EDO, a southern Nigerian tribe (sub-tribes : Bini, Esa, Kuku ruku, Sobo), living in the provinces of Benin, Ondo, Owerri and Warri. Their language resembles Ewe. The tribe became a power ful kingdom in the 15th century and the chieftainship (Obba) became hereditary in the 17th. The chief is surrounded by high court functionaries, and the provinces are administered by terri torial chiefs. The extended family is disintegrated. Marriage is prohibited between members of the extended family group; descent is sometimes patrilineal, sometimes matrilineal. Inheri tance passes to the son, whom failing, the brother. The son takes the wives of his father (his own mother excepted) if they are childless. The Edo are organized in age classes and in secret societies, and practise husbandry and arboriculture. They are animists and show traces of totemism.
See P. Amaury Talbot, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria (1926).