₦airaland Forum

national athems for both teams being sang.

why are the bafana bafana always singing in the tunnel prior to their matches?

Is this psychological warfare?

the match was never gonna start at 7pm mate.

it was always 7.30pm.

if they fail to win this match they can more or less kiss the world cup good bye

bafana bafana only has one win from a world cup match.

lets see if that record is going to change tonight

uruguay playing an extra forward today in cavani.

they are ready for more attack

e easy. uruguay are no push overs.

If only the recruitment process can be free and fair.

We all know what will happen.

Corruption, bribery, nepotism, "know-person-ism".

Richyblack and co with due respect are confusing issues.

The thread is about the Oba and his chiefs tackling crime through their traditional beliefs. Results so far are positive. Armed robbers, kidnappers are begging for forgiveness.

Instead of us to at least give the Benin palace credit people come here lambasting and insulting the Oba.

The same people have been the ones lamenting the spate of crime in the country. The government has failed abysmally in addressing this. Yet the first and only traditional institution to stand face to face to the criminals putting its reputation on the line is condemned.

SHOCKING.

Are some of you guys for real? Do you have a stake in the criminals loot?

Nigeria. What a confused nation.

RichyBlacK:
Yes.

But I believe the supernatural is controlled by supernatural beings, and not by mere mortals like you and I. The Oba of Benin is just a human being, hence a mere mortal.

Yes, just as I believe in:
1. + and -
2. North pole and south pole
3. Electrons (-) and protons (+)
etc.


I believe in the New Testament and in Christ. The Messiah was God in human form, hence making Him an immortal. Jesus Christ was not bound by the restrictions mere mortals like you and I, or the Oba of Benin are bound to. This is the reason He was able to beat death and resurrect in glory to save mankind. I am a Christian and so was Queen Victoria, Queen of England, whose naval squadrons defeated the non-Christian Oba of Benin.
You make no point here. God is the Almighty. No restrictions apply to Him. The Oba of Benin is mere human. What's your point in bringing God into this conversation? Are you somehow trying to compare the Oba of Benin to God?


It is only a foolish man that believes any juju can stop the high-velocity projectiles (aka bullets) from an AK-47 rifle.

Your knowledge of Nigeria's precolonial history is fuzzy at best. Benin was conquered in one week plus one day.

I'm a law-abiding citizen and have no business carry guns to commit any crime. Thank you.

[size=18pt]All juju claims are fraudulent![/size]

This typifies the problem with NL. You can never have a matured debate here without people becoming emotional and personal. I guess if this were to be a face to face discussion we would all be leaving NL with sour faces and jaws.

Even the holy bible acknowledges that there is a devil who even if his power is no where near that of the almightly is powerful, and has enormous influence on his followers.

Your belief in juju is immaterial. It does not erase its existence. FACT.

Like i was saying, the initial expendition of 11 Brits and their 400 itsekiri slaves were ambused and destroyed in December of 1896. The reinforced team is what you are referring to. I guess there lies your confusion.

The second team took Bini by surprise unlike the first that had announced their coming. The Oba had banned them from coming to Bini at the time as it coincided with the Igue festival during which visitors are forbidden from entering the palace. They refused to heed the advice and came armed. They never contemplated the level of resistance they saw. That included Captain Philip.

He was ambused on his way from Sapele at Oghoton by a batallion from Benin led by Asoro.

Richy, i dont know what tribe you belong to. But Benin history is clearly not one of your strong points.

harakiri:
Please ask him.They have all this juju and yet their leaders milk the coffers with careless abandon.Why can't they curse the thieving rulers? Oh,i forgot. . . they are also part of the syndicate.

Rubbish!

You are a confused soul You clearly have not read this thread. You simply glimpsed at the topic and quoted richy. Shakes head in pity.

Concerning our initial debate, you have to agree that the battle for control of Bini did not last just 8 days as you wrongly quoted above. The full text of Igbafes work is what i have pasted above. It shows the events leading to the Benin Massacre of 1897.

Secondly let me ask you some questions.

Do you believe in the supernatural?

Do you believe in the forces of good and evil?

Do you believe the bible stories in the old and new testaments?

God we are told several times fought numerous battles for his people and won. Sun stood still, rivers divided, etc. Of cause, there were instances were his children also took a beating.

It is only a foolish man that says there are no evil forces AKA juju. Of all the territories of what we now know as Nigeria Bini was the hardest for the Brits to conquere. They literarily walked into other kingdoms with barely any resistance.

