BENIN
-Lifestyles
-Iyoba
and Oba heads
Altars
ASANTE
-Lifestyle
-Gold Stools
The Queen Mother plays an intrigue role in
West African cultures.
Before the 15th century most African kingdoms Queen Mothers did not truly
exist.
They were in fact established because of the need to pick the
next reign in a Benin kingdom after a heated debated erupted over a conflict
of how who would become the next king. It is said that mother Idia
protected the Benin kingdom from neighboring people who saw the weakness of
having no ruler. The Benin kingdom survived and and the people began
to worships mothers as the protectors of the kingdom and began the
traditions of establishing a Queen Mother. Below is an image of an Original
Ivory mask of Idia dating back to the 16th century.