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.