LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Benin: Benin City
built 642 days ago
Getting around in Benin isn't too difficult. Despite its bad roads, the city is well linked and networked. If you come in by air, there are taxis at the airport to take you probably anywhere you wish to go for an affordable price. And if you come in by road and are taken to the terminal of the transport service, you will ... find taxis ready to take you anywhere. Officially, taxis and buses are painted red or rather wine on their body and yellow on the roof. But there are some buses and taxis that dont obey that code.
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Today Benin City is still a very pretty city. It is still an important center for traditional art, see for example the statues in the Okada House. The National Museum in the centre still has a few good pieces of the traditional statues but they are not as good as those in the British Museum. Furthermore there is an Oba Palace and a few good art galleries.
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The city and kingdom of Benin declined after 1700, with the decline in the European slave trade, but revived in the 19th century with the development of the trade in palm products with Europeans. To preserve Benin's independence, bit by bit the Oba banned the export of goods from Benin, until the trade was exclusively in palm oil.
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By February 15th, the main column from Ologbo had reached Agagi and by February 18th the village of Igba about a mile from Benin City. From Igba the troops fired their shells and rockets into the City and the panic stricken Bini took to their heels. When the City was entered on the same day with the noises of Machine Guns everywhere, it was a ghost town and the search for the King, the Noblemen, the Chiefs and others began. The lassa stronghold of Native authority had fallen and had joined the list of other strongholds similarly humiliated.
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When British forces entered Benin City in 1897 they were surprised to find large quantities of cast brass objects. The technological sophistication and overwhelming naturalism of these pieces contradicted many 19th-century Western assumptions about Africa in general and Benin – regarded as the home of ‘fetish’ and human sacrifice – in particular. Explanations were swiftly generated to cover the epistemological embarrassment. The objects must, it was supposed, have been made by the Portuguese, the Ancient Egyptians, even the lost tribe of Israel. Subsequent research has tended to stress the indigenous origins of West African metallurgy. Yet it was the naturalism that proved decisive.
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There is an extremely timely and reliable bus system that runs your average tour-style bus through every major city in Benin everyday, and even some in and out of Benin. Their are many major lines with a range of quality of buses. The main systems are Confort Lines and Benin-Routes. Confort Lines seems to provide more of a variety of routes, and you even get a some water and a little sandwich for long trips. Reservations for Confort Lines can be made in advance for 500f CFA at any regional office or by calling (001 229) 21.32.58.15. Bus lines run through: Porto-Novo, Cotonou, Calavey, Bohicon, Dassau, Parakou, Djougou, Natitingou, Tanguieta, Kandi, and even all the way up to Malanville.
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Benin City