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| Oba Ewuare II, 40th Oba of Benin kingdom |
(By Femke van Zeijl) - A wooden
staff thumps on the landing in front of the temporary palace. "Long live
the king!" bellows Chief Osa, as he raises his fist. The sun reflects off
the golden decorations on his horn-shaped red hat.
The other Iwebo chiefs who have followed Osa in a procession
onto the palace grounds and now stand behind him say "Isee" in
agreement.
Then Osa and Chief Osuan, the crown prince's escorts on his way
to the ascension, enter Usama palace, a nondescript bungalow on fallow terrain
in the centre of town.
It is 8am and it will be at least seven hours until Crown Prince Eheneden
Erediauwa shows himself in public, but his subjects have already come out
in great numbers. Thick crowds clog the roads in the heart of Benin City in the
south of Nigeria, in expectation of the coronation of the new Oba of the
centuries-old Benin Kingdom.
Banners
with the crown prince's portrait and flags with his name fluttered all over the
city, the pavements received a new daub of black and white paint and the lawns
in front of the cultural centre were trimmed. It didn't matter which local
radio or TV station you tuned into, all of their bulletins started with what
the crown prince had been up to that day on his way to the throne.
"The
Oba is a father to all of us," says 24-year-old student of mass communication
Esosa, who left home at 5am on coronation day to get a good view of the
proceedings.
