The Benin Kingdom was a powerful state centered in what is now southern Nigeria. The kingdom was already a military and commercial power by the time the first Europeans arrived in the last quarter of the 15th century. Dutch visitors to Benin City in the 16th and 17th centuries were greatly impressed by the city. They described its broad, straight avenues, comparing them favorably to the narrow, crooked streets of Amsterdam, and they were dazzled by the architecture of the royal palace, with its formal gates, audience halls, and turrets topped with bronze birds and snakes. 

Today’s obas (kings) of Benin trace their origins to a dynasty that began in the 14th century. In the first years of his reign, each new oba commissions a brass memorial head to honor his predecessor. Like most Benin sculpture, the memorial heads are made using the lost-wax casting method.

Brass plaques cast in relief once decorated the pillars of the royal palace in Benin City. Hundreds of plaques and memorial heads were looted by British soldiers during the “punitive expedition” against Benin City in 1897. Known today as the “Benin Bronzes”, the continuing presence of these cultural objects in western museums (especially the British Museum) has been a source of controversy in recent decades. Web resources here and here. Videos here and here.

Plaque with equestrian oba and attendants. Court of Benin, Nigeria. Brass. Ca. 1540–70. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.