Having lived in Benin until about four years ago, Sam Adaji could not have expected to miss his way as he returned to the city, one evening. He thought of locating his former residence situated on a street linking one of the major roads which open into the endless loop of a road at the city hub, called the Ring Road. With the Ring Road as his usual navigator, it took Adaji some time to locate his former neighbourhood. He did express his perplexity that Benin, especially the Ring Road centre, was over and done with many completed and ongoing projects.
Adaji’s return to the Ring Road arena this night happened to have coincided with the moment when the area’s new multiple water fountain was being test run. With its water cascade network, diverse musicals, flickering lightings and heightened streetlight descending from above, the neighbourhood was agog with light and celebrations. Like Adaji, Pa Ekhator Osakue, an octogenarian resident of Benin City, was expressive about its new looks, which prompted him to describe the Ring Road arena as ‘Trafalgar Square’, a major tourist attraction in centre London.
By comparing the Benin ring road with the Trafalgar Square however, one would need to call up their striking similarities, and as well as the variants. At that, both possess unparalleled museums, sculptures, galleries, gardens, water fountains, cultural spaces, terraces, historic ornamentations, high rise buildings, and public patronage. The ‘Oba Square’ houses some similar features of Trafalgar like the Whitehall, auditoriums, car parks and open spaces for public functions. Close to Trafalgar are the National Opera and St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, just as Ring Road also has the Oba Akenzua II Cultural Complex and Baptist Church. The Oba Market and the proposed malls on the newly acquired Agidigbi plot, like some shopping centers around Trafalgar, are its commercial verve..
Among the tree groves and the well-manicured lawns of the ring road is the Benin museum, and very close to the centre, by the Sapkoba Road estuary, is Igun Street, the citadel of bronze casting. In place of flocks of pigeons which usually ‘confront’ visitors at Trafalgar Square are bats, which make the trees of the Ring Road neighbourhood a haven. The bats are to the Ring Road what the pigeons are to Trafalgar.
There is a great contrast with Trafalgar and the Benin Ring Road, in the manner the latter is saturated with spiritual life and practicality. For instance, in Benin Kingdom, where African Traditional Religion and knowledge still run deep, the Ring Road is widely regarded as the ‘world centre stage’, similar to ‘Edo ore Isi Agbon’ (Edo is the Centre of the Universe).. The early Edo astrologers, before the advent of the western civilization, have always used the Ring Road symbol to emphasise its place in the Benin worldview.
Comments