Ekhaguosa Aisien: Thank you and farewell
By Calixthus Okoruwa
I disliked the manner in which the Omada, the sword-bearer of the Oba of Benin, was typically showcased. Holding aloft the Ada scepter, the symbol of authority of the Oba, and permanently by the side of the Oba or behind, he was in appearance, a stark contrast to the impeccably royal-attired Oba. His dressing was sparse, drab and in dull colours like brown. And he was either bare-footed or until much recently, in sandals.
Consequently, the Omada tended to appear nondescript and inconsequential, almost like a part of the furniture of the palace. Visitors would evidently not pay him a glance, let alone any attention.
Why would the institution of the Obaship be so unmindful of the outward manifestation of such a royal personage? I wondered. Were the Omada some sort of modern day slaves or were they repaying some sort of debt owed over the ages to the palace?
These were the questions to which I sought answers when I first put a call through to Dr. Ekhaguosa Aisien, just under two years ago. From newspaper articles, I had learnt he was a writer and historian with a strong focus on Benin and had been fortuitous to obtain his phone number from his daughter. It was supposed to be a quick chit-chat, or so I thought, but I soon found myself grabbing a pen and scribbling furiously as I listened to this highly knowledgeable gentleman.
The Omada, he explained to me, actually come from very noble and highly-respected families. Indeed, families of the Omada are among the most influential in Benin. People realise that being so close to the Oba, the Omada have the Oba’s ears and his trust. As such, it is not unusual for people to seek to use the families of the Omada as intercessors of sorts, whenever they have a significant request to make of the Oba.
It did appear that the Omada were very content with their ranking in Benin traditional society and did not share whatever discontent I had expressed regarding their outward appearance. What they lacked in the glamour of their outward appearance, it seemed, they more than made up for in the enormous influence and respectability they wielded in traditional Benin Society.
Indeed, he explained further that in historic times, the Omada used to be unclad. It took the discomfiture of a visiting royal, Queen Victoria of England, he said, for this tradition to be modified. The visiting queen, he said, was visibly most uncomfortable witnessing a naked sword bearer.
Ekhaguosa Aisien went on to regal me with stories about his sojourn in Esan Land in the 1960s upon his return from training in the UK as a medical doctor. He had among others, been close to the family of my kinsman, Chief Anthony Enahoro, who famously moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence.
But if I thought our discussion was very illuminating, I had, as they say, seen nothing yet. I ordered for his books – as many as were in print, after our telephone encounter.
You cannot but be struck by the meticulous efforts this gentleman put into the quest to document different aspects of the history and heritage of the Benin people for posterity. A native speaker of the language, he had apparently spent countless hours seeking out and engaging the sages and local custodians of orature of the ancient Benin Empire. There is ample evidence to show that in order to strip these stories bare of their embellishments and exaggerations, he painstakingly cross-checked these stories with historical dates, geographical landmarks and other documented accounts as well, where these existed. And then many erstwhile mythical stories are unraveled and demystified with scientific evidence, occasionally, with the benefit of his medical training. Oba Ewuare, for instance, succumbed to generalized oedema, most likely a result of progressive heart failure arising from untreated hypertension or possibly, kidney failure. In his day, unfortunately, his affliction was thought to be a retribution for a transgression against the goddess of the Ovia river.
He penned elaborate and specific details of the Benin traditional order of wedding ceremony. He wrote about Benin-City including its relationships and historical connections to Ile-Ife, Owo, Ondo, Akure as well as the Igala, the Esan, Etsako, Urhobo, Itsekiri and many others. He wrote about the Benin pilgrimage stations, an incredibly detailed historical guide that would make for interesting reading especially for tourists, scholars and all those desirous of more knowledge of the history and heritage of this enduring civilization.
But it is his book, “Ewuare, the Oba of Benin”, that in my view, is his magnum opus. Masterfully researched, it reads in many parts like an adventure novel, something a Mark Twain or Cyprian Ekwensi would have been proud to have penned. How do you contain your thrill and excitement when you read about Edo the slave who saved the life of the future king, the young Prince Ogun who would later become Oba Ewuare? It is to this heroic slave who would later be executed by his owner that the Edo people owe the name, “Edo”. What about Emotan, whose statue was once a prominent feature in Oba Market in Benin, a woman whose reconnaissance efforts were invaluable to the eventual emergence of Oba Ewuare? What about Avan the companion of the prince who became separated from him in the forest in the course of the Herculean attempts to claim the throne? Avan would later mysteriously arrive in the palace and is the progenitor of the famed Osuma title in Benin Kingdom. Primogeniture in Benin Obaship also emerged from the crucible of the tortuous struggles that preceded Oba Ewuare’s accession.
After our initial phone call, I had thought that I would be privileged to sit with him to discuss in more depth. I planned to discuss my thoughts about modernizing aspects of the Benin monarchy in such a manner as to further enhance the global appeal of this institution. I also thought I would further interrogate him on aspects of the aftermath of the punitive 1897 British invasion of Benin. The Covid-19 pandemic and the unfortunate rise in insecurity across the country, both of which limited travel across the country, put paid to such plans.
Ekhaguosa Aisien passed on recently and will be interred on November 5. He was 91. His family deserves to be very proud. His contribution to the documentation of the history and heritage of the Edo people for posterity is a formidable legacy.
He was a physician and surgeon. But I can wager that he found a lot more fulfilment as a writer and historian.
I do hope that the government of Edo State and its people recognize the monumental significance of his works and that they will strive to ensure that his books remain in print. It would be great to have improved print- and photographic quality in subsequent editions of these books. Very importantly, too, I hope that his works will spawn a handful of emulators across Africa, inspired by his truly intellectual contribution to efforts to properly establish the history and heritage of Africa’s peoples.