WHILE lovers across the world were busy celebrating St. Valentine’s Day penultimate Monday, a group in Benin-City, ‘Great Benin Descendants’, used the occasion to remember Queen (Oloi) Iden who, out of love for her husband, Oba Ewuakpe, and the Benin nation, offered herself to be sacrificed for peace to reign in the ancient kingdom.
Queen Iden was said to be an epitome of love, beauty, courage, support and faithfulness.
She was born in Oka village in the present Upper Sakponba Road in Benin
At the time she offered herself as the sacrificial lamb for peace to reign in Benin, she was said to have been married for only four years and had no child. She died at the age of 27.
She was one of the wives of Prince Idova who was crowned Oba Ewuakpe, the 26th Oba of Benin who reigned for 12 years from1700 to 1712.
Trouble for the young Oba was said to have stated shortly after his coronation when the people rebelled against him.
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The chiefs would not attend meetings in his palace neither would they provide him with food or supply labour for the upkeep of the palace. He was said to have remained in this condition with Queen Iden for a long time as his other queens deserted him.
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What further turned the Benin people against Oba Ewuakpe was the way he handled the death of his mother, Ewebonoza.
When she died, the Oba was deep in grief and had many people killed in the funeral obsequies.
The chiefs and the people left him, went to the palace and seized the royal property, opened the doors of the harem for his queens to go to their homes.
Even, his sword bearers were set free.
When he returned to the palace, he met it empty.
Only Queen Iden remained in the harem as she refused go as the other queens of the Oba.
Oba Ewuakpe remained with Oloi Iden in this condition for a long time until he was advised by the oracle to offer a human sacrifice to the gods among other things he was told to do.
Iden encouraged him to act according to the advice of the oracle and then offered herself to be the sacrificial lamb.
Before she was buried alive near the Oba market, she warned her husband that he must let no dirt remain on her grave and anyone who stepped on it must be killed on the spot.
The morning after the sacrifice, the rebellious chiefs, led by the Esogban, paid homage to the Oba and made handsome presents to him just as peace and harmony returned to the kingdom.
Meanwhile, the Great Benin Descendants (GBD) has called on Edo State government to immortalise Queen Iden by naming one of the public institutions in the state after her.
President of the group, Mr Izoduwa Marvis, during the remembrance ceremony, said Queen Iden symbolizes love, faithfulness and sacrifice, saying her sacrifice for the Benin nation should not be forgotten.
“Idia is great, Emotan is great, but Iden is the greatest, and that is why we are calling on Edo State government to first declare a public holiday in her honour.
“Secondly, we want Edo State government to name a public institution after her, whether a university or college of education”, he said.
“We are here at her grave site, she came from Oka, Upper Sakponba in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of the state.
“That is why we started the procession from her own town to her grave site.
“To be very sincere, no one knows the date she was born or the day she was sacrificed.
“But Valentine celebration is a colonial ideology.
“And we want to use a superior ideology of a woman who sacrificed herself for love to wipe out an immoral ideology of Saint Valentine, which is 14th February. “We are hoping in the next couple of years that the Queen Iden Day will take over the idea of Saint Valentine.
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