Key Stage 2 history · World history

KS2 Kingdom of Benin, West Africa: a guide for parents

Benin, in West Africa, is one of three options that primary schools can choose for a study of a non-European society that contrasts with British history, covering the years AD 900 to 1300. Children learn about the Edo people’s kingdom in what is now southern Nigeria, its rulers called Obas, the great walls of Benin City and the skill of its brass casters, and how we know about it.

The Kingdom of Benin, explained

The curriculum asks every pupil to study one non-European society that provides contrasts with British history. Schools choose between early Islamic civilization with Baghdad, the Maya around AD 900, and Benin in West Africa from AD 900 to 1300. The Kingdom of Benin was home to the Edo people and lay in what is now southern Nigeria, with Benin City as its capital. It should not be confused with the modern country called Benin, which is a neighbour of Nigeria and has a different history.

Benin’s traditions say that its early rulers, during much of the period AD 900 to 1300, were called Ogisos, and that around AD 1180 the Edo people invited a prince to rule, beginning a line of kings called Obas. There is still an Oba of Benin today, with a traditional rather than a governing role. The Oba was a powerful ruler supported by chiefs and officials, and he was also treated as a sacred figure. The kingdom was set among forest and farmland, and most people grew crops such as yams. Craft guilds of specialist workers made carvings, cloth and metalwork for the court.

One of the most remarkable things about Benin is the scale of its walls. Benin City and the villages around it were enclosed by a huge network of banks and ditches, known as earthworks, which grew over many centuries. Historians count them among the biggest earthworks ever built before mechanical diggers. Benin is also famous for its brass casting. Edo craftworkers used the lost-wax method: they modelled a shape in wax, covered it in clay, melted the wax out, and poured hot metal into the space. Oral tradition says that this skill was strengthened in the late 1200s when an Oba asked for a master caster from the neighbouring city of Ife.

Many of the best-known objects, the so-called Benin Bronzes, are brass plaques and heads made in later centuries, mostly from the 1500s to the 1700s, and not within the years AD 900 to 1300. Teachers explain that these are used to understand how Benin’s court worked, and that they may reflect older traditions, though they are not direct evidence of the earlier period. Schools vary in how much they focus on the early centuries, which have fewer surviving sources, or on the later kingdom. This is a choice for each school.

Children also learn about how we know. Benin’s history was kept by oral tradition, with court historians passing stories down, as well as in art, archaeology and the accounts of later visitors. In 1897, British troops attacked Benin City, burned parts of it and took thousands of objects, which ended up in museums around the world. Some have since been returned to Nigeria, and the future of others is still debated. Some schools cover this event, and others do not, so it may come up in conversation. Honest, calm answers, with an emphasis on the Edo people’s own achievements, work best.

Words your child will hear

Oba: The title of the king of Benin.
Edo: The people of Benin, and also their language.
Earthworks: Large banks and ditches made by digging and piling up earth.
Lost-wax casting: Making a metal object by pouring molten metal into a clay mould from which a wax model has been melted.
Oral history: Stories and facts about the past that are told aloud and passed down through generations.
Guild: A group of skilled workers who practise the same craft.
Artefact: An object made by people in the past, which gives evidence about how they lived.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 2 says:

Pupils should be taught about a non-European society that provides contrasts with British history – one study chosen from: early Islamic civilization, including a study of Baghdad c. AD 900; Mayan civilization c. AD 900; Benin (West Africa) c. AD 900-1300
Pupils should note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.
Pupils should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

A model answer: how do we know about Benin?

Enquiry question: How do we know about the Kingdom of Benin, and how much can we trust each source?

List the kinds of source: oral history told by Edo court historians, the earthwork walls, brass heads and plaques, and writing by later visitors.
Think about what each can tell us. Oral history records kings and events, passed on carefully. The walls show that the kingdom could organise huge numbers of workers. The brass objects show skill and what the court wanted to show.
Ask who made the source and why. The plaques were made for the Oba’s palace, so they show the court’s view. Visitors’ accounts were written by outsiders who may not have understood what they saw.
Check dates. Many brass plaques were made in the 1500s or later, so they are not direct evidence of AD 900 to 1300. They can only be used with care.
Combine the sources. Where several different kinds point the same way, the evidence is stronger.

We know about the Kingdom of Benin from several kinds of source. Oral history, passed down by Edo court historians, records the kings and their stories. The huge earthwork walls show that Benin could organise a large workforce, and the brass heads and plaques show the skill of its craftworkers. However, each source has limits: oral history is told from the Edo point of view, many of the brass objects were made centuries after AD 1300, and visitors’ accounts were written by outsiders. The most reliable conclusions come from comparing different sources that agree.

Common mistakes and how to help

Confusing the Kingdom of Benin with the modern country of Benin

They share a name, and both are in West Africa.

What helps: Find them on a map. The Kingdom of Benin was in southern Nigeria; the modern Republic of Benin lies to its west. The modern country took its name in 1975.

“Africa has no history before Europeans arrived, because nothing was written down.”

Children are used to history being built from books and documents.

What helps: Explain that oral history, art and archaeology are all valid evidence. In Benin, court historians kept careful accounts, and the walls and brass work still exist.

Thinking the famous brass plaques show Benin in AD 900 to 1300

Museum labels and pictures often just say “Benin Bronzes” with no dates.

What helps: Check the date on the object. Most were made much later. Ask what an object from the 1500s can and cannot tell us about earlier centuries.

Imagining Benin as a small village or tribe

Stories about Africa often wrongly picture small, simple communities.

What helps: Look at what the evidence shows: a walled capital, a king with officials, specialist craft guilds, and earthworks on a vast scale. These were the signs of a well-organised kingdom.

How to help at home

Try lost-wax thinking. Model a small shape in soft modelling clay, press it half into a pot of damp sand, and lift it out to see the hollow it leaves. Then talk about how the Edo method was different: the wax model was covered completely in clay and melted away, leaving a hollow with every detail, and the clay had to be broken to free the metal, so each piece was one of a kind.
Dig a family earthwork. In a sandpit or a patch of garden you are happy to dig, help your child scoop out a short ditch and pile the earth into a bank beside it, then measure both. Then think about how many people would be needed to build something many kilometres long.
Tell a story aloud. Ask a grandparent or older relative to tell a family story, and then ask your child to retell it a week later. Compare the two versions to see how oral history can change and how people can keep it accurate.
Find them on the map. Locate Nigeria and the modern country of Benin on a map or globe. Ask your child to explain why the two share a name and what sets them apart.

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: A significant society in world history