Edo people

The Edo (Benin people) speak an Edoid language in southern Nigeria and descend from the Ogiso founders of the Benin Kingdom. Under the Oba dynasty from Ewuare the Great around 1440, Benin City grew behind great earth walls into a palace civilisation of bronze heads, ivory masks and guild quarters, trading pepper and cloth with the Portuguese from 1485, who corrupted Ubini into Benin. Esan, Etsako, Isoko, Owan and Urhobo neighbours all trace origins to Benin town. The 1897 British expedition looted the bronzes that fill Western museums and exiled the Oba, but the kingship was restored and reigns still from the same palace. Coral-bead regalia, the Igue festival and the bronze-casters street keep Edo court art alive, while Benin bronzes' return litigation moves through European courts. Ewuare's coral beads still crown every Oba at coronation, Esan and Urhobo neighbours still trace their kings to Benin town, and Ivie coral is cut only for royalty.