Two Portuguese with Manillas (Ama)

"The Benin plaques depicting Portuguese traders holding manillas are not merely documentary—they are sophisticated political propaganda. By showing Europeans in subservient postures offering currency, the Oba's artists visually asserted Benin's control over the Atlantic trade, transforming mercantile reality into a narrative of royal supremacy."

— Barbara Plankensteiner, Benin: Kings and Rituals (2007), p. 294.