Kingdom of Benin destroying much of the country's treasured art and dispersing nearly all that remained. The stolen portrait figures, busts, and groups created in iron, carved ivory, and especially in brass (conventionally called the "Benin Bronzes") are now displayed in museums around the world. Kingdom of Benin The Kingdom of Benin, also known as the Benin Kingdom, was a pre-colonial kingdom in what is now southern Nigeria. Its capital was Edo, now known as Benin City in Edo state. It should not be confused with the modern-day Republic of Benin, formerly the Republic of Dahomey. The Benin Kingdom was "one of the
In Dahomey and Arthur Pryor's popular cakewalk number, "A Coon Band Contest". In this tribute to contemporary African-American music, the clash of the two tunes creates what has been called "a page of almost Ivesian dissonance". Grainger may have seen Cook's "In Dahomey" on stage in London in 1903. He started composing his rag that year, completing the score some six years later, in 1909). In 1894 the comedian Bert Williams was hired to play an African "native" at the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894, when the Dahomey natives who had been in the 1893 Chicago World's Fair were late reaching