Welcome nairalands, today i will sharing an amazing story of one of Africa's greatest

OBA EWAURE: THE African King who Conquered 201 villages.



Among The Great Civilisations of the African People.

The Majestic And Rich HERITAGE OF the Great Benin Empire seats at the pinnacle.

And within this great Kindgom, Many powerful and renowned Rulers have emerged.

But among them, OBA EWAURE The Great Shines Brightest in Valour, in Conquest and in Might.

Follow me in this video to learn about
How He became such a great name in african and world history.

How His throne was Ursurped , how he was banished into the wilderness to live as a vagabon.
And find out
How he won back his throne,
What was the story of those who helped him return back to his righful place On the Throne of Benin Kingdom



At the time when OBA EWAURE was born he was known by another name.

Ogun, Prince Ogun.

He was born to Oba Ohen of Benin kingdom, his father was said to be crippled and was known to be very insecure about his condition.


Prince Ogun was a warrior, a mystic and an adventurer from when he was young and always wanted to change the fortune of benin kingdom,

he felt the old ways of administration needed to be changed,

But this placed him at odds with the UZAMAS

the great chiefs of benin who ruled alongside the Oba as subordinates but most times they overstepped their boundaries.

Prince Ogun had a younger Brother Called Prince UWA-FiOkun, we will called him UWA for short.

one day, Prince Ogun took his younger brother on a journey, he normally went on long trips like this ,to meditate and connect with the powers of nature.

And while he was away, a great tragedy occured at the palace.

OBa Ohen had ordered that the IYASE who is the second in command to the Oba and head of the UzAma should be executed,

Why?
Because OBa Ohen claimed that he spied on his deformity while he was in his chambers

This angered the chiefs who dragged the crippled oba to the palace courtyard and had him stoned to death.

Somehow the news got to prince Ogun who could not believe that his father was dead, he sent his younger brother to find out the validity of the news.

But when UWA got to benin he was welcomed with pomp and pagentry, the whole kingdom was happy that atleast a prince was around, because it is a bad omen for the throne to be left empty for too long,

When Uwa was asked about his elder brother's whereabout, he claimed that he did not know and as such UWA was crowned king immediately.


When Ogun heard this, he gathered the troops that where with him to retake the throne that is righfully his.

But he did not realized that he would be meeting the force of a newly crowned Oba,

His attack was defeated and all his supporters where killed and disbanded,
Ogun escaped into the house of a Chief who he believed was loyal to him.


The chief hid him in a well which was in his compound and orderd a slave named Edo to take care of the prince.
Letting food like roasted plaintain and water into the well.

But somehow, someone saw the prince enter the chief's compound and soon he was summoned,by Oba Uwa.

The chief who was in fear , tried to save him self by claiming he hid the prince in the well in order to trap him.
He decided to take the kings guards to the well,

But his slave saw this, and on his own decided to save the prince.

He went to the well and let down the ladder allowing Prince Ogun to escape.

When the chief arrived he decided to punish Edo, his slave for acting on his own judgement and saving prince Ogun.

Edo was hanged for his crime and Ogun promised that should he be king he would rename benin Kindgom in honour of this slave who sacrificed his life to save him.


Seeing the danger in the kingdom, prince Ogun escaped into the thick forest and began to live as a vagabon and wanderer.

While in the Forest,
Prince Ogun experienced so many challenges,

Once he slept under a tree only to find blood dripping upon him, he woke up to see a leopard on top of the tree, the leopard had just killed a prey and
To defend himself, Ogun took his spear which he still had with him and killed the leopard.


At another time, Ogun found himself asleep again, he was awoken when it seemed like the ground he slept upon began to move, that was when he realized he had slept on a huge python which was asleep, again he took his spear and slayed the python.

Ogun's wandering continued and he began to lose hope until

One day he was scavenging inside the bush and saw a woman gathering leaves,
He hid because he was not sure of her stance, suddenly she hit her foot on a rock and exclaimed

"Pain every were, Prince Ogun has been unjustly deprived from the throne,now the gods are punishing us with calamity"!.

