Some Prominent Ogiso Who Ruled Benin Kingdom

We had thirty-one Ogiso kings who ruled in the early times until 1100 – the first was Ogiso Igodo and the last was Ogiso Owodo. In this interview, Chief Ero talks about the contributions of Ogiso Igodo in the evolution of monarchical institutions and how Ogiso Ẹrẹ transformed the land after he succeeded Ogiso Igodo. Chief Ero mentioned the innovations brought by the monarchical leadership following the Ogiso Ẹrẹ’s introduction of Agba (the royal stool), Agba (the drum for summoning the people), Ẹkete (throne), Ada and Ẹben (sword and scimitar), and so forth. Chief Ero also narrates how Ogiso Origba successfully unified Ubini, Udo and all the towns and villages through wars of conquest and expansion to bring these places under the effective control of Ubini (Benin Kingdom). Among the prominent Ogiso kings are also Ogiso Arigho and Ogiso Obioye. According to Chief Ero, there was inflation during the reign of Ogiso Obioye, and Ogiso Arigho was able to introduce economic measures that restored normalcy, particularly his monetary policy of double payment. Hence, when someone bought an item for ten cowries under Arigho he was required to drop an extra ten cowries, while during Ogiso Obioye production of consumable goods was low. When Arigho succeeded Obioye, he encouraged people to engage in farming, and collected double for every cowrie spent to reduce the money in circulation.