City of Blood Revisited: A New Look at the Benin Expedition of 1897

by Robert Home

An account of the British expedition, in 1897, against the West African kingdom of Benin which led to the incorporation of the territory into the British Niger Coast Protectorate. It came about following the so-called Phillips Massacre, an attack on a party of officials and traders, led by James Phillips, travelling to Benin to open trade relations.

141 pages, hardback

Published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Anthony Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

An historical account of the dark politics which led to and accompanied the Benin expedition of 1897. Rob Home uses images from Conrad's Heart of Darkness to conjure the atmosphere and explain the thinking of those involved. The actual battles in which simple "Dane guns" were pitted against sophisticated Maxims, are graphically described. Benin city - the eponymous "City of Blood" - was found littered with the bodies of executed bodies, including those of victims sacrificed in the closing stages of the siege. The author argues, however, that the horror stories that emerged into British newspapers at the time were exaggerated, and that tales of crucifixion were untrue. The city was burned to the ground, apparently by accident and not, as elsewhere, as a deliberate punishment. It is a bleak account from which few emerge with very much credit. Nevertheless, the author describes it as "one of the more successful Victorian small wars". He writes with authority as an author with few illusions about West Africa.