Back to topic. If you so dismiss "jass", take an ak47 and go kidnap someone in bini.

more detailed version of events.

The historical background
After the abolition of the Slave Trade at the beginning of the nineteenth century British attention on the West African coast was turned towards 'legitimate trade' supplying trade goods in return for raw materials or semi processed commodities, in particular palm oil, a major lubricant for the industrial revolution. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, following the carve up of Africa into 'spheres of influence' by the European powers, the British had an established presence along the coast of present day Nigeria, with some areas administered directly from Whitehall and others under trading company control. Spheres of influence were defined by European powers in relation to each other, and often had little meaning on the ground, being based on ambiguous treaties entered into with traditional rulers.
The Niger Coast Protectorate included the Niger Delta and the trading ports to the east. By 1895 the Protectorate government had established its authority, frequently by use of force, over all the major trading centres except the ancient kingdom of Benin which insisted on retaining sovereignty and trading independence. A 'trade and protection' treaty had been concluded with Benin in 1892 by Capt. Gallwey on the first official visit to the city in thirty years. But trade, conducted via the intermediary of the coastal Itsekiri people, was less profitable than expected and the Protectorate administration was feeling the pressure from the rival British administrations of Lagos Colony and the Royal Niger Company, both desiring to 'open up' the hinterland to trade. Ralph Moor, the Consul General of the Niger Coast Protectorate, felt hampered by the Foreign Office's reluctance to allow him to mount an armed expedition against the kingdom of Benin. This is the background against which the events of 1987 occurred, when Moor was on leave in England and a newly arrived Acting Consul General, James Phillips took up his post.

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The events of 1897
Phillips had met Consul General Moor only once, in London, just before his departure. Moor, who had a history of violence against African rulers who did not submit to his authority, had already proposed a military operation against Benin but had been prevented b; his more cautious superiors in Whitehall (military expeditions could become very expensive and produce disappointing returns). Phillips intentions become clear in his despatches to the Foreign Office. Immediately on arrival he called a meeting of traders and officials and wrote a report to Whitehall:
The whole of the English merchants represented on the river have petitioned the government for aid to enable them to keep their factories (trading posts) open, and last but not least, the revenues of this Protectorate are suffering , I am certain that there is only one remedy. That is to depose the King of Benin , I am convinced that pacific measures are now quite useless, and that the time has now come to remove the obstruction , I do not anticipate any serious resistance from the people of the country - there is every reason to believe that they would be glad to get rid of their King - but in order to obviate any danger, I wish to take up sufficient armed force , I would add that I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory may be found in the King's house to pay the expenses incurred.
Before he had received a reply to this despatch Phillips had undertaken his disastrous mission. He had sent a message to the Oba informing him of his intention to visit Benin soon and had received a reply requesting him to delay his visit for some time due to customary rituals during which foreigners could not enter Benin City Phillips ignored several such messages and the advice of a trusted Itsekiri chief to lead his colleagues, carriers and servants to disaster The party of nine British officials and traders together with their servants and carriers, were ambushed on a narrow forest path south of Benin City. Their only weapons, revolvers, were locked away in their luggage. Only two of the white men survived the attack
His decision to undertake this unsanctioned mission was either motivated by personal ambition - to achieve a result before Moor's return - or he was acting under Moor's orders and had, in fact been see up by him to provide an incontrovertible excuse for military intervention Either way Moor got his desire in the violent overthrow of the independent kingdom. The immediate British response was to raise a Punitive Expedition which looted and sacked the City and sent the Oba into exile.