With this Ogun emerged from the bushes and revealed himself to her, she swore her loyalty to help him and she indeed ensured his goal was achieved.

Her name was Emotan a widowed whose house was at the center of benin,
Her hut became the hiding point for prince Ogun whenever he came to spy on benin, to see who and who does not support his claim

And it turned out that a lot of the commom people supported his claim to the throne, but the chiefs and high borns who had skeletons in their closets favoured his younger brother, because they knew the fury of Ogun would consume them if he becomes the Oba.

One day OGUN was wandering through the forest almost hopeless when he heard a farmer calling on his young son
The famer called out "EWAURE"
This name gave prince Ogun hope because it meant
"The trouble has ceased"

This spoke into his situation and he went to the farmer to ask for the permission to buy the name.

How this went is a story for another day, but what we need to know is that Ogun Eventually bought the name for himself.

He was also directed by the forest spirit to meet an Ifa priest known as OKAEhi

Who told Prince Ogun that the only way to get back his throne was to place a scarifice or offering at the palace gate everynight and lament the injustice done to him.

Ogun would do this everynight and escape just before he gets caught,

The matter was reported to the king and he suspected that the strange offerings where being placed by his banished brother who has returned,

His guards dismissed this but when the action continued, Oba Uwa decided to go himself and lay ambush on his brother.

And on one faithful night, Oba uwa and a few guards hid close to the palace gate waiting for prince Ogun, and at midnight Ogun arrived as usual.

Before he began to speak, UWA and his guards came out and began to chase him,

Uwa ran ahead of his guard to catch Ogun and when Ogun realized this he, while still running, he plucked out a bambo branch and slammed it against Uwa's head and escaped when the guards

Stopped to attend to the injured king,
He died soon after, of his head injuries.

When Ogun heard this he again sneaked into benin, staying at Emotans hut to hear what the benin people thought.

But again there was a divide, the people wanted prince Ogun who was the rightful heir to be crowned,
But the chiefs rejected him and wanted the throne for themselves.

When Ogun saw this, he took a stick,,lighted it on fire and set out to burn benin to the ground.

He set the thatched roofs on fire and burnt a large part of the city and palace, before one of the chiefs came out to beg for his forgiveness and submit to his claim.


After Prince Ogun was Crowned

He took the Regnal name Of Ewaure

He came to be known as Ewaure no Ogidigan which translates to Ewaure the Great or the One that Shocks

Because as a great ruler he expanded benin kingdom into the large empire conquering 201 territories

He was the first Oba to come in contact with Europeans,

To reward those who helped he made the death place of Emotan sacred because she died few years after he was crowned


Okahe was made head of the mystic. In benin Kindgom

While The entire kingdom of Ubini was renamed Edo in honour of the boy slave who sacrificed his life to save OBA Ewaure.

Because of his great and Mighty Exploits

OBa Ewaure was Nicknamed Ogidigan which directly means the GREAT.

BUT In a deeper explaination it means The One That SHOCKS with his Wonders.

To get the full content of his grandure click the link below to get more interesting contents on my youtube channel pls, don't forget to like and suscribe.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU_a-vEHi5k?si=33nKpxwFDJsw7Ort

Oba Ewuare I's reign was phenomenal. He was an exceptional reformer and administrator.

Sadly, we don't study reforms by African kings as Europeans were at the tail end of Middle Ages.

We can learn a thing or two from them.

AreaFada2:
Oba Ewuare I's reign was phenomenal. He was an exceptional reformer and administrator.

Sadly, we don't study reforms by African kings as Europeans were at the tail end of Middle Ages.

We can learn a thing or two from them.

Exactly, our African history is filled by the deeds of our great ancestors its too sad that not enough work is put into researching and studying their lives..

Thanks for your Remark
Oba Ewuare was indeed a great warrior and brilliant administratorb