{By Ekhosuehi}

Benin City, the ancient Edo Capital of Great Benin Kingdom is still
surrounded by a huge mound of earth known as inner wall, as high and
as wide as a two storey building six miles long, surrounding the most
important part of Benin. Outside this wall is a ditch as deep and as wide as the wall. Both the wall and the ditch were still quite new when the Portuguese first came in 1472 A.D. A massive fortified earthwork entrance gate guarded travelers way in. it was supported by timber and watched by soldiers with swords slung under their left armpits. A heavy wooden door built to specification closed the gate.

Normally, a traveler bringing goods into the city would have to pay a
toll before the gate was opened. Ahead of the travelers as far as they
could see, ran a long street, forty yards wide, full of people, and
among them the occasional goats or hen, domestic animals. About a mile
ahead, they noticed a huge tree standing by itself, and beyond that
the road still ran into distance.

There were high earthen walls, dull red colour, carefully smoothed
into a series of horizontal ripples. The tops of these walls were
roofed to prevent them being washed away by the rain. A great thatched
gate could be seen guarded by more soldiers and beyond this gate was a
glimpse of steeply sloping roofs and pointed towers. At the top of
each of these towers, the evening sunlight gleamed on bronze eagles.

From the main highway ran a number of broad streets, dividing the city
into quarters or wards. The streets were clean and free from rubbish.
The ward Chiefs were responsible for the cleanliness. Each householder
was expected to keep his section of the street clean, and the red mud
surface of the house walls neat and polished, till, as one European
was to say “it shone like a looking glass”.

The Benin-Ughoton road was a gate way for oversea trades, leading over
many centuries of the prosperity and enlightenment which go with
trades, had the main gate leading to Benin City on Oroghotodin Road
(i) at the inner moat before Uzebu. Another gate was situated at the
moat near Oguola Avenue in the G.R.A. (ii) a trade route of those from
Ikpokpan Ugbor and the Iyokeogba districts. Then the Idunmwu- Ivbioto
gateway (iii) of the trades from Nana and Warri districts .

The Utantan gate way (iv) controlled the routes from Ugu
Iyekeorhionmwon districts, and the Ogiso Oke-Edo gate way (v) of the
trade routes from Ugo n’eki, Ika, Urhonigbe, Ukwani and Aniocha. The
Okhoro trade routes (vi) controlled all trades from Eyaen, Ehor and
Esan districts, while the Ifon gate way (vii) Controlled the trades
from Ifon, Ora, Ivbiosakon and Etsako districts and also from Lagos
and Ibadan.

The Urubi gateway (viii) controlled all trades from Uselu, Ekiadolo,
Igbogor, Usen districts. The Oloton gate way (ix) controlled the
trades from Isiuloko, Ogbese and other riverine areas as fro- as from
itigiere, Atigiere.

Iron rods came from Europe through Ughoton port to Benin. The four
blacksmith Guilds of the City, the Igun Nekhua, the Eyaen-Nugie, the
Igun n’ Iwegie and the Igun n’ Ugboha had endured a permanent state of
metal hunger, subsisting on the trickles of Iron Ore which came down
from Uneme and Agbede Lands, but with plentiful supplies of the
purified metal arriving as rods from the foundries of Europe through
Ughoton gateway, the Edo City guilds went into un-relenting and
accelerated production of agricultural, domestic and martial
implements, which were used to sustain the wealth and the security of
the Olden days Benin.

The currency in which the Benin overseas trade was conducted brought
blessings to the land. The metal type of currency, the manilla,
enabled the technology of brass-casting to be developed to its fullest
extent. The sea-shell type of currency, the cowries, enhanced the
liquidity of the economy of Great Benin.

Guns, gun powder, cannon and lead, arrived through Ughoton gate way,
facilitated the extension and maintenance of the Great Benin Empire.

Foreign ideas, enriching society came through the Ughoton gate way.
Christianity arrived through the Oroghotodin, making Benin the first
place where Christianity was preached and made a state religion.

Despite the internal tributes passing through the nine gateways into
Benin City, the arrival of the Portuguese coincided with a period of
great political and artistic development. Their coming acted as a
catalyst in this process. Their impact was many sided; military,
economic, cultural, artistic and even linguistic.

Traders supplied the important Luxury items Benin so desired; coral
beads, cloth for ceremonial attire and great quantities of brass
manilas which could be melted down for casting.

In return for these goods, Benin provided the Portuguese with pepper,
cloth, Ivory and Bronze casting. Benin craftsmen were busy carving
Ivory objects ranging from spoons with handles, carved animals or
birds, sold at modest prices to sailors, and merchants from far and
near. Hence Edorisiuwa, Edorisiagbon, Edo Centre of excellence, earth
bound and Edo ne-evbo ahirhe, where one prays to belong.

The Benin-Portuguese Ivories are a blending of status imagery from two
cultures; from Europe, there are Portuguese coats of arms, armillary
spheres and scenes of the nobility and from Benin, the Guild designs
reserved for royalty and views of nobles on horseback accompanied by
retainers and equipped with swords, elaborate costumes, feathers and
other Benin marks of rank and wealth. All these attracted the European
Communities, the Spanish, the Dutch, German and the English to trade
with Great Benin.

The nine gates of the beautiful ancient Benin Culture reminded of the
security quotation from captain Lorenzo pinto “The people of Great
Benin live in such security that they have no doors to their houses”.