Edo

Edo, people of southern Nigeria who speak a language of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Edo numbered about 3.8 million at the turn of the 21st century. Their territory is west of the Niger River and extends from hilly country in the north to swamps in the Niger Delta. Edo is also the vernacular name for Benin City, the centre of the Benin kingdom, which flourished from the 14th to the 17th century.

The Edo live in compact village settlements ranging in size from small hamlets to towns of several thousand people. They subsist primarily on yams, supplemented by corn (maize), plantains, cassava, and other vegetables. Livestock includes goats, sheep, dogs, and fowl, used mainly for sacrificial offerings. Brass casting, wood carving, leatherworking, and weaving ceremonial cloth are traditional crafts.

The village is the basis of Edo political life. In each village the males are divided into three age-sets. Boys enter the junior age grade in their early teens and perform communal tasks, such as clearing paths and caring for public buildings. The middle grade of adult males do more difficult tasks, such as roofing houses, and perform executive functions for the village council, which consists of the oldest age grade. The council decides on matters related to tax collection, collective tasks, religious festivals, relations with central authorities, and other community concerns.

The nonhereditary village headman is usually the oldest man in the village; he also serves as priest of ancestral and earth spirits. A sacred king, the oba, was formerly the political, economic, and ritual head of state; succession to this office is determined by primogeniture.

Many Edo are Christians or Muslims. Traditional religion includes belief in a remote creator, lesser gods, mythical or semimythical village heroes, and spirits of the dead.