The Benin queen mother with four breast

THE BENIN QUEEN MOTHER WITH FOUR BREAST

Ewuare’s maternal grandmother was the daughter of the Enogie of ESSI village. This high-born Iyekovia damsel was betrothed to another Enogie, another village ruler, the Enogie of UTEE village, in the eastern suburbs of Benin City, across the Ikpoba River. There at UTEE village this Iyekovia girl gave birth to a daughter who was called OVENMWEN.

Ovenmwen grew up to be a beautiful damsel. When she reached puberty, she developed the rare, yet, well-known anatomical curiosity of Supernumerary breasts. Instead of the usual two breasts, she had developed four, two on either side of her bosom. As every medical student knows, there is an embryological “milk line” running down from the armpit to the upper thigh, on either side of the body, in both males and females. The breasts develop along this milk line, and usually only one develops on each of the lines. But any number can develop on each of the lines because they have been embryological provided for. Ovenmwen happened to have developed two on each of her milk lines.

Maiden Ovenmwen frequently went to the IMASABEMWEN market in her village of UTEE, to buy and sell, and so she was well-known and talked about. Oba OHEN, the reigning king of Benin, heard about her and her liberal anatomical endowments, and his curiosity was aroused. He was a monarch with a high sexual drive, and soon struck up a relationship with Ovenmwen, secretly going to Utee village to co-habit with her.

It was day-break one day before the lovers woke-up, and it was necessary for Ohen to return to the palace incognito. Ovenmwen’s father, the Enogie of Utee, came to the rescue. Two masquerades were procured as disguises. The female mask, worn by Ovenmwen, was called “ELERE”. It had a tent over the face of the mask. The male masquerade mask worn by Ohen was called ORIGIE. It had a long chin, which represented a beard. The two lovers so disguised, crossed the Ikpoba River and journeyed to the Benin palace, accompanied by a large group of dancing Utee women, simulating a dance troupe from Utee on an errand of entertainment to the palace.

Once inside the palace, the two lovers divested themselves of their disguises, handing the masks back to the Utee group which had accompanied them on the journey. The monarch later decreed this EKOKO n’UTEE masquerade a royal masquerade, which has a yearly outing in the Benin palace, as an integral part of the IGUE Festival.

And down the long corridor of the centuries of Benin history, the Ekoko n’Utee masquerade Dance has come yearly from UTEE village to the Oba palace during the Igue Oba ceremony , the ceremony of the sanctification of the person of the Oba of Benin, with the attendant enhancement of his potency for good, for the benefit of the Kingdom he rules over.

Ovenmwen graduated from being a concubine to becoming a wife, one of the many wives of Oba Ohen, and quarters were allocated to her in the royal harem. She gave birth to her first child, a prince, whom his father the king named “OGUN”. Ogun would later in life become better known as EWUARE, the Oba of Benin.