Oba Ovonramwen in exile and as a prisoner aboard a British yacht

Nigerian Photographic Album
c. 1890–1900
Silver gelatin or matte collodion print
The creator of this album is unknown. A number of photographs have, however, been attributed to Jonathan Adagogo Green, an Ijo photographer from Bonny in southeast Nigeria. Green took perhaps the most famous photograph of Oba Ovonramwen, the king of Benin from 1888 to 1897, in chains flanked by native guards going into exile on board the British protectorate yacht Ivy after the destruction of the royal palace and sacking of Benin in 1897. This album contains a rather unusual portrait of the oba smiling on board the yacht, perhaps revealing a more relaxed moment with the photographer (right).

Left:
Oba Ovonramwen in exile
Old Calabar, Nigeria
Photographer unknown, c. 1897
Postcard, collotype
13.5 x 8.7 cm (5 5/16 x 3 7/16 in.)
EEPA 1992-004-0051
A photograph of the exiled oba, possibly seated in a Calabar studio, circulated as a postcard in Africa and England.

Right:
Oba Ovonramwen as prisoner on board the British yacht HRM Ivy
Photograph by Jonathan Adagogo Green, c. 1897
EEPA 2000-003-0038