managed to retain its independence and the Oba exercised a monopoly over trade which did not sit well with the British. The territory was coveted by an influential group of investors for its rich natural resources such as palm-oil, rubber and ivory. The kingdom was largely independent of British control, and pressure continued from figures such as Vice-Consul James Robert Phillips and Captain Gallwey (the British vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate) who were pushing for British annexation of the Benin Empire and the removal of the Oba.

In March 1892, Henry Gallwey, the British Vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate (later Niger Coast Protectorate), visited Benin City hoping to annex Benin Kingdom and make it a British protectorate. Although the King of Benin, Omo n’Oba (Ovonramwen), was sceptical of the British motives he was willing to endorse what he believed was a friendship and trade agreement. The treaty signed by the king agreed to the abolition of the Benin slave trade and human sacrifice. The King refrained from endorsing Gallwey's treaty when it became apparent that the document was a deceptive ploy intended to make Benin Kingdom a British colony. Consequently the King issued an edict barring all British officials and traders from entering Benin territories. Since Major (later Sir) Claude Maxwell Macdonald, the Consul General of the Oil River Protectorate authorities considered the 'Treaty' legal and binding, he deemed the King's reaction a violation of the accord and thus a hostile act.

In 1894 after the invasion and destruction of Brohomi, the trading town of the chief Nana Olomu, the leading Itsekiri trader in the Benin River District by a combined British Royal Navy and Niger Coast Protectorate forces, Benin Kingdom increased her military presence on her southern borders. This vigilance and the Colonial Office's refusal to grant approval for an invasion of Benin City scuttled the expedition the Protectorate had planned for early 1895. Even so between September 1895 and mid-1896 three attempts were made by the Protectorate to enforce the Gallwey 'Treaty'. Major P. Copland-Crawford, Vice-Consul of the Benin District, made the first attempt, Mr. Locke, the Vice-Consul Assistant, made a second one and the third one was made by Captain Arthur Maling, the Commandant of the Niger Coast Protectorate Force detachment based in Sapele.

In March 1896, following price fixing and refusal by Itsekiri middle men to pay the required tributes, the King of Benin ordered a cessation of the supply of oil palm produce to them. The trade embargo brought trade in the Benin River region to a standstill, and the British traders and agents of the British trading firms quickly appealed to the Protectorate's Consul-General to 'open up' Benin territories, and send the King (whom they claimed was an ‘obstruction’) into exile. In October 1896 Lieutenant James Robert Phillips (Phillips was not a Lieutenant, he was a lawyer; after completing articles he was Sheriff and Overseer of Prisons in the Gold Coast and later Acting Queen's Advocate there, before his appointment as Acting Consul-Generalin the Protectorate). The Acting Consul-General visited the Benin River District and had meetings with the agents and traders. In the end the agents and traders were able to convince him that 'there is a future on the Benin River if Benin territories were opened'.

Benin had developed a reputation for sending strong messages of resistance. But the way Benin treated its slaves and the public display of large quantities of human remains hardened British attitudes towards Benin's rulers.

THE BENIN MASSACRE

In November Phillips made a formal request to his superiors in England for permission to invade Benin City and, in late December 1896, without waiting for a reply or approval from London, Phillips embarked on a military expedition with two Niger Coast Protectorate Force officers, a medical officer, two trading agents, 250 African soldiers masquerading in part as porters, and in part as a drum and pipe band. To disguise their true intent, the force's weapons were hidden in the baggage carried by the 'porters'. His request to London was to depose the king of Benin City, replace him with a Native Council and pay for the invasion with the 'ivory' he hoped to find in the Benin king's palace. In the meantime he sent a message forward to the Oba, Benin's king, that his present mission was to discuss trade and peace and demanding admission to the territory in defiance of Benin law explicitly forbidding his entry. Unfortunately for Phillips, some Itsekiri trading chiefs sent a message to the Benin king that 'the white man is bringing war'. On receiving the news the Benin king quickly summoned the city's high-ranking nobles for an emergency meeting, and during the discussions the "Iyase", the commander in chief of the Benin Army argued that the British were on planning a surprise attack and must be defeated. The Benin king however argued that the British should be allowed to enter the city so that it can be ascertained whether or not the visit was a friendly one. The Iyase ignored the king's views, and ordered the formation of a strike force that was commanded by the Ologbose, a senior army commander, which was sent to Gwato to destroy the invaders.

On 4 January 1897, the Benin strike force composed mainly of border guards and servants of some chiefs caught Phillips' column totally unprepared at Ugbine village near Gwato. Since Phillips was not expecting any opposition and was unaware that his operation was being perceived with alarm in Benin, the contingent's only weapons, consisting of the officers' pistols, were locked up in the head packs of the African porters. Only two British officers ( Alan Boisragon and Ralph Locke) survived the annihilation of Phillips' expedition which became known as the 'The Benin Massacre'.

SOURCES

Millitary Wiki

Wikipedia