Benin’s ancient moat wall turned dumpsite

In this piece, HENDRIX OLIOMOGBE reports stakeholders’ worry over the state of the ancient Benin moat and wall, and efforts to revamp the heritage so as to gain global tourist appeal.

Zigzagging around Benin City, the aged monuments that are found in the Edo capital like the ancient moat are classified among the world’s largest ancient earthworks and are comparable to the Great Wall of China, Great Zimbabwe and the Coliseum in Rome. They cover several thousands of kilometres in land space, and a depth of several metres. Dug in stages during the times of Oba Oguola and Ewuare the Great, some 700 years ago, the Benin moat and wall today face extinction unless something urgent is done by stakeholders.

Originally constructed by Oba Oguola who built the inner ring in the 13th century for defensive purposes, the outer ring of the moat and wall were built by Oba Ewuare in the 15th century to stop people from fleeing the kingdom. The massive earth walls and deep moat, which were built by local ingenious engineers with available local materials were supposed to be Africa’s version of the Great Wall of China.

The monuments, which surrounded the old Benin Empire, were kept very clean in those days. It was a taboo to dump refuse inside the moat or around the vicinity.

However today, the original locations of the moats and walls are either hardly noticeable nowadays or excessively degraded in many areas due to sand excavation, refuse dumping, road construction, illegal building, encroachment, soil erosion which creates deep gullies, years of local agricultural activities, long period of sand deposit and conversion into urban drainage channels.

Mr. Osaze Uyi, a resident, says he feels broken each time he walks past the magnificent wall and extensive moat.  Uyi, now 85, lives at Iya-Ero neighbourhood of Benin. He confessed how, as a small boy, he contributed to the violation of the moat without realising the implications. Huge volume of sand was excavated from the wall to build his father’s house in the 50’s.

On June 1, 1967, the inner and outer city walls, some of which were surveyed and mapped, were proclaimed national monuments by the Federal Government with the following citations: “These are the highest points; the walls are 30 feet high and the ditch (moat), 30 feet deep.”

The curator of the Benin Museum, Mr. Theophilus Umogbai, explained that the ‘iya’ or moat consists of inner and outer sections intersected by gates marked up to 1950, with visible signs at the point of entry to Benin.

There are earthworks surrounding Benin villages. Ekhor on the Benin-Agbor Expressway and Udo have for a long time been both under the consideration of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), as part of the two Great Benin civilisations for the World Heritage citation.

The curator lamented that from the citation in the 1967 gazette, it was obvious that the city walls were already being encroached upon by the time they were declared a national property. The proclamation of the ancient walls as national monuments were meant, among other things, to check further excavations, encroachment and desecration and also, a recognition of the walls and moats as unique relics of the ancient Benin civilisation.

But Umogbai stated that at present, significant portions of the great heritage have been destroyed by urban expansion owing to increased socio-economic anddemographic activities.

He said: “The residents living near the moat are also owners and not only Benin people. Maintenance includes preventive conservation. Those living within the precinct should attempt to stop those who excavate sand from the wall and those who dump refuse into the moat. They should report to the museum which will in turn go to the police and the Oba of Benin.”

For Nnimmo Bassey, a former Director of the Environmental Rights Action (ERA), “The ancient walls must be recognised for what they are — great works of ingenious men who had a very high sense of engineering. These local engineers worked with available local materials and building techniques to achieve a purpose which was at the same time cultural and practical. The massive earth walls were backed by deep moats and are supposed to be Africa’s version of the Chinese Great Wall, a tourist honey spot, a potential money spinner.”

The incumbent executive director of ERA, Dr. Uyi Ojo, agreed with Bassey, stating that the landmark project was principally set up as a defensive mechanism, but it is sad to see that it has degenerated into a refuse dump and in other cases, a place where flood is channeled into — an act that further degrades its value.

Going back in time, Mr. Braimoh Isu, a former Education Officer at the Edo State Ministry of Education however, traced the encroachment on the heritage right to when it was constructed, insisting that the degradation is as old as the walls itself.

He said: “The moats just after they were dug were said to have been converted to dumping of sacrificial victims, worn out artefacts of various types and the performance of rituals. This practice could be referred to as the beginning of the moats’ encroachment. In fact, we have almost lost a valuable treasure which is almost irredeemable. Today, modern man and his western civilisation and technological development have eroded the conceptual environmental culture of the people, unlike in times past, when it was a taboo to build any structure close to the walls and moats. It was then a traditional way of conserving the walls and the moats for posterity.”

A former director general of the Nigeria Tourism Board and co-ordinator of the Nigeria World Heritage Programme, Dr. Joseph Eboreime, argued that since cultural tourism is the bedrock of international tourism, for a start, the state government should integrate cultural assets and material resources of the people into the future social and economic objectives at local and state levels.

For Ojo, if the entire project cannot be recovered, some portion of it, for posterity sake, ought to, at least, be protected and modernised.

He said: “I think the moat is almost like the Italian Coliseum which was a sports centre in those days but is presently being used as a means of attracting tourists. I strongly believe that if the moat is given a facelift and modernised, it can also serve as a tourist attraction that will make people visit Benin City from all over the world.”

Ojo tasked the government on the need to create the right atmosphere by putting a plan in place to encourage investors through public private partnership. The environmentalist continued: “A study should be done to determine whether it is the houses or the law that came first. That is significant. People that built their houses on the fringes of the moat can also be relocated by the government or paid compensation.

“All stakeholders should be involved in the restoration. To those who litter the moat, they should know that it is not a dumping ground. The local government should ensure that it is protected while the government creates a business atmosphere for entrepreneurs to be involved.

“Cleaning up the moat will take a lot of political will, resources and a re-orientation of the consciousness of the people that the moat is not just a pit but a legacy of the historical Great Benin Kingdom and so should be preserved.”

Isu, the educationist, advised that people should bear in mind that only development, which is environmentally sound, could also be socio-economically sustainable; and that human development and environmental conservation must be integrated for a society to be sustainable.

He maintained that checking this menace will involve the introduction of environmental education to the school curriculum through interdisciplinary approach and the formation of environmental conservation groups, since the degraded monuments are aspects of environmental problems.

For Umogbai, the curator, there should be penalties for violators as the law says nobody should build a house too close to the moat.

Sighing deeply, he concluded: “I guess the monument would be totally lost in a few years’ time, if something urgent is not done. The government, the Benin monarchy and the people must do something about this.”

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