Last updated 09/07/24: Online ordering is currently unavailable due to technical issues. We apologise for any delays responding to customers while we resolve this. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2014
Uwadiae Jacob Egharevba was born in 1893 to a descendant of Ohenmwen, the Iyase of Benin Kingdom during the reign of Osemwende, ca. 1816 to ca. 1848, and Okunzuwa, a granddaughter of an Ibadan chief. Jacob's parents were long-distance traders, and he claimed to have traveled with them in the Benin and Yoruba regions until his father's death in 1902. The brief sojourn in the Yoruba country afforded him the opportunity of attending school for a year in 1899, at a time when there was no such facility in Benin because of the reluctance of the traditional elite to send their children to school. Jacob was impressed by the written word and became interested in education, although it was not until 1911 that he returned to school at Akure. He demonstrated brilliance, although his education here was terminated by relocation. On his return to Benin in 1914, he became a domestic help to Black Shaw, a senior European staff of the Public Works Department, while at the same time enrolling at St. Matthews C.M.S. school. In 1915 he converted to Christianity and, with the encouragement of Shaw and others, he was able to complete his primary education in 1916.
Between 1916 and 1921, he worked in lowly paid jobs in Warri, Port Harcourt, and Okigwe. His failure to secure any lucrative government position pushed him to trading. His writing career began in 1921 when he drafted his now famous classic, Ekhere Vb'Itan Edo. Ironically, it was this successful book that exposed his writing inadequacies. To improve his skills, he enrolled in 1926 in a five-year correspondence course with the Institute of Rationalistic Press in London. In 1933 the C.M.S. published the Ekhere Vb'Itan, which attained an instant success. It was reprinted the following year and translated as A Short History of Benin.
We thank the family of Jacob Egharevba for their cooperation and encouragement. We received the assistance of a number of people in obtaining copies of a number of books cited here and translating a few of them. Usualele would like to thank the National Council for Arts and Culture for its support and Falola would like to thank Benson Osadolor and his wife for their hospitality during his research trip in the summers of 1992 and 1993.
1. On this title Egharevba provides details in his Concise Lives. It was the most senior of three title orders, non-hereditary, and usually conferred on a prominent person. The Iyase went to war as commander, mediated between the public and the palace, and could confer titles on others on behalf of the oba.
2. In Egharevba Family, Egharevba himself wrote about his family. We have followed his leads in all cases.
3. Western education began in Benin in 1902. See Usuanlele, Uyilawa, “State and Class in Benin Division, 1897-1959: a History of Colonial Domination and Class Formation” (M.A. thesis, Ahmadu Bello University, 1988).Google Scholar
4. Egharevba, J. U., Itan Edagbon Nwen (Benin City/Ibadan, 1972), 13.Google Scholar
5. This was one of the earliest political associations in Benin, established about 1933. It was at the forefront of much political agitation. Its leadership was dominated by the new literate and commercial elite who succeeded in taking over the control of the Native Administration in 1948. The rivalry of the association with Akenzua II and other traditional elite led to the formation of a rival party, the Reformed Benin Union (later known as the Otuedo Union), which was to defeat the Tax Payers' Association in the election of 1951. The Tax Payers' Association eventually became a branch of the Action Group, while the Otuedo joined the N.C.N.C, two large pan-Nigerian political parties. On the details of the political parties, including smaller associations, see Sklar, R.L., Nigerian Political Parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation (Princeton, 1963).Google Scholar
