Benin History & Research Centre in Diaspora

According NASA, on April 8, 2024, North America will experience a total solar eclipse .  Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan will also experience the total solar eclipse. The eclipse will enter Canada in Southern Ontario  and continue through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton. S ome areas in Ontario will witness the eclipse in its totality, Toronto will be on the outer edge of its path.

Community Award Ceremony in Toronto (Etobicoke Centre, January 28th, 2024).  I received a Community Award from one of the prominent politicians in Toronto, Yvan Baker (Member of Parliament). According to Conan O'Brien, "Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.” I'm grateful to the Almighty God for giving me the wisdom and guidance to impact lives and shape the trajectory of the world! This award is dedicated to all the Edo Language Day Worldwide Committee Members for believing in and supporting my vision. It is my second award this month! May our hard work be rewarded! Amen!

  First award this year from the Benin Kingdom! Osazuwa Omede, I commend your unconditional support for the Edo people! May the Almighty God and our ancestors continue to guide and protect you in all your endeavors! The award embodied my effort to sustain the Edo Indigenous Language and Culture worldwide! Thank you for the recognition. I have also been nominated for an award here in Toronto on January 28, 2024. Stay tuned! Thank you all for supporting my vision. Etẹnmwẹ, Ivbiẹ Ẹdo nu'zọmọ, wa hia ru ẹse!!!

NEBO TV Magazine, Year-in-review features Nigerian Canadian Multicultural Centre (NCMC), 2023 Edo Language Day Worldwide, Edo youth in the United States and more! The full magazine will be available on our website (nebotv.com) soon!  

The Ondo State government, through the state's Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, released a statement on Wednesday saying that Akeredolu passed away in the early hours of Wednesday in Germany from complications that came from his struggle with protracted prostate cancer. He died at the age of 67. 

Isiokuo festival is a re-enactment of ancient Benin warfare, to commemorate the god of war. Procession of warriors headed by Shield bearers move through the streets to fight a mock battle. Relics of war implements of Ake Nisi, a great archer, his bows and arrows were kept and members from Ilobi people who specialized in the archer use the bows and arrows invented by Ake nisi are some relics used during the Isiokuo festival.  The festival ends up with the “Amufi” (acrobatic games) performing the special tree top acrobats as a mark of the spiritual and mystical powers involved in the destruction of the man eating monster-osogan. Isiokuo festival is no longer celebrated in Great Benin but at the countryside. Although Isiokuo festival might have been celebrated in some areas of the ancient Benin Kingdom, Evboesi people of Iyekeorhionmwon Local Government Council area of Edo State do this in specific manner to re-enact how Ekpen Elegbe a general warlord and hero defended the territory a...

Lady Nekpen Obasogie has hosted the first session of her book launch in Toronto on November 4th, 2023. The book titled Benin Warriors and the British Colonial Rule in Niger ia depicts the oral and written historical accounts of the military might of Benin and its warriors (warrior kings) in the pre-colonial era.  It sheds light on how the British colonial violence in that part of Africa, now known as Nigeria, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries disrupted the military and geographical arrangements of the old Benin Empire. Specifically, the book bridges the long-existing gaps in African/Benin literature on the significance and role of spirituality in the process of nation-building and warfare in the ancient Benin Kingdom. The grand session of the book launch has been scheduled for January 2024 worldwide. Everyone is invited to join the program online via Zoom.