In This Biography

Idia Biography, History, Politics, and Timeline.

Who is Queen Idia?

Idia was the mother of Esigie, the Oba of Benin who ruled from 1504 to 1550. She played a significant role in the rise and reign of her son, is described as a great warrior who fought relentlessly before and during her son’s reign as the Oba (king) of the Edo people. Queen Idia was instrumental in securing the title of Oba for her son Esigie following the death of his father Oba Ozolua. To that end, she raised an army to fight off his brother Arhuaran who was supposed to be the Oba by right and tradition but was subsequently defeated in battle. Esige mother became the 17th Oba of Benin.

The Esigie and The Title of Iyoba

Esigie instituted the title of iyoba (queen mother) and conferred it on his mother, along with Eguae-Iyoba (Palace of the Queen Mother). Queen Idia became more popular when it was decided that her face should be used as a sculpture to represent a Nigerian Festival FESTAC 1977, that was how the face of the Queen Mother came into art till the present date. She was supposed to be killed after the then crowning of her son as the Oba, according to the then tradition but her son Esigie secretly took her to hide in a room which was to be entered by only those authorized to do so, he did this in order to protect her from being killed and it worked until he was able to make changes to the tradition which canceled that law after that Queen Idia returned freely to the palace and ruled together with her son helping him fight spiritually and physically over his enemies which helped him during look is reign as Oba, before she died, she trained her son’s wife in her ways so her departure would be met unnoticed, with this one might be able to say that she is a beautiful art to be studied.

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Victory over Igala people

Subsequently, the neighboring Igala people sent warriors across the Benue River to wrest control of Benin’s northern territories. Esigie conquered the Igala, reestablishing the unity and military strength of the kingdom. His mother Idia received much of the credit for these victories as her political counsel, together with her magical powers and medicinal knowledge, were viewed as critical elements of Esigie’s success on the battlefield.

Representations

Several artistic representations of Idia were looted from Benin City during the British Benin Expedition of 1897, and are now held in museums around the world. Alongside other Benin Bronzes, they have been the subject of calls for their repatriation.

A Queen Idia ivory mask held in the British Museum became the symbol of the Second World Black and African Festival of Art and Culture FESTAC held in Nigeria in 1977.

In Eddie Ugbomah‘s 1979 film The Mask, the Nigerian hero steals a Queen Idia mask back from the British Museum.

Benin ivory mask representing Idia, the court of Benin, 16th century (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
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Benin ivory mask representing Idia, the court of Benin, 16th century (British Museum, London)
Benin ivory mask, with coral beads, representing Idia, the court of Benin, 16th century (Linden Museum, Stuttgart)
Idia and The Benin Kingdom
The Benin Kingdom of old is not related to the Republic of Benin even if some of the peoples in the modern sovereign state are descendants of the Benin people who flourished between the 11th and 16th centuries on the west coast of Africa.The name of the ancient kingdom and the modern state is, however, of the same etymology – Ubinu meaning anger, and it was what the Yoruba actually called the Edo people. The latter is one of the largest non-Yoruba groups in southern Nigeria, possessing a state – Edo State – whose capital is Benin City. The Edo and Yoruba are not vastly different in linguistics and religions.
Ubinu was corrupted into Benin by the 15th century, at the zenith of the Edo people’s achievements. If there was one thing this great kingdom left us in contemporary times as a sign of how well they did for themselves, it would be the Benin bronzes, looted by the British at the beginning of the 19th century.

Famous among the works were the face masks which are thought to have been inspired by the face of Idia, the 15th-century queen mother of the Edo. Her son, Esigie, is reputed as the first West African monarch to establish international diplomatic relations with Europeans. But how did one woman come to be synonymous with a people’s craft and aesthetic conception?

Generally in the collection of looted Benin works, sculptures of women are rare, which makes the queen mother’s masks hard to miss. There are also very few of Idia’s face masks remaining in European and American museums. There is one at the New York Met Museum, another at Linden in Stuttgart, Germany while yet another sits in the care of the British Museum in London.
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It is thought that the masks would have been made in the 16th century at the request of Esigie. The monarch would have worn his mother’s masks as part of ritual purification as well as in remembrance of his mother. This would have been done at public ceremonies. It is also important to understand that until Esigie, this practice for a monarch to uphold their mother’s memory in public and in-state was not known among the Edo.

Esigie may have been paying his respects and encouraging new public morality but he also literally invited his people into reverence for his mother. The importance of the role of the queen’s mother began to be recognized during Esigie’s reign.

The historian Jacob Egharevba, an Edo himself, reckons that Idia’s irreducible role in fighting for the right of her son to be king after the death of her likely polygamous husband and king, Ozolua, is what Esigie seems to have rewarded. Overcoming palace intrigue in the death of a monarch was not easy then and would not be easy even now.

Another point to note is that the mask of the Iyoba (queen mother) is made of ivory, unlike the other works that are of bronze. That is not to say there are no Idia bronze works because there are. But in choosing to make the most famous artworks of his mother with ivory, Esigie chose whiteness, the connotation of purity.

Whiteness was also associated with Olokun, god of the sea, waters, and wealth. A careful inspection of the Idia masks shows the bearded faces of Portuguese men. It is understood that the Edo di believe that these foreigners who had come from beyond the Atlantic Ocean were at least, people who had the knowledge and gifts of Olokun.