Traditions, Documents, and the Ife-Benin Relationship

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Periodical article

Title:	Traditions, Documents, and the Ife-Benin Relationship
Author:	Thornton, John K.
Year:	1988
Periodical:	History in Africa
Volume:	15
Pages:	351-362
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	Benin polity history 1500-1599 1600-1699 Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration Bibliography/Research
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171867
Abstract:	This paper reexamines the relationship between the two southern Nigerian cities of Ife and Benin, and proposes some new documentary evidence on the issue. In addition to supporting A.F.C. Ryder's position (1965) that the Ogané of the early Portuguese texts was not Ife but rather a state (the Igala kingdom) of the Niger-Benue confluence, this documentary evidence suggests new interpretations of the regional history of southern Nigeria in the 16th and early 17th centuries. The author argues that there is no necessary contradiction between the Igala origins of Benin suggested by pre-17th-century documentation and the Ife origin suggested by modern tradition or art history, and that the Bini, over the centuries, have substituted Ife traditions for their original Igala ones to placate Yoruba elements in Benin. Notes, ref.