No comprehensive appraisal of the precolonial nature of plant use by the Binis (Edos) of the famed Benin Kingdom is available. Using the recent catalogue of botanical and ethnobotanical narratives and commentaries, extracts from the 1937... more
No comprehensive appraisal of the precolonial nature of plant use by the Binis (Edos) of the famed Benin Kingdom is available. Using the recent catalogue of botanical and ethnobotanical narratives and commentaries, extracts from the 1937 Melzian's Bini Dictionary, this study aims to define the structure of Bini ethnobotany in relation to the Africa-wide, primary plant use criteria of the Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA). Relative plant use from three sampling approaches: comprehensive sample (COMPS), abridged sample (ABRS) and congruent sample (CONGS) were assessed based on their status in Bini ethnobotany and PROTA criteria. COMPS comprised all the 295 catalogued plants, while ABRS contained 129 plants with attributes on Bini ethnobotany selected from COMPS. CONGS contained 136 plants whose Bini and PROTA's statuses were determined as congruent. Use distribution profiles in COMPS and ABRS using both Bini and PROTA criteria showed marked dissimilarities, the most divergent demonstrated mainly in the fuel and auxiliary plants categories. Except for stimulants which ranked high in both COMPS and ABRS, marked differences in Bini/PROTA congruency ratios were apparent. In COMPS, high congruence ratios were observed in spices and condiments, carbohydrates and cereals and pulses, while in ABRS, vegetable oils, medicinal plants and vegetables. Correlation between percent relative frequencies of Bini ethnobotany and PROTA was +0.83 in COMPS and +0.69 in ABRS while for Bini/PROTA congruence ratios between COMP vs ABRS was +0.37. Profile distributions from COMPS and ABRS showed high estimates for timber plants than historically justified by local Bini practice. The profile from CONGS appeared more representative with the following distributions: carbohydrates (18.25%), timbers (17.52%), fruits (13.14%), medicinal plants (11.68%), vegetables (7.30%), spices and condiments (6.57%), auxiliary plants (4.38%), cereals and pulses (4.38%), fibres (3.65%), stimulants (3.65%), essential oils (2.19%), forage plants (2.19%), dyes and tannins (1.46%), fuel plants (1.46%), vegetable oils (1.46%) and ornamental plants (0.73%). The prominence attributed to carbohydrates (primarily yams), appear to reflect the traditional Bini preference and hence proposed as the precolonial template of Bini ethnobotany. The low congruence between Bini ethnobotany and PROTA makes tenuous the utility of the latter for interpreting or predicting Bini ethnobotany.The preeminence of carbohydrate appropriately identifies Benin Kingdom among the so-called "Yam Zone" forest civilizations of West Africa, while the undue emphasis on timbers, suggest recent reclassification probably influenced by the British economic interests in colonial Nigeria. Nigerian Field 84 (x): xx-xxx. 2018. (in press). 2
