The Uneme Age-grades before c.1370 A.D (I)

The term, ''Age-grade'' also known as age group may be defined as a system by which persons of relatively the same ages are selected and graded into a group. In essence, the main cultural parameter used for this form of grading is the chronological or biological ages of the persons concerned. In Uneme-Nekhua however, while the founding age groupings might have been based on this mode of grading., the process of selecting members of subsequent age groupings is based on grouping of the first sons of every wife of members of the same age grade into one age grade while the next set of sons are grouped into the next lower grade, the same happens to daughters of women in the same age grade.

It is important to note that this mode of grading cuts across sex, involving both Uneme men and women. This was a common feature of the sociopolitical culture of all Uneme Villages and Clans in Benin City during this period. This age-grade system was also a practice of other ‘Edoid’ communities and various other ethnic and sub-ethnic groups in Nigeria in the pre-colonial periods.

The Uneme people were able to revive and adapt this vital aspect of their culture which they had brought from their Edoid homeland in the Niger-Benue confluence to their new places of settlement in ancient Benin along with most of their pre-existing settlement patterns. They resuscitated this age-grade system and encouraged it to blossom in their emergent places of settlement before c.1370 A.D thus influencing surrounding communities.

The main reason for the retention and development of their age-grades system in Benin stemmed from the great value and importance, which they had continued to attach to this major institution in their socio-political culture. Other reasons concern the fact that the age-grades had continued amongst others to;

1. Allow for a much easier differentiation of the elders from the youths or children in each of the indigenous Uneme communities in Benin at the time;
2. Promote solidarity and the unity of members of each of the sets of the age-grades, through regular socio-political and allied cultural interactions between the members, especially as expressed in their constant inter-personal relations, official meetings, exchange of idea and experiences, and collectively solving certain problems common to the age-sets or to the entire Uneme community
3. Enable the heads of the various Uneme villages and clans in Benin at the time to know the numbers of the different sets of the age-grades existing at every given period in each of their communities, thus easing the problems of general identification, recognition, delegation and distribution of communal roles and duties among the diverse sets of the age-grades for the advancement and progress of the Uneme society; and
4. Encourage the grooming and graduation of new age sets to take on leadership responsibilities, after the passing away of the older sets, thus ensuring that no gap existed in the leadership and hierarchies in each of the component Uneme communities

Structure of Uneme Quarters, Kindreds, Villages and Clans before c.1370 A.D

Quarters - A quarter may be defined as a part of a village or town inhabited by a series of extended-families that derived their descent from a common great grandfather, who was related to the founder or leader of the kindred in which that quarter and others had emerged since their rise and development in the village or town.

Each of the component Uneme quarters in Benin was headed by its oldest man referred to as Odafe. He was accorded full honors and respects not only by the Edafe (heads of various extended families that make up the quarter), but also by the leaders of the numerous conjugal and nuclear-family lineages and their wives, children, brothers, sisters, e.t.c

Kindreds – Mr Hugo F. Marshall, one of the early colonial district officers, who had served in the Benin province during British Rule in Nigeria attempted to define the Kindred from his point of view.

It is difficult to give a definition of the Kindred, as it is merely a smaller edition of a village, and there is no hard and fast line by which a kindred can be distinguished from a village. The original distinction was probably geographical. As the original kindred which formed the village grew, there was a tendency for some families to move off and make a fresh settlement. They still regarded themselves as part of the original kindred, but in the course of time, they became a separate kindred but remained members of the same village.

The descriptive analysis of Mr Masrshall perfectly fits into the Uneme's conception of this vital component of their indigenous sociopolitical culture in this period highlighted in the header. Each of the Uneme kindreds in Benin was made up of several quarters whose early leaders had descended from a common ancestor. Like the Uneme extended-family units and quarters, each of their kindreds in Benin, was headed by the Odafe, who symbolised and epitomised the image of the ancestors of each of the kindreds. However the Odafe of every Uneme kindred in Benin was regarded as superior to those of the component extended-families and quarters not only in status, but also in terms of the socio-political power and authority, which they had wielded during the period.

Village - An assemblage of houses smaller than a town. It is also bigger and larger than a hamlet. Structurally every Uneme village, like other Edoid villages before and after c1370 A.D did comprise the family lineages, quarters and kindreds and was usually headed by the oldest man in the village called the Odion or Odio.

Clans -From Mr Marshall's report, this can be defined with the following composition and characteristics.

Each clan traces its descent from a common ancestor and is divided into villages, usually also having a common ancestor who in most cases was the founder of the Clan. The villages are divided into kindreds which are themselves again subdivided into quarters, compounds and family units.

It is not exactly known how many clans the people of Uneme were able to establish and develop in ancient Benin city during the period of their stay up to c1370 A.D. It is also difficult to determine the number of villages, which they founded in each of the clans during the period. Indeed both the Bini and Uneme oral traditions and related evidence on the subject are silent on this issues. but it is clear from the sources that the Uneme clans were independent of each other. The leaders and rulers of the villages were said to have respectfully responded to and acknowledged the authority of their clan heads.