Miscellaneous views in Calabar, Opobo and Sierra Leone, circa 1912-1913

138 x 201 mm. A full length portrait of King Ovonramwen (also known as Overami) dressed in a resplendently decorated robe and seated in a chair with his two wives (in European clothes) standing beside him. Ovonramwen (d. 1914) presided over the dissolution of the Kingdom of Benin and was by all accounts a bloodthirsty tyrant. With the suppression of the West African slave trade, Benin's power was diminishing, but it still held out against European domination and the country was closed to trade of all kinds. In 1892 Vice Consul Henry Galway managed to persuade Ovonramwen to sign a treaty placing Benin under British protection and promising to suppress the slave trade. It soon became clear however that Ovonramwen had no intention of abiding by the terms of the treaty and in 1896 an unarmed party led by the Acting Consul General Phillips went to visit Ovonramwen. On January 4 1896 the party was ambushed and murdered, only two of the Europeans escaping with their lives. A military expedition was mounted against Benin and the city was taken after a fierce fight on February 18 1897. Inside the city incontrovertible evidence was found of a brutal regime and widespread human sacrifice. The chiefs directly implicated in the murder of Phillips' party were tried and executed and Ovonramwen, who had escaped after the fall of Benin but later surrendered, was exiled to Calabar where he died in 1914. This photograph was probably taken in Calabar towards the end of his life.

A description of this photograph can be found in: 'Commonwealth in focus : 130 years of photographic history' (1982), Sydney: International Cultural Corporation of Australia, p. 11. Another photograph, taken on the same occasion but with some of his slaves included in the photograph, is reproduced in: Macmillan, Allister (1920), The Red Book of West Africa, London: W.H. and L. Collingridge, p.38.

Indexed

CN 1029 and CN/CUL Y3043O/18.