World
pilgrimage started long before the birth of Christ, as religion is an
old tool used in the description of historical events. Pilgrim station
are most vital to pilgrimage journey as it is a form of connection not
just physical but deeply rooted in the spiritual sacredness.
The
Buddhist and Hindus journeys to their spiritual place of birth called
Nepal and Kumbh mela, the Christians journeys to Jerusalem and Rome,
while the Islam journey to Saudi Arabia. The people of Great Benin
Kingdom had a place of theirs where they connect to their ancestors, a
place lost in the limbo of time, a once glorious civilization, a town
that became the melting pot of other great civilizations, the place
known as UHE, the place commands the spiritual home of the great Benins,
during the event of the world, there was a time known as Post-Adamic
cataclysm where all ancient tribes migrated to form a city known as UHE,
legend has it that the location was below the confluence of River Niger
and Benue in the present day Kogi State.
When
a team of researchers listed the lost medieval cities without
mentioning the great city of Uhe, which was dominated and partly built
by the Great Benins, I cried, because it is a place prominent wealthy
Benin People around October of the 13 lunar months that makes
Igodomigodo calendar year, during the period of Emorho (new yam) use to
accompany their King to, and spend a considerable amount of years.
After
a central government was formed in Igodomigodo in 40BCE, the first king
recorded, that embark on a pilgrimage to the home of their fathers at
Uhe was Ogiso Ere he spent a number of years with some of his nobles and
wealthy men, in other to make propitiation to the God of his fathers at
Oduwa shrine, with the priest stationed there by Pa idu (progenitor of
the Benin race) known as Oghene, it is also important to note that Pa
Idu was the first Oghene of Oduwa shrine also known as Oghene n’Uhe
built over 300 BCE ago.
Uhe
town is at the North East of Benin, where the Oghene altar is located,
whose guardian was often referred to in historical records as “the
potentate of the interior”. According to O.S.B. Omoregie: “The
Portuguese discovered this situation as still existing in the 15th
century; they said it was the power behind the imperial exploits of
Great Benin”. Pp. 18. Also cited in the Royal Gold Coast Gazette which
was published in 1823 A.D. In this Gazette, the founder of Benin Kingdom
was described, “as one who came from the Great Water”. The great water
cited in the Gazette refers to the Niger River beneath which was the
city of Uhe. The Niger River in Benin is called ‘Ohinmwin’
The
last recorded king that went on a pilgrimage to Uhe was Oba Ewuare I,
it is important to know that the original Uhe in which this writer is
referring to is not Ile-Ife, as at the time Ile-Ife was undergoing its
formation Uhe was already peaking.
Uhe
a town lost and purposely not talked about in the canals of the history
of black Africans, a town in whose glory we once shared, the spiritual
home of our people, the land of Pa Idu, Uhe the lost pilgrimage home of
the Great Benin people.
Oba Gha To Kpere. Ise
Written by Imasuen Amowie Marvis.
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