Topic summary
Akengbuda
Akengbuda was the thirtieth Oba ('king') of the Kingdom of Benin whose reign is generally dated from about 1750 until about 1804. His personal name was Ogiomo, and he was the eldest son of ObaEresoyen. His reign followed a period of earlier civil conflict and is associated with renewed political stability, economic recovery, active commerce at Ughoton, and continued development of Benin court art, including bronze Iyoba ('queen mother') heads and carved ancestral ivories. Akengbuda maintained the Edaiken ('crown prince') succession system and is remembered as the last Oba to carry out yomo y'isi while still alive. European visitors, including Jean-François Landolphe, encountered Benin during his reign and described a peaceful and wealthy kingdom, while later scholarship uses these accounts to support the chronology of the late eighteenth-century monarchy.
Akengbuda's reign included the Oboro-Uku campaign, which followed the killing of Adesua, the daughter of the Ezomo who had been betrothed to the Oba. The campaign ended with the capture of Oboro-Uku and the death of its Obi ('ruler'), but it was followed by the rebellion of Emokpaogbe, the Agbohidi of Ugo village, who was later defeated by the Oba's warriors. He drowned in the Jamieson or Igbaghon river before the Oba's warriors could capture him. Akengbuda lived to an advanced age and was succeeded by his son Osifo, who took the regnal nameObanosa; later traditions also link his reign to regional appointments, the Ekpo cult, royal marriage customs, and the dating of important Benin artworks.