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The official version
The ''official version' of these events was that a brave and humanitarian mission was massacred because of African treachery and barbarity. A small but successful war of colonial conquest then punished the perpetrators and freed the populace from the depredations of a 'Fetish-Priest-King' and his rule of terror. Much was made of the practice of human sacrifice in Benin as a justification for interference:
The King of Benin in the treaty he signed with captain Gallwey, had agreed to place himself and his county under H.M, Protectorate and it was becoming a perfect disgrace that in the Protectorate , so terrible a state of affairs continued as that in what was not very improperly called the City of Blood.
Captain Boisragon, Phillips' colleague on the journey, and one of the two whites to survive, stressed the humanitarian motive for the mission:
The object to the expedition was to try and persuade the king to let the white men come up to his city whenever they wanted to. All their horrible customs could not be put down at once, except by a strong-armed expedition, but could be stamped out gradually by officials continually going up.
A rarer British official historian suggested:
Phillips opinion was that every pacific means towards approaching the King would not be complete until he as Acting Consul-General paid a visit to the King. This was surely a humane desire, a benign wish, to avoid force if possible.
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The Benin perspective
Philip Igbafe, a Nigerian historian comments:
Phillip's visit was against the remonstrance's of the Itsekiri traders, the advice of the Chief Dogho ( a trusted partner of the British), the Oba's refusal and in utter disregard for the traditions and susceptibilities of the Benin people.
The few statements recorded from the Benin witnesses at the trial of the Oba suggest a very different situation to the official version. They indicate that Oba Ovonramwen sought to avoid conflict with the British. Benin had trading contacts with Europe since the fifteenth century with early Portuguese, Dutch and British visitors expressing admiration for the kingdom. However relations had become strained in the preceding decades as the British established permanent trading stations and consulates along the coast and sought to interfere in the internal affairs of African kingdoms.
The 'Gallwey Treaty' had been concluded under veiled threats. The pro forma document was translated verbally from English via a dialect of Yoruba into Edo. The people of Benin have always argued that they understood it as a statement of co operation and trade, certainly not a relinquishing of sovereignty. However its existence was uses as a justification for military action:

It was an insult to the prestige of the Protectorate not to be able to assert its authority within its own limits.
There were internal divisions within the Benin court, dating back to Ovonramwen's accession, and disagreements over an appropriate response to British pressure provided a focus for discontent. Ovonramwen's approach was to refuse visits for all official visits after Gallwey's and to withdraw into isolation from the British, although he still conducted trade via the Itsekiri middlemen. Despite the Oba's attempts to dissuade Phillips from coming, in a courteous manner so as not to provoke him, Phillips stubborn insistence played right into the hands of the radicals who sought to weaken the Oba in the name of defending the nation's sovereignty. The rebels argued that Phillips incursion was a gross insult and that it was too dangerous to allow him into the city and the presence of the Oba. It was hardly credible to the Benin warriors waiting in ambush along the forest path that the party, with its large boxes and over two hundred carriers and servants, was really unarmed.
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The outcome
As Ovonrarmwen foresaw, the attack on Phillips sealed the fate of the Benin kingdom. Within six weeks of the ambush Benin City had fallen. The resistance to the Punitive Expedition was far greater than anticipated by the British but ultimately bows and trade guns were no match for Maxim guns, rifles and rocket tubes. The Oba, 36th of the current dynasty stretching back to the thirteenth century, was deposed. The accumulated works of art from many centuries which adorned the palace were removed wholesale.
A great grandson of Ovonramwen provides a perspective on the outcome:

Many people believe today that the British decided to burn the town as an 'appropriate finale' to the punishment for the people who murdered their sons in cold blood , Whatever their reason, that should have been punishment enough. But they carried away all our works of art too and today we have to buy them back at extortionate prices from the descendants of those who took them. If the British had been intent on showing us a better way of life, they could at least have given us a better example than to remove our treasures and fire our city.
There is a strong sense of grievance of events which are comparatively recent in the oral history of a people whose dynastic legends are datable back through forty generations to the thirteenth century. After the death of Oba Ovonramwen in exile his eldest son was allowed to return to Benin and the dynasty was restored. The Oba of Benin is one of the most influential of modern Nigeria's traditional rulers.
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The art treasures
The Benin art treasures were treated as little more than curios when they were first brought to this country but as the wonderful quality of the ivory carving and bronze casting became appreciated it was reflected in ever increasing prices in the art auction rooms of the world. The Foreign Office sold considerable quantities of ivory to defray the costs of the expedition and many of the officers retained collections of their own. The British Museum acquired the leading collection (partly direct from the Foreign Office, the rest by gift or purchase) while much went to the USA and Germany. Pieces were lost or destroyed during the Second World War in Liverpool and Berlin (apparently quantities of Benin art have been rediscovered in the eastern part of Germany since renunciation).
Relations between Nigeria and Britain were cooled when Nigeria was refused loan of an ivory mask which was the visual symbol of the 2nd World Black ~ African Festival of Arts Culture (FESTAC) held in Nigeria in 1977. Since a major exhibition of Benin art at the Museum of Mankind in the early seventies most of the British Museum's collection has lain in storage.

In 1980 the Nigerian Government spent £800~000 on acquiring four Benin pieces and one Yoruba mask at auction in London.

