Which Civilisation Is Older: Ife or Benin? I have been inundated with requests from Yorubas and Binis to step in and resolve the controversy of who are the older culture. If we go by available documentary evidence, the Ife Bronzes are at least 200 years older than the Benin Bronzes, maybe more. Now, this does not automatically mean that Ile Ife is an earlier civilisation. However, the Bronzes make a very persuasive argument that they are. They depict Ooni after Ooni after Ooni, which indicates the continuity of central government. I must add that in response to this, the Binis posit that the Ife Bronzes are, in fact, Bini Bronzes taken to Ife by their prince Ekaladheran, who was accompanied by the Igun sculptors, who always followed Bini royalty anywhere they went. I want to believe their story, being that I am Itsekiri, and we are strongly related to the Binis. But my intellect is telling me that if this was true, then at least archaeologists ought to have found older bronzes in Benin. But let me add that the Igun Eromwon is still available in Benin City today and it predates some say they predate Oduduwa. Igun Eromwon is the guild of bronze casters. Their quarters is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And if you consider linguistics, there is obviously consanguinity between the Edekiri Lukumi Omoluabi language, now known as Yoruba, and Bini. For example, mother in Yoruba is Iya, and Iye in Edo language. But among some Yoruba, mother is Yeye. Child is omo in Yoruba and omo in Bini. Plantain is ogede in Yoruba, and oghede in Bini. There is another possibility which many Yoruba and Binis have not considered. The Yoruba and Bini people may have separate origins, but it is strongly possible that the Ile Ife and Benin royalty are of the same origin. We ought to understand that in many, if not most cases worldwide, the origins of a people are different from that of their royal family. A Fabius example would be the British Royal Family, which is actually of German descent. A lesser known example would be the Itsekiris and the Binis. The Itsekiri people are actually a mixture of various Edekiri Lukumi Omoluabi, especially ancient Ijebu and Ilaje people. But their royal family, of which my direct ancestors are an offshoot, are purely of Boni stock. What happened is that about 600 years ago, two of the wives of an Oba of Benin gave birth on the same day. One was moved by her maternal instincts to clean up her baby, while the other had her baby, allegedly later, and immediately took him and presented him to the Oba, who pronounced him as the Edaiken, or heir apparent and next in line to the throne. By the time the other wife came, the Oba had already pronounced her rival's child Edaiken. There was a crisis of confidence, and the Oba said not that he did not believe her that her child was first, but what had come out of his mouth as King could not be reversed. As a consolation, he created the other child as the Ogie (lord) of the Ame (sea) and lands in the area they had conquered, which was called Iwere. That is why our king is called Ogiame, a conjunction of Ogie and Ame, meaning lord of the waters. In the same vein, there might have been a similar succession crisis in Ile Ife, and since there cannot be two kings in a kingdom, one of the claimants to the throne may have been eased out and told to go to Benin as king. There is no evidence of the assertion in the paragraph immediately above. It is merely speculation and conjecture. The truth is that I do not know which civilisation came first. But if I were asked to give an informed guess (guess, not fact), I would say they have one origin. Just like the Tigray and Amhara formed out of Ge'ez speaking people, they were formed out of a common ancestor and, by migration, were separated in antiquity. But again, let me state that this is apocrypha, not factual history. Reno Omokri   Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #TableShaker. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction