What does the art of Benin tell us?

Narrator: Hello, future people of the UK. I’d like to show you around the Benin civilisation.

But to do that, you’ve got to go back 500 years. Before Queen Victoria, before the Spanish Armada, right back to the time of Henry VIII. Now, head south over France and into Africa.

We are in that little corner where Nigeria will be one day. You’ve made it! Welcome to the Benin civilisation. My name is Ibi. I’m on my way to the Oba’s Palace.

The Oba is our leader, but we hardly ever see him because he stays in there the whole time. Except for once a year.

Next week, he’ll come out of those gates for a big parade. The whole town is getting ready for the event. That’s why I’m here.

The Oba wants a special ornament made so he can show off his power. Cripes! This will keep my dad busy!

My dad is a bronze caster. He makes all kinds of stuff. But the Oba wants him to make a very fancy mask in time for the parade. This is going to be tight.

Dad uses these copper hoops, called manilla, as the main ingredient in bronze. But, oh, no!

It looks like we’ve run out of the other ingredient, tin!

Maybe our neighbours will have some tine we can trade for this copper. Follow me!

We’re a big trading nation so our city is organised into trading districts, making all kinds of different things. Hopefully one of them will have some tin.

Let’s try the… metal district? Nope.

Carpentry district? Nope.

Pottery district? Nothing.

This is bad. It’s not a good idea to disappoint the all-powerful Oba.

Some say he’s got magical powers. Hmmmm…

Ok, my last hope is the weaving district. Though I doubt they’ll have any tin.

Let me guess, no tin? Brilliant!

What are the chances? Let’s do a deal.

Hmmm… I’ve not seen a cup like this before. The weavers say it was traded for some cloth with merchants from very far away.

You see, we trade with the whole of Africa and some of our goods come from as far away as India.

But, apparently, some particularly strange traders showed up recently. They had weird, pale skin, beards and strange-looking clothes.

No-one had seen them before. But rumour was, they were from a place called Portugal.

They wanted to set up a direct trade route from their homeland all the way to here.

Ok, so you are probably wondering, How you turn all this into a work of art?

Well, step 1 -make your design out of wax.

Step 2 – cover with sand, leaving a hole.

Step 3 – make bronze by melting down the copper manilla and mixing with tin.

Step 4 – pour into the hold, which boils off the wax.

Step 5 – wait for it to cool.

Then, after a few days’ polishing it’s perfect for the Oba.

All done. What do you think? Right, I’d better get this to the Oba before he puts a spell on me or something.

Here you go. Please give this to the Oba.

He should be out any minute now. Here he comes! And yes, those are pet cheetahs.

And there’s the mask. Brilliant! I’m so relieved we made it in time.

Well, that’s about all. The Portuguese will carry on coming and more Europeans will arrive to start trading, too.

But in the end, it will all go wrong for us when the British invade.

That will spell the end of our empire. And all this, it will be history.