Georgius the Peasant

Benin, its religion, and its end

Monday, 3. August 2009, 16:06:05

politics, doomed optimism, people, expectations, religion, quote of the day, conspiracy-theories

Accounts of religion in Benin are vague, but the Bini apparently believed in a supreme god who created and ruled the earth; they considered it useless to worship him, however, since he was already benevolent. Instead, they worshiped numerous lesser gods, who they felt could mediate for them with the supreme god. The human sacrifices were offered not to the gods, but to the devil, whom the Bini blamed for all their misfortunes. Victims rarely struggled; some actually assisted the executioner, and a few even volunteered to be sacrificed - powerful proof of the intensity of their religion.

[...]

After the Europeans arrived, the slave trade mushroomed; farming and commerce were slighted and the economy - inevitably - started to collapse. The Oba [king], believing his bad fortune was the work of the devil, ordered more and more human sacrifices to turn the tide. But by 1897 the disintegration was complete; that year a British force found the city of Benin all but deserted and littered with the bodies of sacrificial victims. After four centuries of greatness, Benin had finally passed into history.

- Basil Davidson
in African Kingdoms, page 112 & 118.

Dexter, season 1Modern readers and their accursed short attention span!

Comments

Loki Aesir # 3. August 2009, 16:09

Now, in all fairness, when I tried to check this up with a more modern source (the book was written in 1966) I did, of course, go to Wikipedia. Nowhere there is there mention or neither the Bini religion or the sacrifices Davidson makes such a big deal out of - and Davidson has a very clear pro-Africa bias, so he wouldn't make it up - so I'm wondering if Davidson's sources on this might be skewed.

Of course, it could also be that nobody's bothered to add any information on Bini religion to the wiki-page, or that someone who took offense to the talk of human sacrifice has removed any mentions. But I figured I should add this caveat before anyone starts treating my quote as the gospel.

That said, it's a lovely quote, innit?

Leevi # 3. August 2009, 20:59

Wow, just lovely.

At first it sounds like a pretty good religion. The sort of religion that keeps the riff-raff in control, "religion is the opiate of the masses" kind of thing.

King says: Yes, there's a god, but no need to worship or pay any attention to it in anyway. Now stop asking silly questions and go back to work, oh and god sees all™, so don't do anything illegal.

I wonder how long it took to evolve from that to human sacrificing nutjob religion.

Better to avoid all the churches, cults and whatnots.

Loki Aesir # 3. August 2009, 21:29

Well, they DID sacrifice humans to the devil, who does mean things, so he'll, you know, not. Not to the gods. But I see your point.

Anonymous # 4. August 2009, 12:58

Ole writes:

Heh, talk about vicious cycle. Working age population lost to slave-trade, economy declines, working age population sacrificed to the devil so economy would stop decline, economy continues to decline. Repeat until collapse.

Loki Aesir # 4. August 2009, 15:46

Indeed it is! I can just picture their poor king growing more and more desperate, sacrificing more and more people...