There is little seperation of roles between a man and woman in the family.
One could subjectively conclude that a Biniwoman is harder working than the man. A closer look at the Bini might explain why lots of women own houses.
Contrary to what many nonBinis believe, a Biniwoman DOES NOT INHERIT from her husband. Only children are beneficiaries in Edo. Same for the man. No spousal inheritance.
Both parents are expected to provide for their children. There is no 'housewife' in the real sense.
Being polygamous,a husband's resources would be spread thin in his effort at providing for his various 'doors'. The wives however only cater to themselves and children.So whatever else she makes on the side in addition to the husband's obligatory matrimonial support puts the wives in a better economic position. And with the fear that her children might not get much from their father on his death,she attempts to plug that hole by herself.

Modern Bini couples,who are not polygamous,now build houses together. But be assured that if she finds out there is something 'out there' she would go it alone like her mothers before.

bokohalal:
Good question. I doubt if there are totems or body marks as family identifications. I may be wrong. The Omo n Oba however has a leopard as a symbol of Royal strength. Does every other member of the extended Royal Family? I could for a fact tell you they do not.
Greetings is all I know.

as i read the beginning part of this thread i saw many similarities with yoruba words and i knew this would be the case but the lineage greeting came as a surprise. this is the equivalent of yoruba oriki. this is only good for someone living. a dead person cannot recite oriki or greet back, so in times of war..(.and bini fought many..)..how did bini identify its dead sons and which body belong to what family? yoruba used body tattoo and facial mark to achieve positive identification for both its living and dead.

Negro_Ntns:

as i read the beginning part of this thread i saw many similarities with yoruba words and i knew this would be the case but the lineage greeting came as a surprise. this is the equivalent of yoruba oriki. this is only good for someone living. a dead person cannot recite oriki or greet back, so in times of war..(.and bini fought many..)..how did bini identify its dead sons and which body belong to what family? yoruba used body tattoo and facial mark to achieve positive identification for both its living and dead.

I doubt if it was customary to bring back the corpses of fallen warriors. Maybe those of war chiefs.
I have not seen the Bini equivalent of the Yoruba Oriki. The only thing one could stretch to it would be an ancestral shrine. More on that later.
It was possible that certain highranking chiefs and close immediate member of the Royal family had distinctive body marks.

thanks!

And I feel that alot of we binis are vastly loosing our identity in that alot of us benins can't even speak our dialect.This can be attributed to our parents who are not teaching us d language and also it's bot been taught in schools anymore. Alot of binis are becoming yorubanized.

Pretty much all Nigerian languages are gradually losing speakers instead of gaining.

In fact, English is so dominant that if we want to reverse the effect, it has to happen in next couple of years. Even big languages such as Yoruba and Igbo are losing a huge amount of speakers, and new speakers often aren't even close to being fluent. For Edo it's even worse, because it is a smaller language. Teaching English in school is ridiculous when it's not the native language of the people. Each state should have most (preferably all) languages spoken in the area used in schools. English should not be prioritized. English is bastardizing and polluting languages all over the world, and like in Nigeria, not much is being done about it.

On top of that you have parents completely ignorant of their own language, teaching their kids English instead of their native language. It's just frustrating to watch. Had to get this rant out.

Many Binis in diaspora are also building homes back in Biniland and asking their mothers,unmarried,seperated or divorced sisters to go live in the houses. The women have become 'landlords' for the absent owners.

The Biniwoman is one of the most independent in any society in the world. She is at liberty to enter into any contractual obligation without the consent of the husband and she solely reaps the rewards or failures thereof.And its legal consequences,if any.
There are no societal pressures for an unmarried Biniwoman to be chaste. It is entirely up to her to be or to limit or to give no hoot.
Binis are libidinous. One would have expected a conservative people to be more modest in matters of intimacy.
A married Biniwoman is however expected by society to be only s.exually active with her husband. Failure to do so could result in tragic consequences for the married woman or her husband but especially her children.This traditional belief is one strand that keeps the Bini married woman in check.She cannot even enter into an adulterous affair with the consent of her husband.No swinging.
The Binigirls or women in Europe selling themselves for money are mostly unmarried or separated or divorced.
In the event of a married woman leaving for Europe or anywhere to carry out prostitution,she is not expected to lie down with her husband until she carries out a ritual cleansing known as 'Zo'(zor).
Also if a woman was separated from her husband and both parties patched up their issues, the woman must also Zo if she had se,x with anyone other than her husband during the separation.
The married Biniman is free to continue as before the marriage but not if he has a conscience. And,of course,a powerful Biniwoman to stop his urges.

boobyman: And I feel that alot of we binis are vastly loosing our identity in that alot of us benins can't even speak our dialect.This can be attributed to our parents who are not teaching us d language and also it's bot been taught in schools anymore. Alot of binis are becoming yorubanized.

that's because a lot of bini see much yoruba in them (not that they claim to be yoruba or otherwise) there are just too many similarities compared to others.

Well Benin people tend to acculturnise so easily.For example an ibo man who grew up in Lagos will definitely speak Yoruba,but can still speak his ibo language. While a Benin person will easily yorubanise and can't even speak d language.What I see these days is that d older generations speak d language while our generation can't speak it

I must also mention that there are 'Returnee' Bini families.They are well integrated into the Bini society .

