BENIN

officially Republic of Benin, French Rpublique du Bnin, formerly (until 1975) Dahomey, or (1975-90) People's Republic of Benin, country of western Africa. It consists of a narrow wedge of territory extending northward for about 420 miles (675 kilometres) from the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean, on which it has a 75-mile seacoast, to the Niger River, which forms part of Benin's northern border with Niger. Benin has an area of 43,500 square miles (112,600 square kilometres) and is bordered to the northwest by Burkina Faso, to the east by Nigeria, and to the west by Togo. The official capital is Porto-Novo, but Cotonou is Benin's largest city, its chief port, and its de facto administrative capital. Benin was a French colony from the late 19th century until 1960. Prior to colonial rule, part of the territory that is now Benin consisted of powerful, independent kingdoms, including various Bariba kingdoms in the north and in the south the kingdoms of Porto-Novo and Dahomey (Dan-ho-me, "on the belly of Dan;" Dan was a rival king on whose grave Dahomey's royal compound was built). In the late 19th century French colonizers making inroads from the coastal region into the interior borrowed the name of the defeated Dahomey kingdom for the entire territory that is now Benin; the current name derives from the Bight of Benin. Dov Ronen one of the principal historic kingdoms of the western African forest region (fl. 13th-19th century). Tradition asserts that the Edo people became dissatisfied with the rule of a dynasty of semimythical kings, the ogisos, and in the 13th century they invited Prince Oranmiyan of Ife to rule them. His son Eweka is regarded as the first oba, or king, of Benin, though authority would remain for many years with a hereditary order of local chiefs. Late in the 13th century, royal power began to assert itself under the oba Ewedo and was firmly established under the most famous oba, Ewuare the Great (reigned c. 1440-80), who was described as a great warrior and magician. He established a hereditary succession to the throne and vastly expanded the territory of the Benin kingdom, which by the mid-16th century extended from the Niger River delta in the east to what is now Lagos in the west. (Lagos was in fact founded by a Benin army and continued to pay tribute to the oba of Benin until the end of the 19th century.) Ewuare also rebuilt the capital (present-day Benin City), endowing it with great walls and moats. The oba became the supreme political, judicial, economic, and spiritual leader of his people, and he and his ancestors eventually became the object of state cults that utilized human sacrifice in their religious observances. Ewuare was succeeded by a line of strong obas, chief of whom were Ozolua the Conqueror (c. 1481-c. 1504; the son of Ewuare) and Esigie (early to mid-16th century; the son of Ozolua), who enjoyed good relations with the Portuguese and sent ambassadors to their king. Under these obas Benin became a highly organized state. Its numerous craftsmen were organized into guilds, and the kingdom became famous for its ivory and wood carvers. Its brass smiths and bronze casters excelled at making naturalistic heads, bas-reliefs, and other sculptures. From the 15th through the 18th century Benin carried on an active trade in ivory, palm oil, and pepper with Portuguese and Dutch traders, for whom it served as a link with tribes in the interior of western Africa. It also profited greatly from the slave trade. But during the 18th and early 19th centuries the kingdom was weakened by violent succession struggles between members of the royal dynasty, some of which erupted into civil wars. The weaker obas sequestered themselves in their palaces and took refuge in the rituals of divine kingship while indiscriminately granting aristocratic titles to an expanding class of nonproductive nobles. The kingdom's prosperity declined with the suppression of the slave trade, and, as its territorial extent shrank, Benin's leaders increasingly relied on supernatural rituals and large-scale human sacrifices to protect the state from further territorial encroachment. The practice of human sacrifice was stamped out only after the burning of Benin City in 1897 by the British, after which the depopulated and debilitated kingdom was incorporated into British Nigeria. The descendants of Benin's ruling dynasty still occupy the throne in Benin City (although the present-day oba has only an advisory role in government). officially Republic of Benin, French Rpublique du Bnin, formerly (until 1975) Dahomey, or (1975-90) People's Republic of Benin country of western Africa, stretching northward and inland for some 420 miles (675 km) from the Bight of Benin and occupying an area of 43,450 square miles (112,600 square km) between the Niger River in the north and the Atlantic Ocean in the south. The official capital is Porto-Novo, but the de facto capital is Cotonou. Benin is bordered by Togo to the west, Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, and Nigeria to the east. Benin is only approximately 200 miles (320 km) from east to west at its widest, and its southern coastline extends for only 75 miles (120 km). The population in 1991 was estimated to be 4,776,000. Additional reading Ethnographic studies include Jacques Lombard, Structures de type "fodal" en Afrique noire (1965); William J. Argyle, The Fon of Dahomey (1966); and Paul Mercier, Tradition, changement, histoire: les "Somba" du Dahomey septentrional (1968). Patrick Manning, Slavery, Colonialism, and Economic Growth in Dahomey, 1640-1960 (1982), is a detailed study. Robert Cornevin, La Rpublique Populaire du Bnin: des origines dahomennes nos jours (1981), is an indispensable reference. For a treatment of the traditional Dahomey kingdom, see Melville J. Herskovits, Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom, 2 vol. (1938, reprinted 1967). Dov Ronen, Dahomey (1975), is the only general history of the independent country available in English. I.A. Akinjogbin, Dahomey and Its Neighbours, 1708-1818 (1967), is the principal published study of the precolonial kingdom of Dahomey. C.W. Newbury, The Western Slave Coast and Its Rulers (1961, reprinted 1983), is a study of the development of European commerce and imperialism in the 19th century. Samuel Decalo, Historical Dictionary of Benin, 2nd ed. (1987), has an extensive bibliography. Dov Ronen Robin Law Administration and social conditions Benin has experienced much political instability and unrest. It suffered through 12 years of unstable government, including several coups d'tat, beginning three years after independence. The regime of President Mathieu Krkou, who came to power in a 1972 coup, enjoyed almost two decades of fragile but unprecedented stability. The Marxist rhetoric introduced in 1974 culminated in repressive military rule in the late 1970s, but this had largely ceased by the early 1980s. During this period, however, the Benin People's Revolutionary Party (PRPB) was the only legal political party. A National Revolutionary Assembly, elected by citizens, chose the president, who was also head of state. Benin was the first African country to make a post-Cold War transition away from Marxism-Leninism. Krkou himself abandoned in December 1989 the Marxist-Leninist ideology that he had promulgated in the mid-1970s. In December 1990 a new constitution was approved, guaranteeing human rights, freedom to organize political parties, the right to private property, and universal franchise. While multiparty elections, a National Assembly, and a presidency were provided for, the country's poor economy and history of fractured political alliances lent an element of uncertainty to the political future. Benin has a transitional constitutional court, a high court of justice, and a supreme court. Education The public education system has followed the French pattern since colonial times. A six-year primary school cycle (for children ages 6-11) is followed by six years of secondary education (ages 12-17). In the mid-1970s major reforms were introduced both to conform to the then-prevalent Marxist-Leninist ideology and to shed French influence. The reforms failed as teachers, parents, and university-bound students objected to the lowering of standards, and the reforms were largely abandoned by the late 1980s. School enrollment levels for boys in the late 1980s were at least double those for girls. In the early 1990s the National University of Benin, founded in 1970, enrolled approximately 9,000 students. The university's student body has been, along with workers, the main political force in the country since the early 1980s.