Ewuare the Great
Mortal-tier 12th Oba of Benin (~1440-1473 CE per Egharevba 1968). Birth-name Prince Ogun; assumed the regnal name Ewuare ("the trouble has ceased") after the vengeance-restoration ending the Uwaifiokun usurpation. The canonical "Great" Oba of the Eweka dynasty: extended the Iya moat system by ~3,200 km (bringing the total to ~16,000 km, the largest single archaeological earthwork in human history per Patrick Darling 1984); constructed the inner city walls; founded the Onwina and Igbesanmwan craft-guilds that produced the canonical Benin bronzes; first European contact with the Portuguese ~1472 CE produced the Duarte Pacheco Pereira (c.1505) and Olfert Dapper (1668) accounts that called Benin City "larger and more beautiful than any European town."
Children
Powers
- monumental construction
- urban administration
- Command fire
- Summon spirits and heal by charms
Epithets
- Ewuare 'the trouble/anger has ceased' (regnal name)Egharevba, A Short History of Benin (1968) (secondary)
Relations
- sibling: UwaifiokunEgharevba (1968) (secondary)
- killer of: UwaifiokunKilled his usurper-brother in the vengeance-restoration that produced his accession ~1440 CE.Egharevba (1968) (secondary)
- father of: OzoluaEgharevba (1968) (secondary)
- ally: EmotanReciprocal of emotan.ally — Benin market-woman who protected and aided the exiled prince who became Ewuare the Great; later deified by his decree. Benefactor, not kin.Egharevba, A Short History of Benin (1968), on Emotan aiding the exiled Prince Ogun (Ewuare) (secondary)
Sources
- existence: Egharevba, A Short History of Benin (1968) (secondary); Bradbury (1957) (secondary); Connah, The Archaeology of Benin (1975) (secondary); Darling, Archaeology and history in Nigeria (1984) (secondary); Ryder, Benin and the Europeans (1969) (secondary); Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis (c.1505) — earliest European description (primary); Olfert Dapper, Description of Africa (1668) — the canonical 17th-century European account (primary); Benin moat archaeological survey; British Museum + Met Museum Benin Bronze collections (primary)