When a woman is pregnant she tries not to dislike anybody she hates because it is believed that the unborn child will take after the person. They are also protective of the gender and time of birth. Any attempt to press for information on an unborn child gender or time of birth by someone who is not immediately related to the pregnant woman could become a big issue. Actually, when a woman goes into labour and is taken to the maternity,some families become very secretive and will not release any information concerning the pregnant woman's where about or condition to neighbours or untrusted close or distant relatives.This is due to the belief in witchcraft and the fear of such person causing harm to the infant child and or its mother.
After childbirth and the mother is resting whether at the hospital or home,not everyone can just cook and bring food to her bedside to eat. Most times,it is the immediate family or a trusted friend that she expressly asked to do so.

Binis are really monotheistic in their religious view. There is only one form of worship,if we could term it that,known to the Binis.
Ancestral worship.
The Binis believe that when a person dies he or she remains in the family watching over them and acting as guide in life's daily maze. For this reason,the ancestor is worthy of worship. The male ancestor is the most worshipped though there are times the female is,also. Due to the male ancestors,some families can trace their genealogical tree from the beginning of time with certainty.

A proper Bini family house is a repository of history and a link between the living and the ancestors.
The family house,known as 'Igiogbe' (every Nigerian Law School graduate knows this),is where the ancestral shrine reside and is worshipped. The eldest son of the family lives there. It is his duty to maintain the shrine and ensure that the larger family and the ancestors are in accord.
The Ancestral shrine is made of a mud mound about two to three feet high which is mostly shaped in the form of a half circle with the top part a bit smaller than the bottom and a depression at the very top of it.
The width differ from family to family. The older the family geneaology the wider the Ancestral shrine.
The ancestral shine is called 'Aro Erha'(Eye of the fathers)
Some ancestral shrines are rectangular.
On top of the shrine and inside the slight depression are placed carved wooden sticks between two and five feet in length known as 'Ukhurhe'.

The Ukhurhe is for the Dead. There is no Ukhurhe for the Living.
When a man dies,and who was the erstwhile occupier of an Igiogbe, the eldest son takes over the Igiogbe(only after properly burying his father) and then goes ahead to place an Ukhurhe (which comes after a ritual) of his father on the Aro Erha for his deceased father is now an Ancestor.
Each Ukhurhe has a name(the deceased's) and can vary in length(do not know why,yet) and age(due to the different generations they were placed).
The Ancestors are worshipped by sacrificed animals and food.
It might interest a lot of people to know that some Binis believe that the Bini people engaged in human sacrifice only after contact with early European visitors to the Guinea coast who taught them about Christianity and the shedding of blood by Jesus to save mankind!

An Ukhurhe tells a family genealogy because every first child of the house placed his deceased father on the shrine and the people in that home can relate the story of each.

Images of ancestral shrines are not coming up!

No matter how westernized the Bini about ninety-nine percent still in one way or the other involve in traditional ways of spiritual solution when overwhelmed by life.
Aside Olokun,which Poster has concluded is a Bini god and came into being being after encountering Europeans,all other gods in Biniland are imported and mostly Yoruba. Esango(Shango),Ogun,Oronmila,are the major Yoruba gods worshipped. Usakpana(Sopona)is mostly used as a curse.
Erede is mainly by the Usen and neighbouring Bini people. Ayelala also.
Ebo Eziza(god of the wind)is not popular and only in rare instances is anyone asked to appease it .
Ebo n Oto(god of the earth) is more of an oath. For example,it is forbiden for anyone to take earth from the Palace of the Oba of Benin Kingdom.Many people,women especially,take the risk. When caught, the culprit is asked to 'ven oto'(take oath to the land/earth) by digging a very shallow hole with clean water poured into the hole and the person to scoop up the mud and take oath as to whatever is demanded.

boobyman: And I feel that alot of we binis are vastly loosing our identity in that alot of us benins can't even speak our dialect.This can be attributed to our parents who are not teaching us d language and also it's bot been taught in schools anymore. Alot of binis are becoming yorubanized.

My only problem is writing perfectly in bini
I was never taught how to in sch, and it is indeed a big shame! in primary schools we were never taught how to write or read in bini like few schools at that time
instead we were taught how to read and write in french all thanks to primary school i can still read monday to sunday in french

it is indeed a big shame Nigerians are losing touch with their dialect
if there is one thing I envy the yoruba's for, is the fact majority of them speak and can write in their language (tho they are very loud )

it would be nice if a thread is created solely for writing in bini

y me:
My only problem is writing perfectly in bini
I was never taught how to in sch, and it is indeed a big shame! in primary schools we were never taught how to write or read in bini like few schools at that time
instead we were taught how to read and write in french all thanks to primary school i can still read monday to sunday in french

it is indeed a big shame Nigerians are losing touch with their dialect
if there is one thing I envy the yoruba's for, is the fact majority of them speak and can write in their language (tho they are very loud )

We were not taught Bini even in Primary school.I came across An Edo Grammar Textbook in my undergraduate days and it had really helped in my written Bini. Cannot remember the author's name but I would recommend it to anyone interested in the study of the Edo language.

still trying.

