Thread by @theNETng

Ever heard the story of Emotan? The market woman who saved a Benin King from death in the 13th century and helped restore him to the throne? This is a thread on her escapades, Leggo!
#Emotan #NETIcon

1. Emotan moved to a hut in the market square where she used to sell her wares to live after her husband died. She had no children but she decided to help market women and buyers alike take care of their kids while they were in the market.
#Emotan #NETIcon

2. One day, she overheard Oba Uwaifiokun’s plan to kill his brother, Prince Ogun who he had usurped to take over the throne. She risked her life to tell Prince Ogun the plan and hid him in her hut at the market till he could kill his brother and take back his throne. #Emotan

3. When Prince Ogun finally got back his throne and became Oba Ewuare, he made Emotan the Iyeki (that is the leader of the authorized Ekpate guild), tasked with security matters in the market and with enforcing market rules.
#Emotan #NETIcon

4. However, she died soon after that, but Oba Ewuare ordered that she should be buried in her hut at the market and be deified. She is now known as the deity of fairness, equity, justice, peace, and harmony, in Benin city.
#Emotan #NETIcon

5. A procession is still held every year by the King of Benin, the men of the town and the market women to the place she was buried to pay homage to her.
#Emotan #NETIcon

6. Also, every burial procession that passes through the town must stop to pay homage to Emotan at her final resting ground.
#Emotan #NETIcon

7. A sacred ‘Uruhe’ tree was first planted by her grave but after it fell and the second one that was planted fell too, it was replaced by a bronze statue of a younger Emotan.
#Emotan #NETIcon

8. Today, the bronze statue sculpted by Mr John A. Danford in 1951 and commissioned by the British Commission in 1954 still stands opposite the market (now known as Oba market) in Benin City.
#Emotan #NETIcon