This African Queen Won a War So Big the Kingdom Made Her Title Mandatory Forever #shorts

This is the face of Queen Idia of Benin. It was carved 500 years ago.
The British Museum has it. Nigeria has been asking for it back since
1960.

Her name was Queen Idia. She was the mother of Oba Esigie — the king
of the Benin Empire in southern Nigeria in the early 1500s. Most
queen mothers in West African kingdoms had ceremonial roles. Idia
did not. Her son was facing a civil war and a foreign invasion at
the same time. His mother was a military strategist.

In 1515, the kingdom of Idah invaded Benin from the north. At the
same time, Esigie's brother Aruanran contested the throne. Esigie
was about to lose his kingdom on two fronts. Idia personally raised
an army, took command, marched north, defeated the Idah forces, then
turned south and helped her son crush the rebellion.

Her son created a permanent office — the Iyoba, Queen Mother — and
decreed that every Oba of Benin after him would have one. The office
still exists.

In 1897, the British looted Benin City and shipped over 5,000 royal
artifacts to Europe. The ivory mask of Queen Idia was among them.
Today it sits in the British Museum, labeled in English, as the face
of a queen who saved an empire that the empire holding her face later
destroyed.

#QueenIdia #BeninEmpire #Nigeria #AfricanQueens #BeninBronzes #shorts
#BlackHistory #AfricanHistory #UntoldHistory #Repatriation #IvoryMask
#WomenInHistory

Видео This African Queen Won a War So Big the Kingdom Made Her Title Mandatory Forever #shorts канала Throne of Empires