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Sensemaking in Benin Kingdom Oral Traditions: Repetitive Recall of Actual and Traditional Enmity between the Ọba and the Ogiamiẹn
Umẹwaẹn: Journal of Benin and Ẹdo Studies (2018)
  • Kathy Curnow
Abstract
The Benin Kingdom’s oral history, like all histories, highlights selected past incidents to the exclusion of most. Major events, especially those linked to specific monarchs, are likely candidates for inclusion. Ọranmiyan’s founding of the current dynasty was a key cataclysmic event, along with his immediate descendants’ efforts to establish themselves in the city. These incidents, unsurprisingly, are remembered in some detail. Conflicts between the autochthones, represented by the Evian-Ogiamiẹn line, and the incoming royal family constitute a crucial aspect of this dynastic beginning. Subsequent but far less critical clashes between the two parties flared up periodically during later reigns, but their retention in history is less explicable. Why are these lesser incidents recalled? Human ability to recollect choice past events is shaped by sensemaking and other cognitive processes. Particular cognitive frameworks serve to organize memory creation, and their composition can ensure that certain events not only attain contemporaneous prominence, but also are likely to secure a place in historical accounts. In Nigeria’s Benin Kingdom, ominigbọn divination may have provided such a framework for stories regarding the continued conflict between the present dynasty and the Evian-Ogiamiẹn line. Its Ohun Ighitan code sentence speaks to (among other things) disputes that are never fully settled, and its veiled language appears to refer to the initial struggles between the Evian-Ogiamiẹn and Ọranmiyan lineages. The framework it established may have served as a significant device that ensured a narrative of conflict continued over the centuries.
Keywords
  • Benin history,
  • Benin art,
  • Oranmiyan,
  • Ominigbon,
  • Sensemaking and cognition
Publication Date
Winter January, 2018
Citation Information
Kathy Curnow. "Sensemaking in Benin Kingdom Oral Traditions: Repetitive Recall of Actual and Traditional Enmity between the Ọba and the Ogiamiẹn" Umẹwaẹn: Journal of Benin and Ẹdo Studies Vol. 2 (2018) p. 1 - 50
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kathy_curnow/6/