FEPA News

FEPA NEWS 45 65 The World of Research After several attempts to meet Overami to discuss a treaty, the British Acting Consul- General made the mistake of setting out on 1st January 1897 on an unarmed mission from the Benin River to Benin City with eight other Europeans and about 250 native carriers. The expedition was ambushed and the whole party was killed except for two Europeans (Capt. Alan Boisragon and the District Commissioner, Mr Locke). About 20 of the carriers escaped into the forest and made their way back to the river. This immediately became known as the Benin Massacre and later in 1897 Alan Boisragon wrote a book with that title, published by Methuen (Ref 1). A punitive armed expedition was immediately raised and within six weeks Benin City was occupied. Oba Overami was deposed and taken to exile in Calabar, the palace was ransacked and thousands of brass, bronze and ivory objects were removed. These are known collectively as the Benin Bronzes, many of which have since been housed in museums in the UK and elsewhere. After Overami was deposed his legitimate son was enthroned as a British puppet Oba and a British garrison was based at Benin City. In 1904 a new road was built by Benin labour to connect Benin City with Sapele where the Vice-Consulate had already taken up residence on the river in the hulk Hindoostan. Philatelic History A post office was opened at Benin City on 15th July 1902. The Benin River post office at Koko, which had opened in 1892, continued to use a canceller date-stamp reading BENIN RIVER until 1904 when a new canceller reading only BENIN came into use. It was this canceller that provided the final backstamp on the postcard shown above and thereby created the confusion. Why the word RIVER was dropped from it is not known; the Benin City post office postmarks continued to include the word CITY. The confusion was resolved when the Benin River post office was re-named Koko in mid-1909 (all Ref. 2). When the road from Benin to Sapele was completed in 1904 the trade through Benin River/Koko declined quickly and from then on most import and export trade was handled at Sapele. The Sapele date-stamp on the postcard shows that it was carried from Benin City by way of that new road, and then taken down river to Koko by canoe or launch on the same day. Research sources The historical background is largely based on the contemporary first-hand account of the massacre survivor, Alan Boisragon (Ref 1). I prefer to rely on primary sources such as this. There is also a first-hand account of the subsequent punitive expedition: Benin, the City of Blood by Commander R.H. Bacon RN, published in September 1897 which I have not read but have seen quoted in Lt Colonel Augustus Mockler-Ferryman’s book British Nigeria, 2nd edition, published in 1906 (Ref. 4). The text about the gore they found on entering Benin City is stomach-churning but could have been exaggerated as propaganda to justify the British colonial assumption of a right to depose a local ruler who opposed British rule and laws. I, therefore, choose not to use it. This postcard shows a pensive Overami under guard on his way to exile at Calabar.