6. This was a modernized revival of the Yoruba secret society Ogboni, established by Ogunbiyi.
7. Egharevba, , Itan Edagbon Nwen, 8.Google Scholar
8. On this worldview see Bradbury, R.E., “Ehi: Three Stories From Benin” in Morton-Williams, P., ed., Benin Studies (London, 1973)Google Scholar; Omijeh, M.E.A., “Ehi: Some Notes on the Paradox of Self Destination in Bini Religion,” Nigeria Magazine, no. 110/12 (1974), 18–27.Google Scholar
9. Bradbury, R.E., “Chronological Problems in the Study of Benin History” in Morton-Williams, , Benin Studies, 22.Google Scholar
10. Egharevba, , Ekhere Vb 'Itan Edo (Lagos, 1933, 2d ed., 1934,) 11Google Scholar; Ake of Isi (Benin, 1976), 4Google Scholar; The Okua ihe of Ikhuen (Benin, 1974), 7Google Scholar; Concise lives of the Famous Iyases (Benin, 1946), 7Google Scholar; Benin Games and Sports (Sapele, 1948), 6Google Scholar; A Brief Life History ofEvian (Benin, n.d.), iv.Google Scholar
11. Foreword in Egharevba, , A Short History of Benin (badan, 1968), ix.Google Scholar
12. Egharevba, , Ekhere Vb'Itan Edo (2d. ed.: Lagos, 1934), 11.Google Scholar
13. Egharevba, , Benin Laws and Custom (Port Harcourt, 1946; 2d ed., 1949), v.Google Scholar
14. Egharevba, , Iha Ominigbon Vb'Obo, 6.Google Scholar
15. Egharevba, , Benin Games and Sports, 6.Google Scholar
16. Egharevba, , Itan Edagbon Mwen, 46.Google Scholar
17. Igbafe, P. A., Benin Under British Administration: The Impact of Colonial Rule on an African Kingdom, 1897-1938 (London, 1979), 335n75.Google Scholar
18. Igbafe, P. A., “Benin in the Pre-Colonial Era,” Tarikh 5/1 (1974), 1.Google Scholar See also the introduction in Bradbury, R. E., The Benin Kingdom and Edo-Speaking People Plus the Itsekiri (London, 1957).Google Scholar
19. Egharevba, , Ekhee Vb' Itan Edo, 11.Google Scholar
20. Egharevba, , Iha Ominigbon vb'Obo, 54, 63, and 80.Google Scholar
21. Egharevba, , Uro D'Agbon vb'Obo (Lagos, 1948), 3–4.Google Scholar
22. Egharevba, , Ama Z'evbo Omiwan Tawiri, 7.Google Scholar
23. Egharevba, , Origin of Benin, 20.Google Scholar
24. Egharevba, , Itan Edagbon Nwen, 25.Google Scholar
25. Ibid.
26. Egharevba, , Ere Edo vb'Obo (Benin, 1963), 1.Google Scholar
27. Egharevba, , Some Prominent Bini People ([Benin], 1969), 4.Google Scholar
28. Egharevba, , Benin Laws and Customs, iv.Google Scholar
29. See, for instance, the preface to his Uro D'Agbon; as well as Ama Zevbo Omwan Tawiri (Benin, 1956).Google Scholar
30. On the nature of this problem see National Archives, Ibadan, BP 553/1915, Commissioner B.P. to D.O., memo of 23 March 1916.
31. Ekhere Vb'Itan Edo; Okha Edo; Agbedogboyo; and Ebe Imina.
32. Egharevba, , Uro d Agbon vb'Obo, 3.Google Scholar
33. See, for instance, Uro d Agbon vb'Obo, 3, 14, 17.
34. Egharevba, , Ozedu Interpreter (Benin, 1953).Google Scholar
35. Egharevba, , Ama Zevbo Omwan Tawiri, 3.Google Scholar
36. See Uwaifo, H.O., “Benin Writing,” Edo Voice, 9 (September, 1950), 3–4.Google Scholar
37. 69 pp.
38. Egharevba, , Ekhere Vb 'Item Edo, iiGoogle Scholar
39. Bradbury, “Chronological Problems.”
40. Egharevba traces the origin of the Eweka dynasty to Ile-ife, but oral traditions collected after him have been modified to reject any Ife dominance. For a review of the issue and the traditions see Ryder, A. F. C., “A Reconsideration of the Ife-Benin Relationship,” JAH 6 (1965)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Akinola, G.A., “The Origins of the Eweka dynasty: a Study in the Use and Misuse of Oral Traditions,” JHSN 3/3 (1976), 21–36Google Scholar; and Igbafe, P.A., “Benin,” 6–7.Google Scholar
41. See Afigbo, A.E., “The Benin Mirage and the History of South Central Nigeria,” Nigeria Magazine, no. 137 (1981), 17.Google Scholar
42. 122pp. Egharevba published three works before this, but they were unavailable to us—Okha Edo, Agbe'do gboyo, and Ebe Imina.
43. 48 pp.
44. 35 pp. (Benin, 1938; 3d ed., 1959).
45. 27pp.
46. 27pp. (Lagos, 1948).
47. 26pp. (Benin, 1950).
48. 55pp. (Benin, 1950).
49. (Benin, 1950).
50. 30pp. (Benin, 1954).
51. Egharevba, , Origin, 20–22.Google Scholar
52. Ibid., 23-24.
53. 46pp. (Benin, 1956).
54. (Benin, 1956).
55. 10pp. (Benin, 1957).
56. 23 pp. (Benin, 1962).
57. 77 pp. (Benin, 1963).
58. 168pp. (Benin, 1965).
59. Iha Ominigbo Vb' Obo, 63, 92.
60. 45 pp. (Benin, 1965).
61. 15pp. (Benin, 1966).
62. 95pp. (Benin, 1969).
63. 25pp. (Benin, 1967).
64. 75pp. (Benin, 1968).
65. 55pp. (Benin, 1969).
66. 92pp. (Benin, 1972).
67. 20pp. (Benin, 1974).
68. 11pp. (Benin, 1976).
69. Igbafe, Benin.
70. Egharevba, , Benin Laws, 113.Google Scholar
