Oral history

The story of Osawe (Ọba Ẹsigie) and Aruahan

About the interview
Historical Figure

He sings a song that narrates how the struggle and rivalry between Aruahan and Osawe (Ọba Ẹsigie) started from childhood. He described the different competitions Aruahan and Osawe engaged in, like the rearing of livestock. This is illustrated by the contemporary game where Aruahan’s seeds deplete while Osawe’s seeds multiply. This game has a song, which is ‘Duna Duna Duna!’ He also mentions the jumping of a wide ditch and how Osawe played a trick on Aruahan by clinging to his loins while he jumped.

About the contributors

Referenced in this interview

Sensitive Content

Digital Benin collates digital material from institutions, and some of this material is inherently colonial and contains words, terms and phrases that are inaccurate, derogatory and harmful towards African and African diasporic communities. Catalogue transcriptions, book titles, exhibition titles and museum titles may contain harmful terms. We recognise the potential for the material to cause physical and mental distress as well as evoke strong emotions. Owing to the scale of the collection’s data, a process to implement sensitive-content warnings in the displayed data is still incomplete. The material within the catalogue does not represent Digital Benin’s views. Digital Benin maintains a strong anti-colonial, anti-racist position and affirms its support for centring the humanity of historically marginalised and disenfranchised communities. Read more about the background of this statement here

Info
About
Other