The Truth About Oduduwa, Oromiyan and the Eweka Dynasty

According to Roupell’s officials, “The people of this country sent to Ife, in the Yoruba country for a king and Eweke was sent to them , he came with a few men , he came to Benin City ; he went softly (slowly) into all the country ; if the people were weak he fought with them and caught them ; if strong, he talked cunningly with them
and he and his men sat down there and took their daughters to wife; then when they had children , they called their wives and their children and returned to this town.

When Eweka came here he found a small town, just a few houses in the part where the white man now lives ; Eweka bought a slave named Ubini—when he died he buried him near him, and told all the world that whoever came and asked the name of this country should be told Ubini or Aiye, so the Bini people became very plenty.”

The above extract is from Ling Roth’s ‘Great Benin’, a misrepresentation of history which some mischievous ethnic revisionists are deliberately amplifying to suit their warped narratives!

In the light of this it’s incumbent that we make intelligible the record as presented by Roupell’s officials whose obvious misrepresentation is glaring because first and foremost a look at the oral historical records of both the Olukumis and the Benins reveals a stated fact that it was Oromiyan and not Eweka that was sent by Odod’uwa to Benin. And moreover it was Oromiyan that begat Eweka and neither did Eweka during his reign as an Oba engage in military adventures of any kind of any type and at any time in the entire period of his reign.

It’s on record that he spent almost the entire period of his reign with limited powers at the Usama palace that was located within the enclave where the powerful Edion’isen kingmakers held sway during the period.
It wasn’t until the Ewedo’s ascension to power did the monarchs of the post interregnum dynasty make a significant inroad in the administration of the entire Idu land, when with the aid of the Edogun’s Isiemwenro militia, he vanquished the haughty Ogiamien’s and his army at the historic battle of Ekiokpagha.

Before this period the entire Iduland as a result of the unfortunate interregnum instigated by the absence of a successor to a vacant ancient throne following the sunset of Ogiso Owodo’s reign, witnessed a degenerative period of disunity that saw the rise of Warlord chieftains who carved out for themselves petty chiefdoms.

While the Edion’isen
Lords collectively maintained their dominance in their various traditional strongholds, the emerged champions/warlords of the various settlements or quarters that made up the Idu kingdom, seized power in the various domains they held sway, with the ancient capital of Idu falling to the champion Ogiamien, who had risen to prominence by his famous slaying of the fierce Osogan monster bird that had once terrorized the ancient capital city.

And with Ogiamien lording it over in the capital city especially with its exalted status as the ancient custodian of the revered stool of power of the Ogiso kings, he began to entertain the idea of usurpation, a development which the various warlords/champions especially the Edion’isen were not comfortable with, as this new political rearrangement threatened their time tested positions of prominence in the realm. But because of the selfish individual agendas held by the individual champions, they couldn’t shelve their differences to unite in a bid to curtail the unbridled appetite of Ogiamien.

And as result of this, even with the coming of Oromiyan and the establishment of his dynasty, a move that was initiated and effected by the Edion’isen led by the Oliha, Ogiamien and his descendants maintained a stranglehold over the capital city for over one century and a half.
But in spite of the long period of Ogiamien descendants’ political dominance in capital city, non of them could wear the purple because the ‘Ukhur’Erhinmwin’Idu’ or the ‘Ukhur’Ododo’, the ancient staff of Office of the ancient Ogisos which legitimatizes the authenticity and the sanctity of their lineage from Idu their ancient progenitor was not in their possession.
For the Edion’isen had taken custody of the ‘Ukhur’Erhinmin’Idu’ following the chaos that trailed the absence of a successor with sunset of Owodo’s reign. It was later surrendered to Ekaladerhan, together with other accompanying sacred objects like the ‘Agba’, essential for the performance of regal duties, all these done with the intention of convincing him to return and claim his rightful position as an Ogiso, an entreaty he graciously declined sighting as an excuse his doubts about his extremely aged body’s ability to withstand the rigors of the long distance travel back to the land of his fathers. A development that spurred his choice of Oromiyan, a son he sired in the land of his sojourn by an Olukumi woman, whom he blessed with the paraphernalia of kingly office, the ‘Ukhur’Erhimwin’Idu’ and the ‘Agba’ which were borne all the way from Uhe by the Ihama n’ihogbe and the other members of the religiopolitical class of Chiefs that accompanied his coming to Idu land.

Oromiyan’s sojourn in Iduland was brief because of the disunity created by the jousting among the powerful oligarchs that controlled the various quasi independent tracts that the ancient kingdom had fragmented into. And unable to assert his power over the realm he left Iduland in utter disgruntlement. But fortunately for his retainers, the Ogi’Egor’s daughter he espoused while he remained was heavy with a child, whom she gave birth to, some period after his departure. This child, a male who when he came of age was coronated in the place of his father Oromiyan as Oba Eweka the first, a king whose lineage today has continued for nearly a millennium.