Ama is a pictorial combination of figures that has a historical explanation or is a visual representation of a historical event. Ama had a mnemonic purpose, aiding one to recall the events or persons represented in the artwork. Benin oral traditions are popularly transmitted in the form of commemorative festivals, stories, plays, songs, poems, riddles, proverbs and other forms of oral literature. Ben-Amos (1980:28) observed the existence of over nine hundred known plaques which provided a testimony to court life at the time of Ọba Esigie, considered ‘a sort of pictorial record of events in Benin history, an aid to memorizing oral traditions’.

Although the objects grouped here are singularly described as Ama in Edo, in English they are described as relief plaques or carved wooden panels.

European historical accounts and Edo oral tradition alike describe how the relief plaques decorated the walls or pillars of the Benin royal palace as a piece of monumental architecture. By 1897, when British forces captured, looted and burnt down the royal palace, the plaques were no longer on display, they had been placed in storage within the palace. Gunsch’s (2017

) most recent survey has indicated there are at least 850 plaques in collections globally. When exactly the plaques were made is source of debate – some have argued they were cast over a period of around 150 years from the mid-sixteenth to the end of the seventeenth century (Fagg, 1970

). Meanwhile, others have attributed their manufacture to a much narrower window of around fifty years from the end of fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth century (Gunsch, 2017

). Despite these differences, it is agreed that some plaques were commissioned by Ọba Esigie (who reigned c. 1516/17–1550s).

Relief Plaque

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The British Museum’s archives are held in various locations across the institution. The items listed here aim to give an overview of the main locations where relevant archival and photographic material relating to objects from the Kingdom of Benin is housed. Key areas relevant for cultural objects from the Kingdom of Benin are: Corporate Archives; Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas archives; Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory archives; and the Anthropology Library and Research Centre.

Website

Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas 

Online Catalogue

Library & Archive

British Museum

Internal Data (eng)

British Colonial Military Campaign on Benin, February 1897

Member of the British Colonial Military Campaign on Benin, February 1897

Wikidata Link

Heneker, William Charles Giffard

Soldier

Collected in the field

Rollin & Feuardent

Dealer

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