Talk:Edo

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I write with great displeasure about the continuous disregard and inaccuracies about the documentations and references of African cultural accomplishments and history. I believe any worth doing is worth doing well.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in many academic institutions, search engines, dictionaries, and even encyclopedias, which should be an accurate place where people come to get most of their information on a daily basis. When you search for the word “Edo” it is unanimously given to the country of Japan as the former name of Tokyo, which actually was once spelled as Yedo or Yeddo. Yedo did not enter world history as a name of a place in Japan and did not become the seat of government until 1603.

The original and the oldest “Edo” is the name of an African people from Western African, who created the Great Benin Empire or Kingdom, which went as far as from some parts of eastern Nigeria to areas past Ghana along the coast of West Africa. The Edo/Benin history dates back to around 1000 AD, which includes our first dynasty - the Ogiso dynasty (there were 35 Ogisos). A lot of traditional rulers in Eastern Nigeria, Western Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana owe their cultural and social existence to the Edo people of Benin (Benin City, Nigeria). Today, the original Edo people reside in Edo State of Nigeria and their capital is Benin (Benin City). Edo is the name of the people while Benin was the name of the land (Empire/Kingdom). The Edo people or Benin Kingdom has had three dynasties. Popular academia for some reason choose to recognize and perpetuate our second dynasty as our beginning when our banished prince (Ekaladerhan, who disguised his name as Izoduwa but was later corrupted to Oduduwa), who was supposed to be executed by his father sent his son from Ile-Ife to continue the linage of Kingship he left behind because he was too old to travel back and his father left no other heir to the throne. This event took place about 1200 AD. If this is the historical fact, why should Yedo (Edo) of Japan be given more preference in academic and reference achieves? I hope race or economic influence has no place in the proper documentation of historical facts or reference? I ask because I see no reason why “Yedo”, Japan of 1603 should come before “Edo”, Nigeria of 1000 AD in terms of historical priority and fact when searching for the word “Edo” (http://www.edofolks.com/html/hist.htm ). In fact, European explorers, missionaries, traders, and historians have been documenting the Edo people of Benin City, Nigeria since 1486 (http://www.edofolks.com/html/pub107.htm ), so I do not know where this bias or negligence came from. Could it be because a people that once ruled an empire that include more than four African countries have now being reduced to a state in Nigeria? Or is preference given to countries or capital of countries over states? I want you to know that unlike many European empires like Rome, the Edo of Benin (Nigeria) forbade their subjects to speak their language, which they considered the language of the King. Instead, each chief in every district of the empire was a relative of the King and was encouraged to marry and learn the language of the conquered peoples. The job of the Chief was to organize and control the people to pay tax and bring resources to Benin, the capital of the Benin Empire or Kingdom in Nigeria. So when the capital of the empire finally fell in 1897 to the British, their influence quickly disappeared (http://www.edofolks.com/html/pub65.htm ). Edofolks 19:45, 8 January 2007 (UTC)