Recently in Biniland,one of the greatest desecrations of tradition took place. It was not the Bini Christian zealots who carried this out but the ignorant, poverty racked Bini.
Bini youngmen,desperate to leave for so called greener pastures, embarked on a stealing spree of Ukhures anywhere they could find them. Family members and friends of families and strangers stripped ancestral shrines bare in some homes in order to sell them to European and American collectors of antiques and satisfy their financial needs in their travel quest.
Today,some Bini 'ancestors' adorn the homes of Americans and Europeans.
These were pieces of history. A family's heirloom. Priceless. Most were several centuries old. Now gone, maybe forever,because of greed.
I do not want to believe that many of these robbers are cursed but it would not surprise me if they are. I hope they are.
This sad event reminds one of the poem "Vanity"by Birago Diop.

bokohalal: Recently in Biniland,one of the greatest desecrations of tradition took place. It was not the Bini Christian zealots who carried this out but the ignorant poverty racked Bini.
Bini youngmen,desperate to leave for so called greener pastures, embarked on a stealing spree of Ukhures anywhere they could find them. Family members and friends of families and strangers stripped ancestral shrines bare in some homes in order to sell them to European and American collectors of antiques and satisfy their financial needs in their travel quest.
Today,some Bini 'ancestors' adorn the homes of Americans and Europeans.
These were pieces of history. A family's heirloom. Priceless. Most were several centuries old. Now gone, maybe forever,because of greed.
I do not want to believe that many of these robbers are cursed but it would not surprise me if they are. I hope they are.
This sad event reminds one of the poem "Vanity"by Birago Diop.

When one steals from the ancestral shrine, he/she automatically activates the wrath of the ancestors
so we were told!

y me:
When one steals from the ancestral shrine, he/she automatically activates the wrath of the ancestors
so we were told!

I really hope so. Some sons even sold their ancestral staff! Shameless people. I know the Bini christian is not going to have any remembrance of his ancestors because in their brainwashed minds an ancestral shrine is idolatrous.
I hereby advocate for an ancestral hall for all Bini families. A place where a curator would place an ancestral staff in honour of a departed father. It will stem the tide of ignorance of the 'modern' Bini and secure the continuity of a hallowed system that made the Bini a cultured people.

Every Bini knows about Death but most do not understand it. While Death is part of life itself,to the Bini, everything is done to put off Death for eternity.Death is not natural to the Bini. Old age,diseases and sicknesses even events such as drunken or bad driving or a disaster that could occasion death is not so convenient to explain to most Binis. Something supernatural and evil had to be behind it for such to have happened. Attempts are made to combat death not in a cautionary manner but through sacrifices.Death is thought to be avoidable not by seeking medical help, in some cases,but by prayers and fasting even by the sick!
When someone dies eyebrows are raised. Neighbours,friends and or relatives are suspected.No matter the manner of death. If a woman, it could be most likely her husband's other wife or concubine. If a man,the wife or one of them.If unmarried or a child,do not look past one of the stepmothers. If there is no explanation of it,then it was because if the child had grown up he or she would have been great so 'they' decided to cut him or her short.

Age and status matter a lot to the Bini when someone dies.
A childless person's funeral ceremony is different from one that has a child or children.
The childless person's is termed 'orimwin izabo'(shoulder corpse). To avoid being hoisted unto shoulders and buried without ceremony,many childless elderly people choose one of their close relatives,especially nephews,as their stand-in child on their death to carry out their funeral as his or her child.
A young one with no child is orimwin izabo.
A teenager even with an unplanned baby is not.
A parent cannot see their dead child. It is deemed shameful and unnatural. They cannot physically partake in anyway with their dead child's burial.
In all Bini families an older cannot see a younger sibling dead body.
An older can go to a deceased younger sibling's house if the corpse is not lying in state during the time of the visit.He can neither eat nor drink anything that is associated with the younger one funeral.
Some people do go to their younger sibling' burial but stay far away from the action. It is however mostly avoided.

Most funerals now last for only three days. This is so for the ordinary folks. Some more traditional families insist on the customary seven days.
There is one for all classes only in varying forms. There is none however for disgraceful ones like executed criminals.

Burial is the universal digging of a hole deep and wide enough to place a corpse. The six feet under. Thereafter a body or casket is placed and the hole covered back with earth.
Some Bini families dig a grave and inside of the grave another hole is cut on the side also large enough to place a body and into which a body is placed. For this families sand is not directly poured unto the casket because the casket is placed out of its way in the grave.

It must be acknowledged that the placing of a casket in a crypt inside a grave has its origin at the time there were no caskets to put a body but a coarse mat in which bodies used to be wrapped before burial.To this day,it is forbidden for a Bini to wrap him or her self in a mat.

In some families in Edoland ,there is a ready database for DNA testing even from ancient times.In these families,fingernails and toenails are clipped and a bunch of hair cut from a dead family member and put in a small pouch and sent to be stored by the head of the family. I still do not know the exact reason why. My father's family does this.