In the case of the practice of body tattooing called (Iwu) by the people of Benin Kingdom, the act survived until the 1940s when I gradually died out naturally. They can still be seen on very old people but are disappearing as the senior generation goes out.
The females are more adorned with these ornaments than the males. This act is performed by an Osiwu (“one who sculpts tattoos”) Osiwu also specializes in autopsies and circumcisions. Autopsies are performed when there is a need to determine the physical cause of death and remove it from the corpse lest it recur in a subsequent reincarnation with the same fatal consequences.
The people of Benin Kingdom or Edos as called by the outside world are still the few Africans that are custodian of the African and ancient culture, the Benins has an institution the cherish greatly and the head of that institution is the Oba of Benin, the Oba is the title given to the head of the Benin traditional institution, though some parts west Africa tends to use such designation, the only Oba that is enshrined is the Oba of Benin Kingdom, the institution was so great that it waged a war of resistance against the British at the height of the British strength in 1897
No comments:
Post a Comment