Benin City And Its Destruction: The Emblem of Colonialism

How a West African city became one of the world’s wealthiest and best-governed capitals

Leopards were living symbols — of the king’s greatness and his power to control his people and the wild animals roaming the rainforest surrounding Benin City, 2009, via

Before the British arrived in Benin City in 1897, before they looted its streets and houses, before they set fire to the royal palace and stripped the city of its wealth, autonomy, and prestige, Benin City was one of the world’s wealthiest and best-governed capitals.

As British soldiers marched past its high walls, they found — and proceeded to loot and destroy — a thriving and rich capital, said to be one of the oldest, best-planned, and richest cities in West Africa, a cultural and economic centre and a prime example of African artisanship and self-government.

Like many other cities, it too was reduced to rubble, humiliated and despoiled by the colonial wave that in a matter of decades, a blink of an eye in the history of mankind, ousted monarchs, subjugated entire peoples, and partitioned the entire world.

Before 1897

Benin Royal Head Shrine, via

Benin City was surrounded by deep moats and massive walls. The lives of the people of Benin City, subjects of…