Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, also called Overami, was the thirty-fifth Ọba of the Kingdom of Benin reigning from c. 1888 – c. 1897, up until the British punitive expedition.

[1][2] At the end of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Benin had managed to retain its independence and the Ọba exercised a monopoly over trade which the British found irksome.

[3] However, slavery played a critical role in the rise of Benin, with Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi representing the pinnacle of the Kingdom's human exploitation.

In November 1896, James Robert Phillips, deputy commissioner and consul for the Niger Coast Protectorate, decided to visit and meet with Ovonramwen in Benin City in regards to the trade agreement that the Oba had made with the British but was not keeping.

[7] The expedition was described as a British invasion force headed by Phillips set out to overthrow the Ọba by Sven Lindqvist in his book Exterminate All the Brutes.