The Bronze Elephant in the Room

Editor’s note: This essay is available in our print issue, Godfathers: An Introduction. Buy the issue here.

In April 2018, the Beninese minister of culture and sports, Oswald Homecky, considered the restitution of African cultural artefacts by the French government unlikely, akin to ‘the reunification of North and South Korea’. This was after attempts by the Beninese government to recover artefacts held in French museums stalled in a legal impasse. The artefacts, royal statues, were looted in the pillage of Abomey palace by French forces in 1892. But, in 2016, when the Beninese government requested these artefacts, the French government refused to release them, citing local laws. For several years, the Nigerian government has also demanded the repatriation of several Benin Bronzes and other cultural artefacts held in museums worldwide to no avail.

What was once considered mission impossible just a few years ago, now, however, seems to be coming to fruition. In October 2022, the Smithsonian National Museum for African Art in the US officially returned 29 Benin Bronzes to the Nigerian government. This followed a restitution agreement between Germany and Nigeria, also in 2022. As a result, Germany handed over two Benin Bronzes and ceded ownership of a thousand other cultural items to Nigeria.

SETTING THE SAIL

In December 2022, the Charity Commission in the UK approved Cambridge University’s decision to return 116 Benin artefacts which are held in the University’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. These artefacts were looted when the British sacked the Benin Kingdom in 1897, a raid that led to the exile of Oba Ovonramwen.

Continued public outcry for restitution, among other global movements like Rhodes Must Fall and Black Lives Matter have rekindled the interest in decolonization, of which the repatriation of looted artefacts is an important part. The oft-cited legal reasons for withholding the artefacts are beginning to lose their appeal and, as the Smithsonian and the Charity Commission in the UK have both acknowledged, there is a strong moral and ethical ground for the return and transfer of ownership of these African cultural artefacts.

The return of stolen artefacts is indeed a welcome development for Nigeria. Not only are these artefacts important threads in our cultural history, they also have practical significance in terms of driving tourism and promoting our cultural heritage. Consequently, however, it begs wondering what the fates of these Benin Bronzes will be when they return to Nigeria.

THE CHALLENGE OF MAINTENANCE

In Teju Cole’s 2007 novel, Every Day is for the Thief, the narrator returns to Nigeria after years of studying in America. To his dismay, however, he finds out that the Nigeria he left and the Nigeria he has returned to are still essentially the same. In one scene, the narrator visits the National Museum in Onikan. At that time, the museum was poorly maintained and lacked important collections and documentation. In Cole’s words:

the whole place has a tired, improvised air about it, like a secondary school assignment finished years ago and never touched since. The deepest disappointment, though, is not in presentation. It is in content. I honestly expected to find the glory of Nigerian archaeology and art history on display here. I had hoped to see the best of Ife bronzes, the fine Benin brass plaques and figures, Nok terra-cottas, the roped vessels of Igbo-Ukwu, the art for which Nigeria is justly admired in academies and museums the world over…Though there are examples of each kind of art, they are few, are rarely of the best quality, and are meagrely documented.

Although Cole’s book was published in 2007, the realities he pictured in the book are still very much the same in today’s Nigeria. Critics have complained about the poor state of the national museum. Gallery spaces are small, most artefacts wallow away in storage rooms with only a few exhibited and these hardly have proper documentation. Artefacts have also been vulnerable to theft and illegal trade.

In this context, the planned Benin Royal Museum in Edo State is great news and it is hoped that this development will spur growth for Nigeria’s cultural heritage and tourism sector. But existing museums and national monuments also need to be properly maintained.

Maintenance is often cited as a cause of concern and the reluctance of Western institutions to return looted artefacts. While this cannot justify the continued hoarding of the artefacts by Western museums, it is important to reinforce the need for proper maintenance and preservation, as these artefacts now make their way home...

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The Bronze Elephant in the Room

SETTING THE SAIL

THE CHALLENGE OF MAINTENANCE

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