Increasingly within Nigeria, as well as within international organisations such as UNESCO, issues are raised over the legality of holding art collections expropriated by force (there are many precedents for the negotiated restitution of artworks, dating back to the Napoleonic wars). Parallels are drawn with the campaigns by Greece and Egypt for the return of their antiquities.

The Benin artworks belong to a living culture and have a deep historical and social value which goes far beyond the aesthetic and monetary value they hold in exile.

Wrong. Bini did not fall in 8 days. As is shown in my link above, the brits initial expendition was repelled and all but two of the crew were obliterated. Those that were not killed were eaten up by mosquitoes and other bugs.

Even the so called punitive expendition, had to recruit a full army, with reinforcement from the ? gulf of guinea. They did not capture the oba. He surrendered voluntarily. He was not jailed but sent on exile to calabar were he lived comfortably till ? 1914.

more

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9903E3DE1230E333A25751C2A9679C94669ED7CF

Dont forget the brits took a right pounding before they even got close to the bini land.

blacksta:
Nonsense - it does not work - one wonders why it had not work in the past.

why dont you carry your ak47 to rob in benin to see if it works or not. when you and your family start to die one after another no be person go say make you pick race.

otawa:
With due respect to Oba of Benin, this is an 'idle curse'.

This is not year 1510 but 2010. Nobody is born as armed robber, it is a process.

The same ritual was performed in the late 80s. Few weeks later the notorious Lawrence Anini and his gang were felled.

Some people are born with the traits to become an armed robber. So armed robbers can be born.

~Bluetooth:

mafioso2:
People like you na dey Quick Die for War,

no mind am. let am dey misyan.

worry246:
You useless person!
You are going to visit one of the most vibrant cities in the world with thousands of types of food to try.
All you want is Nigerian food.
You big mumu stay at home and eat snails & catfish.

This is the most inappropriate and offensive post i have ever read on NL.
Poster asked a perfectly reasonable question and you came out with insults.
Typifies what NL should not be about.

Please do the decent thing and apologize

mr.official:

LWKMD. I couldn't help but laugh it out. Do you know me?

People grow nowadays and forget their senses in the pussi. I guess you lost yours in a LovePeddler's pussi. Ode!

Now i know your problem.

You are a mal-sexualized societal misfit. I am certain either you were sexually abused as a child or someone dear to you/parental such as a mother was sexually abused ie raped which you witnessed as a child. You are confused and have been battling against your chaotic childhood memories.

Hence you SIDE WITH PAEDOPHILES LIKE THE 40YR OLD MAN WHO DEFILED HIS CHILD, YOU ACCUSE THE INNOCENT GIRL OF SEDUCING HER FATHER AND YOU CALL YOUR MOTHER A PROSTITUTE.

You surely are CURSED. Please dont spread that curse in here.

the match is not on tuesday but thursday.

so the heading on the home page should be changed.

ziddy:
Why didn't the Oba apply this formula when Lucky was stealing them blind. abegi!

this same uninformed question has been asked several times and it has been delt with.

Its better we lose this match that way we know we are out of the competition.

No more all 36 state fa chairmen and 62 senators with their wives and concubines jetting to south africa at tax payers expenses.

now where are the optimists?

mr.official:
A niece stays with me. You're not making any sense. Mumu!

You now compare me with the man. Your skull has been eaten up by rats.

May the almighty God deliver that neice of yours. Nairaland please take note of mrofficial. Read his contributions to this topic.
He insinuated this bastard was right to sleep with his child.

How i wish your family knew you are a pervert, weirdo and a deviant.

Social support system is non-existent in Nigeria. The government has failed abysmally when it comes to protecting the vulnerable ie children, old and disabled people.

Their actions are always reactive after a crime has been commited or there have been episodes of abuse.

optimism optimism

it has always been a match to watch irrespective of what the fre evening standard believes.

Argentina is one of the top favourite and everyone wants to see Messi et al play

If the super eagles want to cage Messi, NEVER TAKE YOUR EYES OFF HIS LEFT LEG

a "juju" is enough for the wise

mr.official:
I think the man's daughter has been enjoying it, If not she would have reported to the police or anybody that can pull her out of the sh|t.  shio!

mr.official:

kid? Like 4 years old?

you clearly have the making of a paedophile.

you are defending the criminal father, blaming the innocent victim child and minimizing the crime.

people like you should not be allowed near chldren