The Crossing.

Family was everything, I understood that right from the days before we crossed the rivers to the new lands south of us. How did we know where to go? The Edafes had been guided by Osanobulah, so we trusted their leadership. We began the preparation to move, two new yam seasons before and I was not yet with child. The plan was to get to new lands before the next yam season.

Crossing was difficult, we didn't have much possessions, but we had enemies. Other tribes, wrongly assumed that we were bloodthirsty, so they were always on the offensive. Osanobulah gave us the wisdom of Iron, but we knew there was a huge price to pay.

My son was kidnapped right at the river, I quickly went into a trance. The Edion of my clan halted the party, no one was going to cross the river without the child. In my trance, I saw a picture of what my son could become, a fierce warrior who would one day bring the demise of the Uneme, if allowed to live amongst the other tribe. At the end of it, I was shown how this was to be prevented, We had to cross the river without him. No one could understand that command but the Edafe and Edions confirmed it, after days consulting Osanobulah.

As I sit in my house surrounded by my sons and daughters, I remember the days of old. My son who was kidnapped now an Elder of the clan. Family is everything, but even more importantly, it is Osanobulah who holds family together.

Socio-Political Culture before c.1370 A.D : Family

After the founding of Benin City by the Bini in about 900 A.D. The Uneme migrated there from the Niger-Benue Confluence area, bringing along their culture which was adapted to the Benin Environment. This post will be focused on the nature and structure of family.

Amongst the Uneme, the family is everything, while the individual is nothing irrespective of the power, influence and wealth that he or she may have acquired. When one is born into a family, nothing can change him or her from belonging to that family, not even death. This is because the spirit of the departed member of every family was believed to have evolved a way of returning to the family through the process of reincarnation

Clearly, the Uneme viewed Family as the foundation of society and culture. They regarded the family as the microcosm of both their macrosociety and culture. The main structure of the Uneme indigenous family system is classified into three main sub-structures

1. The conjugal-family

2. The nuclear-family

3. The extended-family

The conjugal family consisted of just the Husband and the Wife, While the nuclear includes children and extended includes all other relatives. Certain features differentiated the Uneme culturally and include the fact that;

• The membership of every Uneme family in Benin consisted of men, women and children united by bonds of marriage, blood or adoption.
• These various members of each Uneme family in Benin lived together under one roof, and thus continued as they had done in previous settlements, to constitute one corporate household.
• They usually communicated and sustained inter-personal interactions, through their various sociopolitical and techno-economic activities and related functions, which they performed daily in their diverse capacities, as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, e.t.c
• They also sustained and continued to develop such ties, through their common Uneme language, and other shared cultural values, including their indigenous religious beliefs and allied traditions and practices.

Every family in the Uneme community had the task of collectively moulding the character of its members right from their youth through adolescence up to maturity. One of the ways by which this was achieved had been through the inculcation in each member of the positive ethical values and traditions not only of the diverse conjugal and nuclear family units but also of the entire Uneme society. Notable amongst the Uneme ethical values are those relating to;

• Belief in the existence of the Supreme Being, Osanobula(h)
• Loyalty to, and absolute respect for the Edafe and Edion (heads of the various Uneme family lineages, compounds, quarters, kindreds, villages and clans )
• Respect for the laws, customs and traditions of neighbouring communities
• Confidence in self, in the entire Uneme society
• Honesty of purpose
• Self-discipline and control
• Tolerance and hardwork
• Adherence to the practice of being one's brother's keeper
• Responding positively and timely, to all Uneme communal duties and responsibilities
• Commitment to the progress, development, protection and well-being of Uneme society and culture
• Participation in all major festivals, rites, rituals and ceremonies, which are adapted to and developed by the Uneme people in Benin during the period.
• Strict adherence to the oath of confidentiality, which the Uneme people had taken (before their settling in Benin), not to divulge to non-Uneme people, the secret of the success of their indigenous iron technology.